HOW TO FIT EMERGENT CURRICULUM INTO YOUR TRADITIONAL PRESCHOOL

CLASSROOM

There are many approaches to early childhood education from Montessori to Waldorf, to Forest Preschools,
Reggio Emilia, and highly academic prep academies. The die-hard believers in all these approaches will go on
and on about why their view is the best. I’m just not someone who thinks in absolutes. I think every approach has
wonderful bits and pieces that the average everyday preschool teacher can incorporate into his or her classroom
with positive effects even if they don’t have the power to make huge curricular changes that lay in the hands of
their administrators.

Many traditional preschool classrooms use themes for planning and as a vehicle for skills like letter recognition,
basic number sense, and other pre-academic learning. There is often a time for learning centers which may or
may not be teacher directed, teacher-directed circle time, and a familiar daily routine. Teachers in most
traditional classrooms plan well in advance, sometimes following the same lesson plans year after year.

If you are teaching at what I call a traditional preschool, I hope this article will help you see the benefits of the
emergent curriculum approach and see how simply you can use some in your classroom. Like with any
methodology strict adherence requires a full system overall, but I am not talking about strict adherence, I am
talking about using some of the methods and fitting them into an existing system to make it better.

如何将紧急课程融入您的传统学前班

从蒙台梭利（Montessori）到华尔道夫（Waldorf），再到森林学前班，雷焦艾米利亚（Reggio Emilia）

以及高学历的预科学院，有很多早期教育方法。所有这些方法中的顽固信徒将继续探讨为什么他们的观

点是最好的。我不是一个绝对考虑的人。我认为每种方法都具有奇妙的点点滴滴，即使他们没有能力进
行大量的课程变更并交到管理员手中，普通的学龄前老师也可以将其融入课堂，从而产生积极的影响。

许多传统的学前班教室都使用主题进行计划，并且将其用作诸如字母识别，基本数字感和其他学前学习

等技能的工具。学习中心通常会有一段时间，时间可能是老师指导的，也可能不是，老师指导的社交时

间和熟悉的日常活动。大多数传统教室的老师都会提前做好计划，有时会年复一年地遵循相同的课程计
划。

如果您在我所说的传统学前班教学，希望本文能帮助您了解新兴课程方法的好处，并了解如何在课堂中

简单地使用它们。就像采用任何方法一样，严格遵守要求总体上需要一个完整的系统，但是我不是在谈
论严格遵守，而是在谈论使用某些方法并将其适合现有系统以使其变得更好。
WHAT IS EMERGENT CURRICULUM ANYWAY?

The very basic definition of emergent curriculum is that it is an approach to planning and teaching that uses
children’s interests to inspire and drive curriculum. Emergent curriculum depends on a high level of teacher
observation and documentation in order to properly create the child initiated curriculum. Teachers must have a
view of children as participant researchers and as co-constructors of knowledge. Community plays a big role in
an emergent curriculum as well, as the community is part of the environment that the children interact with and
learn from. So it’s about following children’s interests and abilities, learning as a community, and respecting
children’s ability to be co-creators with educators.

For example, in a classroom using an emergent curriculum, the students may find a nest on a nature walk, and
that event may lead to creating nests from scrap paper back in the classroom, pretending to be baby birds with
play silks, exploring books about birds, and starting a bird watching observation log. The children’s collective
interest in the nest they found extended into other areas of learning with the support of the teacher.

This example and definition are brief and basic if you want to dive deep into emergent curriculum Childhood
101 has a great series of posts all about it.

无论如何，紧急课程是什么？

紧急课程的最基本定义是，它是一种计划和教学方法，它利用儿童的兴趣来激发和驱动课程。紧急课程

取决于高水平的教师观察和文献记录，才能正确创建儿童自主学习的课程。教师必须将孩子视为参与研

究人员和知识的共同建构者。社区在紧急课程中也起着重要作用，因为社区是儿童与之互动和学习的环

境的一部分。因此，这是关于遵循孩子的兴趣和能力，在社区中学习以及尊重孩子与教育者共同创造者
的能力。

例如，在使用紧急课程的教室中，学生可能会在自然步道上找到一个巢，而该事件可能导致用废纸回到

教室中来筑巢，并假装成带有游戏丝绸的幼鸟，探索有关鸟类，并开始观鸟观察日志。在老师的支持下，
孩子们对巢的集体兴趣扩展到了其他学习领域。

如果您想深入了解紧急课程，则此示例和定义是简短而基本的。《童年 101》有很多相关的帖子。

HOW CAN YOU INCORPORATE EMERGENT CURRICULUM INTO YOUR CLASSROOM?

True emergent curriculum requires teachers to share curriculum planning with their students. The thing is many
of you teaching at childcare centers, small church schools, and even public school PreK likely have to have
lessons planned out well in advance and don’t have the flexibility to let your students interests lead so how do
you even start to fit this approach in?

Make more time for free play.

This helps you to get to know your students and their interests. It also allows children more time to dive deep into
what they love and lets the teachers notice these patterns. Try not to regulate how many children are in each area
of your classroom, when you put preschoolers on a rotation of learning centers this observation won’t be as
accurate. If Billy is forced to move from the sand table to the blocks after 10 minutes, a teacher might miss that
he is super interested in the dinosaurs in the sand table and miss a learning opportunity. If you let Billy play
longer, you may discover that he re-creates the dinosaurs going extinct and is particularly interested in how this
happened. Allowing children to follow their interests is a powerful tool for teachers to plan out their next step.
Preschoolers don’t need to be directed; they need supervision, yes, but when we let them play we can better
understand their thinking and they can help us as teachers know how to support their development.

您如何将紧急课程纳入课堂？

真正的紧急课程要求老师与学生分享课程计划。问题是你们中的许多人都在托儿所，小型教会学校甚至

公立学校的 PreK 中教书，他们可能必须提前计划好课程，并且没有灵活性让学生的兴趣领先，所以您

怎么甚至开始适合这种方法吗？

为免费游戏腾出更多时间。

这可以帮助您了解学生及其兴趣。它还使孩子有更多的时间深入了解自己的爱，并让老师注意到这些模

式。尽量不要调节教室每个区域中有多少个孩子，当您将学龄前儿童安排在学习中心的轮换上时，这种

观察结果将不那么准确。如果比利在 10 分钟后被迫从沙盘移动到街区，那么一位老师可能会错过他对

沙盘中的恐龙超级感兴趣的机会，而错过学习的机会。如果让比利玩更长的时间，您可能会发现他重新

创造了灭绝的恐龙，并且对这种情况的发生特别感兴趣。让孩子们遵循自己的兴趣是教师计划下一步工

作的有力工具。不需要指导学龄前儿童；他们需要监督，是的，但是当我们让他们玩耍时，我们可以更
好地了解他们的想法，并且当老师知道如何支持他们的发展时，他们可以帮助我们。

Encourage students to play together.

When children can group up the way learning explodes is incredible, this is my most favorite time to observe
students. I can’t tell you how many photos I have of students as they act as scaffolds for each other. This helps
you to fit a more emergent style curriculum into your classroom because when you observe this type of learning
you can see how capable and competent your students are and get a better handle on their abilities and let them
guide your planning. It also allows you to observe where your students are in their social-emotional development
while a child may not come up and say ” Ms. Allie I really would like to learn more about conflict resolution and
strong character identity.” Observing their behavior as they interact teachers can see where they are at, where
they are struggling, and plan out how to help your students develop these vital skills.

鼓励学生一起玩。

当孩子们能够以惊人的方式分组学习时，这是我最喜欢观察学生的时间。我不能告诉你我有多少张学生

的照片，因为它们相互充当了支架。这有助于您将更紧急的风格课程融入您的课堂，因为当您观察到这

种学习类型时，您可以看到学生的能力和胜任力，并更好地掌握他们的能力，并让他们指导您的计划。

它还可以让您观察学生在社会情感发展中所处的位置，而孩子可能不会上来时说：“艾莉女士，我真的

很想了解更多有关解决冲突和强烈的性格认同的信息。”观察他们的行为互动式老师可以看到他们在哪
里，在哪里奋斗，并计划如何帮助学生发展这些重要技能。

Find out what your students know before planning

Figuring out what your students know about a subject before you start learning more about it is an important tool
for emergent curriculum. It helps to make the learning at the groups’ existing knowledge level, makes it more
meaningful, and helps to guide the lessons. This can be done informally with discussions during play between
teachers and the students, but I think a morning meeting or meal time is a great time to talk. Say your thematic
calendar from your school has you learning about bugs the following month, during morning meeting ask the
children what they know about spiders, ask if they have ever held a worm … this coupled with your observation
notes which may have included that Gordon and Rachel dig for worms while you are outside on the playground
or that Edgar is terrified of spiders when found in the classroom will help guide your planning.

在计划之前先了解学生的知识

在您开始了解有关该主题的知识之前，弄清您的学生所学的知识是紧急课程的重要工具。它有助于在小

组现有的知识水平上进行学习，使其更加有意义，并有助于指导课程。可以通过老师和学生在比赛中的

讨论来非正式地做到这一点，但是我认为早上开会或用餐时间是一个很好的交谈时间。假设您学校的主

题日历是您下个月学习虫子的地方，在早上的会议上，请孩子们对蜘蛛有什么了解，询问他们是否曾经
养过蠕虫……再加上您的观察笔记，其中可能包括戈登和当您在户外操场上时，瑞秋（Rachel）挖掘蠕
虫，或者在教室里发现埃德加（Edgar）害怕蜘蛛，这将有助于您进行计划。
Take notes and photos to use as you plan.

As explained above taking careful notes is important for a responsive curriculum, jotting down what interests
and inspires your students is well worth the time and effort. I like using photos to document as well because at
the end of the day I scroll through and remember what was happening and why I wanted to take a photo of it.

For example, as you are playing at the water table, Hailey mentions that she loves to bake with her grandma,
Justin pipes in that he too likes to make cookies. Make a note. The next day you notice that Hailey and Justin are
playing bakery in the dramatic play area. Snap a photo, then make a note. When you are planning out your
following week you may have already planned to work on counting; now you can plan out a cookie baking
activity where you use chocolate chips to practice counting and maybe choose a book to read about baking too. Is
this a true emergent curriculum? No, but even in very structured traditional classrooms, you can make room for
the basics.

记笔记和照片以供您计划使用。

如上所述，认真记笔记对于响应式课程很重要，记下什么兴趣并激发学生的兴趣是值得的。我也喜欢用
照片记录文档，因为在一天结束时，我会滚动浏览并记住正在发生的事情以及为什么要拍摄照片。

例如，当您在水边玩耍时，海莉（Hailey）提到她喜欢与祖母烘烤，贾斯汀（Justin）烟斗着，因为他

也喜欢做饼干。记录下来。第二天，您会发现 Hailey 和 Justin 正在戏剧性的游乐区玩面包店。拍摄照

片，然后做笔记。在计划下一周的工作时，您可能已经计划进行计数。现在，您可以计划一次 Cookie

烘焙活动，在其中您可以使用巧克力片练习计数，还可以选择一本书来阅读有关烘焙的信息。这是真正
的紧急课程吗？不，但是即使在结构非常传统的教室中，您也可以为基础知识腾出空间。

Make your plans flexible.

You may not have the autonomy to throw your lesson plans completely out the window but allowing children the
flexibility to follow their interests is something most teachers can do, at least some of the time. This can but done
in a big scale like the day my two, and a half-year-olds were so into this train set that we spent the whole day
creating a town that spread all over our classroom, using art materials to make houses, and completely skipped
all the lessons planned stopping only for a quick lunch. Or it can be in much smaller ways such as using a
favorite counting book with a Halloween theme in April because the students love it. If you see that your
students are completely engaged in an activity, do you have to go on to the next thing on your schedule? You
might. That’s ok, maybe you can find a way to continue the activity the next day, or maybe you can spend ten
more minutes on it before you have to get back on the schedule. Making room for more flexibility needs to fit
into your classrooms need for predictability and routine as well.

使您的计划灵活。

您可能没有自主权将您的课程计划完全抛诸脑后，但至少在某些时候，大多数老师可以做到让孩子们灵

活地遵循自己的兴趣。但这可以像我两岁半的孩子那样大的一天来做，所以我们整天都在这里建立了一

个遍布教室的小镇，使用美术材料建造房屋，并完全跳过了计划中的所有课程，只为享用午餐而停止。

或者它可以采用更小的方式，例如在四月份使用带有万圣节主题的最喜欢的计数书，因为学生们喜欢它。

如果您发现您的学生完全参与了一项活动，您是否必须继续进行时间表中的下一件事？你可能会的。没

关系，也许您可以找到第二天继续进行此活动的方法，或者您可以花十分钟以上的时间才能重新安排时
间表。为更大的灵活性腾出空间，需要适合您的教室，以及可预测性和例行性。

Most important take away ( at least in my opinion)

A responsive classroom with a responsive teacher is a great place for children. If you can find ways to be more
responsive and make your curriculum more responsive within the structure your school you will be creating a
better environment for your students.

最重要的是带走（至少在我看来）

响应式教室和响应式老师是儿童的好地方。如果您能在学校的结构中找到提高响应能力的方法，并使课
程更具响应性，那么您将为学生创造一