The NAEYC's online journal Young Children is
available on their website for members. The main topic for the current issue is diversity in the classroom, and includes everything from immigrant families, to
adopted children, gay and lesbian parents, as well as specifically diversity in the
elementary school. The title used for the edition, and all the related articles
is "Engaging Families: Partnering in meaningful ways". The pictures
in the entire journal issue are of diverse parents, children and staff.
Embracing
and preparing for diversity, is clearly a 'hot topic' for the NAEYC. I
found this edition to be directly related to our course, and this week's topic. On the website itself, there are links to
numerous issues and resources, but the message of diversity is clear in their
choice of pictures throughout the website. http://www.naeyc.org/
In this edition of Young Children, there were also articles on science, movement and dual languages. What I enjoyed reading about was "thematic instruction for dual language leaners" and in the article, they shared an idea for encouraging language development which I found fun and clever, named Grandma's soup. I liked that the journal included ideas that us educators can walk away with and implement in our classrooms. This puts theory into practice quite clearly.
In Grandma's soup, the children got to taste vegetables, say they names and play around with the names, then they used words related to making soup like chopping, stirring and so on... and actually made a soup. I won't re-write the details, but I am sure you will agree that it is very effective. Once again, diversity in encouraged in this activity/article.
For the first blog assignment (week 1), please click on the "course resources" page on my blog.
Dear Zeina,
ReplyDeleteI liked reading your post. I have also chose NAEYC as my main resource for researching various issues. I am still trying to figure out my way through the website. Can you tell me where I can find articles like to one you wrote about? Gradnpa`s soup sounds really fun and I like the fact that there are practical ideas of things we can do in the classroom.
Looking forward to reading more and learning about where to find all the "goodies."
Ana
This was a very nice post. It was very informative. I am working on navigating through the website as well. I love how the journal has different pictures for diverse families. It makes it feel that no one is left out.
ReplyDeleteI like the fact that the website you have chosen to research has information about dual language learners. It has been a lot of what we have studied about how to help children and families who speak a different language and are trying to learn English. Good post!
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