FATIMA, STANDARD 1

Standards 1 (NAEYC-INI-2010.1): Promoting Child Development and Learning

Exhibit 1: Research Study Connection
Description
The selected exhibit is one of my assignment in TLCI 537, Improvement of Instruction,
an optional course for the Masters in Early Childhood program at Northern Illinois University. I
feel this is one of the assignments of the said course through which I could demonstrate my
professional competence acquired during completing this assignment with regards to NAEYC
standard 1. This course was offered in the Fall 2015 semester. The text books for this course
were Models of Teaching and the Strategic Teacher. As the name of the course and the textbooks
reflect, it was a very useful and informative course for an early childhood teacher and teacher
educator. The exhibit which I have selected to demonstrate my professional knowledge and
competence with regard to NAEYC standard 1 is one which I had completed as a major
assignment of this course. In this course we read and discussed different families of models of
teaching, for instance, Social Family model of teaching, Personal Family model of teaching, and
Behavioral Family model of teaching. We also demonstrated mini lectures based on these models
of teaching.
For this exhibit we had to first select a research article featured in a professional journal
that focused on an instructional model from our course text. The second step in completing this
assignment was to connect the study to our classroom practice and write our critical analysis on
the selected research article. First of all, I selected the family model of teaching. The family
model of teaching I selected was Information-Processing Family. After it, I selected Picture
Word Inductive Model (PWIM) from this family model of teaching. Then I searched for a

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research article for critical analysis. Fortunately, I found a relevant research article titled
Reflecting, shaking and being shook: Resistance in a primary classroom, written by Jason Kok
Khiang Loh. In this research article, the author discusses his experiences of implementing PWIM
in his class during his training. The author also shares the challenges he faced during
implementing his idea of PWIM.
While I was completing this assignment, I read the text in my textbook carefully, reread
the mini lectures of my classmates on PWIM and also searched different educational websites for
my own understanding of the topic. The first part of the NAEYC standard 1 requires early
childhood teachers and teacher educators to fully equip themselves with the knowledge about
young childrens characteristics and development in order to provide them a healthy and
competitive learning environment. I have selected this exhibit to express my professional
expertise and knowledge with regard to NAEYC standard 1. When I read this standard, I started
thinking and recalling all my assignments I have done during my masters. Suddenly all
assignments started to appear on the canvas of my mind. Working on this assignment was not
just to complete a term assignment, but I believe it was a process of developing my
understanding and building my competency in the area of teaching young children through more
inductive modes of learning such as PWIM.
The basic aim of this model is rendering students to print literacy through a more
effective and interesting approach. This model is very important in development of language and
vocabulary. It also prompts curiosity in students to relate the picture world with their
surroundings. The PWIM benefits young children to build their imaginative and critical skills for
acquisition of language and vocabulary development. Therefore, I believe this exhibit is an

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appropriate one to demonstrate my professional competence and knowledge to provide young
children with a more interactive, respectful and supportive learning environment, because this
exhibit also demonstrates my knowledge of learning experiences that could influence young
childrens development and learning.

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Exhibit 2: Social Studies Lesson Plan

Description
The second exhibit which I have selected is one of my assignments in SEEC 503,
Primary Curriculum, a compulsory course for the Masters in Early Childhood program at
Northern Illinois University. This assignment demonstrates the professional competence that I
acquired while completing this assignment with regards to NAEYC standard 1. This course was
offered in the Spring 2015 semester. In this assignment, we had to develop lesson plans for
kindergarten and grade one students in Science, Social Studies, Mathematics, and ELA subjects.
A template for the lesson plans was provided by our instructor, and we had to design each of the
lesson plans for the duration of 25 minutes maximum based on the students needs that we had
to teach.
NAEYC standard 1 demands early childhood professionals be well-equipped with the
knowledge and skills required to offer young children learning experiences based on their
characteristics and needs that could nurture healthy, respectful, supportive, and stimulating
interactions among them and their ultimate environment. I preferred this exhibit for standard 1
because, I think what NAEYC standard 1 requires of early childhood professionals is intertwined
in the process through which I completed this assignment. Development of an age appropriate
lesson plan is possible only when one has complete understanding and knowledge of children for
which the plan is going to be developed. Therefore, while I was in the process of doing this
assignment, I decided to design a lesson plan on the topic of Communication, from Science
subject for grade one students. Before finalizing this topic, I not only bettered my understanding
of child developmental characteristics at this age but also searched for learning activities that

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could fit for grade one students. Based on my understanding of child characteristics of grade one
students, I selected the Simulations and Role Playing as a teaching strategy.
The rationale behind selecting the strategies of simulation and role playing was that at the
age of five, children are more energetic, follow the rules, like to try more new things, learn best
by exploring materials, and the most importantly, they need lots of physical activities. So,
through simulations and role playing, physical, cognitive, and social needs of the children at this
age would be addressed appropriately. I designed my lesson plan and sent it to my instructor for
the feedback. She gave my lesson plan a perfect score and appreciated it. She said, I couldnt
imagine that this topic can be taught through this method and through the activities you have
designed. Her feedback encouraged me to refine my lesson plan. I tested the learning activities
which I had designed for this lesson plan. For instance, I made masks and cut outs of different
signs (stop, school ahead, emergency exit, telephones, and cell phones). I put on these masks and
demonstrated them in front of my husband. He suggested how I can improve this activity.
Similarly, there was an activity of telephone making. I first tried to make a telephone using
disposable cups and string and tested it before I included this activity in my lesson plan. While I
was in the process of writing the explanation, I showed it to my husband, and he pointed out the
mistakes I had made in describing verbal and non -verbal communication methods.
I believe this exhibit relates to NAEYC standard 1 because this exhibit enhanced my
understanding of the needs of young children in grade one, and which learning activities can
nurture positive interactions, stimulate a healthy learning environment, and best address the
developmental needs of young children. All these factors contribute and ensure promotion of
development and learning of young children. That is actually what all early childhood teachers

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and teacher educators are supposed to demonstrate in their professional as well as in their
personal lives.

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Reflection on NAEYC Standard 1

NAEYC standard 1 puts focus on acquiring knowledge and understanding of child
development, an essential component of the early childhood profession. This knowledge of child
development will push early childhood professionals to seek and initiate a manifold learning
environment in which the child is nurtured socially, emotionally, and mentally. With only
theoretical knowledge, the early childhood professionals cannot develop this understanding, but
they have to seek other ways through which they can build their capacities in this domain. The
opportunities through which I developed my understanding and built my knowledge regarding
child development and characteristics is unique and valuable, because these opportunities not
only enhanced my understanding of child development and teaching strategies, but also built my
competence in designing age appropriate lesson plans. I also learned how important it is to be
well equipped in this domain.
The exhibits I selected for NAEYC standard 1 demonstrate my professional competence
acquired during completion of these exhibits. Both these exhibits are grounded in the philosophy
of child development and developmentally appropriate learning activities. The first exhibit,
which was an important assignment of one of my optional courses offered in the Fall 2015, was
suggested by my research mentor, Dr. Maylan. She recommended this course after we discussed
my professional goals as an early childhood teacher educator. The course was very informative
and useful for me as an early childhood professional, because through this course we not only
enhanced our understanding about different models of teaching, but also developed our skills of
designing mini lesson plans based on these models of teaching. We also demonstrated our
understanding of models of teaching and teaching strategies through critical analysis of researchconnection models of teaching. The first exhibit Research study connection was the most

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important component of this course. This assignment enhanced my understanding of what

Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM) is and how we could design our lesson plan grounded in
this teaching strategy.
One of the requirements of the assignment was that the research paper we are going to
select must be empirical research and it must be peer reviewed. The was the first time I learned
the meaning of empirical research and peer review research articles. When I started searching
research articles, I found that both these requirements are sometimes difficult to fulfil. This
experience also educated me a lot. When I analyze and reflect on my learning through this
process, I feel it laid the basis of my understanding and knowledge regarding PWIM strategy
especially and the process of finding a research article and selecting an appropriate one generally.
I searched different research articles, young children educational websites, and watched different
videos of PWIM on YouTube. Again, this enhanced my understanding and improved my
knowledge about PWIM. The purpose of watching PWIM videos on YouTube was not only to
complete my assignment, but I had some concerns regarding its execution in the classroom
setting. The strategy starts with the selection of a picture and ends on writing a sentence on that
picture, so I was interested to see how these processes from selection of picture, suggesting
words for that picture, and then making sentences with the help of these words and looking at the
picture. Knowing of a strategy is not sufficient only but having the understanding and knowledge
of how to implement this strategy in our classroom matters a lot..
The second exhibit which I have selected for the NAEYC standard 1 is a self-selected
lesson plan on the topic of Communication. For designing a lesson plan both content and
pedagogical knowledge and understanding is required. Along with pedagogical and content
knowledge, knowledge of curriculum comprehension is also as critical as its implementation.

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This knowledge and understanding helps us to ground our lesson plan around the needs of young
children and their environment. This process was also an informative and tricky one because,
after selection of topic, it is important to select developmentally appropriate teaching strategies,
learning resources, and learning activities. One important aspect is the sequence of learning
activities. Development of this lesson plan enhanced my understanding of three curriculums used
in the United States: Common Core State Standards, C3 Framework Standard for social studies,
and English Language Arts Curriculum. I learned a lot during the designing of lesson plan. I used
all the ways through which I could improve my lesson plan for instance, I sought my instructors
feedback, my husbands help, and also incorporated my friends suggesting for its improvement.
While reflecting on my strengths and weaknesses with regard to this assignment, I would
say, yes. Even though the lesson plan was developed age appropriately and keeping in mind the
fact that we will execute this lesson plan in a classroom setting, it remained just on paper and we
couldnt implement it in the school where we supposed to implement our lesson plans due to
shortage of time and the requirement of that school. Therefore, I thought to introduce this
strategy to my faculty members, because as a faculty member of provincial teacher training
institute, it is mandatory to not only build our capacity but also capacity of our other faculty
members. It is one of my future goals to conduct a Training of Trainers (TOT) on the topic of
PWIM because my teachers lack capacity to teach English and even Urdu to their students and
this will be a better initiative towards addressing their professional need.