Creating Developmentally Appropriate Learning Experiences & Learning Environments in Early…

Catalog description

This course focuses on curriculum design to promote learning and development /or all children, birth through grade 2, in classroom, home, and community settings with special attention to the social and physical learning environment. The foundations of curriculum development, most particularly using play and everyday routine activities as the context for learning, applying various adult facilitation strategies, observing and recording children's behavior for planning end evaluating effectiveness will be explored. Various curricular approaches and methods and developmentally appropriate practices and recommended practices will be emphasized. Practices addressed in this course Include drawing on each child's individual strengths as well as home culture and language; meeting the unique needs of each child; creating a positive physical and social learning environment through attention to space, materials, schedules, and interactions. This course Will investigate both social aspects of responsive environments - approaches to responsive caregiving, caring communities, and fostering positive peer relationships - and physical characteristics, such as scheduling, room arrangement, materials, and physical adaptations. Opportunities to explore responsive approaches such as relationship-based programming, modeling and encouraging classroom communities, strategies to promote social-emotional competence, will be integrated into the course through observations and hands on experiences. Department Approval Required