Module 1: Overview
Effective Teacher Practices Supporting the North Carolina Foundations for Early Learning and Development: Overview
Contact hours: 2 contact hours (90-minute session plus 30-minute pre-learning review)
90-minute face-to-face session
Slide 1: Introduction
Welcome to the first in a series of professional development modules on effective teacher practices supporting the North Carolina Foundations for Early Learning and Development. This first module provides an overview of the revised Foundations and introduces professional development modules 2-11. Module 2 is all about formative assessment while Modules 3-11 teach instructional practices that support children’s emotional-social development and thereby meet Foundations’ standards in the domain of emotional-social development.
Slide 2: Review of Pre-learning Assignment
Please take out your completed Foundations Self-Assessment. How did you do? Are there any of the questions that you were unsure of? Which questions made you stop and think? Did you go to your Foundations document to research answers? Where did you find information? Please circle the questions you answered ‘not sure’ and put the assessment in a place where you can refer to it. Throughout the day, check to see if you are getting your questions answered. At the end of the session, let’s check to see if you are now ‘sure’ about the answer!
[Trainer note – Discuss the pre-learning assignment (participants should have completed the Foundations self-assessment and come to the session prepared to talk about items they marked as ‘not sure.’)]
Slide 3: Objectives
Other important purposes of this module – and you will see this throughout the modules -- are to help you understand the relationship between early learning standards and curriculum, the relationship between the NC Standard Course of Study for Kindergarten and the NC Foundations, and the structure of this set of professional development modules.
Slide 4: The Back Story
Almost every state has developed early learning standards for prekindergarten-age children. North Carolina was one of the first when they developed the first NC Foundations for Early Learning and Development in 2003. The Infant-Toddler standards were released a couple of years after the first preschool standards. Both efforts were cross-sector and collaborative. Planning efforts included people from universities, community colleges, school systems, child care, Head Start, families, and more. The breadth of Foundations contributors reflects the diverse partners that comprise North Carolina’s early childhood system.
During the Foundations’ revisions, the decision was made to combine the Infant-Toddler and Preschool Foundations into one document and to showcase the developmental continuum that occurs across the span of time from birth to 60+ months of age for each goal.
The title of this document—Foundations—was selected because the Goals and Developmental Indicators described for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers are critically important to children’s success later in school. What children learn between birth and the time they start kindergarten lays the foundation for their learning and development for years to come.
The team of state leaders that revised Foundations carefully studied North Carolina’s Standard Course of Study, which includes both Common Core State Standards and the NC Essential Standards -- for what kindergarten children should know and be able to do. An overview of their crosswalk can be found on page 19 of the Foundations document.
The goal of the crosswalk was to ensure that expectations for children presented in Foundations aligned with the expectations for children in Kindergarten. This doesn’t mean that the skills and knowledge described in Foundations are exactly the same as those included in the Kindergarten standards. Rather, the focus in Foundations is on the early precursor skills that research suggests are important for laying the foundation for what children learn later.
Slide 5: Overlapping circles labeled by domain
This Venn diagram shows the developmental domains outlined in Foundations. We know the child is in the center of the diagram where domains overlap. This emphasizes that developmental domains don’t exist in isolation in children. Children, in their everyday activities, integrate skills and behaviors across domains. The domains are an artificial construct that helps professionals categorize children’s behavior, often for assessment purposes.
Slide 6: Treasure map
Take out your Foundations document and we’ll go on a treasure hunt! But first let’s make sure you are oriented to the document. The document provides information about five developmental domains: Approaches to Play and Learning, Emotional and Social Development, Health and Physical Development, Language Development and Communication, and Cognitive Development. Look at page 29. Notice that four subdomains are listed under the domain of Approaches to Play and Learning. Can someone read them? Notice that goals are listed under each subdomain. What is a goal listed under Play and Imagination? The goals are numbered consecutively within each domain. You may wish to put a sticky note or tab on page 29 for easy reference back to this list of subdomains and goals for Approches to Play and Learning. Next go to page 51 to see subdomains and goals listed under Emotional and Social Development. You may want to place a tab on that page. Look at page 69 for Health and Physical Development – place a tab there. Page 92 shows the subdomains and goals for Language Development and Communication – tab that page, and on page 119 - 120 you have the subdomains and goals for Cognitive Development. Did you see how the domains are color-coded? An overview of the domains, subdomains, and goals begins on page 8. Notice the typo on page 11 – Goals LDC-9 and LDC 10 were left out!
If you’ve spent any time looking through Foundations you know it is full of treasure! Let’s find some.
You have a handout called ‘Treasure Hunt.’ It shows ‘treasure’ to search for in Foundations. At your tables, work in small groups to see how much treasure you can find in 3 minutes. You’ll look at the description of the treasure and search for the page number on which it can be found. When you find the treasure, write down the page number.
[Break participants into small groups. The number in each group will vary according to how many overall participants are in attendance. If your group is small, have participants work in pairs.]
[Treasure Hunt can be found in Handouts.]
Is everyone ready? Begin the hunt when I say ‘go.’ Okay – GO!
[Give participants 3 minutes. Then say, ‘stop.’]
Okay – STOP! How much treasure did you find?
[Ask volunteers to read through the page numbers for those items. Ask other participants if they are in agreement or if they found similar information elsewhere. Cue participants to use sticky notes to tag pages for future reference.]
A few things to note about Foundations: Did you see how the age ranges overlap on page 5? Why do you think this is?
[Prompt participants as necessary to talk about the variation in development from one child to another.]
Although development is a continuous process with a predictable sequence, its course is unique for every child.
The text boxes on page 7 warn against using the developmental indicators in Foundations as a checklist for child development. Why do you think that is?
[Prompt participants as necessary to talk about using appropriate tools for assessment, including those designed for that purpose and with detailed age referencing to help users understand and describe the child’s level of functioning.]
Slide 7: Arrow showing continuum of age ranges from infant to older preschooler
Goals are listed for each sub-domain of Foundations with developmental indicators along the continuum of development from birth to 60 months of age. Please note the age ranges for each of the five age bands. The developmental continuum shows how skills emerge over time.
Let’s look at page 52 for an example. This is the domain of Emotional-Social Development. What is the sub-domain?
[Prompt as necessary – ‘Developing a Sense of Self.’]
What is the goal?
[Prompt as necessary -- “Children demonstrate a positive sense of self-identify and self-awareness.”]
Notice the developmental continuum on page 52. As infants, children show awareness of their bodies by looking at their hands, feet, mouth, etc. When they move into the next age period, they may recognize themselves in the mirror and point out their body parts. As older toddlers, they may then be able to recognize themselves in a picture. At the younger preschool period, they may then develop a sense of self as demonstrated when they can tell you their first and last name. Finally, older preschoolers can tell you that they are a member of their family or a preschool class or an ethnic group.
These developmental indicators are examples of skills and behaviors children show at various age levels. The “grain size” of this progression is quite large and overlapping. We know that many steps of learning and growth occur between the indicators. That’s why indicators may be used to guide instruction, but cannot really be used in the assessment process.
Slide 8: Standards, Curriculum and Formative Assessment
Recently, a distinguished preschool teacher asked, “How do I use Foundations now that I’m using Creative Curriculum and the Teaching Strategies GOLD?” Her question reflected the concern many teachers may have about being asked to do ‘yet one more thing’ and the need for clarity about how the various ‘things’ fit together. One way to address this question would be to think about the relationships among the standards, the curriculum, and the formative assessment practices that teachers are required to implement. Let’s look at some definitions based on the work of Margaret Heritage (2013) whose writings on formative assessment were seminal to the development of North Carolina's Formative Assessment Learning Community's Online Network (NC FALCON) and are guiding the development of the kindergarten entry child profile with the NC Department of Public Instruction.
[Trainer note – for more information about NC FALCON, go to this link -- https://center.ncsu.edu/ncfalcon/]
First let’s look at standards. Standards are the areas of knowledge and skill children are expected to acquire. Standards are organized by age level, are based on developmental literature, and assume additive acquisition of knowledge and skills.
Slide 9: Standards, Curriculum and Formative Assessment
While standards focus on what children should know, the curriculum helps teachers help children reach the standards by providing a scope and sequence of instruction. The curriculum defines the scope – the breadth and depth of content teachers should cover, and the sequence – the order in which teachers should present the content, and activities to promote learning.
The early childhood curriculum should be standards-based. This is one of the criteria the State Board of Education cites in its formal process for approving classroom curricula. In the implementation of the curriculum, teachers facilitate intentional activities that address the developmental domains in the standards. These developmentally appropriate play and learning activities can be teacher directed, child directed, or embedded in classroom routines. Intentional lesson plans identify the domains and goals that activities will target.
Slide 10: Standards, Curriculum and Formative Assessment
North Carolina’s definition of formative assessment is based on the definition developed by Margaret Heritage (2010) for the Council of Chief State School Officers: “Formative assessment is a process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve students’ achievement of intended instructional outcomes.”
Adapted for early childhood instruction, the definition reads: “a process used by teachers and children during play and learning activities that provides feedback to the teachers and children, so that teachers can adjust their teaching to meet the needs of children, and so that children can understand what is expected of them.”
Slide 11: Alignment Activity
With these definitions in mind, let’s look at the relationship between Foundations and objectives from the Teaching Strategies GOLD assessment system. Teaching Strategies has crosswalked Foundations’ goals with the goals and ideals of the Creative Curriculum (a 64-page document found at this link on the Teaching Strategies website) and the objectives of the TS GOLD assessment system (a 130-page document on the Teaching Strategies website).
[Trainers note – find the crosswalk of Foundations’ goals with the goals and ideals of the Creative Curriculum at this link -- http://teachingstrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/NC-CC-Alignment-PS-2014.pdf. Find the crosswalk of Foundations’ goals and the objectives of the TS GOLD assessment system at this link -- http://teachingstrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/NC-GOLD-Alignment-PS-2014.pdf.]
In your handouts you have a document titled, Aligning Teaching Strategies (TS) GOLD Objectives with Foundations for Early Learning and Development. The table has a list of TS GOLD objectives in the area of cognitive development. The question is, ‘When you assess children’s development using TS GOLD, what Early Learning and Development standards do you inform?’ Use your Foundations document or your Foundations At a Glance Approaches to Play and Learning in your handouts to identify the Foundations for Early Learning and Development goal in the Approaches to Play and Learning domain that aligns with the TS GOLD objective listed. Enter the goal number and a description of the goal in the table.
[Allow participants about 5-7 minutes to complete activity. Distribute the handout titled, Aligning Teaching Strategies (TS) GOLD Objectives with Foundations for Early Learning and Development – ANSWER SHEET.]
Here is the ‘answer sheet’ based on the Teaching Strategies crosswalk. How did you do? What were your challenges and successes in aligning the GOLD objectives with the Foundation goals?
[Allow participants to respond. Take a minute to discuss any challenges if necessary.]
Slide 12: Arrow showing how preschool standards in English Language Arts lead to third grade, fifth grade, and high school English Language Arts standards
We may hear school principals ask, “How do the NC Foundations align with the NC Standard Course of Study?” They need to see the continuity between the standards for preschool and upper grades – especially kindergarten. This slide shows how preschool standards in English Language Arts lead to third grade, fifth grade, and high school English Language Arts standards. Notice how the preschool standards lay the foundation for what is expected in upper grades.
[Trainer note: Suggest that teachers post the Crosswalk arrow documents in an area of the classroom or hall so parents, colleagues and administrators can see how what they do impacts children’s success at K and beyond.]
Slide 13: Arrow showing how preschool standards in Mathematics lead to third grade, fifth grade, and high school Mathematics standards