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Signs of a struggling Pre-K students

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IRIS | Page 2: Distinguishing Between Disability and Language Difference

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Delays in social and communication development might occur when children are learning two or more languages. Because such delays can be red flags for further developmental problems in the areas of social-emotional development and cognition, early childhood educators must determine their cause: langu…

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Effective communication is essential for building school-family partnerships. It constitutes the foundation for all other forms of family involvement in education.

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Screening and Evaluation

The first step in determining whether a child has a developmental delay or disability is to collect more information through processes such as:

Screening is a simple process to assess a child’s health or to determine whether the child is meeting developmental milestones. For example, pediatricians conduct developmental screenings during well-baby checkups to diagnose vision or hearing concerns or to identify children who are not meeting developmental milestones. In addition, some screenings are conducted by early childhood educators or other professionals such as a vision specialist or a speech/language pathologists.

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by TeachThought Staff

This is part 2 of our #iteachthought series (because we refuse to say "back to school"-well, except for just then). Part 1 looked at classroom design, specifically offering alternatives to rows of desks. Today, we're going to help you create smarter, student-centered learning profiles.

If you're creating a learning profile, what kind of information should be included? What's the point of such a profile? How will it be used? Most learning profiles are quick glances of academic data. And there's nothing wrong with this-it's quick, useful, and basic.

But it's also limited. To take another approach, as Grant Wiggins might suggest, let's work backward. And further, let's do so from a single big idea that unifies everything. Specifying a single idea that's broad and accessible enough to be useful may be a challenge, but let's try, starting with a few underlying assumptions.

1. Teachers plan learning experiences for students.

2. Different students have different needs. This implies a need for differentiation of instruction, personalization of curriculum, or both.

3. In this way, teachers are like designers. The data teachers use to make these kinds of design decisions varies.

4. An additional challenge? Teachers have a finite ability to process data, which implies a need to be selective with the data that is sought out and adjusted for.

5. At the classroom level, data is broadly considered in terms of content and performance.

6. Another way of thinking about this is to consider data quality-and not quality as it relates to accuracy or reliability, but rather what sort of information do I need about students to help them learn?

Though I disagree with what might be the fundamental premise that this post rests on-that teachers alone are responsible for the miracle of learning, and can even begin to know everything about every student-the idea here has to do with rethinking how we see students and how they relate to curriculum, and then designing both curriculum and learning models that fit these personalized learning needs.

What Good Teachers Know About Their Students

1. Native language

2. Critical medical needs

3. IEP/504s/Giftedness, and other services

4. Living Situation", including religious beliefs, safety, food, family, access to books, technology, etc.

5. Grade Point Average & academic strengths

6. Favorite subjects

7. Reading levels & reading habits

8. How they respond to accountability

9. Relative strengths and weaknesses as a student

10. Classroom citizenship habits

11. Academic expectations (including difference between own goals and those of family)

12. How to 'motivate' them

13. Trend of general academic progress over last 1-3 years

14. Progress towards mastery of power standards/data from relevant standardized assessments

15. How to help them do well in your class

What Great Teachers Know About Their Students

1. Critical thinking habits

2. Ideal learning environment & circumstances

3. Which challenges they'll respond to most powerfully

4. Their personal histories (e.g., what they've overcome)

5. Personal strengths

6. Insecurities about school

7. How they respond to structure

8. How they respond to open-endedness and uncertainty

9. What 'school' means to them

10. Digital citizenship habits

11. Intellectual and human affections

12. How to help them find their own motivation

13. View of self as a reader, writer, and a person

14. Progress towards mastery of personal goals (creative, professional, familial, or other) and how to help them set-and doggedly pursue-their own goals

15. How to help them create their own standards and metrics for 'success'

*Age appropriate

See also What Makes A Teacher Great-From The Perspective Of A 10th Grader

Additional Reading
How-tos Of Differentiation Lesson Planning Learning Profile Cards Learning Profile (embedded above) by Jessica Winston Creating Student-Centered Learning Profiles: What Great Teachers Know About Their Students

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Learning Profiles: What Great Teachers Know About Their Students

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Most learning profiles are quick glances of academic data. There's nothing wrong with this. They are useful, but they are also limited.