Integrating Media and Technology into Curriculum

Learning Guidelines and Standards

The content of this tutorial aligns with Massachusetts standards and guidelines.

Massachusetts Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS)

Center and School Based:

• Curriculum and Learning 1B: Teacher-Child Relationships and Interactions: Level 3 Staff engage children in meaningful conversations, use open-ended questions and provide opportunities throughout the day to scaffold their development of more complex receptive and expressive language, support children’s use of language to share ideas, problem solve and have positive peer interactions.
• Curriculum and Learning 1B: Teacher-Child Relationships and Interactions: Level 4 Staff utilizes teaching strategies that ensure a positive classroom environment, engage children in learning and promote critical thinking skills.

Family Child Care:

• Curriculum and Learning 1B: Teacher-Child Relationships and Interactions: Level 4 Educators engage children in meaningful conversations, as age and developmentally appropriate, use open- ended questions and provide opportunities throughout the day to scaffold their language to support the development of more complex receptive and expressive language, support children's use of language to share ideas, problem solve and have positive peer interactions; Educators utilize teaching strategies that ensure a positive learning environment, engage children in learning and promote critical thinking skills.

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)

Guidelines for Developmentally Appropriate Practice:

• (2) Teaching to enhance development and learning C Teachers take responsibility for knowing what the desired goals for the program are and how the program’s curriculum is intended to achieve those goals. They carry out that curriculum through their teaching in ways that are geared to young children in general and these children in particular. Doing this includes following the predictable sequences in which children acquire specific concepts, skills, and abilities and by building on prior experiences and understandings.
• (2) Teaching to enhance development and learning D Teachers plan for learning experiences that effectively implement a comprehensive curriculum so that children attain key goals across the domains (physical, social, emotional, cognitive) and across the disciplines (language literacy, including English acquisition, mathematics, social studies, science, art, music, physical education, and health).
• (2) Teaching to enhance development and learning E Teachers plan the environment, schedule, and daily activities to promote each child’s learning and development.
• (2) Teaching to enhance development and learning E.1 Teachers arrange firsthand, meaningful experiences that are intellectually and creatively stimulating, invite exploration and investigation, and engage children’s active, sustained involvement. They do this by providing a rich variety of materials, challenges, and ideas that are worthy of children’s attention.
• (2) Teaching to enhance development and learning F.3 To extend the range of children’s interests and the scope of their thought, teachers present novel experiences and introduce stimulating ideas, problems, experiences, or hypotheses.
• (2) Teaching to enhance development and learning F.6 To enhance children’s conceptual understanding, teachers use various strategies, including intensive interview and conversation, that encourage children to reflect on and “revisit” their experiences.
• (2) Teaching to enhance development and learning H Teachers know how and when to use the various learning formats/contexts most strategically.
• (2) Teaching to enhance development and learning H.2 Teachers think carefully about which learning format is best for helping children achieve a desired goal, given the children’s ages, development, abilities, temperaments, etc.
• (2) Teaching to enhance development and learning J.1 Teachers incorporate a wide variety of experiences, materials and equipment, and teaching strategies to accommodate the range of children’s individual differences in development, skills and abilities, prior experiences, needs, and interests.
• (3) Planning curriculum to achieve important goals D Teachers make meaningful connections a priority in the learning experiences they provide children, to reflect that all learners, and certainly young children, learn best when the concepts, language, and skills they encounter are related to something they know and care about, and when the new learnings are themselves interconnected in meaningful, coherent ways.
• (3) Planning curriculum to achieve important goals D.2 Teachers plan curriculum experiences to draw on children’s own interests and introduce children to things likely to interest them, in recognition that developing and extending children’s interests is particularly important during the pre- school years, when children’s ability to focus their attention is in its early stages.