Supporting Practitioners in the Development of Reflective and Intentional Teaching Strategies Deliberate Practice in Early Childhood Education

Objectives for this Training Understand how deliberate practice can be used with young and/or delayed children. How to make deliberate practice meaningful for young children. How to teach children who are at differing stages of development to rate themselves. Examples of scales/children rating systems. How you can create developmentally appropriate scales/expectations. How to appropriately display, teach, and use deliberate practice visuals in an early childhood classroom. Deliberate practice emphasizes development of "intentional and reflective" processes for both teachers and learners. The session shows step-by-step procedures for developing learning scales that are appropriate for young children. The training is designed to support practitioners in developing intentional teaching activities and in teaching young children how to reflect on their own goals and progress.

Child’s Thinking What am I learning? How will I know when I’ve learned it?

Teacher’s Thinking What am I teaching? How will I know when they’ve learned it?

What are the Key Factors of Deliberate Practice? Involving children in tracking their own progress  Clearly show and communicate the goal of each lesson/activity. i.e. “I am going to come by and see how you built your castle.”  They need to know the expectation for an activity and know what they should be learning as well as be able to recognize when they have learned the skill. Developing activities that are intentional and reflective for both teacher and student  Identifying goals and lessons based on students’ needs.  “What are you learning?” “Where are you on the learning scale?” “What have you learned?” Setting the foundation for the lesson  Refer to past learning,  Teach new vocabulary,  Model, explain, think aloud, or demonstrate.

Deliberate Practice: Teachers and Students Use Intentional and Reflective Thinking I know which skill I’m teaching and I can tell when a student knows it. I know what I am trying to learn and I can tell when I’ve learned it.

Visuals that show the focus of the lessons

Ways to Display the Focus

Ideas for Displaying the Lesson Focus Make it better! – Use visuals or objects. Class Rules Walking in Line

Ways for students to monitor progress Can be simple things that can be used throughout the day. (Yes, I can, no I can’t, thumbs up and thumbs down) Task analysis type scale that shows steps to a goal. Teacher needs to know what the steps are but students may need it individualized.

Ideas for Displaying the Lesson Focus – Individual students often need goals of their own

Ideas for showing children how to monitor their progress

Ideas for self-awareness of progress Reminders and Ideas 1.Keep it simple. 2.Make it easy enough to be understood. 3.TEACH the meaning of the scale. 4.Refer to the scale in a positive way. 5.If one scale visual doesn’t work try another. Try theme- related scales to build up interest. 6.Students don’t have to use all parts of it. Some students might not be ready for four steps.

How to develop a scale for PreK. Start with a target that is age appropriate. Look at the standard and the GOLD assessment. Think about a way to state a level zero such as: Even with help, I cannot do it. Think of the steps to get to the targeted skill. Such as with help, some help, or performing part of the skill. (Levels 1 and 2) Think of ways the children can generalize the skills. (Level 4)

step 1 step 2 step 3 step 4 step 5 step 6 Identify the Learning Goal Find the Correlation This is the age-level skill. Mark this part as the target goal. This level is designated as “By myself” (Level 3). Use a symbol to mark it as the target skill. Identify what the student can’t do. Use words such as “even with help”. (Level 0) Describe the steps toward Level 3. Use standards or a task analysis to see the developmental continuum. (Levels 1 and 2 on the scale. Use words such as “with help” or refer to doing “some or part of” the skill. Describe Level 4 - the level for generalization (doing the skill in other places), application (using the skill to solve problems), making comparisons (how this is similar to something previously learned), expansion (teaching or helping peers). Level 4 requires a higher level of reasoning. Last step – Decide on the scale and visuals. You can use visuals representing the skill Or you can use the visuals representing the scale of 0-4. Steps for Developing a Learning Scale

Example of a scale for drawing/expression/pre-writing

Two more ways to do the writing scale

Examples of incorrect scales Learning Goal: I can continue counting numbers and I can count until I turn blue. I can say the names of last month and the month before that. I can read and write the numbers that are on the calendar and I can fill out a calendar worksheet. I think this is first grade work but I will try to do it because my teacher wants our names up here on number 4. I can do all of the stuff in the other steps and I can also count up to the right number for the day and tell which number will come next and what the picture on the number will be according to the pattern. I can do this by myself and I can remember to sit still while I’m doing it. I can say all the days of the week and know what today is, what tomorrow will be, and what yesterday was. I can find these words on the chart on the wall. I can also say the date of today. With help, I can sing the days of the week and the months of the year songs. When the teacher shows me the first letter of the day of the week, I can say what day it is. Even with help, I really can’t do this. It makes everyone sad when I don’t do this. I need to learn to do this. I’m going to be stuck here on bottom all year if I don’t start doing this. Level 4 – Can teach a friend. Level 3 – Knows the target skill. Can do it by myself. Level 2 – Can do some of the skill. Level 1 – Needs help Level 0 – Can’t do it.

Two examples of the same skill

More examples