chapter17 allen7e

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Chapter 17Facilitating Pre-Academic and Cognitive

Learning

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Cognitive Development and Emerging Literacy

• Involves reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

• Functionally illiterate are those who cannot perform well in one of those areas.

• Large numbers of children are coming to school without the experiences needed to learn literacy skills.

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Cognitive Development and Emerging Literacy (continued)

• Defining Pre-Academics– This includes the whole child: physical

activities, social interactions, and creative and affective development.

– More than just paper-and-pencil activities are included.

– Children are active explorers of their world.– Child-initiated activities are key to cognitive

growth and development.

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Cognitive Development and Emerging Literacy (continued)

• What brain research tells us– Infants’ brains are extremely active and busy.– Synapses are being formed.– The brain functions on a use-it or lose-it

principle.– Nature and nurture play a role in the

development of the brain.– Early care has decisive and long-lasting

impact on children’s brain development.

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Cognitive Development and Emerging Literacy (continued)

– There are sensitive periods for learning that only come around once.

– Negative experiences or lack of stimulation have serious, sustained effects on the brain.

– Intensive intervention is necessary to lessen the effects of disabilities.

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Banning Academics: ILL Advised?

• Academic skills are appropriate for preschoolers.

• They should be a part of the play experience.

• Preschoolers thrive on absorbing these new experiences.

• Paper-and-pencil tasks and workbooks should be avoided.

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Developmentally Appropriate Pre-Academic Experiences

• Direct teaching– The teacher directly teaches a concept.– The teacher also blends direct teaching with

an indirect and facilitative approach.

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Developmentally Appropriate Pre-Academic Experiences (continued)

• Embedded Learning– Children practice new skills and learn

individualized goals within the regular classroom activities.

– Clarify objective.– Determine current level of performance.– Determine times and places during the

classroom day.

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Developmentally Appropriate Pre-Academic Experiences (continued)

– Design instructional interaction.– Implement instruction.– Establish data collection.

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Developmentally Appropriate Pre-Academic Experiences (continued)

• Computers and assistive technology– Computers allow children to develop

independent skills that they cannot do otherwise.

– Computer software needs to be developmentally appropriate.

– Evaluate software for inappropriate content and violence.

– Computers enable a child to develop eye-hand coordination.

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Developmentally Appropriate Pre-Academic Experiences (continued)

• Fostering eagerness to learn– Children need to be encouraged to explore

the environment, ask questions, and problem solve.

– They need to involve all their senses.– Teachers need to support this eagerness.

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Developmentally Appropriate Pre-Academic Experiences (continued)

• Engaging children’s minds– Teachers show children how to record their

thoughts.– Teachers write down what a child says and

then teach the child to read.– It is then a recording of a child’s experiences

for the future.

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Developmentally Appropriate Pre-Academic Experiences (continued)

• Valuing today’s learning– Make learning real.– Match children to activities that are

developmentally appropriate and encourage their eagerness to learn.

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Developmentally Appropriate Pre-Academic Experiences (continued)

• Readiness skills– Readiness as maturation– Readiness as learning– Teacher needs to identify readiness skills that

may be missing based upon developmental sequences

– Language readiness

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Developmentally Appropriate Pre-Academic Experiences (continued)

• Attention span– The length of time an individual is able to

concentrate on an activity is critical to all learning.

– Classrooms that are organized and inviting help children attend to a task and extend their attention span.

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Developmentally Appropriate Pre-Academic Experiences (continued)

• Imitation and modeling– Imitation is the key to learning new skills.– A child imitates the model to see how a skill is

performed.– If a child is having difficulty imitating:

• Imitate them• Provide models at their developmental level• Provide assistance and be directive• Make it fun and give encouraging feedback

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Developmentally Appropriate Pre-Academic Experiences (continued)

• Perceptual motor skills– Understanding sensory messages and

translating them– Sensory integration—involving more than one

sense in a response– Activities need to be planned to support the

use of senses for learning

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Developmentally Appropriate Pre-Academic Experiences (continued)

• Fine motor skills– Eye-hand coordination and the use of fingers,

wrists, and hands– Essential for self-care skills– Goes together with perceptual motor skills

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Developmentally Appropriate Pre-Academic Experiences (continued)

• Concept formation– Internal images or ideas that organize thinking– Help us to make sense of our world– Discrimination—likenesses and differences– Classification—imposing order – Seriation—arranging objects in order– Spatial and temporal relationships—how

things go together in space and time

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Developmentally Appropriate Pre-Academic Experiences (continued)

• Memory– Long-term memory refers to events that

happened a while ago.– Short-term memory refers to events in the

recent past.– Memory is essential to learning and building

upon skills.

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Developmentally Appropriate Pre-Academic Experiences (continued)

• Following directions– Children do best when directions are clear.– One direction at a time is more likely to be

completed than multiple-step directions.– Teachers should get down on the child’s level

to give the directions.

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• Emergent Literacy– Rich teacher talk– Storybook reading– Phonological Awareness Activities– Alphabet Activities– Support for Emergent Reading– Support for Emergent Writing– Shared Book Experience– Integrate Content Focused Activities

Developmentally Appropriate Pre-Academic Experiences (continued)

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Planning and Presenting Pre-Academics

• Pre-reading, pre-writing, and pre-math skills– Skills are presented in small group settings.– Children should be grouped by ability.– Materials are carefully chosen to enhance skill

development.

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Planning and Presenting Pre-Academics (continued)

• Grouping children– Group by age.– Group by ability.– Groups should change as the skill levels

change.– The number is set by the number of children

and adults in the room.

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Planning and Presenting Pre-Academics (continued)

• Arranging Pre-Academic group activities– Advance preparation– Familiar and preferred materials and activities– Individual workspace with name cards– Individual setups– Short periods– Moving about– Changing tasks– Transition activities

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Planning and Presenting Pre-Academics (continued)

• Enjoying teacher-directed activities– If children are engaged and learning, teachers

are happy.– Teachers spend more time planning and

creating lessons.– The lessons are more fun.– Children continue to learn.