Learning in Silos

07/27/2009

Empathy has no script. There is no right way or wrong way to do it. It’s simply listening, holding space, withholding judgment, emotionally connecting, and communicating that incredibly healing message of ‘You’re not alone.’
Brené Brown

In her new book, Increasing the Power of Instruction: Integration of Language, Literacy, and Math Across the Preschool Day (NAEYC), reading guru Judith Schickedanz makes a strong argument against dividing the preschool day up into segments devoted to different content areas:

"A day in the early childhood classroom can be hectic. There is so much that we could choose to do, so many skills and concepts on which to work. How can a teacher do it all? Over the past few years I have heard many preschool teachers' concerns that teaching and learning have become too fragmented by subject curriculum areas and devoid of meaningful context. There are hardly enough hours in the day to teach everything we are asked to teach. This is especially true when the instruction for one time period addresses only one content domain.

"If done well, however, increasing the integration of learning within multiple content domains and various instructional contexts can help us better manage our time and make our instruction more powerful — and learning more meaningful — for children."'

90 Curriculum Resources on Sale

This week, one of the most popular Exchange resources, Beginnings Workshops, the 16-page curriculum guides that appear in the center of every issue of Exchange, are on sale at a 20% discount.

These guides offer practical advice from the top experts in our field on a wide range of early childhood issues. Included among the Beginnings Workshops are the following ones focusing on language, literacy, math and science:

Language and Literacy
Conversations with Children and Adults
Storytelling
Bilingual Education
Talking
Building Literacy
Multi-Language Programs
Science, Using the Outdoors
Music and Movement
Creative Dramatics
Numbers and Math
Math and Numbers Part 2

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For more information about Exchange's magazine, books, and other products pertaining to ECE, go to www.ccie.com.