Carol Seefeldt—well-known educator and bestselling author—offers teachers an overview of the standards movement; describes the status of standards in early education; presents the issues around the design and selection of standards; and provides practical strategies for effectively implementing standards with young children (preschool through the early primary grades).
This book provides both the background knowledge and a working understanding of standards to help teachers:
* Successfully judge and select standards.
* Design appropriate ways of using and working with standards.
* Develop appropriate assessment strategies.
Illustrated with children's work, this "how-to" guide:
* Provides practical illustrations of how standards can be used to benefit early childhood classrooms, including many sample activities.
* Demonstrates how to work with standards in the separate subject areas of the sciences, arts, language and literacy, mathematics, and social studies.
* Offers ideas for including all children, such as those with special needs and those just learning English.
* Describes a project, Children Study Their Play Yard, illustrating how thematic, standards-based, problem-solving learning can be integrated into the total curriculum.