LOS ANGELES MISSION COLLEGE JANICE G. SILVER
CREATING A LEARNING PLAN FOR INFANTS
“Responsive curriculum planning focuses on finding strategies to help infant/toddler teachers search for, support, and keep alive children’s internal motivation to learn and their spontaneous explorations of people and things of interest and importance to them.”
Ron Lally 2000
Choice of Activity:
What activity are you planning?
When and where will it be offered?
Children: (May be done with one or more)
Who is the child(ren) for whom the experience is being designed?
How many children will be involved?
What is the child(ren)’s age?
Developmental Profile:
Consider the child(ren)’s development in each of the following domains. Think about what they are doing now and what skills are emerging:
Physical/Motor: gross and fine motor skills
Sensori/Motor: explorations through their senses
Social: Relationships and interactions
Emotional: States and temperament
Cognitive/language: explorations and language
Primary Learning Outcome and Values:
What is the primary learning outcome (purpose) for offering this experience?
What is the rationale for providing this activity?
How will you accommodate individual differences among the infants if more than one will be involved at the same time?
Materials and Procedures:
What equipment and materials will you need?
How much space will be required?
How much time will be allowed?
What set-up and preparation is required before the activity begins? (e.g. arranging the rug area, setting up the environment)
How will the materials be arranged?
How will you present the activity?
What will the children actually be doing during the activity? (e.g. exploring a shaker, music, sensory ball etc.)
How will you terminate the activity?
What clean-up will be required?
How will transition be handled for the next activity?
Evaluation:
Was your primary learning outcome met? How do you know?
Did the infant(s) seem engaged? Refer to each domain as appropriate.
What would you change if you repeated this activity?
How could you build upon the learning that has taken place?
What would be an appropriate follow-up activity?
LOS ANGELES MISSION COLLEGE JANICE G. SILVER
LEARNING PLAN OUTLINE
I. Activity Information
a. Name of activity and brief description
b. Date and place of activity
II. Children Involved
a. Number and ages of infants
b. Grouping patterns ie. one group only or rotating groups of children
III. Primary Learning Outcome
a. What is the most important outcome that you want to come from this activity? What is the most important thing that the children will learn?
IV. Goals and Objectives
a. Social/Emotional Development: focus on the relationship between you and the infant during the experience (responsiveness, respect, etc)
c. Cognitive/Language Development: What language will you use with the infant(s)?
d. Physical Development: sensory experience, large and small motor skills, eye-hand coordination, balance, visual or hearing acuity etc.
e. Provision for Individual Differences
V. Materials and Preparation
a. Materials Needed
b. Space Required
c. Set-up Required
VI. Procedures (step-by-step description)
a. Introduction
b. Description of actual activity
c. Language and interactions with the infant
d. Closure: how to terminate the activity
e. Clean-up
VII. Evaluation (to be done with cooperating teacher if possible after the activity)
a. Primary Learning Outcome
b. Objectives: evaluate each objective one by one giving evidence
c. Follow-up Activities Recommended
d. Changes Considered
LOS ANGELES MISSION COLLEGE JANICE G. SILVER
WRITING OBJECTIVES
Objectives are an important part of all learning plans for two major reasons:
(1) They allow the teacher to develop thoughtful activities and experiences for the children with an eye to supporting their growth in all areas of development.
(2) Objectives provide a mechanism for evaluating the success of activities and experiences.
1. Objectives should be written in such a way that they include all areas of a child's development: physical, social, emotional and cognitive (intellectual). In this way, plans address the whole child, and the curriculum is balanced.
Physical: small and/or large muscle development, sensory, eye-hand coordination, balance, visual/hearing acuity, etc.
Social/Emotional: when working with infants, this is the most important part of curriculum planning – all activities are relationship based, and therefore you must think carefully about your role in the activity and the interactions, involvement, and connection that will be the foundation for the experience.
Cognitive/Language: think about how to support the child’s curiosity, interest, involvement, discovery, and vocabulary that you will use during the activity.
2. Objectives should be written in such a way that they indicate the number of infants that will be involved with you.
e.g. One of the infants will.....
Some of the infants will....
Andrew or Andrea will.....(objectives can be written for specific children)
3. Objectives should be written in such a way that they indicate what will happen and how it will happen.
EXAMPLES:
Physical: Some of the infants will explore the sensory ball by squeezing it and rolling it on the rug
Social/Emotional: The infants and I will be engaged in the activity together, and I will follow their lead as they explore the ball, offering encouragement and support.
Cognitive/Language: Each child will be exposed to language as I talk to them about what they are doing and respond to their actions and language.
LEARNING PLAN
(Janice Silver)
I. Activity Information
a. Infants will be exposed to a soft puppet of a cat on the rug. The infants can hold it, explore it with their senses, and if interested, I will put it on my hand and talk to them with it.
b. Activity will take place September 20 at 10:00 a.m. during activity time. It will be located in the classroom on the rug
II. Children Involved
a. The infants are ages 5 – 12 months.
b. Infants will engage in the experience one on one as interested.
III. Primary Learning Outcome
a. The children will explore the puppet using their senses, especially the tactile sense.
IV. Goals and Objectives
a. Social/Emotional Development:
1. the children will be curious about the new soft puppet and I will provide opportunity and support for them to explore it .
2. I will offer respectful support by following the child’s lead and responding to their intiative.
2. As the infants explore the puppet I will be there participating in the activity with them and encouraging them with words and body language.
c. Cognitive/Language Development:
1. As the infants explore the puppet I will provide vocabulary such as “kitty” “meow” “soft” “gentle”
2. I will encourage their curiosity by showing them the puppet and sharing their investigations.
d. Physical Development:
1. the infants will explore the puppet with their senses, especially the tactile sense as they hold and stroke it.
2. The infants will use eye hand coordination as they reach for it, pick up the puppet, and put it down.
e. Provision for Individual Differences:
1. I will follow the infants’ lead according to their interest in the puppet.
V. Materials and Preparation
a. The materials required are: a soft puppet of a kitty.
b. The space required is the rug area with an assortment of soft toys for exploration.
c. Set up: I will bring the puppet to the rug when appropriate.
VI. Procedures
a. I will bring the puppet to the rug and show it to the infants there. Depending upon their interest and curiosity, I may put it on my hand and demonstrate “meowing”. I will take the lead from the babies – if they are interested I will offer support and participate in their investigation.
b. As they explore the puppet I will use vocabulary such as soft, kitty, puppet.
VII. Evaluation
a. Must include evaluation of your primary learning outcome, each objective one by one, changes considered for next time, as well as suggested follow up activities. How did you demonstrate respect for the infants’ explorations? How did you support their needs?