Teaching Thinking Skills Across the Early Years


Book Description

This book helps teachers incorporate problem-solving and thinking skills into the National Curriculum at the Foundation Phase and Key Stage 1, in line with QCA and DfES recommendations. It presents a range of activities for children aged 4-7 years, all of which have been tried and tested in classrooms. The ideas are cross-referenced with the Learning Objectives of the National Curriculum, and are enhanced with samples of children's work. It provides sections on the core subjects of literacy, numeracy and science, and ideas for project work across the curriculum. This book is aimed at teachers at the Foundation Phase and Key Stage 1. Teacher trainers, student teachers, teaching assistants, parents and all those working in early years settings will find it equally useful.




Thinking Skills in the Early Years


Book Description

Since 1999, thinking skills have been included in the National Curriculum alongside key skills, such as those to do with communication and ICT. This review of literature on the subject of thinking skills provides an evidence base for researchers and practitioners on which thinking skills approaches have been established.




Teaching Thinking Skills Across the Early Years


Book Description

This book helps teachers incorporate problem-solving and thinking skills into the National Curriculum at the Foundation Phase and Key Stage 1, in line with QCA and DfES recommendations. It presents a range of activities for children aged 4-7 years, all of which have been tried and tested in classrooms. The ideas are cross-referenced with the Learning Objectives of the National Curriculum, and are enhanced with samples of children's work. It provides sections on the core subjects of literacy, numeracy and science, and ideas for project work across the curriculum. This book is aimed at teachers at the Foundation Phase and Key Stage 1. Teacher trainers, student teachers, teaching assistants, parents and all those working in early years settings will find it equally useful.




Visible Learning in Early Childhood


Book Description

Make learning visible in the early years Early childhood is a uniquely sensitive time, when young learners are rapidly developing across multiple domains, including language and literacy, mathematics, and motor skills. Knowing which teaching strategies work best and when can have a significant impact on a child’s development and future success. Visible Learning in Early Childhood investigates the critical years between ages 3 and 6 and, backed by evidence from the Visible Learning® research, explores seven core strategies for learning success: working together as evaluators, setting high expectations, measuring learning with explicit success criteria, establishing developmentally appropriate levels of learning, viewing mistakes as opportunities, continually seeking feedback, and balancing surface, deep, and transfer learning. The authors unpack the symbiotic relationship between these seven tenets through Authentic examples of diverse learners and settings Voices of master teachers from the US, UK, and Australia Multiple assessment and differentiation strategies Multidisciplinary approaches depicting mathematics, literacy, art and music, social-emotional learning, and more Using the Visible Learning research, teachers partner with children to encourage high expectations, developmentally appropriate practices, the right level of challenge, and a focus on explicit success criteria. Get started today and watch your young learners thrive!




Thinking Through New Literacies for Primary and Early Years


Book Description

Thinking Through New Literacies for Primary and Early Years is an accessible text that encourages readers to consider deeply what is meant by ′literacy′ today. It explores the many different ways in which teachers and children develop their own literacy. Specifically written for education students in the later years of their course, the text draws on research and practice to explore the challenges and opportunities involved, while helping to develop the reader′s own critical thinking skills. The book begins by asking ′what′s new about new literacies?′ and goes on to explore some technological innovations designed to support the emergent reader and writer. It considers verbal literacy, speaking and listening, and visual literacy. Readers are encourages to think through the issues surrounding inclusion and the legal and ethical issues raised by this post-typographic age. Throughout, practical guidance runs alongside structured critical thinking exercises to help the reader reflect on both theory and practice. About the Thinking Through Education Series Thinking Through Education is a series of texts designed and written specifically for those education students entering the second or final phase of their degree course. Structured around sets of specific ′skills′, each chapter uses critical thinking and reflective exercises to develop greater subject knowledge and critical awareness. Each book contains links to the Teachers′ Standards providing students with a clear transition from study to practice. Jayne Metcalfe is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Cumbria. Jayne is involved in e-safety training of student teachers. Debbie Simpson is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Cumbria. She is currently the acting Programme Leader for the Primary PGCE course. Ian Todd is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Cumbria, with a specialism in English and an interest in the teaching of ICT. Mike Toyn is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Cumbria where he also coordinates the teaching of primary ICT.




Developing Children's Critical Thinking through Picturebooks


Book Description

This accessible text will show students and class teachers how they can enable their pupils to become critical thinkers through the medium of picturebooks. By introducing children to the notion of making-meaning together through thinking and discussion, Roche focuses on carefully chosen picturebooks as a stimulus for discussion, and shows how they can constitute an accessible, multimodal resource for adding to literacy skills, while at the same time developing in pupils a far wider range of literary understanding. By allowing time for thinking about and digesting the pictures as well as the text, and then engaging pupils in classroom discussion, this book highlights a powerful means of developing children’s oral language ability, critical thinking, and visual literacy, while also acting as a rich resource for developing children’s literary understanding. Throughout, Roche provides rich data and examples from real classroom practice. This book also provides an overview of recent international research on doing ‘interactive read alouds’, on what critical literacy means, on what critical thinking means and on picturebooks themselves. Lecturers on teacher education courses for early years or primary levels, classroom teachers, pre-service education students, and all those interested in promoting critical engagement and dialogue about literature will find this an engaging and very insightful text.




From Children's Interests to Children's Thinking


Book Description

Learn how to connect your curriculum planning to children's interests and thinking. With this book, educators will discover a systematic way for using documentation to design curriculum that emerges from children's inquiries, what they wonder, and what they want to understand. Get strategies for designing a classroom environment at the start of the year to facilitate emergent inquiry curriculum. Each chapter guides teachers to document and reflect on their thinking through each of the five phases of a cycle of inquiry process, including observing, interpreting the meaning of the play they see, and developing questions to engage children.




Teaching Thinking


Book Description




Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8


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.




The Early Years Teacher′s Book


Book Description

If you are an Early Years Teacher Trainee, this book is written for you. It will help you to successfully achieve your Early Years Teacher Status and practice with confidence. This book guides you through what you need to know about Early Years Teacher Status step-by-step. It explains how you can work to meet each of the Standards and assessment requirements. The author addresses trainees’ common concerns about early years practice, study skills and meeting EYTS requirements, as well as giving many examples of the strategies that trainees found most helpful. The chapters explore each aspect of every Standard and indicator, with notes on theory, practical tips, case studies, activities and suggestions for further reading. This book helps you to: • understand all aspects of each Standard and indicator; • link your practice to the Standards; • understand the assessment requirements and how to strengthen your evidence; • plan and track your evidence; • complete your written assignments and create your portfolio with confidence; • develop the skills needed to take on a leadership role. This book also provides support for the mentor-mentee relationship and includes guidance for mentors, teaching activities for tutors and support for assessors. This book is a valuable resource for all those involved in EYTS and will be useful for: - EYTS trainees - their mentors - their placement tutors - course lecturers - EYTS assessors




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