Welcome to Unit 6 Academic Curriculum:

Cognitive & Language DomainsLearning Goals:

1.Discuss how advances in neuroscience have supported or refuted recognized early childhood cognitive learning theories (Piaget, Vygotsky, Bandura, etc.).

2.Describe effective ways to integrate curriculum across content and language spheres.

3.Explain how to use inquiry as an instructional approach.

4. Write goals and objectives for lesson plans based on professionally recognized standards.

Review of Unit 5

Consider what is meant by the word aesthetics and why it is important to create curriculum that advances skills in the Aesthetic Domain.

Consider how developing skills in the Affective Domain impact all developmental areas.

Cognitive & Language Domains

Unit 6 explores the cognitive maturation of young children; how advances in neuroscience provide information about the learning process and about teaching strategies, best practices, and early childhood theories. You will examine multiple realms of intelligence and communication.

You will learn how to engage young children in higher level thinking skills; how to maximize intellectual and language development; how to effectively integrate language experiences across the curriculum

Cognitive Domain

The Cognitive Wheel (Chapter 11; pg. 313) includes the details of need to know in these areas:

Physical KnowledgeLogical-mathematical KnowledgeRepresentational KnowledgeSocial-conventional KnowledgeMetacognitive KnowledgePhysical Knowledge

Check out the details and share….

Language DomainThe Purpose & Goals consistent with professional standards (Chapter 12; pg. 351):

Purpose: For children to communicate their ideas and feelings and to accurately interpret the communications they receive.

Check the list of goals in the following areas of oral and non-oral language development & share your thoughts.

• Listening & viewing • Speaking• Writing • Reading

Seminar Discussion:Curriculum: The Language

DomainDiscuss the following questions beginning with the 1st:

How can early childhood professionals integrate language experiences across the curriculum?

Describe some current trends in reading instruction/ teaching strategies?

What modifications/ adaptations/ accommodations to lesson plans will assist ESL (English as a Second Language) learners in developing social English language vocabulary skills?

Professional StandardsIn the Unit 6 Discussion you investigated the impact of

Professional Standards on Curriculum Development. The following list was explored: The text Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum

Recognized educational associations like NAEYC Position Statements, the International Reading Association & National Council of Teachers of English’s published Standards for the English Language Arts, etc.

Common Core State Standards

Share what you found out regarding the impact of Professional Standards on curriculum development

Unit 6 Project: Research Paper

Preferred Curriculum Model - Extended Evaluation

In the Unit 4 Project you assessed two curriculum models and concluded which one best represents your educational philosophy and/or more closely aligns with best practices for private or community schools. You provided relevant support to evaluate each curriculum model. In this project you will be evaluated on your ability to use electronic libraries/ databases for research purposes (GEL-6.5). This paper should include the following three parts.

 

Part 1In the Unit 6 Research Project you will conduct an extended

evaluation of the curriculum model earlier identified as your preferred model. Your examination now should be more extensive as you make additional connections to early childhood theory and determine if this model is supported by current breakthroughs in brain research, relevant current trends, and/ or best practices used in private or community schools.

Explain how this model supports best practices like DAP (Developmentally Appropriate Practice) and maximizes student development in the following domains:

• Cognitive• Language• Affective

• Aesthetic• Physical• Social

Part 2Conclude by either defending the curriculum

model or questioning it based on this more exhaustive examination. You will need to retrieve documents through advanced searches, refine search strategies, and explain the strategies you used to refine the search in your paper. You are expected to include a minimum of five works referenced with quotes, citations, and/or notations to validate your findings.

 

Part 3Engage in a search using the words brain research, early

childhood education, child development, and/or curriculum models, etc., will lead you to numerous useful articles.

As with all research, it is important to consider the quality of the sites you investigate. For some assurance that the information presented is accurate, search the Kaplan Library, eric.ed.gov, and links for government or respected professional education organizations (for example, NAEYC Position Statements or the ASCD website (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development). Since this paper is evaluating your research strategies be sure to explain with details your research methods and evaluation of your findings.

An example of how Part 3 might appear in your essay follows:

As an addendum to this essay, I will share my experience and the methods I used while conducting an advanced search using the words brain research, early childhood education, child development, and/or curriculum models, etc. My investigation led me to a number of articles that applied to better understanding and defending the _(x)_ Curriculum Model. For assurance that the information presented in my sources was accurate, I searched the eric.ed.gov website, links for government and/or respected professional education organizations, such as but not limited to, National Association for the Education of Young Children and Center for Evaluation and Education Policy. Following is a description of two of the resources I used:

The book Mind, Brain, and Education: Neuroscience Implications for the Classroom David A. Sousa focuses on Neuroscience’s insights into the learning process and explores its implications for educational theory and practice. It provides applications, examples, and suggestions for further thought and research.

The website for NAEYC is where I located & reviewed the DAP Position Statement to check how the __ Curriculum Model met DAP standards. There I found the following statement which supports the social emphasis in my preferred model: “Besides specific predictors in areas such as mathematics & literacy, another major thread in recent research is that children’s social and emo tional competencies, as well as some capabilities that cut across social and emotional and cognitive functioning, predict their classroom functioning.”

Read Project Directions & Check Project

Rubric• Thoroughly read the project directions

• Check the grading rubric

• Connect with classmates for support

• Ask questions

• Don’t procrastinate; turn your project in on time

Reliable Sources?

Some ways to check:

Is the author credible? When was it written? Why was it written? Is the source a nationally recognized

organization, institution, university, etc. Have you checked the reliability of the source

itself?

Project Rubric: Preferred Curriculum Model - Extended Evaluation (185 points)

65 points: Preferred Curriculum Model is identified and investigated in depth for its connections to early childhood theory, current trends, and brain research. 

60  points: A research examination of how this model advances early childhood theories, educational best practices like DAP (Developmentally Appropriate Practice), and maximizes student development in the following domains was included. The applicable learning domains are:

– Cognitive– Language– Affective– Aesthetic– Physical– Social

60 points: Body of paper is 3 -5 pages. Grammar and spelling is correct.  Writing is clear, concise, and follows a logical pattern. The APA Format is used and a minimum of six quotes/ citations are included; along with a separate Reference and Title Page. The student demonstrates the ability to retrieve documents through advanced searches, refine search strategies, and explain strategies used to refine the search and locate reliable resources such as the Kaplan Library, links for government or respected professional education organizations  

“A system of general instruction, which shall reach every description of our

citizens from the richest to the poorest, as it was the earliest, so will it be the latest of all the public concerns in which I shall

permit myself to take an interest.”

-Thomas Jefferson to J. Cabell, 1818