Content Area: All About Me Unit

Core Concept: Student-centered learning

This trend emphasizes teaching that shifts the focus of instruction from the teacher to the
student. Its aim is to give the student greater independence and autonomy by allowing the child
to dictate their own learning path. The goal is to have a lifelong learner who is able to
independently solve problems that arise. The students prior knowledge is acknowledged and
they are expected to be active participants. Self-evaluation and reflection are also key
components of this trend. Research any successful early childhood program and they will
immediately cite the importance of a learner-centered approach, also known as constructivism.
In this paper, I am taking the stance that student initiated learning is no longer a new trend. This
paper seeks to infuse new energy into this common trend; the focus will be on new trends in
parental engagement and how valuable this trend is, especially in my setting, with early
childhood learners.

Unit Rationale: Since the All About Me unit will be used at the beginning of the year, there are
three main areas of content: literature appreciation, building community, and encouraging
positive self-image. This unit will expose students to rich multicultural experiences and help
them come to the realization that they are important collaborators in our learning community.
We will share our ideas in many ways; including speaking, listening, illustrations, writing and
reading. We will be exploring the traits that make each child unique and a valued member of
our class, as well as building classroom citizenship.

Part 1 Research on Current Trends:

1. The first example of an All About Me lesson that focuses on being child-centered comes from
the Beacon Lesson Plan Library in Florida. This lesson spans a couple of days, its objective is

for students to become aware of classroom procedures and appropriate ways to communication
with one another. Their anchor text is David Goes to School, by David Shannon. The lesson is
aimed at first grade children, yet it can be adapted for the Kindergarten classroom. This lesson
can be found at http://www.beaconlearningcenter.com/Lessons/2130.htm. The first clue that the
Bay District Schools focuses on the individual learner is within their standards; The student
knows how to use positive communication skills when expressing needs, wants, and feelings.
The student uses prior knowledge, illustrations, and text to make predictions. Within the first
few paragraphs you notice the importance of empowering each child to be able to express
themselves appropriately and that their past experiences are a valuable addition to the
classroom learning environment.
In Day 1 they explain the importance of establishing clear classroom routines and rules. They
dont begin formal instruction until Day 2 when they start with a morning circle time posing the
question to the class; What are manners? Do we need to use them in school? Why? They
ask the children open-ended questions to spur conversations and for the children to link prior
examples of how to best express their feelings. This lesson illustrates the importance of having
children involved in establishing what is a positive form of communication. It is expected that
children are involved in discussing why rules and routines are in place. Most practitioners no
longer go into a classroom stating these are the rules and you are going to follow them!
Teachers now ask children to help establish class rules and want the children to use reasoning
to explain why we should follow them. In the lesson, they go on to read the story David Goes to
School. During the reading teachers are again prompted to ask open-ended questions such as;
what is the problem here? Has that ever happened to you? This is a reminder to keep the
instruction focused on the children in the class and try to make it applicable to their own prior
experiences. They end the lesson with a game and ask the children to reflect on what is good
manners. Self-reflection is another key component to empowering students and establishing a

positive classroom environment all facets of being student centric. Since this lesson would be
presented within the first few days of class there was not much differentiation. Yet they did
include extension activities, such as writing a class book using David Goes to School, but with
David only using his best manners. Most of my children will come into school not being able to
write full sentences. So I would further differentiate this activity by giving the children the option
to draw pictures of themselves instead and then have them dictate to me why they think their
picture is a good representation of a polite child.

2. The next lesson plan I researched came from https://www.kinderplans.com/p/13/all-aboutme-activities. The website included various areas of content and age groups, I focused on the
section titled Preschool and Kindergarten Writing and Craft Lesson Plans. This site had some
great suggestions for PreK activities, which I plan on using in the fall. Each arts & craft activity
referenced a story that dealt with the All About Me theme and could be used to introduce the
activity. The activities were age-appropriate and focused on engaging tasks that could reach
individual learning styles. The arts & crafts activities allow each child to express their unique
creative abilities. There is quite a bit of artistic freedom in each activity which also personifies
the child as the driver of what their final product will look like.
One activity that I plan on using was called Craft Activity About Physical Difference - Who Lives
Here? This craft suggested introducing the subject using Dr. Seuss Eye Book as a discussion
point to compare differences such as hair or eye color. The next step would be coloring in a
paper house and pasting the childs picture inside the door flap. The childs eye color and hair
color would be illustrated on the roof as a clue to help other children guess who lives in the
house. I could also extend this activity to introduce the concept of kindness and acceptance of
others regardless of their skin color or nationality. This website did differentiate by stating that
some children would be able to do their own writing and others may need to dictate what could

be written by the teacher or TA. I did a similar activity last year, we made one big book with
each childs photo and the children loved it. It made them each feel like a valued member of the
class because they were showcased in the class book.

3. The last website I will reference to exemplify student-centered learning as a mainstream

approach is from LEARN NC, under the title All About Me: Likeness and Differences, it can be
found at http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/3254. The learning outcome on the website states the
importance of each child feeling included and comfortable in the setting; students will enhance
their self-esteem by learning that all people have similarities and differences. Students will learn
to be accepting of differences in other people. The pre-activities include self-portraits, reading
Im Terrific by Majorie Sharmat, and a class discussion of the favorite food, books, games, etc.
The main activity is based on the book People, once it is finished the teacher is responsible for
proctoring a discussion about the similarities and differences of the people in the story. Then
two children are asked to volunteer to stand in the front of the class while the teacher fills in a
Venn diagram to compare the likeness and differences of the two students. There is a
suggested script; It is the differences that make us unique and special, again they are setting
the expectations of the learning environment and building each childs confidence. After this
activity they ask the children to return to their seats and draw a picture that personifies how they
are different from their peers. Once that is complete they share their pictures with the rest of the
class, explaining to their friends what makes them special, this also highlights how important it is
for each child to feel that the instructor values their opinion and wants them to share what was
of personal significance to them. On this site, they did not make any differentiated activities, all
the activities were the same for the entire class. My suggestion to differentiate the story with the
ELL children is to have puppets with different hair colors, eye colors, skin colors as a visual aid

once we get to comparisons about the characters in the story, the ELL children can use the
puppets to help prompt or point out the differences they see.

Part II, New Teaching Idea or Trend:

Student-Centered Learning is something that I use within my own practice and I will
continue to use it. Yet, there is a new trend that I would like to infuse into this learner-centered
trend to make this approach more holistic. The trend that I plan on putting more emphasize on
and further incorporating into my own practice is parental engagement. Constructivism speaks
about using the childs prior experience, but with my age group (4-5 year olds) I believe that it is
not enough to just speak with the children, parents are vital to better understanding the
children. The other benefit to inviting parents to be more active in their childs development is
that parents will be able to understand the importance of empowering their young learner to feel
like their voice is valuable even in the home. Parents can either be our biggest ally or our worst
enemy depending on their own understanding or misconceptions about student-centered
learning.
My first reference is the article What is a Constructivist Classroom by Melissa Taylor.
This article was prompted be the puzzled looks her parents gave her when she mentioned the
term. The best part of her post was when she made a chart outlining the difference between a
1950s? Old School Classroom vs. a Constructivist Classroom. Then she gave further
examples of how lessons are approached between the two (worksheets vs. meaningful
discussions that address prior knowledge and connect concepts). What I was most interested
in was the comments at the bottom written by the parents. What surprised me about some of
the comments, were that even after Taylors detailed explanation, well-organized chart and reallife examples some parents still misunderstood what student-centered learning is. What was

great about this site, is that Taylor spent the time to respond to the parents who still didnt quite
understand the difference between traditional teaching and constructivism. In the end, she had
a lot of very happy parents, who were grateful that she spent the time to inform them of how
their child would learn. I would take this one step further by inviting the parents to come into
the school for a workshop where we could discuss the main points of student-centered learning,
but more importantly give parents ideas, model the vocabulary and provide them with relevant
examples on how to incorporate the practice at home. Because in the end, we arent trying to
make independent, critical thinkers who only have a voice in the classroom. The goal is to
inspire an empowered global citizen.
Lets revisit my first lesson source from above, http://www.beaconlearningcenter.com/
Lessons/2130.htm, which introduced the lesson on manners. When I delved further into their
extension activities they suggested a parental involvement exercise that is very relevant to the
trend of making parents part of the childs educational journey. They recommended making a
Beary Good Manners backpack, much like a literacy pack, for the students to bring home and
encourage families to discuss positive behavior. The idea is to have a stuffed bear who wears a
backpack filled with a notebook, pencils, crayons and a letter to the parent explaining that the
bear doesnt always use good manners and will need the childs help to learn how to be more
polite. The letter would include examples, such as, taking turns, saying please and thank you,
or helping with chores at home. It would also ask the parents to help the child write what good
manners are and to take pictures of the child putting good manners into action. The Beary
Good Manners backpack gives parents a specific activity to focus on and it also lets them be
apart of our All About Me Unit. This inclusion not only extends the childs learning of manners,
but it also allows the child to spend time with their parent connecting prior experiences and
building up their self-esteem at home.

The last site I will reference to support parental engagement is https://

conteacher.wordpress.com/category/parent-teacher-communication-in-a-constructivistclassroom/. On this site they stress the need of fostering relationships with parents in order to
enhance constructivism in the classroom since parents are a valuable resource into the childs
development and home life. Not surprisingly when they asked teachers the outcome of working
with parents they all agreed that collaborating effectively and positively with their students
parents was the cornerstone of student successthey also agreed that taking a students
cultural background (religious, ethnic, and even socioeconomic) into account was helpful in
understanding certain learning hurdles. The teachers also concurred that parents concerns or
suggestions sometimes helped tailor how they would present the curriculum. They also noticed
that this invitation to the parents helped to raise parental interest in their childrens learning as
well as fostering a feeling of community or joint ownership. What is interesting to me about
this statement is that this is the exact sentiment we are hoping to inspire in our own classrooms
and it can be attained on an even larger scale when parents are invited to be apart of their
childs educational journey. To foster this teacher-parent collaboration I would use the following
strategies:

Ask parents to help their child fill out a Getting to Know You form using pictures, quotes from
the children, or anecdotes from parents. The form would ask for some background
information on the child and to share of their favorites (book character, sports, season, etc).

Invite parents to come in to share their own knowledge with the class. Have children read
books in their native tongue, teach the children a cultural dance, or show the children how to
cook a traditional family recipe. Parents have so much knowledge that can be related to the
curriculum and is a chance for children to really engage with the concepts.

Let parents know how to reinforce learning at home by providing them with a weekly HomeLearning Activity.

 Give children literacy backpacks to take home and share with parents.
Hold a beginning of the year meeting to introduce what it means to take a child-centered
approach and how they can support the strategy at home.

Use a class website to keep the parents up-to-date with what is going on in the classroom.
Use a class blog to post ideas and invite parents to ask questions or keep in touch. This
website would help us bridge the gap between teacher and parent.

Without this parent engagement can we really call ourselves constructivists? The
student-centered approach is built on the belief that as teachers we show a genuine interest in
our students life experiences and interests. If we dont invite the parents to be active
participants in our learning community, we are not fully embracing who the child is. When we
create a home away from home the child is much more likely to take risks in their learning
because they know that their teacher supports them and truly cares about them as an individual.