As an early childhood practitioner caring for children, a main task is developing plans and approaches to teaching that best support children’s overall development and learning. Planning helps you shape how your time together with children will unfold.
Simply stated, planning is thinking. Thinking about teaching creates intentional teaching. Thinking about what you want to teach children and why, plus how you want to teach concepts and skills, will give you great insights and help you see what you uniquely bring to teaching and how you can grow as a teacher.
Think about …
intentions and best practices.
Keep your educational philosophy in mind, as well as the visions you have developed for your work. This brings meaning into your work and helps you avoid offering experiences that provide little or no meaning. It is your ideas and knowledge gathered about teaching that shape your plans and approaches to working with children.
the children and yourself.
We learn new information to plan with as we continue to learn about child development, children's interests, families, and children's overall needs. Along with learning about children and their families, it is important to continue to learn about yourself. Also, think about what you are passionate about and what interests you children or weave into your teaching.
ideas and tools.
For many, the lesson plan is an important tool to help in preparing for children's care and learning. Lesson plans encourage us to think about order, intention of our approaches, and time with children. They are a great way to stay organized, connect ideas, and make our ideas visible for others to see. Ideas may be acquired in various ways, such as accessing online educational information, or professional development opportunities.
As you explore the elements that shape your plans and approaches to teaching, you will begin to see the personal, intellectual, and instinctual importance of your work. Your approaches and planning will carry elements that are unique to you, as well as assist in providing great joy and meaning in your work. Overall planning should be intentional with developmental goals, learning objectives, and activity ideas documented and reviewed periodically. To be sure that you are working on goals and objectives, it is best to use formal planning methods, such as a written lesson plan, as the basis for daily activities.
To enhance basic plans and take advantage of spontaneous events, there are also informal approaches for planning that can help you go beyond the written lesson plan when emergent themes or needs occur. These approaches include:
- Planning activities with children - When something unexpected happens, listen to the children's comments. See if you can plan activities to build on their questions and thoughts about the event.
- Adding additional materials - Have a variety of materials on hand so that you can change plans to incorporate new activities.
- Generating on-going activities - Set up activities that can continue over several days or that can be done in steps so that the activities can be tailored to reflect daily happenings.
- Changing the learning environment - Add new materials to support additional activities or consider moving activities to a new location (ex. the playground) to build on emergent activities.
- Creating a file of varied activities - There isn't much time to look for activity ideas for emergent events, so having a file of varied activities that you can easily access will help you expand plans.
Here's a lesson planner for you to use. One side will help you plan, while the other side is for reflection.
Notions for planning
Thinking about you … and me!
Think about what makes the children and their families excited, happy, and interested.
Think about what you are passionate about and how that can trickle into your work.
- How do the plans and approaches keep the learning meaningful for everyone?
- Describe ways you have seen your plans and approaches show evidence of success and learning.
These are good ideas to reflect on to help you plan and develop novel approaches to teaching. As you reflect on who you are as a teacher, you start to gather a better understanding of how your time together with children will unfold.
Thinking about intentions
Before beginning to design plans and approaches, it is helpful to reflect,
to think about what your intentions are and what best practices in early education are.
For planning, there are regulations, guidelines, and suggestions from parents and co-workers that influence your plans, but your plans and approaches can still have your own unique stamp on them. With this in mind, consider what elements help shape your plans and approaches to teaching.
- What topics and concepts are important to consider when developing plans
and approaches (i.e. child development, developmentally appropriate practices, etc.)? - How do the plans and approaches help in meeting required standards and mandates?
Thinking about ideas and tools
Think about the many ways you planfor your work. Think about formal and informal tools and approaches that you use.
Think about the sources you have for ideas and how you used ideas.
- What type of planning tools do you use? (Example: lesson plans, documentation, brainstorming sessions, books, etc.).
- Who has input in the planning? Who would you like to have input in the planning?
- What resources do you use for teaching ideas and learning activities?
- Reflect on how you implement ideas from professional development, suggestions others, and emergent events.
TIPS 14-4
