The Power Of Emergent Curriculum

Vignettes focusing on emergent curriculum

Helps providers implement proven child-centered curricular practices while meeting early learning standards.

"Guidance for implementing play-based emergent curriculum in preschool classrooms, gaining teachers' and families' support, and using emergent curriculum to build school readiness"--

Pre-K Stories offers a lively exploration of how one classroom community played with and collaboratively engaged in authorship. Through everyday stories, readers are invited to witness and engage with classroom practices that honor young children’s brilliance and build on their questions, interests, and strengths. Weaving together literacy, language arts, social studies, science, mathematics, and more, the authors illustrate how curriculum can be authentically and meaningfully integrated. They also offer a unique perspective on the development of language and literacy practices by framing children’s play narratives as the foundation from which rich curricula can grow. Pre-K Stories allows readers to experience the rich cadence of a classroom, while also coming to understand important theories that undergird early childhood teaching and young children’s learning. Book Features: Rich descriptions and examples of 4-year-old children’s authoring and writing processes. Engaging narratives from the perspective of an early childhood teacher and students. A unique perspective on the development of language and literacy practices through children’s play. A view of young children as powerful and capable of co-constructing curriculum with teachers. A dynamic approach that has broad implications for literacy and integrative curriculum practices in early childhood.

Emergent curriculum in early childhood education refers to the process of using the spontaneity generated in the daily life of the children and adults in the program, along with teacher planning, to develop the curriculum. This book presents a story about a year in the life of a fictional child care center as a context for the discussion of emergent curriculum in 22 chapters arranged to cover events sequentially throughout the school year. Chapter 1 introduces the fictional child care setting. Chapters 2 through 21 alternately provide staff meeting topics, ideas, and examples of guided discussions; and ideas and discussions of class activities, field trips, and visits to various sites. Chapter 22, "Epilogue: Talking It Over," contains reflections on the activities and learning during the year by staff and students. Contains a section of notes for each chapter and 23 suggestions for further reading. (DR)

In exploring the image of children and environments and thinking about ways in which pedagogy empowers children to be active and inquisitive learners in early learning environments, Empowering Pedagogy for Early Childhood Education is intended to create dialogue about how learning and development take place. The text introduces the reader to research and perspectives from many disciplines, and attempts to provide a contemporary view of how early learning programs, when designed to support children's authentic interests and embrace their sense of wonder, can empower children to be inquisitive, lifelong learners.

An inspiring step-by-step guide to documenting children's ideas, questions, and learning in a way that enhances teacher's thinking and understanding

Now in its third edition, this classic text remains the seminal resource for in-depth information about major concepts and principles of the cultural-historical theory developed by Lev Vygotsky, his students, and colleagues, as well as three generations of neo-Vygotskian scholars in Russia and the West. Featuring two new chapters on brain development and scaffolding in the zone of proximal development, as well as additional content on technology, dual language learners, and students with disabilities, this new edition provides the latest research evidence supporting the basics of the cultural-historical approach alongside Vygotskian-based practical implications. With concrete explanations and strategies on how to scaffold young children’s learning and development, this book is essential reading for students of early childhood theory and development.