Module 3: Promoting Positive Relationships
Post-learning Activities: Extension into the Classroom
Instructions
[Trainer tip -- the following activities may be used in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) or other follow-up sessions with participants.]
- Using Formative Assessment Reflection: Select a child in your classroom who is having difficulty forming relationships with other children (such as difficulty entering play, turn taking, sustaining play with peers, etc.). Observe the child interacting over multiple days and sessions and record descriptive notes on your observation of the child. Use these notes to document the skill level of the child in a specific area of relationship building. Record the skill and determine the ‘next steps’ in the learning progression in order for this child to move to the next skill level. Record several strategies and/or activities that could assist the child in acquiring the next skill(s).
- Family Engagement and Communication: Once you have completed the formative assessment reflection, communicate this information to families and caregivers. Share your observation, explain why this skill is critical for overall development and, in collaboration with the family, develop targeted activities that will help the child develop skills that can be used at school and at home. Agree to share information with the family using a bi-directional form of communication that will support family input and document the child’s development of these skills in his or her naturally occurring settings.
- Communication with Staff Members: After strategies have been developed with the family, communicate with staff members about the child’s skill you are targeting, why the skill is important, and what behavior could be observed in the classroom to document the development of the skill. Determine ways you and other staff members will collect data that document the child’s development of the targeted skill. Data collection strategies may include observations, video clips, pictures, etc. Agree to share and discuss with all staff members, on a daily or weekly basis, the information and artifacts you’ve collected that demonstrate the child’s progress.
Effective Teacher Practices Supporting
North Carolina Foundations for Early Learning and Development
NC Early Learning Network, a joint project of NC-DPI and UNC-FPG, 2016