Observation: The Key to Responsive Teaching

1. Observation: The Key to Responsive Teaching Paola Hohenadel Quality Child Care Initiative December, 2013

2. Observation

3. Observation defined: • Observation is watching and listening to learn about individual children • When watching and listening to children becomes a purposeful and intentional part of your teaching, you can better understand what children are feeling, thinking and learning. • This understanding supports responsive teaching.

5. The Why and How of Observing: • Why Observe: • I`m curious about children and want to understand them better. • I want to get to know each child and build positive relationships • I want to find our about each child`s development and learning. • I want to teach more responsively.

6. The Why and How of Observing

7. How to Observe • Ask Questions: The cycle begins when you ask questions and wonder about children. • Watch, listen and Record: watch closely, listen carefully to gather information and record what children say and do. • Reflect: Pause and think (mini-conversations with self). • Respond: based on reflections

8. How to Observe

9. The Why and How of Observing

10. I’m Curious • Curiosity about children, the desire to understand how they experience their world, motivates us to observe and keeps our work interesting.

11. DVD Vignettes • Ask Questions because I’m curious- Watch Clip #1 • Watch listen and record to keep track of what I notice Watch Clip #2, Eliana Seg.2.1 • Reflect to make sense of what I see • Respond to Further my Curiosity • Bridge to Practice Questions p.11

12. I Want to Get to Know Children Better • Positive Relationships begin with observing to get to know the children well • Most profound learning takes place when there is a strong, positive relationship between you, the child and the child’s family

13. When you observe, you slow down, listen more carefully, and pause to reflect before stepping in to offer direction or help. • You see and respond to who a child is and what a child needs. • Observing helps you build relationships by revealing the uniqueness of every child Using Observation to Build Relationships

14. You as the Observer What You Bring to Observing: • Your culture • Your individual temperament • Interests • Feelings • Professional knowledge and experience

15. Reflective Questions: • What do you bring to observing that helps you tune into the special qualities of each child and build a responsive relationship? • What else do you bring that keeps you at a distance and gets in the way of building a relationship

16. Lillian Katz’s Quote • It is not enough to be amazed by what children do; one must be interested. Amazement is a fleeting kind of “turn on.” But interest, by definition, means losing yourself in something outside of yourself, becoming absorbed enough to stay with it over an extended time, to follow up on it, to try to understand it more deeply. • (Katz, 2008)

17. Building Relationships • Randy’s Story (read-aloud) (Lillian Katz’s Quote) • Ask Questions to Build Relationships-Watch Clip #3 Jenna, age 3 • Do video exercise p.27 • Watch, Listen and Record to see and remember the details about a child • Do video exercise p. 30 • Bridge to Practice p. 35

18. Understanding Development • External Pressures-assessment • Internal motivation-to teach responsively • Read Paula’s Story p. 42

19. Understanding Development • Practice Observing: I want know more about Children’s Development and Learning. Watch Video Clip #6 • “While watching” exercise p. 46 • Bridge to Practice p. 48

20. Respond to Support Children’s Development and Learning • Two ways to respond: • Interact to scaffold and extend the child’s learning; You can help a child move to the next level by responding in these ways: • Introduce a new tool or material, book or vocabulary word. • Join the child’s work or play to model a new skill or strategy. • Offer a suggestion, information or guidance • Use open-ended questions to encourage the child to describe, explain, predict, compare, and contrast

21. Response to Development and Learning • Make modifications to the program to meet children’s needs; to support children’s successful exploration, interactions, and learning, you might make changes such as these: • Adapt the physical environment by moving furniture, changing materials, or altering the ambience (e.g. private places, lowered lighting, cozy corner, softness) • Adjust the daily schedule and routines • Plan learning experiences targeted to individual children’s interests and needs.

22. I Want to Teach More Responsively

23. Questions to Help Me be a Responsive Teacher: • What can I do to elicit positive behaviors from each child? • What do I do that causes negative behaviors from each child? • How might I change the environment to enhance positive behaviors and lessen negative behaviors?

24. Responsive Questioning… • How does each child respond to different ways I use my voice? • How should I present information so that listeners, lookers, and movers all benefit? • What special attention might a child need to experience success in a particular situation?

25. Professional Book Study-February, 2014 Please register on-line at www.qccigw.ca in early January to secure a copy of this amazing book for the book study!