The Kindergarten Program Learning Module The Four Frames

The Kindergarten Program: Learning Module The Four Frames Fall 2016

INTRODUCTION

Our View of Children All children are competent, capable of complex thinking, curious and rich in potential and experience. The Kindergarten Program, 2016 All students can succeed. Each student has his or her own unique patterns of learning. Learning for All, K-12, 2013

Our View of Educators are competent and capable, curious, and rich in experience. They are knowledgeable, caring, reflective, and resourceful professionals. They bring diverse social, cultural, and linguistic perspectives. They collaborate with others to create engaging environments and experiences to foster children’s learning and development. The Kindergarten Program, 2016

Our View of Families are composed of individuals who are competent and capable, curious, and rich in experience. Families love their children and want the best for them. Families are experts on their children. They are the first and most powerful influence on children’s learning, development, health, and well-being. The Kindergarten Program, 2016

Learning through Relationships Learning and development happen within the context of relationships among children, families, educators, and their environments. The Kindergarten Program, 2016

A Continuum of Learning

Goals for the Session • To deepen our understanding of the four frames and overall expectations within The Kindergarten Program, 2016. • To reflect on the learning that is within and across the frames. • To reflect upon and identify next steps for our learning and pedagogy.

Learning in the 21 st Century “Children practice ways of learning and interacting that they will apply throughout their lives. Problem-solving and critical thinking, communication and collaboration, creativity and imagination, initiative and citizenship. ” (Michael Fullan, 2013)

Integrated Learning Across Four Frames Moving From. . . Moving away from… • Using compartmentalized topics and subjects to think about planning for and assessment of learning – (i. e. Personal and Social Development) Towards Moving towards… • Viewing learning as less compartmentalized and more integrated to reflect how learning naturally occurs in the world. • Using the four frames when thinking about planning for and assessing learning that aligns with the way children’s learning naturally occurs.

The Four Frames Belonging and Contributing Self-Regulation and Well-Being Demonstrating Literacy and Mathematics Behaviours Problem Solving and Innovating

Belonging and Contributing This frame encompasses the child’s • sense of connectedness to others; • ability to form relationships with others and make contributions as part of a group, a community, and the natural world

Self-Regulation and Well-Being This frame encompasses the child’s: ability to understand his or her own thinking and feelings and to recognize and respect differences in the thinking and feelings of others; • • ability to recognize and modulate emotions, inhibit impulses, adapt to distractions, and assess consequences of actions in a way that enables him or her to engage in learning. Children’s ability to self-regulate – to set limits for themselves and manage their own emotions, attention, and behaviour – allows them to develop the emotional well-being and the habits of mind, such as persistence and curiosity, that are essential for early learning and that set the stage for lifelong learning. (Pascal, 2004)

Misconceptions about Self-Regulation

Communicating and Demonstrating Literacy and Mathematics Behaviours This frame encompasses the child’s active engagement in learning about literacy and mathematics, and a developing love of learning, instilling the habit of learning for life; Young children engage in significant mathematical thinking and reasoning in their play…Combining free play with intentional teaching, and promoting play with mathematical objects and mathematical ideas, is pedagogically powerful. (D. H. Clements & J. Sarama, “The Importance of the Early Years”, in R. E. Slavin [Ed. ], Science, Teachnology & Mathematics [STEM], 2014 , p. 5)

Educator Team Reflections We began to reflect on our past experiences of provoking mathematical thinking by providing opportunities for children to plant and care for bean seeds. Although the children who took part enjoyed the experience of planting, we wondered whether we were merely making an assumption that they actually knew they were using mathematical concepts and thinking mathematically when they measured the amount of water they used and recorded the weekly growth of their plant. When we slowed down, listened to the children’s conversation, and observed their behaviours throughout the process, we became better at noticing the mathematics concepts they were using. We carefully entered into the children’s conversations to name the mathematical ideas in such a way as to not interrupt their learning, and we began to observe that the children were using more mathematical language, posing more questions, and making more connections. The Kindergarten Program, 2016, page 81

Problem Solving and Innovating Teaching shifts from focussing on covering all required content to focussing on the learning process, developing students’ ability to lead their own learning and to do things with their learning [educators] …are partners with students in deep learning tasks characterized by exploration, connectedness and broader, real-world purposes. (Fullan and Langworthy, 2014, p. 89) This frame encompasses the child’s use of the mind, senses and body to explore the world, ask questions, test theories and to engage in innovative ways of thinking and doing things.

Deconstructing the Four Frames

Leading with Relationships. . . What might we do to engage with parents and families of each child to support their understandings of the four frames throughout the year?

Consolidation The four frames reflect that learning happens in integrated ways… • What can we do to enable children to revisit, over time, inquiries or projects in which they are deeply engaged, in order to extend the learning? • How can we create opportunities to provide explicit instruction at the moments when it is most likely to move children forward in their learning? • How is our thinking evolving about the learning that lives within and across the four frames?

Reflection and Next Possible Actions

Opportunities for Further Learning Belonging and Contributing • The Power of Positive Adult Child Relationships: Connection is the Key • Video - “Reflective Thinking” and “Relationships” Self-Regulation and Well-Being • Calm, Alert and Happy • Understanding Self-Regulation: Why Stressed Students Struggle to Learn Demonstrating Literacy and Mathematics Behaviours • Video - Kindergarten Matters : Re-imagining Literacy and Mathematics Throughout the Day • The Third Teacher • Video - Re-imagining Learning Materials Problem Solving and Innovating • The Environment is a Teacher • Video - Knowledge Building Helps Classrooms Grow • Video - Improvable Ideas in the Classroom