I planned out my first two weeks and this week, we embarked on the exciting journey of learning. For a start, I think it went well. RJ was interested in our one-on-one activities and Logan cooperated by napping long enough for me to have that morning one-on-one time with RJ. I generally plan for about 4 lessons per week so that we can have a day off (to go to the pool or have a playdate or to just have a bad day). This week, we also hosted our co-op on Thursday, so I got to try out the lesson plans with some children younger than RJ (His playmates are 2 and 2.5).
Here is the link to my lesson plans, which I will keep adding to as I go along.
What you will see in the lesson plans are columns labeled Lesson, Concepts, Activity, Domain(s), Goal(s), Prep, and Evaluation. The Lessons column is basically just a number, because I want to leave my plan flexible. I just follow the numbers rather than assigning days. The concepts column is for listing the general concepts or content knowledge that I want RJ to learn from the activities and from us talking about the activities. The activity column is for describing what we will do. As most of preschool learning occurs through actively engaging with materials, plan activities where RJ can manipulate or create objects. The final product isn't important, but the process by which we come to it is. The domain column is where I indicate what area of development the activity helps to progress or nurture. Typical Domains are pretty basic - Physical (either fine motor or gross motor), Cognitive (which has many sub-domains, such as literacy, pre-math, etc.), and Socio-emotional. I usually also indicate the specific area that I'm working on after the domain. For example when we made license plates, one thing listed under the Domain column was Cognitive - Letter and Number Recognition. The goals column is my bottom line. I write what I'm trying to accomplish by doing the activity. Sometimes, it might just be exposure to something or even just for fun, but the point is that planned activities should be goal directed. The prep column is a practical column, where I write what I need to do BEFORE starting the activity. An activity doesn't usually work well if the person guiding the activity is busy setting up stuff while the child(ren) are running amok. And finally, I write down my thoughts after the activity/lesson, so I can see what to change for similar activities in the future.
I know we're a bit out of order because I didn't post about RJ's initial assessment of content knowledge yet, but I wanted to post the start of the unit lesson plans when I had them done. The assessment requires me to upload the video off our camera, which is more complicated than it should be.
Ah yes, making license plates... I was thinking that would go nicely with prison-themed curriculum as well.
ReplyDeletehaha! yes, I suppose it would! Do they still make license plates in prison? I would assume that a machine would be much more efficient and cost effective these days.
ReplyDeleteWhat do know/like about Montessori? Why reinvent the wheel? How do you know RJ is learning from your planned activities? What are your expectations?
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ReplyDeleteHi Diane, I don't know a lot about Montessori, my experience was based on an eclectic approach to developmentally appropriate practice using thematic curriculum. I think that Montessori has a lot of good aspects to it, but I like the additional structure that a planned thematic unit provides. I like that Montessori provides for the children's interests and creates an intrinsic motivation for learning, however, as an educator, I am a little more collaborative (my philosophy follows Lev Vygotsky's theory in a lot of ways) than Montessori typically is. I firmly believe in a constructivist environment, but I like to supplement that with some collaborative, guided activities. To answer how do I know RJ is learning from the activities question, I don't have any systematic data on that yet. I have reason to believe that he is, because he is excited to explain to his dad what he did each day, and from his explanation seems to have internalized the content. But I haven't tested that yet, and for this theme, I haven't documented WHERE each piece of content comes from and how much it's repeated, etc. I hope to add that with the next theme. My goal with this first theme was to figure out my logistics and what I could actually accomplish in terms of planning and documenting. It's more of a pilot. The next theme will be much smoother. My expectations are that at the end of the theme, RJ will have increased his content knowledge significantly from his initial assessment. I expect that the activities have been facilitating his knowledge gain, since I have heard changes in the content of his free play as well. I hope this answers your questions. Thanks for following! Great questions!
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