Effective Teaching Strategies

Effective Teaching Strategies
Susan Wheeler
ECE311: Early Childhood Curriculum & Methods
Roxie Baker
11/19/2011

Effective Teaching Strategies
The purpose of this research paper is to discuss the teaching strategies to encourage the academic performance and achievement of students. Teachers need to think of ways to teach children who is at the ages of 3-4 years old. In today’s society young children needs to be motivated to learn and to become familiar with educational concepts to enhance their knowledge so they will be able to learn better. This paper will discuss the curriculum for 3-4 year olds, What would be taught, Strategies for teaching the standards, Philosophers, and Theories.
Teachers need to realize that children’s future are in our hands. Students are shaped and molded by teachers within the classroom. Educators need to assure them that without an education people have a hard time adapting in the world. An effective teacher has the power to shape and mold the lives of young children. They have knowledge of their subject; are very organized and clear with their students; and they show great warmth and enthusiasm.
The curriculum shall include integrated language arts, music, art ,mathematics, social studies, science, dramatic play, and physical activities, as well as activities to develop social/emotional competencies. This curriculum is develop especially for preschool children at the tender age of 3-4 years old. The Mississippi Pre-Kindergarten Curriculum was developed as a part of the Mississippi Board of Education’s Reading Initiative.
The things that should be taught in a preschool curriculum are Language Arts, Vocabulary, Early Literacy Development, Math, Science, Fine Arts, etc. In preschool the children should be taught in a safe, well maintain, and healthy environment. There are also strategies to use to teach preschool children the things that they should know in a preschool classroom.
The strategies that are needed to teach these three and four tear old children are:
Strategies for teaching Language Arts/Development are:
1. The teachers should read a story from a book or he/she could use picture to tell a story and the teachers could also Read predictable books with students (e.g., Brown Bear, Brown Bear; Polar Bear, Polar Bear; Dr. Seuss books, nursery rhymes.
2. Have students to predict what happens in the story. Teachers should record the student’s responses.
3. When the teachers read the story have students to tell what comes next in the story and predict how the story ends. Students may even act out the story or just the ending of the story.
4. Tell simple stories and ask the students why they think things happen.
5. Sing songs or nursery rhymes and ask students why things happen or what cause it to happen (e.g., Humpty Dumpty-Why did he break into pieces?).
Strategies for teaching Vocabulary are:
1. Teacher can bring logos from familiar places and have the students to recognize local environmental print like McDonalds, Wal-Mart, etc.
2. Teacher can label the children chairs, cubbies, cots, and tooth brushes and have the students to recognize their own name in print.
3. Have students to repeat words after the teachers and to teach the students new words.
4. Teach the students words that are another name for the words they are learning for example: house/ home, see/ look, hop/ jump, etc.
Strategies for teaching Early Literacy Development
1. Setup a writing area with paper, pencil, markers, etc. Have the students to go to this area and write, scribble, etc.
2. Have students to match letters and pictures.
3. Teacher can say a letter and have students to say the sound of the letter.
4. Teacher show pictures and have the students to say the beginning sounds of the pictures. Strategies for teaching Math are:
1. Give the students manipulative toys, socks, etc. to sort by color.
2. The teacher can have the students to tell their favorite colors and make a graph of their favorite colors and discuss it with the students.
3. Have students to identify shapes throughout the classroom.
4. Have students to sort shape by type of shapes.
5. Have students to sort socks, buttons, blocks, etc by size.
6. Have students to name items in the classroom that is big and small.
7. Have the students to count color chips and tell how many.
8. Have students to count children at each table, blocks, tables, chairs, etc and tell how many.
9. Student can recognize pattern and predict what comes next.
10. Show the students a sample pattern like square-circle, square-circle, and square-_______ and have the students to predict what shape comes next.
Strategies for teaching Science are:
1. Have the students to measure object with non standard units. Like the students can measure a book with crayons to see how many crayons it took to measure the book.
2. Have the students to describe the weather of the day and they can also name the weather on the weather chart.
3. The students can also do perdition such as they can predict which will sink a rock or a ball and which will float a fellow or a crock.
4. The teacher can have the students to mix two color to see what new color they will get and the student can tell the teacher what two color they mix to get the new color and what the new color is.
Strategies for teaching Fine Art are:
1. Have the students to paint pictures of their own choice.
2. Have students to create their own pictures by make a collage, gluing together craft sticks to make a house or a picture frame.
3. Have the students to draw a picture and color it any color of their chose.
4. The students can use buttons and other items to design their own pictures.
The two philosophers are John Dewy (1859-1952) and Erik Erikson (1902-1994). John Dewy continually argues that education and learning are social and interactive processes, and thus the school itself is a social institution through which social reform can and should take place. In addition, he believed that students thrive in an environment where they are allowed to experience and interact with the curriculum, and all students should have the opportunity to take part in their own learning. Dewey makes a strong case for the importance of education not only as a place to gain content knowledge, but also as a place to learn how to live. In his eyes, the purpose of education should not revolve around the acquisition of a pre-determined set of skills, but rather the realization of one’s full potential and the ability to use those skills for the greater good. He notes that "to prepare him for the future life means to give him command of himself; it means so to train him that he will have the full and ready use of all his capacities" (1897, p. 6). In addition to helping students realize their full potential, Dewey goes on to acknowledge that education and schooling are instrumental in creating social change and reform. He notes that "education is a regulation of the process of coming to share in the social consciousness; and that the adjustment of individual activity on the basis of this social consciousness is the only sure method of social reconstruction" (1897, p. 16).
According to Erikson, the environment in which a child lived was crucial to providing growth, adjustment, a source of self awareness and identity. During this stage we learn to master skills for ourselves. Not only do we learn to walk, talk and feed ourselves, we are learning finer motor development as well as the much appreciated toilet training. Here we have the opportunity to build self-esteem and autonomy as we gain more control over our bodies and acquire new skills, learning right from wrong. And one of our skills during the "Terrible Two's" is our ability to use the powerful word "NO!" It may be pain for parents, but it develops important skills of the will.
Erikson is well known for his theory of social development.

Mississippi Pre-Kindergarten Curriculum Guidelines Retrieved 11/2/2011 from
www.mde.k12.ms.us/acad/id/curriculum/PreK-3_yearolds/Curriculum%20Guidelines%203%20Year%20Old.pdf