Section 26.200  Planning for Instruction

The competent early childhood teacher understands instructional planning and designs learning opportunities based on knowledge of the children, their families, and their communities and of content areas and curriculum goals.

a)         Knowledge Indicators – The competent early childhood teacher:

1)         understands how to plan developmentally and culturally appropriate curriculum.

2)         understands the rationale for developmentally and culturally appropriate practice.

3)         understands how to develop short- and long-range instructional plans based on play, open-ended inquiry, and long-term investigation.

4)         understands how to use and integrate appropriate technology technological resources into classroom instruction.

b)         Performance Indicators – The competent early childhood teacher:

1)         plans, implements, and evaluates developmentally and culturally appropriate curriculum and instructional practices that are based on knowledge of individual children, their families, and their communities and of content areas and curriculum goals.

2)         incorporates a variety of instructional strategies when designing learning experiences that promote children's physical, social, emotional, aesthetic, linguistic, and cognitive development.

3)         develops, implements, and evaluates an integrated curriculum that focuses on children's needs and interests and takes into account culturally valued content and children's experiences at home.

4)         creates, selects, evaluates, and incorporates developmentally and culturally appropriate materials and equipment into the instructional plans.

5)         uses and integrates appropriate technological resources (e.g., puzzles, logical thinking programs, writing tools, digital cameras, drawing tools) in instructional planning for problem-solving, communication, and the illustration of thoughts, ideas, and stories.