The Multi-age Learning Community in Action

The Multi-age Learning Community in Action PDF Author: Barbara Cozza
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1475837755
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
As schools struggle to teach all students, the multi-age teaching and learning framework has emerged as one of today’s most effective ways to structure schools. Multi-age Learning Community (MAC) Program is a professional development program in action. It presents a framework that can transform schools from a graded system to a multi-age learning environment. This multi-age school targets students’ individual and personal needs and allows students to excel and succeed. The school reform climate today focuses on schools of choice and building effective school environments. This multi-age program creates a unique school niche that is marketable to families. Parents have the option of sending their children to schools that concentrate on achievement that best meets the needs of the learner without disrupting the mandates of the curricula. This book is intended to assist educators at all levels of all school organizations, as well as give policymakers, educators and parents the information on an effective school program. This book gives information on how to transform schools into multi-age classrooms. This book is divided into four parts that explain both the theory and the practice of effective strategies for the multi-age school program: Organizational Practice, Building Culture, Learning Processes, and Assessment and Systemic Improvement. There are specific basic principles and practices that are integrated into a quality and effective framework discussed in the chapters of this book. Each chapter begins with a vignette based on my experiences in multiage schools and concludes with an educator’s reflection to recap the concepts in the chapter. Each chapter also integrates snapshots that areshort real-to-life passages that bring to life concepts discussed in the chapter. Although this book discusses multi-age schools, these ideas may be applied to all school environments. To accommodate all school programs, at the end of each chapter, a section titled Application for All Schools is a framework that discusses just how to apply chapter concepts in any school or classroom program. It is recommended that the reader review the book one time in sequence and then reread each chapter as needed, to give meaning to the reader’s purpose.

School, Family, and Community Partnerships

School, Family, and Community Partnerships PDF Author: Joyce L. Epstein
Publisher: Corwin Press
ISBN: 1483320014
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 508

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Book Description
Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.

The Hungry Mind

The Hungry Mind PDF Author: Susan Engel
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674425375
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
Despite American education’s recent mania for standardized tests, testing misses what really matters about learning: the desire to learn in the first place. Curiosity is vital, but it remains a surprisingly understudied characteristic. The Hungry Mind is a deeply researched, highly readable exploration of what curiosity is, how it can be measured, how it develops in childhood, and how it can be fostered in school. “Engel draws on the latest social science research and incidents from her own life to understand why curiosity is nearly universal in babies, pervasive in early childhood, and less evident in school...Engel’s most important finding is that most classroom environments discourage curiosity...In an era that prizes quantifiable results, a pedagogy that privileges curiosity is not likely to be a priority.” —Glenn C. Altschuler, Psychology Today “Susan Engel’s The Hungry Mind, a book which engages in depth with how our interest and desire to explore the world evolves, makes a valuable contribution not only to the body of academic literature on the developmental and educational psychology of children, but also to our knowledge on why and how we learn.” —Inez von Weitershausen, LSE Review of Books

The Multi-age Learning Community in Action

The Multi-age Learning Community in Action PDF Author: Barbara Cozza
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1475837755
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 243

Get Book Here

Book Description
As schools struggle to teach all students, the multi-age teaching and learning framework has emerged as one of today’s most effective ways to structure schools. Multi-age Learning Community (MAC) Program is a professional development program in action. It presents a framework that can transform schools from a graded system to a multi-age learning environment. This multi-age school targets students’ individual and personal needs and allows students to excel and succeed. The school reform climate today focuses on schools of choice and building effective school environments. This multi-age program creates a unique school niche that is marketable to families. Parents have the option of sending their children to schools that concentrate on achievement that best meets the needs of the learner without disrupting the mandates of the curricula. This book is intended to assist educators at all levels of all school organizations, as well as give policymakers, educators and parents the information on an effective school program. This book gives information on how to transform schools into multi-age classrooms. This book is divided into four parts that explain both the theory and the practice of effective strategies for the multi-age school program: Organizational Practice, Building Culture, Learning Processes, and Assessment and Systemic Improvement. There are specific basic principles and practices that are integrated into a quality and effective framework discussed in the chapters of this book. Each chapter begins with a vignette based on my experiences in multiage schools and concludes with an educator’s reflection to recap the concepts in the chapter. Each chapter also integrates snapshots that areshort real-to-life passages that bring to life concepts discussed in the chapter. Although this book discusses multi-age schools, these ideas may be applied to all school environments. To accommodate all school programs, at the end of each chapter, a section titled Application for All Schools is a framework that discusses just how to apply chapter concepts in any school or classroom program. It is recommended that the reader review the book one time in sequence and then reread each chapter as needed, to give meaning to the reader’s purpose.

Classrooms as Learning Communities

Classrooms as Learning Communities PDF Author: Chris Watkins
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134336810
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
This book presents the practice and vision of classrooms that operate as learning communities.

The 5 Dimensions of Engaged Teaching

The 5 Dimensions of Engaged Teaching PDF Author: Laura Weaver
Publisher: Solution Tree Press
ISBN: 1936764504
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
Engaged teaching recognizes that educators need to offer more than lesson plans and assessments for students to thrive in the 21st century. Equip your students to be resilient individuals, able to communicate effectively and work with diverse people. The authors contend that students must develop their emotional and social skills as thoroughly as their academic skills, and that teachers must cultivate this growth.

Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth Through Age 8, Fourth Edition (Fully Revised and Updated)

Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth Through Age 8, Fourth Edition (Fully Revised and Updated) PDF Author: Naeyc
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781938113956
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
The long-awaited new edition of NAEYC's book Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs is here, fully revised and updated! Since the first edition in 1987, it has been an essential resource for the early childhood education field. Early childhood educators have a professional responsibility to plan and implement intentional, developmentally appropriate learning experiences that promote the social and emotional development, physical development and health, cognitive development, and general learning competencies of each child served. But what is developmentally appropriate practice (DAP)? DAP is a framework designed to promote young children's optimal learning and development through a strengths-based approach to joyful, engaged learning. As educators make decisions to support each child's learning and development, they consider what they know about (1) commonality in children's development and learning, (2) each child as an individual (within the context of their family and community), and (3) everything discernible about the social and cultural contexts for each child, each educator, and the program as a whole. This latest edition of the book is fully revised to underscore the critical role social and cultural contexts play in child development and learning, including new research about implicit bias and teachers' own context and consideration of advances in neuroscience. Educators implement developmentally appropriate practice by recognizing the many assets all young children bring to the early learning program as individuals and as members of families and communities. They also develop an awareness of their own context. Building on each child's strengths, educators design and implement learning settings to help each child achieve their full potential across all domains of development and across all content areas.

Funds of Knowledge

Funds of Knowledge PDF Author: Norma Gonzalez
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135614059
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
The concept of "funds of knowledge" is based on a simple premise: people are competent and have knowledge, and their life experiences have given them that knowledge. The claim in this book is that first-hand research experiences with families allow one to document this competence and knowledge, and that such engagement provides many possibilities for positive pedagogical actions. Drawing from both Vygotskian and neo-sociocultural perspectives in designing a methodology that views the everyday practices of language and action as constructing knowledge, the funds of knowledge approach facilitates a systematic and powerful way to represent communities in terms of the resources they possess and how to harness them for classroom teaching. This book accomplishes three objectives: It gives readers the basic methodology and techniques followed in the contributors' funds of knowledge research; it extends the boundaries of what these researchers have done; and it explores the applications to classroom practice that can result from teachers knowing the communities in which they work. In a time when national educational discourses focus on system reform and wholesale replicability across school sites, this book offers a counter-perspective stating that instruction must be linked to students' lives, and that details of effective pedagogy should be linked to local histories and community contexts. This approach should not be confused with parent participation programs, although that is often a fortuitous consequence of the work described. It is also not an attempt to teach parents "how to do school" although that could certainly be an outcome if the parents so desired. Instead, the funds of knowledge approach attempts to accomplish something that may be even more challenging: to alter the perceptions of working-class or poor communities by viewing their households primarily in terms of their strengths and resources, their defining pedagogical characteristics. Funds of Knowledge: Theorizing Practices in Households, Communities, and Classrooms is a critically important volume for all teachers and teachers-to-be, and for researchers and graduate students of language, culture, and education.

Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves

Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves PDF Author: Louise Derman-Sparks
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781938113574
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Anti-bias education begins with you! Become a skilled anti-bias teacher with this practical guidance to confronting and eliminating barriers.

Powerful Interactions

Powerful Interactions PDF Author: Amy Laura Dombro
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781938113727
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
Make your everyday interactions with children intentional and purposeful with these steps: Be Present, Connect, and Extend Learning.

Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8

Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309324882
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 587

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Book Description
Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.