Teaching early childhood education, particularly to underprivileged children, has been repeatedly shown to be one of the most effective ways to increase a child’s potential in life. In the years before kindergarten begins, children are developmentally still in a phase where they are developing their sense of self and their sense of the world in which they live (Bowman, 1993). Because of this, simulation, education, and good guidance is fundamentally important to the development of cognitive abilities in children (Bowman, 1993).
Research has shown that children who participate in preschool activities have a greater chance for success in school, once they begin. The National Education Association (2014) writes, “Research shows that providing a high quality education for children before they turn five yields significant long-term benefits. One well-known study, the HighScope Perry Preschool Study, found that individuals who were enrolled in a quality preschool program ultimately earned up to $2,000 more per month than those who were not. Young people who were in preschool programs are more likely to graduate from high school, to own homes, and have longer marriages.Other studies, like The Abecedarian Project, show similar results. Children in quality preschool programs are less likely to repeat grades, need special education, or get into future trouble with the law” (National Education Association, 2014). That being said, not just any educational strategy will do for early childhood education-- providing good, high-quality instruction with excellent planning and structure is also fundamentally important.
Providing children with an excellent lesson plan that is outside the scope of their ability and outside their developmental range can be frustrating for the educator as well as the students. At certain points in a child’s development, certain abilities are gained; for instance, before a certain age, children have difficulty understanding the permanence of objects (Spodek and Saracho, 2005). Attempting to teach a child below that threshold of understanding is an exercise in futility; for this reason, in early childhood, particular care must be taken to ensure that lesson plans are age-appropriate and effective (Spodek and Saracho, 2005).
The lesson plan in question within this discussion is a language arts lesson plan, designed and implemented for children in pre-kindergarten programs. These children may be anywhere from two to four years old, or perhaps even older, depending on their developmental abilities and their families. The topic of the lesson plan is “transportation,” and the author of the lesson plan has ostensibly stated that the purpose of the plan: “The lesson,” she writes, “shows the children the various transport methods and the vessels used as well as the people involved.” The author of the lesson plan goes on to state that there are listening, speaking, and reading components involved in the lesson plan, and that each of these components have been constructed to engage the students in the activities, and also to provide students with ample opportunity to do some independent learning in the classroom.
The central, structural element in this lesson plan is reading a story involving transportation with the children in the classroom. Reading books together at a young age can be very gratifying for children, and can teach them how to enjoy literature and read more quickly and more easily than students who must develop a love of literature and reading on their own (Spodek and Saracho, 2005).
There are a number of areas where this lesson plan will be successful. First, the use of large-scale resources like books is an excellent method for engaging students in the lesson. At a young age, students are often engaged by pictures, bright colors, and tactile sensations; large books and a patient instructor who is willing to allow students to touch the book and the pictures will allow for further engagement with the course materials. In addition, the introduction of toys based on the vocabulary that is introduced in the lesson provides another layer of tactile stimulus for the children in the classroom.
The early introduction of the toys into the lesson is a good strategy for engaging the children with the materials early on in the lesson, rather than trying to engage them immediately with the story. The toys that the children will be provided with are excellent insofar as engaging them with the material is concerned. Getting children excited about the potential lesson before expecting them to do any intellectual heavy lifting, so to speak, is fundamental for a good lesson with young children-- indeed, a good lesson with people of all ages.
The second part of the lesson, or the “meat” of the lesson, is also very well-designed for children. The children that have more advanced cognitive abilities will be able to comprehend the chart more easily, while the children who have not reached the threshold for understanding the mathematical concept of a chart will still be able to learn about transportation and what type of transportation is used on land, in the air, or in the water. The ability of the instructor to bridge different cognitive ability gaps makes the difference between a lesson that is excellent and a lesson that falls short of its goals. With a more advanced group, the lesson plan can be broken down further to allow for children who can read; instead of pictures and icons, words can be used to help the children begin to read simple text in addition to learning about different modes of transportation and how to create a chart.
There are, of course, different ways in which this lesson plan can be improved upon to engage the students better with the material. The creation of the chart could require a lot of interaction from the students with the instructor, but it could also mean a lot of talking by the instructor, with the students spending much of the lesson listening rather than engaging; many studies have shown that young students do better when they are engaging with the materials (Bowman, 1993). Encouraging the instructor to engage the students in the creation of the chart could easily offset some of the potential for student restlessness and boredom.
As an educator, I have come to discover that the amount of engagement the students have with the educator and the lesson makes the difference between a bad day in the classroom and an excellent day in the classroom. A lesson plan that seems excellent may, in fact, be too difficult or too easy for the students; however, learning how to engage with one’s students and plan for their abilities and needs makes the process of teaching much easier. Finally, accepting that there is always something that can be done better and continuing to evolve as an individual and an educator is what makes a good teacher a great one.
References
Bowman, B. (1993). Early childhood education. Review of research in education, 19 pp. 101--134.
Bredekamp, S. & Copple, C. (1997). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children.
Edwards, C. P., Gandini, L. & Forman, G. E. (1995). The hundred languages of children. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex Pub. Corp.
Molnar, A. (2002). School reform proposals. Greenwich, Conn.: Information Age.
National Education Association. (2014). Early childhood education. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.nea.org/home/18163.htm [Accessed: 21 Jan 2014].
Spodek, B. & Saracho, O. N. (2005). International perspectives on research in early childhood education. Greenwich, Conn.: Information Age Pub.
