Visual and Performing Arts - WestEd August 1, 2012 Preview of Learning Experience 9 Faculty Initiative Project Instructional Guide for the California Preschool Learning Foundations,

DRAFT August 1, 2012 Preview of Learning Experience 9

Faculty Initiative Project Instructional Guide for the California Preschool Learning Foundations, Volume 2 Visual and Performing Arts Domain CDE/Child Development Division and WestEd Center for Child and Family Studies May be duplicated for educational purposes only.!

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Visual and Performing Arts: Exploring Examples of the Visual and Performing Arts in

the Early Care and Education Setting

Focus Statement

Students explore the examples of the foundations in this domain by first relating to what they have seen children do and then by engaging in observation to look for examples of the foundations in action.

Curriculum Alignment Project (CAP) Student Learning Outcomes

The Curriculum Alignment Project’s (CAP) lower division eight courses and

student learning outcomes are mapped onto each instructional guide

learning experience. See Appendix A for the specific student learning

outcomes, objectives, and examples of course content and topics for the

courses listed below.

• Child Growth and Development

• Introduction to Curriculum

• Principles and Practices of Teaching Young Children

• Observation and Assessment

• Health, Safety and Nutrition

• Practicum-Field Experience

Instructional Methodologies

• Development of resource tool

• Observation

• Pairs work

• Reflection—individual or large group

• Reflective discussion—large group

• Video observation

California Early Childhood Educator Competency Areas to Consider

The Faculty Initiative Project will be undertaking a comprehensive process in

the future to map the content of the instructional guides to the California

Department of Education, Child Development Division’s California Early

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Childhood Educator Competencies. “The Competency Areas to Consider”

below are listed in this instructional guide as a preliminary exploration of how

particular competency areas might be addressed through these learning

experiences.

• Child Development and Learning

• Culture, Diversity, and Equity

• Observation, Screening, Assessment, and Documentation

• Learning Environments and Curriculum

• Health, Safety, and Nutrition

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Visual and Performing Arts: Exploring Examples of the Visual and Performing Arts in

the Early Care and Education Setting

Before You Start

Before doing this learning experience, you might want to familiarize students with this domain by doing one of the activities in this instructional guide that is specifically related to becoming acquainted with the content of this domain. The learning experience titled “Piecing Together the Visual and Performing Arts Domain Content Puzzle” might be appropriate for this purpose. It will be important to acquaint students with the four strands and the pattern of the substrands in this domain.

Become familiar with the examples of children’s development in this domain. Also recognize the importance of helping students understand that the examples provided in the California Preschool Learning Foundations, Volume 2 publication are examples and not criteria. Children are expected to demonstrate these concepts and skills in a variety of ways using a wide range of materials. This also means that there is no one behavior or skill that will be used as an assessment measure.

Two handouts are provided at the end this learning experience: Handout 1 has the strands, substrands, and foundations (also found in Appendix C) and Handout 2 is an observational recording guide. Electronic versions of each will be available when this instructional guide is online at www.wested.org/facultyinitiative.

Information Delivery

Ask students to use the Handout 1 with the strands, substrands, and foundations in the visual and performing arts domain of the California Preschool Learning Foundations, Volume 2 (PLF, V2) to review the domain. It would also be helpful if students have read the introduction to the domain (PLF, V2, pp. 1–4) and the bibliographic notes (PLF, V2, pp. 22–27). Elsewhere in this instructional guide, two learning experiences that relate more specifically to these readings are “Connecting to the Visual and Performing Arts in Our Communities” and “Using the Research Base for Understanding Children’s Development in the Visual and Performing Arts.”

Active Learning

Getting it started Ask students to spend some time examining the examples provided for each of the foundations in the visual and performing arts domain. You might do this by asking students, in pairs, to read through the examples for a strand or substrand and

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discover examples that they have seen or heard in young children. You might also ask if they have seen or heard or can think of other ways in which children might demonstrate each foundation.

As students do this, it might be helpful to suggest that they pay particular attention to the pattern of substrands across the strands in the domains in the California Preschool Learning Foundations, Volume 2. It might make it easier to process and internalize these foundations. Then reconvene the students into a large group and ask for observations on the process they just went through.

• What did you learn about these foundations?

• How can this help you help children demonstrate developmental progressions on these foundations?

Keeping it going To extend this understanding, ask students to build ongoing example banks for the visual and performing arts foundations. They can do this as an observation activity.

Ask students to observe children in a preschool classroom. Students can do the observation in pairs or individually, and a specific strand can be assigned to each pair or individual to focus their observations. You also might assign each student or pair one strand per curriculum area such as the art area, block area, book area, or dramatic play area.

Provide the students with a list of the foundations for the visual and performing arts, Handout 1, and the observational guide, Handout 2, for this learning experience. Remind the students that, when they look for examples in classrooms in which they are working or with children they know, they are looking for observable behaviors or actions of the foundations.

Before students do the observations on their own, you might want to practice during a class with some video. Consider using the California Department of Education, Child Development Division’s DVD A World Full of Language. There are several examples in this video of music and movement with children, and you might find examples of other strands of the visual and performing arts domain in action as well.

Online Options

Students could do preliminary observations with online

videos. Be sure you direct them to specific links that will

provide quality video of preschool children in action.

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During their observations, students might be reluctant to label the development that they are observing, but suggest that they just document what they see and bring their observations back to class for discussion. The focus of this learning experience is not to assess children’s development but rather to explore the foundations and see where and how children demonstrate aspects of these foundations in their daily activities and routines.

Putting it together Ask students to bring their lists of examples to class. Each student can write the examples out on strips of paper or list them on chart paper so that the entire class can see them. Or the examples could be submitted online prior to class and printed out for all students to review.

Ask students to organize the examples in such a way that they are displayed in relation to the strand or substrand they exemplify. For example, you could have one piece of chart paper for each strand or substrand. Give students time to walk about and see what has emerged.

Then ask students to discuss their review of the examples. The following questions could be used:

• Is there anything you particularly noticed about all the examples?

• Were there some areas or activities in the classroom where it was difficult to see these foundations in action?

• Were there some areas where it was easy?

• Were some strands easier to observe than others? Which ones? Why?

• What does this tell you about the importance of ongoing observation in early care and education settings?

• What are the implications of this for your current or future work with young children?

Be sure that the examples are collected and made available as a resource to students.

Reflection Students can reflect on this learning experience individually or

through a group discussion by responding to these questions:

Online Options

After students have collected examples, they could be

displayed on a course Web site for preview before class discussion or following class discussion for review and as

a resource.

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• What insights did you gain from this experience?

• How might these insights influence your work now or in the

future?

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Documents

Visual and Performing Arts - WestEd August 1, 2012 Preview of Learning Experience 9 Faculty Initiative Project Instructional Guide for the California Preschool Learning Foundations,