Candidate Work Sample

Maura Robillard

EDUC 425 Early Childhood Education 1

Spring 2022

Dr. Angela Lewis

 Introduction

Early childhood teachers should work closely with helping professionals and parents in order to

best support each child’s individual needs both developmentally and culturally. Teachers should

include not only their student’s cultures, but also other cultures into their class and curriculum in

order to promote diversity and create a sense of belonging and identity in their students. All

teaching models should be backed with science and research in order to ensure children are

receiving adequate education. DAP stands for Developmentally Appropriate Practice. In DAP

classrooms, teachers use curriculum models that are grounded in research on child development

and education. Lessons and assessment should always align with early learning standards, and

teachers should participate in ongoing professional development. Teaching using a

Developmentally Appropriate Practice ensures that each student receives a comprehensive

education.

Young children are active learners, and curious about their surroundings. They are often

described as ‘little scientists’ because they are constantly trying to make sense of the world

around them. There are many domains of development that should be integrated into a young

child’s curriculum in order to best help them reach important developmental milestones. These

domains are physical development (including fine and gross motor skills), language

development, cognitive development, and social and emotional development. All these domains

should be included often throughout the day in unique and interesting ways. Through this

practicum I hope to better understand how to incorporate these practices, including DAP and

culturally responsive teaching into an infant room.

 The daycare where I am doing my practicum uses the Creative Curriculum. The creative

curriculum is a widely used curriculum that was first released in 1978. The aim of this

curriculum is to learn about various topics through exploration and investigation. Children are

presented with a topic and spend the next weeks investigating aspects of the topics through

various texts, discussions, and firsthand experiences. For example, during the building unit,

students may learn about types of building through expository texts, read books about builders

through narrative texts, and make their own buildings using blocks. Throughout this time, they

engage in discussions about types of buildings, materials, and more. The creative curriculum

uses a child centered, constructivist philosophy which pulls from many popular theorists such as

Piaget, Vygotsky, Gardner, and Smilansky to produce a unique curriculum that aims to foster

social- emotional competence, positive relationships, constructive play, and strong family

engagement. The creative curriculum focuses heavily on play-based learning, and there are many

different toys, sensory materials, and books at the student’s disposal. This curriculum uses

observations as the main source of assessment, and each child enrolled in a center using the

creative curriculum has a file that includes at least one observation per week as well as samples

of the child’s work (for example handwriting or cutting samples). Some critiques of this

education method claim that it may not focus heavily enough on literacy and math concepts. The

creative curriculum is a common and well accepted curriculum method for early childhood

education and focuses mainly on social- emotional development.

Description of the Group

This Sunshine House location is around a year and a half old, so everything is very new.

There are some bright colors, but most of the colors are neutral brown tones, in order to create a
warm and calm environment. This Sunshine House is located in Fort Collins off Lake Street,

only a couple blocks from CSU. As this Sunshine House that I work at is relatively new, they

hire new people often. There are roughly 30 employees and around 70 students ranging from

ages six weeks to six years. The demographics of this center are not very diverse. There is a

pretty even split between the number of boys and girls, with only a slightly higher number of

girls (45% boys, 55% girls). All families are a part of the middle or upper class, and around 90

percent are white, although we do have some Asian and African American Families. Although

our diverse students are a part of their own unique culture, the rest of the Sunshine House

students belong to Western culture and originate from the United States. There are 3 English

language learners enrolled in our program, all of them between the ages of two and three. We do

not offer free or reduced lunch, although some parents choose to pack their child’s meals

themselves. In the infant room I work in, we have 9 students enrolled between the ages of 2

months and 1 year, and all of them are white and a part of western culture. We have 4 boys and 5

girls enrolled.

Since this practicum is based in the classroom that I work in every day, I am very

comfortable with the routines, classroom and babies and work well with my cooperating teacher.

My role in the classroom is to help the lead teacher. I change diapers, give bottles, meals, snacks,

put babies down for naps, play with and sooth them and generate stimulating and enriching

activities and experiences. For example, one morning it was snowing so we brought in a bucket

of snow and let the babies explore it. We made snowballs and used toys we had around the

classroom to make triangles and squares. We buried toys in the snow for the children to dig out.

The babies enjoyed eating the snow and holding the snowballs, and we talked about hot versus

cold, soft versus hard, etc.

Teaching, Learning & Development Context

Teacher-child ratios, along with the professionalism of staff, have been proven to impact

the quality of care children receive in early childhood centers. When teacher-child ratios are low,

children can receive more personalized care. The recommended ratio for infant classrooms is

3:1. At Sunshine House, the ratio is 5:1. Although staff do their best to tend to every child’s

needs, it can sometimes be difficult when there are 5 infants and only 1 teacher, or 10 infants and

only 2 teachers. I can definitely see a difference in care when there are fewer children, as it is

easier for teachers to meet their needs and build more curriculum into the day. The teachers,

especially in infant classes, should remain relatively consistent in order to promote strong bonds

and secure attachments.

Besides myself, there are two other constant teachers in the infant room. Melissa is the

lead teacher. Her role is to plan the curriculum and oversee other parts of the classroom. For

example, she is the one who rotates toys and sets up activities for the day, week, and month.

Sarah is the assistant teacher. Her job is similar to mine as she helps Melissa carry out the

curriculum, along with sharing the diaper, feeding, and naptime responsibilities. Sarah is not

teacher certified, so she cannot be alone with the infants like Melissa or I can, so Melissa

typically opens the room in the morning, and I close it at night, with Sarah helping throughout

the day. We work as a team and share responsibilities and classroom duties, although Melissa

does all the curriculum planning. We tend to do team teaching and work together to get lessons

done, although sometimes we will use the one teach on observe method when assessing the

children.

In our infant room, we tend to focus on physical, cognitive, and social outcomes. We help

our infants practice rolling over, sitting up, crawling, pulling up, and walking to build their gross

motor skills. We plan curriculum where they pull tape or pick up small/thin objects to encourage
fine motor development. We do lots of narrating and ask open-ended questions to encourage

exploration. For example, if we see a child putting a ball in the bucket, we may say “I see you

put the ball in the red bucket, good job! What are you going to do now?”. When asking open

ended questions, we always pause, even though they cannot yet talk, as that encourages speech

development. We also focus on social outcomes by being attentive to their needs and helping

them form secure attachment. With the older infants, we often intercept them hitting or taking

toys or pacifiers from their peers. If they are hitting, we would say “Ouch! Hitting hurts, he

doesn’t like that” and find them a toy to play with. If they are taking toys or pacifiers, we would
say “He is using that right now, let's find a different toy” and redirect them somewhere else. This

builds the base for empathy and understanding later on. We understand that at this age they do

not have impulse control to an understanding of how their actions affect others.

Along with redirection, modeling is also very important in our infant rooms as it helps

them develop new skills they are working to master. One morning, we were working on stacking

with our older infants. I would stack the rings on the pole while narrating “Look ___ I am putting

the blue ring on, and the red ring on, now I am taking the red ring off and the blue ring off. Can

you put the blue ring on?” This is helpful especially for infants because they may not always

understand your instructions (especially when involving a new task) so it is essential to pair the

verbal instructions with a visual demonstration so they understand what they should be doing and

so they can watch how you do it (ie watching how you hold the rings and how your hand looks

when you put it on the ring). This also helps to build their vocabulary as they can connect the

words you say to the item you hold or action you are doing.

When planning lessons, we tend to follow the children’s interests. For example, we

noticed some of our older infants trying to climb in buckets and on tables, so we planned an

obstacle course around the classroom for them to explore where they had to duck under, crawl

over, and navigate around different objects. As the children age their interests shift and change

so we are always watching and adding new lesson plans as we notice new interests emerge.
Additionally, the Sunshine House includes culture in their classroom and curriculum through

books that include different cultures and family styles that we often read to the infants. This

familiarizes them with families and people who are different than them. We also have CD’s in

multiple different languages, which include nursery rhymes and lullabies from those specific

cultures. I hope to include curriculum that includes customs from different cultures, including

major holidays. The older classrooms have more in depth culturally responsive lesson plans, but

as I am in the infant room there are not as many as they have a more limited understanding.

Child Guidance & Culturally Responsive Care

Classroom expectations are important for children, teachers, and parents. Children need a

stable, safe environment in order to thrive, so it is imperative that they know what their

expectations are, and that these expectations remain relatively consistent. In my infant room, the

classroom expectations are that the children keep themselves safe, keep each other safe, and keep

their things safe. This means we expect them to keep their feet on the floor and not climb on

tables, to keep their hands to themselves, and to be gentle with their toys. We often have to

remind our older infants about these rules, as they have little impulse control, but it is necessary

that we uphold these rules in order to keep the class safe, and to help them prepare for the older

rooms, where these rules are expected to be followed (to an extent that is developmentally

appropriate). We often tell them what we want to see, ie “keep your feet on the floor” not “don’t

climb on the table”, and redirection. These are the most developmentally appropriate approaches

to upholding our classroom expectations, considering most of the students are 1 or younger.

In order for infants to feel safe exploring their environment and trying new things, they

must trust that their caregiver will be there to support them when needed, and they should look to

them for comfort, help, and encouragement. In this classroom, student teacher interactions are

frequently positive and warm. The teacher, Melissa, makes time to give positive attention to each

student, whether that is holding them, practicing a skill with them, singing them a song, etc. She

makes an effort to keep her comments positive, whether that is complementing them for working
on a skill, or saying what she wants to see, instead of scolding the child for the negative

behavior. For example, if a child is hitting another child with a toy she might say “___ can you

stack that toy? That toy is for stacking not hitting, hitting hurts. Show me how you stack the

toy”. Melissa is a highly sensitive teacher, and immediately comforts a child who need extra

support or attention. The most effective method she uses is redirection. She will usually redirect

them from a negative behavior my inviting them over to her by saying “Come over here let’s

read a book” or “Come over here and we can blow bubbles” this usually works as often times the

students are craving attention or a new activity.

While teachers must be welcoming and comforting, they must also know when a child’s

behavior needs correcting and should do it in a way that is clear, concise, and consistent while

still respecting the child and their feelings. One example of behavior correction is when I was

holding a child (10 months) and she was hitting me. I said “Ouch! You're hitting me! It hurts

when you hit me! You can touch me gently like this” and I modeled a gentle touch. She hit me

again and I said, “If you keep hitting me, I’m going to put you down because it hurts me when

you hit”. She stopped hitting me for a minute or two and then did it again. I put her down and

said, “I am putting you down because you keep hitting me instead of using gentle touch and

hitting hurts”. I result was that she cried for a minute or two and then I redirected her to a toy.

This child has been having a hitting problem in the last couple weeks. I am going to keep using

this script to stay consistent and if that does not improve her hitting within the next week, I will

try a different approach. Using this frame, I outlined the behavior, expressed my feelings about

it, explained what would happen if she kept doing it while also providing another option, and

then followed through. Using this method, the child knows why she was moved off my lap, and

how the hitting made me feel, which helps her connect her actions to consequences and reduces

the likelihood of it happening again.

Like any other class, culture plays a part in how we interact with our infants, and our

expectations for them. Some child-rearing cultural influences that affect our classroom include
the importance of secure attachments, child lead weaning at six months, and crib training for our

students to always nap in their cribs (although we do not do the cry it out method). One

recommendation I would have for parents is to implement baby sign language at home to aid

communication and decrease frustration.

Below is a Culturally Responsive Care and Education plan for one of my infant students.

Culture: Western

Family Pattern: two moms, one older brother (2 years old), they live with a roommate (who acts
like an aunt, very involved).

Values and Beliefs: atheist, values personal expression, does not follow gender norms

Significant Holidays: Celebrates Christmas, not religious

Language: English

Interaction Style: Authoritative, very attuned to her emotions (does not follow cry it out method

or sleep training, etc)

Culturally Responsive Classroom: We have books about different cultures and family types and

CD’s with songs in different languages.

Culturally Responsive Teaching: We talk about different family structures and cultures, read

books about different cultures and families with different parent types.

Culturally Responsive Caregiving: We are responsive to her emotions and sooth her when

needed. We rock her to sleep.

Culturally Responsive Activities: We do not do a lot of cultural activities, most activities are

focused towards specific goals (like fine motor skills, head control, sensory, etc).

Community Resources: We do not really provide community resources, but we do have a

behavioral specialist who can help us make adjustments to our teaching style/ classroom if
necessary.

Family, Culture, and Community Engagement

In order to collect information regarding the student’s culture, we have a ‘getting

to know you’ form where they ask questions about home language, religion, culture, parenting

styles and more. We ask who lives in the house with them, how and when they feed them, bathe

them, how they put them to bed, and how they comfort them. We have a section of the sheet

where parents can add any other relevant information they think is important. Once this sheet is

given to us, we keep it with the child’s information sheet that is in front of our teacher’s table
where we can always see it.

We have a good support system with our administration, including an ‘open door’ policy

where we can ask our director questions and talk to her about any concerns. Any email sent is

replied to within a day, and our director often has parent meetings where she talks with them one

on one to address questions and concerns. We are sure to address any concerns families have and

help support them in their child’s development by showing them what we are working on with

their children and how they can do it at home. Some examples of this may be giving them tips on

how to introduce plates to the children without them throwing them, or how to help the children

practice crawling. Unfortunately, we do not have any volunteers in our center due to covid

precautions. I have not seen any examples of community involvement or support in this specific

classroom.

Students Learning English

Children who are learning English and are dual language learners are not fluent in

English. While their level of fluency may vary, they most likely will not understand everything

you or others say. EL students are not inherently delayed. They may not understand English, but

that does not mean they are cognitively behind, which is why it is so important to provide

accommodations to help them understand the lesson without changing the nature or goals of the

lesson, as that would make them fall behind their grade level. Dual language learners are
learning at least two languages. Often, this means one language is spoken at home and another

spoken at school. These children may need modifications to their lessons if they are more fluent

in their home language than they are in English. In order to support EL and dual language

learners, teachers must first know their level of fluency. For some students, they may need to

learn important vocab that is necessary to the lesson, or instructions that use words that are easier

for them to understand. In the age of technology, there are often ways to convert videos, subtitles

or written passages into a different language, which is helpful for EL and dual language learners.

Teachers should provide labels for classroom objects in multiple languages, especially with
English learners and dual language learners. Teachers should also include those student’s home

culture into the classroom and curriculum, for example through books, music, and free play

items (ei dress up and kitchen). The curriculum should be modified to ensure the students

understand the lesson, which means multiple modifications may be necessary if there are

multiple EL students with different fluency levels. Family and professionals should work

together to ensure the child is getting a thorough and fair education, and that their home language

and culture is properly represented in the classroom.

Access, Participation, Supports

There are multiple ways the government has ensured a fair and equal education for students with

disabilities. There is the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), Individual Family Service

Plan (IFSP) for infants and toddlers, Individual Education Plan (IEP) for grade level students,

and the 504 plan. The Individuals with Disabilities Act ensures that students with disabilities are

always provided with free and appropriate education through our public school system. The

school must provide necessary accommodations in order to make their education successful and

tailored to each individual person. An IFSP is used when an infant or toddler has a disability and

needs accommodations. IFSP’s highlight what that child needs in order to catch up with their

peers. Families and schools work together to help the child and reach identified milestones. An
IEP is formed when a child in the schooling system is identified as having a disability that

requires accommodations. It is reviewed yearly and lists what that child needs as well as their

current level of functioning. It is used to help teachers and other helping professionals pick

which interventions to do and what accommodations the child needs. Lastly, a 504 plan provides

guidelines for children with disabilities. It is specific to each child and ensures every child

receives a fair and equal education.

IFSP and IEP services can include an interventionist, quiet testing areas, and

accommodations such as text narration, interpreting services, physical and occupational therapy,

and more. IEP’s and IFSP’s are designed to help children with disabilities achieve the same level

of education as everyone else. The physical area may need to be adapted in order to be accessible

to some children. This means having toys within reach (for children in wheelchairs or who have

limited mobility), special seating options, or a seat closer to the front of the class and the teacher.

General education teachers and special ed teachers work closely together to help children with

IEP’s and IFSP’s. They must collaborate to plan lessons and should work together to make sure

what they are separately teaching the child matches. For example, if a child is learning to use a

specific accommodation or scaffold in special ed, the general ed teacher should use that same

accommodation or scaffold in their classroom so it stays consistent. Genral ed and special ed

teachers should compare notes on that child’s progress and work together to problem solve when

necessary.

Classroom Environment

In Infant classes, it can be difficult to teach children to care for their toys as they tend to

do what they want when they want to. At Sunshine House, their class rules are "Keep yourself

safe, keep your things safe, keep your friends safe". Our younger infants are not mobile enough
or developed enough to understand these rules, but our older infants are. When a child is

throwing a rattle, for example, we will say "that's not how you use that toy. You can shake that

rattle or roll it. If you need to throw something, you can find a ball". If that does not work, we try

redirection. Children at this age do not have good impulse control, so sometimes it is best to

redirect them to something else.

Attached below is a sketch of the Sunshine House infant room.

Lesson Plans

Attached below are two unpacking standards worksheets and two lesson plans.
Teacher: Maura Robillard Date:3/29/2022

School: Sunshine House Grade Level: Infant Content Area: Gross

and Fine Motor Development

Title: Building Gross motor skills in infants (5-6 months) Lesson #: 1 of 2

Lesson Idea/Topic and I am going to work on sitting up with my younger infants. This is an
Rational/Relevance: important skill that requires head/ neck control, use of core muscles, and
balance. Sitting is one skill that I think they need more help on and cannot
achieve as easily on their own (opposed to rolling over which they mostly
learn to do with minimal help). Students at this age see most of their
surroundings from a horizontal position so sitting up offers a new
perspective on their surroundings and can help to build interest in what is
going on around them.

Student Profile: My learners are 5-6 months old. Both of them are ready to begin trying to
sit up but need help (the 5 mo old more than the 6 mo old) One is very
engaged and enthusiastic while the older one is more reserved and seems
 content to lay around all day without moving much. I hope to build both
their interests in sitting as well as build their muscles so they can begin to
sit up with less help. They are motivated by sounds and bright toys.

Content Standard(s) addressed by this lesson: (Write Content Standards directly from the standard)

2 (Gross Motor): The developing ability to move the large muscles.

(2.1- Maintain their posture in a sitting position and shift between sitting and other positions.)
3 (Fine Motor): The developing ability to move the small muscles.

(3.2- Use eyes and hands to explore objects actively.)

Language Goal:

The developing ability to communicate nonverbally and verbally.

(3.1- Participate in back-and forth communication and games.)
Understandings: (Big Ideas)

Application

Inquiry Questions: (Essential questions relating knowledge at end of the unit of instruction, select
applicable questions from standard)

“Can you use your muscles to stay sitting?”

“Can you reach for this toy without falling?”

“You look tired of sitting, can you lay down?”

Evidence Outcomes: (Learning Targets)

Every student will be able to: (Create your own lesson objectives from the standard using student voice)

I can (content standard):

I can maintain a sitting position.

I can use my eyes and hands to explore objects.

This means (language standard):

This means I can sit up using a pillow.

This means I can go from sitting up to laying down.

This means I can play with toys while sitting.

List of Assessments: (Write the number of the learning targets associated with each assessment)
Both of these learning targets can be assessed through structured and unstructured observation. Things
like how long the child remains sitting before falling, if they can put themselves into a laying down
position, if they can reach for toys while sitting, and if they can purposefully lay down (from sitting) in
order to reach a toy can all be assessed through observations.

Planned Lesson Activities

Name and Purpose of Lesson

Co-Teaching Which model(s) will be used?

Will co-teaching models be One Teach One Assist

utilized in this lesson? Yes
Why did you choose this model(s) and what are the
teachers’ roles?

Since there are 2 babies in this lesson it would be

helpful to have another teacher

Approx. Time and Materials 10 minutes

Materials: boppy pillow, rattle toys

Anticipatory Set The strategy I intend to use is:

Gathering the babies together in one area separate from

the other babies.

I am using this strategy here because:

They are used to us bringing them places and it tells

them they are going to be doing an activity.

Procedures The strategy I intend to use is:

Guided Practice and Repetition

I am using this strategy here because:

They need scaffolding and practice in order to master

sitting but we want them do it themselves as much as
possible.

Teacher Actions Student Actions Data Collected

1. Pull children 1. Students I will collect data

into sitting maintain sitting on how long they
 position (helping position without can sit up for,
as little as falling how much help
possible) Say they need sitting
2. Students shift
things like “use and laying down,
from sitting to
your tummy if they can move
laying down
muscles to stay their head while
safely
up!” playing with toys
3. Students without falling.
2. Shake rattle in
explore toys in
front of them, up
both sitting and
and down, as
laying down
they watch the
positions
object (while
staying sitting)
allow them to
grab it and play
with it while
balancing in
sitting position.
Ask questions
like “how does
that feel?”

3. Once they
start to fall over,
guide them
down in a
controlled way
while allowing
them to do most
of the work.

Closure The strategy I intend to use is:

Praise: Saying “good job sitting up! That’s hard work”

and then moving them back to the group

I am using this strategy here because:

We often use praise at the end of the lesson to let them

know they did a good job and then we move them back
to the group so they can play with their friends

Differentiation Content Languag Process Product(s Environ

(domain e (teacher tudent ment
For which students are you Modifica
standard
differentiating (refer to tions: ) N/A actions) actions) Larger
student profile as well as pillow
build up Provide
assessment data to determine with
pillows extra
individualized student learning N/A more
to help
need): support
provide sitting
for the
extra and
younger
support laying
one
for down
sitting

Extensio N/A Minimiz Ask them Smaller

ns: e to hand pillow
Provide
support you the with less
less/ no
while toy support
physical
shifting (reaching) for the
support
positions while older
to sitting
sitting one

Assessment

I will be using an unstructured observation for this

activity to measure how long and how well they can sit,
shift between sitting and laying down, and how long
they take to explore a toy.
Teacher: Maura Robillard Date: 3/30/2022

School: Sunshine House Grade Level: Infant (6 mo) Content Area: Fine motor and
social development

Title: Reach and Pull Game Lesson #:2 of 2

Lesson Idea/Topic and I am going to build their social development by creating a game of
Rational/Relevance: reaching a pulling a toy, which will also work on their fine motor skills. This
lesson is aimed towards an infant who is 6 mo old. She should be able to
reach for toys easily and readily and should do so often. Social
development is very important for infants and sets the foundry for social
and emotional development, as well as attachment style. It is important
that infants this age get one on one interaction with their caregivers,
especially in group care settings so they can develop a secure attachment.

Student Profile: Lily is 6 mo old and attends group care two days a week. She is not a very
motivated baby and is often content to just lay and watch others play. She
does not often initiate play and does not tend to seek attention from
caregivers unless she is hungry, uncomfortable, or tired. Because she does
 not take initiative with play, we often have to step in and make sure she is
reaching milestones as she does not tend to naturally work towards them
herself (example: rolling over, sitting). She likes toys that make noise and
things she can easily hold. She is engaging if you directly engage her.

Content Standard(s) addressed by this lesson: (Write Content Standards directly from the standard)

The developing ability to move the small muscles. (3. 1 (Fine motor) Easily reach for and grasp
things.)
The developing understanding of the responses, communication, emotional expressions, and
actions of other people. (5.3 (Social Understanding) Engage in back-and-forth interactions with
others.)
Language Goal:

The developing ability to communicate nonverbally and verbally. (3.1. Participate in back-and
forth communication and games.)
Understandings: (Big Ideas)

Application

Inquiry Questions: (Essential questions relating knowledge at end of the unit of instruction, select
applicable questions from standard)

“I pulled the toy away! Can you reach for it?”

“Don’t let go of the toy! Can you hold on tight?” (As I shake the rattle back and forth and up and down)

“You got the toy! Can you hand it to me?”

“I’m handing the toy to you, can you grab it?”

Evidence Outcomes: (Learning Targets)

Every student will be able to: (Create your own lesson objectives from the standard using student voice)

I can (content standard):

I can use my hands and fingers to reach for, grab, and hold onto toys.

I can play with my teachers.

This means (language standard):

This means I interact with others.

This means I know how to move my small muscles.

List of Assessments: (Write the number of the learning targets associated with each assessment)
Through unstructured observation we can measure their ability to grab and reach for things as well as
interact with others.
Planned Lesson Activities
Name and Purpose of Lesson

Co-Teaching Which model(s) will be used?

Will co-teaching models be One teach one observe

utilized in this lesson? Yes
Why did you choose this model(s) and what are the
teachers’ roles?

There is only one child, so the other teacher can

observe Lily move and interact and make important
notes for later interventions

Approx. Time and Materials 2-3 toys that rattle and make noise

Approx. time: 5-10 minutes

Anticipatory Set The strategy I intend to use is:

Telling her we are going to play a game and moving her

to an area away from the other chidren

I am using this strategy here because:

This is often how we initiate new activities with our

infants

Procedures The strategy I intend to use is:

Effective praise

I am using this strategy here because:

I will use this because I want to encourage her to move

around and priase her when she successfully does and
when she interacts with us

Teacher Actions Student Actions Data Collected

1. Give a Students use Data will be

direction such as their small collected
“I'm handing muscles to grab, through
you this toy, can shake, and hold
 you grab it?” onto toys observations

2. when she Students engage

grabs it say in back-and-
“good job using forth interaction
your fingers to
hold onto the
toy!”

3. repeat with
other essential
questions,
encourage back
and forth
interaction

Closure The strategy I intend to use is:

Saying “thank you for playing with me!” and moving

her back to her friends

I am using this strategy here because:

This is always how we signal that the activity is over

with our infants

Differentiation Content Languag Process Product Environ

e ment
For which students are you Modifica Choose Be more Child
differentiating (refer to student tions: toys that n/a forward does not Choose
profile as well as assessment are when fully quiet,
data to determine individualized easier to initiating hand calm
student learning need): grab interacti you the environ
(balls on toy, but ment
with moves it
holes, towards
skinny you.
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Assessment I will used structured and unstructured observation to

keep track of how the child is progressing and what
their current level of understanding is.

Post Lesson Reflection

1. To what extent were lesson objectives achieved? (Utilize assessment data to justify your

level of achievement)

For both of these lessons, the 6 month old achieved the objectives. She did well sitting,

communicating back and forth, and holding/ passing toys. The younger infant (4 months) Did not

achieve all of the objectives. As expected, she could not sit, although she did well with pillows

stacked up. She has a strong grip and holds toys well, and did participate in back-and-forth

communication, although she did not pass the toys. Some of these physical skills were a bit

beyond her development, so it was not expected that she reaches all objectives.

2. What changes, omissions, or additions to the lesson would you make if you were to

teach again?

If I were to teach these lessons again, I would do so at a different time of day, like 3pm or 11am.

I did both of these lessons around 10, and the babies were a little tired. I feel that they would

have done better if they had more energy so I would do this post nap instead of pre nap.
3. What do you envision for the next lesson? (Continued practice, reteach content, etc.)

For the next lesson, I would keep working on sitting with the 4 month old, and make it more

difficult for the 6 month old, as she is now almost 7 months. I would take away all pillows.

4. If you used co-teaching, would you use the same co-teaching strategy for this lesson if

you were to teach it again? Were there additional co-teaching strategies used during the

lesson not planned for initially? Please explain.

I would use the same co teaching strategy because it made sense both times and worked

well. It is useful to have one teacher observe and catch all details, and it is also beneficial to have

one teach one assist when there are multiple infants, especially if the activity is above their skill

level.

Evidence of Assessment

Prior to instruction, the 6 month old could hold a sitting position unassisted for around 45

seconds before she began leaning and eventually fell over. The 4 month old could not sit at all

without assistance, although she has really good head and neck control as well as core strength

for a child her age. I will use observations to assess both before and after the instruction. During

instruction, I will be looking at how well they engage with teachers and how hard they try to

remain sitting. After, I observed their ability to sit, hold toys, and communicate in back and forth

communication and compared it to the observations before the instruction. Ideally, I would

repeat this lesson multiple times as they must build core strength to show results for the sitting

lesson. I will compare how long they sit assisted and unassisted, how long they hold toys, and

how often they engage with teachers and others. If these infants begin to excel at these skills, I

will plan a more difficult lesson where they go from laying to sitting, introduce toys that are
more difficult to hold, and plan more complex back and forth interactions.

Reflection

The lessons went as I planned and were successful overall. Although there were not

really any problems, if I were to reteach this lesson, I would pick a time after their naps and

bottles, so they have high energy and are more motivated to try their hardest (the 6 month old

does not enjoy using her muscles to sit).

To engage my students in the activity, I moved them to an area that was less busy

so they could be engaged. I picked colorful rattles and toys I know they like to interest them and

made the whole activity exciting and upbeat. Infants are easy to engage if you act excited and

bubbly, so I did that, and they were happy to play.

Conclusion

One way we build sitting into our routine is during story time. We have the children sit

and assist the children who cannot yet sit by themselves as we read our stories. We do this

multiple times a day for 5-15 minutes at a time, depending on what the children want to do. One

way we guide students to sit is by building up pillows around them, and then slowly removing

them over time as they improve until they have no pillows at all, and we sit around them

catching them when they fall and sitting them back up. We try to always challenge them and

make sure we are providing only the bare minimum support they require in order to build their

muscles and confidence.

For the most part, my students did meet the learning targets (sitting up and going from

sitting to laying down, back and forth communication). Sitting is a goal we have worked on for

weeks and one infant can now stay sitting for around 10 minutes at a time. Her core muscles are
relatively weak so she will start to fold over, and we will have to pull her back up but giving her

a toy to play with or putting her hands on her legs helps. She does go from sitting to laying

down, but it is not really controlled. She mostly just throws herself on the floor when she is done

sitting, so we are still working on a controlled fall. Some adjustments are focusing more on her

controlled fall and starting the laying down to sitting transition, which she needs to be heavily

assisted to do as her arm strength and core strength are not up to par. The other child who I

included in this activity is younger than Lily and not quite at the sitting up stage yet, but she is

ambitious, so we included her to build her up to sitting and to build necessary muscles.

Therefore, she has not met the target goal (but that is to be expected). Both infants are very

engaged during back-and-forth communication and often initiate interactions with teachers and

students.