Total Learning: Developmental... | Buy

Summary

Total Learning is a practical book based on forty years of teaching young children, their families, and student teachers as well as on the author's experiences with the preprimary schools in Reggio Emilia. The book advocates constructing curriculum based on emerging interests within a practical, flexible, thoughtful, teacher-made plan. BecauseTotal Learning focuses on the developmental needs of children rather than on specific subject areas, it is divided according to the emotional, social, creative, physical, and cognitive selves. Such topics as science, art, and social studies are included, but they are incorporated into discussions about the self they predominantly benefit. The book advocates curriculum that is age-appropriate, nourished by play, and intended to encourage children to become independent, creative, thoughtful people. For teachers and future teachers specializing in Early Childhood Education.

I. BUILDING A SECURE FOUNDATION FOR LEARNING

1. The Purpose of Curriculum.
2. Including the Families in the Life of the School.
3. Play: The Integrative Force in Learning.

II. PLANNING FOR TOTAL LEARNING.

4. Designing the Supportive Environment.
5. Planning for Total Learning: Creating Supportive Curriculum Plans and Schedules.
6. Getting to Know the Children by Keeping Track of What They're Learning.
7. Planning with Individual Children in Mind: Using Behavioral Objectives in the Preschool.

III. HELPING YOUNG CHILDREN RELISH LIFE AND DEVELOP HEALTHY BODIES.

8. Keeping Children Safe and Well Fed.
9. Developing Physical Competence.
10. Helping Children Understand and Value Life.

IV. FOSTERING EMOTIONAL HEALTH IN YOUNG CHILDREN.

11. Achieving Emotional Competence.

V. DEVELOPING SOCIAL COMPETENCE AND HEALTHY SELF-IDENTITIES.

12. Getting Along Together: Achieving Competence in Interpersonal Relations.
13.Who Am I? Who Are You? Coming to Terms with Multicultural, Gender, and Disability Issues.

VI. ENCOURAGING CHILDREN TO BE CREATIVE.

14. Freeing Children to Be Creative.

VII. FOSTERING THE USE OF LANGUAGE.

15. Developing Verbal Competence.
16. Taking the First Steps on the Road to Reading.

VIII. HELPING CHILDREN LEARN TO THINK FOR THEMSELVES.

17. Helping Children Learn to Think for Themselves: Using the Emergent Approach.
18. Building for Future Academic Competence: Developing Mid-Level Mental Abilities.
Appendices.
References.
Author Index.
Subject Index.

Supplemental Materials

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Excerpts

INTRODUCTION Total Learningis a practical book based on 40 years of teaching young children, their families, and student teachers as well as on the author's experiences with the preprimary schools in Reggio Emilia. The text advocates basing curriculum on the emerging interests of the children within a practical, flexible, thoughtful teacher-made plan. It explains how to identify goals and objectives, incorporate them into curriculum that meets individual needs, and how to assess the results in a developmentally appropriate way. Because it focuses on the children, it is divided according to the emotional, social, creative, physical, and cognitive selves and explains how such topics as emergent literacy, cross-cultural understandings and sound health practices can be incorporated to enhance those selves. The text advocates curriculum that is age-appropriate, nourished by play, and intended to encourage children to become independent, creative, thoughtful people. INVITING FEATURES OF THE TEXTBOOK New to This Edition The author, who is the editor ofFirst Steps Toward Teaching the Reggio Wayand who has an additional book about Reggio in preparation, includes extensive explanations of the Reggio Emilia Approach together with many practical suggestions for integrating aspects of that philosophy into the curriculum. New material is included on the implications .of recent research on the brain for educating young children. Chapter Highlights is a new feature that includes titles such as, "The Death of the Chief" "Why Do Some Children Dislike Group Time So Much?" "What's Wrong with Time Out?" and "You're Black All Over?" An entire new chapter on emergent literacy, "Taking the First Steps on the Road to Reading," has been added. A new section on emerging mathematical skills is incorporated in Chapter 18, Mid-level Mental Abilities. Because of current concerns, the chapter on assessment, "Getting to Know Children by Keeping Track of What They're Learning," has been expanded and clarified. References for Further Reading now include a special, often off-beat, interesting book under the heading "Pick of the Litter." A series of videotapes originally made forTotal Learning'scompanion book,The Whole Child,funded by the Annenberg CPB Project, coordinates well withTotal Learningand is available in both Spanish and English. Continuing Features Total Learningincludes a strong emphasis on multicultural, nonsexist, inclusive education. It emphasizes teaching thewholechild--not just the child from the neck up. It explains Piaget's and Vygotsky's theories and their implications for early childhood education. It demonstrates how theemergentand theconventionalapproaches to teaching the cognitive self can work together for the benefit of the children. The annotated references, a popular feature, includes hundreds of new references for further reading for both beginning and advanced students. Food for Thought and Group Discussion questions and Content-Related and Integrative questions are provided to help students review.