Developmentally Appropriate Practice

1. Developmentally Appropriate Practice What is it? What does it mean for my classroom and my school?

2. Effective Early Childhood Educators Understand That: • Knowledge Must Inform Decision Making • Goals Must Be Challenging And Achievable • Teaching Must Be Intentional To Be Effective

3. Knowledge Must Inform Decision Making • What is known about child development and learning • Age related characteristics • Predict what experiences will promote learning and development

4. Knowledge Must Inform Decision Making What is known about each child as an individual has implications for: • How best to adapt curriculum • How to be responsive to each child.

5. Knowledge Must Inform Decision Making • What is known about the social and cultural contexts in which children live: • Understand values, expectations, behavior and languages of children • Ensures their learning experiences are meaningful, relevant , and respectful for each child and their family.

6. Goals Must be Challenging and Achievable • Meet children where they are but don’t leave them there • Scaffold learning • Reflect on student learning and advancing learning in a developmentally appropriate way

7. Teaching Must be Intentional To Be Effective Intentional in everything you do • Setting up the classroom • Planning curriculum • Making use of various teaching strategies • Assessing children • Interacting with children • Working with their families Direct your teaching toward the goals of the program (i.e. standards)

8. Key Aspects of the Teacher’s Role

9. Developmentally Appropriate Practice • DAP is not a curriculum • Provides guidelines for what makes a curriculum developmentally appropriate • Teachers use this set of guidelines to help them make sound decisions

10. Making decision in a DAP way: Teachers make decisions with the following key points in mind: • Age Appropriateness • Individual Appropriateness • Social and Cultural Appropriateness

11. Additional Activities 1. View the DVD included in Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs • Video Examples #2 • What Does Developmentally Appropriate Practice Look Like? 2. Read the handout “Key Messages of the Position Statement” 3. Use the 3,2,1 protocol to share with your co-workers