As an early childhood educator, there is no doubt that you know the importance of play! You can access the NAEYC website and find multiple articles on how play is imperative to development and learning. You have only to do a library search to see the number of articles dedicated to play and the connection of play to cognitive, physical, social, and language development (to name only a few areas).
As with the previous assignment, you will examine how to select an assessment for a specific purpose. Focusing on upcoming observations, you will use the information from your research on play for this assignment to determine what developmental area or emerging content you will be looking for during the upcoming observations. While the observations are at two different levels, this assignment will focus on only one. As you research, look ahead to the observations. More information can be found in Looking Ahead, Module 1 and Week 5 Assignment 1 directions.
Note: If you have not done so already, you may wish to view the Required Media, How to Observe Children, from the Module 1 Learning Resources.
To prepare:
- Read and reflect on the Dalton and Brand (2012), Kelly-Vance and Ryalls (2015), O’Grady and Dusing (2015), and Singer (2013) articles, along with the recommended readings and NBPTS Early Childhood Generalist Standards.
- Consider your upcoming observations and begin research on assessments used for observing young children at play (see Looking Ahead in Module 1). Begin to search for assessments for the observations.
