Assignment:
Discussion 1
Early Language Development
Prior to beginning work on this discussion, review your text. This will be a group work discussion in two parts: 1) a group proposal, and 2) a proposal review response based on your review of the group proposals. You will need to complete both parts to get full points for the forum.
Part I: Group Plan Proposal
You are working as a teacher in a community with a high population of 3-year old to 5-year old children that have been identified as English Language Learners. The local school board is awarding an early learning language grant to a program that submits a comprehensive plan that provides engagement and support for this population of students. The principal of your school has tasked groups of teachers in your school to create foundational plan proposals that can be further developed for consideration by the school board. Within your group, you will develop a proposal that includes the fundamentals of the plan. Each member of your group will complete one of the three required sections: Learning Center Type and Rationale, Materials and Activities, and Approach and Summary. (Each section should be 250 to 300 words.)
Learning Center Type and Rationale
• Identify the type of learning center that would be most supportive of, and promote language development, of English Language Learners in the classroom.
• Explain the learning objective of this type of learning center and provide a rationale as to why it is the best choice for providing support to this age group of English Language Learners.
Materials and Activities
• Identify the specific areas of language that the selected learning center will target.
o Describe a minimum of two activities the planned learning center will offer to support this age group of English Language Learners, including step-by-step instructions for each.
o Create a list of materials that would be needed to support the described activities.
Summary and Community Approach
• Summarize the methods for the learning center will use to assess student development.
• Explain the general approach that will be used to introduce this learning center to the community.
o Describe a minimum of two outreach activities that could be planned to create greater awareness of the learning center in the community.
Group Response Timeline
• Day 1 - Post to your group with your preferred section of the Plan Proposal and work out among yourselves who will be taking responsibility for each section as well as who will take the lead on creating a single final plan from the individual pieces.
• Day 3 - Post your initial drafted section to the group and review and respond to the work of your teammates to ensure a cohesive final plan.
• Day 5 - Post your final revised section to the group discussion and the chosen team member will create a single plan document and post the final completed plan to Part II of the forum.
Discussion 2
Optimal Brain Development
The human brain is highly dependent on experiences for development. Discuss your role as a teacher or caregiver in a child's life in terms of promoting optimal brain development through exposure to various experiences. Give three examples of appropriate stimulation (activities) you can employ in the classroom or daycare center to promote learning. How can you include activities outside the classroom that will reinforce the learning? How can you involve the parents and community resources (i.e., fieldtrips)?
Lastly, include information on a field trip you could take your class on in your local area that would extend the learning that you included in one of your sample activities. Relate experiences from your own schooling such as field trips, community events, and activities that connected your learning to both the community and your home.
Guided Response: Analyze several of your classmates' posts. Respond to at least two of your classmates, and suggest some ways that they can get parents involved in this learning process by extending their activities to the child's home environment. Discuss resources in the community that they may have overlooked.