In this first segment, we introduce the major topics for our series - Oral Language, Planning, Assessment, and Cross Curricular Work - all through the lens of a play-based curriculum. Our featured teachers also discuss ways in which they establish routines, select materials, and infuse playfulness into everything they do. The teachers discuss the importance of play-based learning and their decision to make play an integral part of the learning experience for their students.
Talk is critical to learning and play-based learning offers many diverse ways for students to use talk as a vehicle for learning. In this segment, teachers share and demonstrate tips, tools, and techniques for embedding and encouraging talk opportunities within every learning experience. We will see students problem solving, planning, playing games, and sharing their learning. Our teachers discuss both the incidental and deliberately structured opportunities they provide for their students.
In this two-part segment, our teachers discuss and demonstrate how they establish routines, integrate outcomes into a play-based curriculum, set up and manage flexible and varied learning zones, and ensure a balance between choice and more formal learning opportunities. This combination of routines, careful planning, use of engaging materials, and effective teaching helps students become highly engaged in their own learning. Through this engagement, they develop stamina and the ability to self-regulate. As they move toward developmentally appropriate independence, we see students taking responsibility for their own learning and for the environment in which this learning occurs.
In this two-part segment, our teachers discuss and demonstrate how they establish routines, integrate outcomes into a play-based curriculum, set up and manage flexible and varied learning zones, and ensure a balance between choice and more formal learning opportunities. This combination of routines, careful planning, use of engaging materials, and effective teaching helps students become highly engaged in their own learning. Through this engagement, they develop stamina and the ability to self-regulate. As they move toward developmentally appropriate independence, we see students taking responsibility for their own learning and for the environment in which this learning occurs.
Play and formal curriculum areas are not mutually exclusive, but work together to enhance student learning. Play is present in all curriculum areas and makes a significant contribution to learning. The combination of hands-on experiences, rich materials, thoughtful planning, and artful teaching supports and engages learners across the range of curriculum areas. In this two-part segment, we see how teachers offer engaging learning opportunities in the specific areas of English language arts, mathematics, and science with links to social activities and the arts. In addition, we see crosscurricular teaching and students choosing their own learning opportunities.
Play and formal curriculum areas are not mutually exclusive, but work together to enhance student learning. Play is present in all curriculum areas and makes a significant contribution to learning. The combination of hands-on experiences, rich materials, thoughtful planning, and artful teaching supports and engages learners across the range of curriculum areas. In this two-part segment, we see how teachers offer engaging learning opportunities in the specific areas of English language arts, mathematics, and science with links to social activities and the arts. In addition, we see crosscurricular teaching and students choosing their own learning opportunities.
We know that in effective classrooms, assessment happens every day in a variety of ways. A play-based classroom offers unique and varied opportunities for teachers to understand and support their students as learners through a variety of assessment approaches. In this segment, we see the teachers using forms of assessment ranging from more formal tools to prompts, observations, self-assessment, and a variety of other ways that help students demonstrate learning. The teachers also share their strategies for organizing and documenting their assessment data.
