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Module 3: Celebrating Child Growth

Why do observations? How do teachers benefit?

Page 6
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Observation and assessment supports children’s learning and leads to meaningful curriculum.  In order to have effective observation and assessment you must first understand typical child development.  As you learned in the last module on Child Development, children develop on a continuum and at their own rate.  In this module we will build on that idea and learn how to celebrate child growth through observation. 

Observation is a key step in the curriculum cycle (see Handout 1 pictured below)
How does the observation and the curriculum cycle work?
  1. First, you must understand normal, typical child growth and development. 
  2. Then you need to carefully and thoughtfully observe the children in your care/classroom to see where they are on the developmental continuum. 
  3. By reflecting on this information you can then plan developmentally appropriate curriculum (curriculum that is appropriate for the specific abilities, interests and skills of each child). 
  4. Observation is not an end goal, but the beginning of creating meaningful curriculum.  It is the basis for decision making about how to create curriculum or alter the environment, and insight into how to interact effectively with each child. 
  5. As you observe, keep in mind the goals you have established for children in your care/classroom.

Careful observation can give you valuable data on how individual children are progressing.

In this module we will explore these ideas further.
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Alternate links for pop-ups:
* Handout 1
* Handout 2