A Summary of the Pre-K Technology Applications TEKS

     The learning experiences of the preschool years provide a foundation that guides children academically, socially, and emotionally. These experiences can influence the rest of a child's life. Children's learning and intellectual growth are affected by the specific experiences (e.g., instruction, guidance) they have in a preschool classroom.
     Informed efforts by families and teachers to build on children's motivation to learn play a critically important role in providing children with the proper foundations for school success. The Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines offer detailed descriptions of expected behaviors across multiple skill domains that should be observed in 4‐ to 5‐year‐old children by the end of their prekindergarten experience. The guidelines are developed to be useful to a broad audience including school districts, Head Start programs, child care and most importantly by children's families. The guidelines also offer suggestions on ways to deliver developmentally appropriate experiences for the learning needs of all children to help ensure an effective, efficient prekindergarten year. The guidelines also provide information on responsive teaching practices, the physical arrangement of a prekindergarten classroom, professional development as the key to high‐quality preschool programs, the involvement of families for better readiness of children for school, and methods of monitoring children's progress. Specific attention is given to a discussion of the importance of adopting a developmental approach in order to effectively promote school readiness for 3‐ and 4‐year‐old children. The guidelines can and should be used to support learning in a broad range of skills for children who are English language learners (ELL), including those children receiving instruction in their home language. A discussion of how this can be done successfully and instructional strategies to consider are included. When planning for the education of children with special needs, use of the guidelines is described in relation to the many considerations that need to be taken into account for special needs children's successful inclusion in the classroom. Together these discussions should provide a comprehensive framework for effective use of the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines.
     Research confirms the value of early education for young children. Prekindergarten programs that support effective teaching practices and opportunities for child discovery through play have been shown to lead to significant growth in children's intellectual and social development, both of which are critical to their future academic success. Quality programs provide challenging but achievable curriculum which actively engage children in thinking, reasoning, and communicating with others. With teacher direction and guidance, children respond to the challenge and acquire important skills and concepts.
     The purpose of this document is to help educators make informed decisions about curriculum content for prekindergarten children. The guidelines are based on current knowledge of theory and scientific research about how children develop and learn; they reflect the growing consensus among early childhood professional organizations that a greater emphasis be placed on young children's conceptual learning, acquisition of basic skills and participation in meaningful, relevant learning experiences. The guidelines delineate the behaviors and skills that children are to exhibit and achieve, as well as instructional strategies for the teachers. Finally, the guidelines provide a means to align prekindergarten programs with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS).
     The guidelines describe specific outcomes for prekindergarten children in each domain skill area. The intent of this organizational design is to ensure that all 4‐year‐old children have the opportunity to strive toward these outcomes. Due to age differences and previous experiences, however, children will have a great range of prior knowledge. Some children, regardless of their age level, will be at the beginning of the learning continuum, while others will be further along. Children with disabilities may need accommodations and modifications of the guidelines in order to benefit from them.
     Under Texas Education Code §28.005, the state's policy is to ensure the mastery of English by all students, specifically in situations in which Bilingual instruction is necessary to ensure students' reasonable proficiency in the English language and ability to achieve academic success. Texas Administrative Code, Chapter 89 further emphasizes the goal of Bilingual education programs to enable limited English proficient students to become competent in the [understanding], speaking, reading, and [writing] of the English language by developing literacy and academic skills in the primary language and English. Such programs shall emphasize the mastery of English language skills, as well as mathematics, science and social studies, as integral parts of the academic goals for all students to enable limited English proficient students to participate equitably in school. Children who speak a language other than English at home come to school with varying degrees of bilingualism and at least some level of proficiency in two different languages. The student's home language should serve as the foundation for second language acquisition, as cognitive skills transfer from one language to another. Children who are English Language Learners (ELL) should receive instruction in a manner they can understand and that is commensurate with their proficiency level in English. Children's current strengths and skills should serve as the starting point for new experiences and instruction rather than become a limitation. To use these guidelines to the best advantage and to extend the learning of skills and concepts, teachers must build on children's existing competencies.
     These guidelines are designed as a resource to help teachers define and implement a comprehensive curriculum. Such a curriculum helps to build connections between subject matter disciplines by organizing the large amounts of information children must learn into a set of meaningful concepts. Using concepts from the guidelines, teachers can work across subject matter to provide many opportunities for children to achieve knowledge and skills. The guidelines are organized to provide descriptions of children's behavior and development at the beginning of the prekindergarten year. These descriptions are based on an average child in this age range. Of course, it is well understood that not all children show this level of development when they enter the 4‐year‐old prekindergarten year. Also, the guidelines describe development and learning for 4‐year old children. As there are many 3‐year‐old children in prekindergarten programs, these children will not be expected to reach these outcomes for two years. Finally, descriptions of children's skills at the beginning of the 4‐year‐old program are not included for several domains (science, social studies, fine arts and technology) as there is not an adequate research base to guide these descriptions.
     My Bible tells me that, "you raise up a child in the way the they should go when they are young and when they become older, they won't depart from those ways". If we know that a consistent and integrated curriculum based on well researched standards prepare our students for future success, why would we not want to prepare our little ones to enter the instructional mindset of our schools? Since the learning experiences of the pre-school years provide a foundation that guides children academically, socially, and emotionally, the experiences that influence the rest of a child's life should be protected as well as directed according to our state-based standards. Children's learning and intellectual growth are affected by the specific experiences (e.g., instruction, guidance) they have in a preschool classroom and the interactions with their teachers.
     In defining a spiral curriculum, I would have to say that this curriculum must begin with the assumption that children are not always ready to learn something. In my opinion, the child's readiness to learn is at the core of a spiral curriculum. The concept of the spiral curriculum is the fact that this curriculum model is dynamic in nature and its framework is not linear or static. In addition, instead of focusing for relatively long periods of time on some narrow topic, a spiral curriculum tries to expose students to a wide variety of ideas over and over. A spiral curriculum, by moving in a circular pattern from topic to topic within a field like, say, math, tries to catch kids when they first become ready to learn something and pick up the other kids, the ones not ready to learn yet, later - the next time that we spiral or get around to that topic. A spiral curriculum doesn't stay at the same difficulty level as time goes by either, the difficulty increases.
     The Math TEKS is an example of students having multiple opportunities to master knowledge and skills. For example, consider the Texas K-2 TEKS http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter111/ch111a.pdf.  Throughout mathematics in Kindergarten-Grade 2, students build a foundation of basic understandings in number, operation, and quantitative reasoning; patterns, relationships, and algebraic thinking; geometry and spatial reasoning; measurement; and probability and statistics. Students use numbers in ordering, labeling, and expressing quantities and relationships to solve problems and translate informal language into mathematical language and symbols. Students use objects to create and identify patterns and use those patterns to express relationships, make predictions, and solve problems as they build an understanding of number, operation, shape, and space. Students progress from informal to formal language to describe two- and three-dimensional geometric figures and likenesses in the physical world. Students begin to develop measurement concepts as they identify and compare attributes of objects and situations. Students collect, organize, and display data and use information from graphs to answer questions, make summary statements, and make informal predictions based on their experiences. The 3^rd grade TEKS then builds upon prior knowledge only at a more difficult level and awards opportunities for the students that haven't quite mastered the concepts more opportunity to learn and experience the successes the spiraling curriculum offers throughout their elementary and high school years.
     The neat thing for our students is that if you don't get it when the book says that we cover it, that's ok! Stay with me, we will be coming back to it again, and again, and again, and again, you get the picture don't you? The kids are beginning to get it and they like it!