Today’s curriculum for early learning programs does the following:
- Includes goals for achievement in all domains—social, emotional, cognitive, and physical—in order to prepare children for the role of citizen in a democracy.
- Addresses the development of knowledge, understanding, processes, and skills, not just isolated facts.
- Is based on content identified in subject area standards.
- Is grounded on realistic goals that challenge yet are achievable.
- Reflects the needs and interests of individual children and the group.
- Respects and supports individual, cultural, and linguistic diversity.
- Builds on what children already know and are able to do to consolidate their learning and to foster their acquisition of new concepts and skills.
- Allows for integration across traditional subject matter disciplines.
- Meets the recognized standards of the relevant subject matter disciplines.
- Engages children actively, socially, physically, and mentally.
- Is flexible so that teachers can adapt to individual children or groups.
Excerpt from Early Education: Three, Four, and Five Year Olds Go to School, by C. Seefeldt, B.A. Wasik, 2006 edition, p. 35.
© ______ 2006, Merrill, an imprint of Pearson Education Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The reproduction, duplication, or distribution of this material by any means including but not limited to email and blogs is strictly prohibited without the explicit permission of the publisher.
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