The selected activity here is a preschool class lesson observed during academic circle and free play. During this lesson, it is observed that children are able to participate well in class and understand well all class routines. The broad pattern of language use necessary in teacher-learners’ engagement is academic talk (Kleeck, 2014). According to Kleeck (2014), academic talk enables teachers and other adults to transmit knowledge to children. Besides, academic talk enables children to develop and display ideas and knowledge (Kleeck, 2014). During the circle, it is observed that children work on and learn numerous skills necessary for preparing them for their next academic life. One of the best skills the children practice in preschool is self-control and self-regulation. Self-control and self-regulation are acquired through the children listening to the teacher and taking instructions from the teacher. In this way, each child learns how to sit calmly, quietly, and be able to control his or her body during the learning procedure. Each child is introduced to learning and doing his or her work based on their ability. To enable the children learn their ability, the learning procedure is repeated every week to test each child’s learning rate.
Best Ways of Facilitating the Participation of Children with Diverse Abilities and Needs
The best practice that should be adapted by educators in order to achieve optimum learning of the children across all diversities and needs is the classroom adult-child conversation engagement (Milburn et al., 2013). Adult-child positive conversation promotes full engagement of the child in learning and playing activities, thus providing each child with an opportunity to gain a sense of belonging (Milburn et al., 2013). Each child should be given full access and be involved in daily routine practices as well as activities that promote learning and development, regardless of their background, experience, language, and developmental status (Milburn et al., 2013). The educator should anticipate helping each child discover their abilities. This is necessary because different children have different levels of learning abilities. Therefore, each child demonstrates knowledge, skills, and abilities within a broad range at different time points (Milburn et al., 2013). However, it is a common phenomenon that children of the same age group are likely to gain the same amount of knowledge at the same time (Milburn et al., 2013). Therefore, teachers and other adults should endeavor to give equal treatment to all children in order to enable them grow and gain mental development in unison. Equal treatment of children includes respecting all children and giving them equal support regardless of their age, abilities, developmental status, and special health care needs. Therefore, early learning should be centered on mutual respect and support for all learners regardless of the background and ethnicity.
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Being Culturally Sensitive for Children from Diverse Cultures
Globalization has led to increased diversification in the academic fields. Nowadays, it is a common phenomenon to see people from different cultural backgrounds, races, and religious groups meet and learn within the same institution. This calls for educators to learn to be able to accommodate learners across all ethnic groups. There are various ways of accommodating children with diverse cultures. First, educators have the obligation to teach children to love and accept one another regardless of their cultural backgrounds (Verdon, McLeod, & Wong, 2015). This enables children to interact well and be able to assist one another in learning especially in learning activities which involve group work. The teacher needs to build good relationship with students and match their behaviors to the learning setting (Verdon, McLeod, & Wong, 2015). This means that the teacher should show students how to behave in different environmental settings such as at homes, at school, and when interacting with the rest of the community. This helps the students to be able to adapt with cultural changes and escape learning barriers associated with cultural changes. Educators should draft class rules and regulations such as modes of communications, verbal classroom learning, and rules regarding class movements during learning (Verdon, McLeod, & Wong, 2015). This is necessary as it gives the students an insight of what is expected of them and regulate their behaviors. In addition, educators need to closely monitor the students’ academic progress and assist the students where necessary regardless of their cultural backgrounds (Verdon, McLeod, & Wong, 2015). This is achievable through the teacher being friendly to the students. Sometimes the teacher may give awards to students who submit their work in time to motivate them in completing their assignments.
Best Ways of Accommodating the IFSP/IEP Goals for Students with Disabilities
Basically, students with disabilities require close monitoring by a special education teacher. Such students are delicate to handle and require maximum cooperation from both the educators and parents or and guardians. Therefore, there is the need for all involved stakeholders (service providers and family members) to attend the IFSP meetings and help in giving their views on how best students with IEP should be handled (Yunhui, 2011). For instance, students with IEP should be aided to overcome their challenges and help them bank on their areas of strengths (Yunhui, 2011). If for example a child likes playing, a playing activity should be included in between the class lesson. This helps to keep the child alive and fully engaged throughout the lesson. Another strategy of helping students with disabilities achieve their goals is through helping them to develop important skills such as motor skills, self-care, self-regulation, social expression, and kindergarten academics (Yunhui, 2011). These skills are crucial as they help the students to be always ready to engage in class work and further succeed in their future academic life.
Best Developmentally Appropriate Instructional Strategies
A good teacher ensures that he or she develops instructional strategies applicable for maximum learning of his or her students depending on the level of education (Kyoung & Sophia, 2015). Kyoung and Sophia (2015) lay down the best instructional strategies aimed at developing class learning procedures. First, an educator should major on language-rich activities which help students gain relevant literary skills (Kyoung & Sophia, 2015). Young children, such as those in preschool, are generally good at learning literary language skills from their social environment. Therefore, the educator should constantly avail language-rich activities which help students learn widely on the language use. Secondly, the teacher should introduce students to comprehension and storybooks readings (Kyoung & Sophia, 2015). This too helps students to practice on language use and make them grow into good masters of language. Lastly, the teacher should introduce the students to journal creation and printing (Kyoung & Sophia, 2015). This may include instructing students to practice printing their names and drawing simple diagrams such as houses and cars, thus enabling students to foster their creativity and help them develop artistic practices at their early ages.
Best Ways of Fostering Children's Expression of Their Ideas, Needs, and Desires
According to Clarissa and Pam (2011), young children require both social and emotional skills in order to be successful in academic life. It is therefore crucial that children are introduced to modes of communications as early as possible (Clarissa & Pam, 2011). In order to foster a child’s communication skills, various modes of communication should be imposed. For instance, educators and other adults ought to introduce children to communication through the use of body language, gestures, facial expressions, joint attention, and vocalization (Clarissa & Pam, 2011). Children should be given attention and care in matters regarding communication skills in order to help them acquire communication materials. They should be provided with communication activities such as storytelling, riddling, singing, and residing poems in order to enable them develop vocabulary at early ages. In addition, children need to be assisted in communication through providing them with communication choices such as different objects, activities, and photographs. This gives the children an opportunity to learn to identify and differentiate different objects as well as naming them.
Refer to appropriate professionals to meet children's unique needs when necessary
Under normal circumstances, the teachers have the noble obligation to ensure that the learners in their levels of teaching develop the necessary learning skills as per the requirements of their syllabus. However, there comes a time when a teacher is confronted with a child with special needs, thus it becomes necessary for the teacher to consult appropriate professionals for assistance (Shilling et al., 2012). Professional educators are specially trained to handle children with special needs across all diversities and therefore, should be consulted when a teacher meets a difficult situation with students with special needs. Such professionals are highly qualified and help greatly in advising on the best methods of handling children with special needs. A teacher may also encounter an incident when a student appears normal under normal circumstances, but underperforms in class work as compared to other students of the same age. In this case, the teacher should consult an appropriate professional trained to handle students with special needs to help in identifying the key cause of the underperformance and act or advise accordingly on how best the student should be helped. Again, when a teacher recognizes some abnormal behavior in a particular student such behavioral issues and social/emotional aggression, he or she should consider referring the student to an appropriate professional educator in order to help in correcting their behavior early enough before the situation gets worse.
References
Carissa, A.W., & Pam, S. (2011). Preschooler’s Social Skills Life Success: YC Young Children, Washington. 66(1): 42-49.
Kleeck, A. (2014). Distinguishing Between Casual Talk and Academic Talk Beginning In the Preschool Years: An Important Consideration for Speech-Language Pathologists. 23(4): 724-741.
Kyoung, H.K., & Sophia, H. (2015). Understanding Early Childhood Teachers’ Beliefs and Self-Stated Practices about Social Competence Instructional Strategies in the Context of Developmentally Appropriate Practice: A Comparison of Preserve and In-Service Teachers in the United States: European Early Childhood Education Research Journal. 23(4): 476-496.
Milburn, T., Girolametto, L., Weitzman, E., & Greenberg, J. (2013). Enhancing Preschool Educators’ Ability to Facilitate Conversations during Shared Book Reading: Journal of Early Childhood Literacy. (Online). Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1468798413478261?journalCode=ecla#
Shilling, V., Edwards, V., Rogers. M., & Morris, C. (2012). The Experience of Disabled Children as Inpatients: A Structured Review and Synthesis of Qualitative Studies Reporting the Views of Children, Parents and Professionals: Child Care, Health & Development (CHILD CARE HEALTH DEV). 38(6): 778-788.
Verdon, S., McLeod, S., & Wong, S. (2015). Supporting culturally and linguistically diverse children with speech, language and communication needs: Overarching principles, individual approaches. (Online). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26513218
Yunhui, P. (2011). Barriers and Solutions in Involving Culturally Linguistically Diverse Families in the IFSP/IEP Process. 12(2): 42-51.
