Shane Devlin's Mini Course

Topic

The topic I have chosen for my mini course is on creating and using during Math instruction. In early childhood classrooms, centers can be an important structure and teaching technique during the day. As expressed Dominic Gullo's article, Teaching and Learning During the Kindergarten Year, "using centers to organize and manage the learning environment is a strategy attuned to who kindergarten children are and how they learn." Centers are a way to help students learn academically, behavioral, emotionally, and socially; therefore it is highly important that the creation and use of centers is well thought out and planned.

In this mini course, the outcomes teachers will need to keep in mind:

Knowing the parts of engaging and hands-on centers

Keeping centers focused around state standards.

Structuring centers to be successful.

Creating centers that are engaging and hands-on for students.

Outcomes

By the end of the mini-course, learners will be able to:

point out parts and structure of engaging and hands-on centers.

use their background knowledge of state Math standards and their own classroom needs to create centers.

design math centers that can be used in their classrooms

Teachers will reflect on successful and unsuccessful centers to understand what works best for their students.

Needs Assessments

Instructional Problem In early childhood classrooms, students need to be participating in hands-on activities based on the same topic to help solidify their thinking and knowledge. For this to happen, math centers should be planned and executed in a way that follows this idea. As expressed by a variety of teachers in my school, coming up with a variety of centers can be difficult so ideas are not repeated. In structuring these math centers, it should be thought about to make sure these centers deepen thinking, are engaging, and based on State Standards. The teachers are surveyed also expressed their concern about how centers can become difficult due to having to many students at a center, lack of student choice, or differentiation. Additionally, since not all classrooms are the same, teachers need to know the individual needs of their classrooms and apply their knowledge of centers to those needs for their classroom.

What is to be Learned For this mini course, the goal is to help teachers think creatively on how to create successful centers for early childhood classrooms. This will be completed through learning about what are engaging centers, the structure of centers, looking at State Standards, and creating their own math centers for their classroom.

Participants The intended learners for this project would be teachers in early childhood classrooms. These teachers would come from classrooms that use centers for their daily math instruction. Even though the main focus of this project is math centers for early childhood classrooms, all elementary teachers who use math centers could benefit from this study.

Instructional Content The units will be created in a sequential order so the learners are connecting their prior knowledge to the current task. The first unit will focus on what are engaging centers and the structure of these centers. This will help tie in teachers' prior knowledge and experience with centers into this topic. They will be able to explore different parts of centers that can help create for successful centers in classrooms.

The second unit will focus on applying their State Standards and curriculum to engaging centers. The teachers will be taking what their curriculum is for their grade level and using those concepts for center ideas and activities. This will help teachers connect the expectations of what their students need to learn and how they will learn the curriculum.

The last unit will combine the previous two units in which they will be using their knowledge to actually making successful and engaging math centers that they can use in their classrooms. They will be taking what they have learned and appraising their own classroom needs into consideration for making these centers.

Addressing the Instruction Problem/Solution After completing the three units of the mini-course, the goal is for teachers to have a deeper understanding of what math centers should look like, how to create math centers, and take into consideration their curriculum and individual classroom needs. Additionally, it is hopeful that teachers will be able to reflect on their own centers' success or non-success and recreate centers when needed.

Analysis of the Learner and Context

The learners in this course should be Kindergarten or Primary Grade Level teachers. Additionally, this population could reach out to student teachers or Pre-K teachers. These teachers should have experience or prior knowledge about running Math centers in their classroom. These teachers should be familiar with the Math curriculum that they are teaching with at their school.

Performance Objectives

Teachers will identify parts of engaging and hands-on centers.

Teachers will express state Math standards.

Teachers will describe how to structure centers to be successful.

Teachers will construct centers based on state Math standards.

Teachers will create centers that are engaging and hands-on.

Teachers will appraise their own classroom needs to create centers.

Teachers will reflect on successful and unsuccessful centers to understand what works best for their students.

Task Analysis

Unit 1: What are Engaging Centers?

Objectives:

Teachers will...

Identify parts of engaging and hands on centers.
Describe how to structure centers to be successful.
Reflect on successful and unsuccessful centers to understand what works best for their students.

Activities:

Discuss what they've done before for centers.
Take a quiz on engaging and hands on centers.

Unit 2: Adding State and Common Core Standards

Objectives:

Teachers will...

Express state Math standards.
Construct centers that are based on state Math standards.

Activity:

On a Discussion Board, pull out one state Math standard and brainstorm possible centers to practice skill.

Unit 3: Combining Our Learning

Objectives:

Teachers will...

Construct centers that are based on state Math standards.
Create centers that are engaging and hands on.
Appraise their own classroom needs to create centers.

Activities:

Teachers will be creating their own math centers to use in their classes. These centers will be aligned with the state standards, be hands on and engaging, and be based on student needs.

Curriculum Map

Here is a link to my curriculum map. Shane Devlin's Curriculum Map

References and Resources

Gullo, D. Teaching and learning in the kindergarten year. K Today.p.60-68. Retrieved on April 20, 2016, from https://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/Play/Ktodayplay.pdf.