Highly Individualized Teaching and Learning in Preschool

Gail Joseph: Hi, everyone, and welcome to "Teacher Time.” I'm excited. I'm Gail Joseph. I'm from the National Center on Early Childhood Development, Teaching and Learning. I'm especially excited because we have a very special cohost with us today.

Ariane Gauvreau: Thanks, Gail. Hello, everyone. My name is Ariane Gauvreau, and I'm the senior director of professional development at the Haring Center for Inclusive Education at the University of Washington. It's lovely to be here today. Thank you for having me.

Gail: Great to have you. We're both in Seattle, you're our neighbor down the street. But such deep expertise in thinking about highly individualized teaching and learning in preschool. We wanted to have you here with us. Thank you for spending the time with us and all of our "Teacher Time" viewers, and also our very own incredible specialist, Dr. Jennifer Fung, on inclusion, is going to be making some appearances on video throughout the time with us today. 

We are also joined by some experts in our Q&A little spot there. If you have any questions at any time, you can put them in there, and if Ariane and I can't get to it, you've got experts there that are going to be answering that for you. Becky, Tam, and Brittany are on the other end for you. we’re super excited about this episode, and we've got a lot to cover, we're just going to dive right in. Here we go. 

The first thing that I want to tell you about is the viewer's guide, calling your attention to the viewer's guide. Hopefully, if you've joined "Teacher Time" before, you know about the viewer's guide. It is in the resource widget. This episode of the viewer's guide has all kinds of information from each of the segments from our "Teacher Time" webinar. It has note - taking spaces, you can remember things that we said or an idea that you have maybe while we're talking that you want to make sure that you don't forget, you can jot it down. As you know, if you've been on "Teacher Time" before, there's going to be a BookCASE at the end. 

There's book lists here for you, tons of resources. The information we're going to cover is going to go pretty fast and furious. You're going to want to have some links to some other resources to dig a little bit deeper. You can get all of that in the viewer's guide. If you've used the viewer's guide before, will you give us a little note in the chat or in the Q&A? Tell us if you've used it, if you like it, if there's anything that you want to change about it because we'll be thinking about that for our next season. Make sure to get the viewer's guide now and use it. 

Let me tell you about our time together today. First, we're going to review the framework for effective practice. We often call this the House Framework. Then we are going to concentrate on the roof of the House. Throughout this season in "Teacher Time," we've been talking about different parts of the House Framework. Today we're going to be concentrating on that green roof about highly individualized teaching and learning for preschoolers. Specifically, we're going to explore curriculum modifications and embedded learning opportunities. 

We're going to also talk about how we partner with families. We always partner with families and how we do that. Then we're going to dig into the Teacher Toolbox. We're going to give you just a little preview of some great resources. You’ll find a lot of those links to that in your viewer's guide. Then we'll check in with our "Teacher Time" librarian, Emily Small. I took a little trip to our "Teacher Time" library earlier this week. You'll see a video of that. 

Then finally, we're going to end with it's all about you because we all know that we do our best teaching and caregiving when we are feeling well ourselves. We always want to end with that because we know this work is really hard, and we want to make sure that we give you some tips for getting through that. We're really excited to start with a video courtesy of our inclusion specialist Jen Fung. We wanted to share a video with you from a mother of a child who has a disability because she has a special message to share for all of us in the early learning community. We're going to share that with you right now. 

[Video begins]

Mother: We had a wonderful experience. Yeah, we had a wonderful experience. We're lucky, honestly, generally. He's running around, he's making friends, he's talking. Before, he was just in the corner. If he could get under my dress, he would get under there. He was uncomfortable. When he was a little baby, he took a crayon and I was like, "Oh, what is he going to write?” 

We're lucky that how these people ever get up because I feel like what they do is so much work and a lot of work. Dealing with parents, different culture and language barrier, and all I say, just thank you for everything you do because this is like ... there's no amount of money that you can put a price on it, no. Thank you and keep up the great work you do. 

[Video ends] 

Ariane: What a lovely video.

Gail: It's such a great video. The work that's done every day really makes a difference, and all of you are making such a difference. We wanted to open with that. Now we want to jump into a reflection. Get ready to put this information in the Q&A or in the chat. We want you to think of a preschool child in your care currently or in the past who you provided some more individualized or intensive support to. What did you do? 

Think about somebody that - a child that maybe wasn't accessing learning centers or participating that you really needed to provide some more individualized and intensive support to and what is it that you did. We're going to be looking for your answers in the Q&A here. Here we go. We're in the chat. We're seeing some things. Thinking about working with families. Definitely, part of this is partnering with families, working with families, engaging the local education community and the school district, and getting some support from Child Find. Making some modifications with visuals. Modifications. I'm getting that. Great.

Ariane: I see somebody just highlighting "I exercise a lot of patience.” As we heard, the caregiver in that video called out what she was noticing her child's teachers doing.

Gail: I love that. Patience and teach them. Understanding that this is about supporting and providing that support. Collaborating with other IP team members.

Ariane: That's huge.

Gail: I see a few more. We'll wait for a few more ideas to pop in here. We know we have such experts. Using peer support. I love that.

Ariane: That is fantastic.

Gail: Absolutely. Another peer support in there. OK. We know we've got some experts that are out there that are working on this. Allowing a child to have space. Great. Modifying the daily schedule. Now these things are coming in.

Ariane: Talk a little bit about that.

Gail: Collaborating with other programs. These are great things, and I know in the chat, everyone can see these. Those are coming out. That's great work. Good. OK. We're going to move on then. We'll be drawing on your expertise throughout this time. A lot of what we heard are things that we will also find in the framework for effective practice, which is this House Framework that you see here on your screen. 

The National Center for Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning - we call it DTL for short - uses this House to really represent the six integral parts of quality teaching and learning for children ages birth to five in all program options in Head Start. The six elements of the framework include - I'm going to start with kind of the foundation there, being interactions and environments. Then we think about one side of the House is being curriculum, using and implementing a research - based curriculum and teaching practices. 

On the other side, we see ongoing screening and assessment practices that are being used. In the center it’s engaging parents and families. We're always centering our parents and families in the work that we do. I'm going to say the strong siding - We like to call it the strong siding - it's essential to everything that we're doing - is that dark blue around, which is having equity - focused practices. 

Then the last is what we're focusing our time on today, and that is the roof, which is embedding highly individualized teaching and learning. Individualized support. That is where we're going to be spending our time today, is right there on that roof. When we think about the roof, what I wanted to tell you is that the House framework is also sometimes referred to as a tiered framework. I'd love to hear if people are familiar or heard this idea of a tiered framework before. Sometimes, we call it a multi-tiered system of support. Some people might be familiar with using the pyramid model. That certainly is a tiered framework as well. 

The goal of implementing a tiered framework with young children and their families is to be aware of areas like development or school readiness in which each child has differing needs and to match support to those individual needs in turn, supporting an inclusive and engaging environment for all children. Tier frameworks are really used to think about at the bottom level, there are strategies that we provide for all children. We think about those as strategies we use to promote the development of essential skills that promote school readiness and future success. Those are universal. They are for all children. 

When we think about the next layer of a tiered framework, we think about those that are to prevent - some extra strategies that prevent delays and challenges by targeting critical or foundational skills, and then providing timely interventions using evidence - based practices at sufficient dosages and intensity to address delays or challenges. We're thinking about how we're going to match the support and strategy to the child's needs, learning characteristic and targeted skills. 

Then we think about a tiered framework as being all and then there are some practices that maybe we use for some children. Maybe not everyone needs them. Then at the very top, there are some children or some behaviors or some learning goals that require a little bit more intensive support. Those will be fewer, and that's why it's shaped like a triangle. We, on this slide, are showing you that the House framework is actually a tiered framework. You can think about that universal or that for all as being the bottom parts of the House. 

These are things we provide for all children, that nurturing responsive, effective interactions, engaging environments, the implementing research - based curriculum, teaching practices, screening ongoing assessment, clearly parent and family engagement, strengthening equity - focused practices. Those are what we provide for all children. 

When we think about a child that might be having difficulty accessing or anticipating, thriving in all those things that we've provided at the foundation level or the foundation of the House, then we might start thinking about using some of these targeted or intensive strategies at the roof of the House. We might think about curriculum modifications, embedded teaching, intensive individualized interventions. We are going to concentrate on that roof of the House.

Ariane: Yeah. Let's take a closer look at this. We know, as Gail said, a small percentage of children are going to need a little bit extra help, and the roof of our House, we see another ... this tiered framework. At the foundation of our roof is curriculum modifications. These are what we think of as a foundational practice that's really designed to support and promote access and participation for all the young learners in our communities. 

The next tier is embedded teaching. This involves those more targeted supports. We often talk about this as kids that need a little bit more practice on some of these learning objectives. Then at the very top of our roof, we've got our intensive individualized teaching for children that need that level of support.

Gail: Absolutely. We know that every House needs a strong foundation. We always think that ensuring the foundation is the first step to doing this before we start thinking about modifications and adaptations. We just want to make sure that everyone has a nurturing, responsive and effective interactions and engaging environments. We're going to turn it to our "Teacher Time" viewers to tell us what goes into that.

As you look at this photo of a preschool classroom, what do you see happening that you think might be supportive of these young learners? You can enter your observations into the attendee chat. There's so much going on, many positive things that you can see that are happening. It's always a little bit of a delay before we get some of our responses coming in. But look at this photo. What do you see that's happening in there that is supportive of these young learners? 

I'm seeing what I might call matched enthusiasm there. The educators are right there with the young children. They're at their level. They seem to have some joint attention with what the child is doing there. We're getting some things coming in now, hands - on, interacting with child.

Ariane: Active engagement.

Gail: Love the mention of teamwork and communication.

Teachers are engaged, providing some hand - over - hand support. Smaller groups, adults at every table, close proximity. Oh, happy children. We love that.

Ariane: Happy, engaged children.

Gail: They're present. Teachers are there. They're working with children. Yes. We might also see that the room seems to be relatively organized.

Ariane: I noticed that. Easy for kids to get the materials that they need as independently as possible.

Gail: And exciting. They're right at their level. I see this lovely, open - ended activity with Play - Doh right in front of us. There's all different, many ways that we can respond. You've got it. You've seen sensitive and responsive caregiving in this. We see enthusiasm for being with children, those hands - on learning, many great things. We've got one more. Everyone's great at looking at these pictures. Actually, we don't have one more. That was just a joke. [Laughter] We're going to go on to the next slide. 

All of that was to say that you know what it takes to provide that foundation. Let's say that we had that lovely space and that a child was having some difficulty accessing or participating in all of that great kind of foundation environment that was being presented. When a teacher notices that a child is having some difficulties accessing and participating in those everyday routines and those really fun activities that are provided in the environment, we're going to start by looking at the foundation of the roof now. We're moving onto our roof framework there. What do we do?

Ariane: What are we going to do? We know - The photo that we saw of that classroom, it was beautifully organized. We saw many children engaged with the adults in that space. But we know that there are always children in our programs that do need that little bit of extra support. Let's go to our roof. Let's talk through how we could approach this. Look at that viewer's guide. We have some additional information about curriculum modifications if you're curious about exploring these. Today, we're going to talk about each tier in more detail. Let's start with curriculum modifications.

Ariane: We think about curriculum modifications as tools we can use to really support child engagement and participation. This is for children that do need a little bit of extra support even when we have our beautiful foundation in place. There are some things that we want to be really mindful and remember about modifications. When we're using these, they do not significantly alter our content or our scope or the sequence of our curriculum.

Usually, these are pretty simple things that we can do, and they're often pretty easy to implement right away. Usually, they take very few additional resources. There are many free things we can do in our classroom to implement curriculum modifications. When we talk about these, we often say that curriculum modifications are small changes that can have a really big impact for children. At the foundation of our highly intensive teaching practices roof, we know many children with disabilities might benefit from these, but many children without disabilities also really benefit from the implementation of curriculum modifications. 

Another thing that we want to remember is that when we move to using these modifications to be supporting children, the focus of our planning shifts a little bit. We start to think about how we can help support the active participation and meaningful engagement of individual children within our learning environments. 

The modification strategies that we plan and that we use are all individualized based on what a specific child might need, just like some of the modifications we might use for ourselves as grown - ups. While these are really simple, they're intentional. We'll share some tools as we go on today about ways to be really intentional about planning these.

Gail: Great. Just on that picture there, you can see that that educator has some ... I'm seeing a modification around providing some maybe special equipment. These scissors are kind of those special - squeeze scissors that pop back up. This child has a modification there for cutting.

Ariane: Absolutely. And such an easy thing. We're going to cut anyway. We have a variety of scissors that really help every child engage and participate in that routine.

Gail: That's right. We're going to get a little walk - through here. Doctor ... 

You want to talk about it. We're excited about it.

Ariane: We're excited. This is our colleague Dr. Jennifer Fung, and we're going to see Dr. Fung in a preschool classroom talking through specifically our circle time routine. Many of us know, sometimes circle time can be a difficult routine for many children in our programs. Dr. Fung is going to talk us through these different modifications that this classroom team has used to really promote participation during large group times. 

As we're watching this video, we invite you to jot down in your viewer's guide or share in the chat what ideas might you use from this video in your classroom or your program. How could some of these ideas for curriculum modifications help a certain child in your program? What materials might you need to use these in your classroom or in your program?

Gail: Absolutely.

Ariane: We'll get that video in just a quick second. 

[Video begins] 

Jennifer Fung: Here we are in another really common area in early learning environments, the circle time or the large group area. Circle time is an area where we use a lot of modifications. I just wanted to point out a few to our audience today. Again, low resource, really easy but hopefully high impact. One of the first things that I wanted to point out is the seating at the circle area. I think this is a really lovely, inviting circle area. I actually want to come take a seat on the carpet and listen to a story or sing a song. 

But you'll notice here that it isn't much about how or where kids are sitting, just the fact that they're close to the story, they're close to the teacher, and they're ready to engage in some way. You'll see at this circle time soft, comfortable seating for kids who feel fine sitting on the floor. Some kids, I've even seen in this classroom lay on their tummies and prop themselves up on those soft pillows. 

Some kids are a bit more wiggly and they might want to sit in a chair like this where they sit, they're able to rock back, but the space is still defined for them. They know where their body is expected to be. This is an example of what we call a ball chair. Some kids we know, again, sitting still can be really challenging. We know that sitting on a small exercise ball where kids are able to bounce and move while they're sitting can actually increase kids' attention to the activities that are going on around them. 

This seating modification is great, but even within the seating modification, there's another modification, and that this ball, which might be challenging to keep stable, and you can see kids kind of roll around or fall off, is just put in a milk crate. I've also seen it put in a cat basket or a dog bed. But just the idea is that while the kids are still getting this input, that the ball remains stable. 

But another great modification and a really simple modification is if a teacher's reading a book, they're able to hold this up. They're ready to move the book around. That all kids have an opportunity to see the pictures. But for some kids, maybe kids who have vision issues or for some kids who like to get up close and examine and are really interested in that visual stimuli, that might not be enough for that child to stay engaged to be seeing this from far away. 

What we have here in terms of a modification is that one, this is what we would call maybe an invisible support. The child who has an issue with their vision, their seat is positioned closer to the teacher, they will be able to see that book more closely. But the teacher has also provided the child's own copy that the child is able to hold on to, flip the pages and follow along with the story, but in their own time and at their own control. 

[Video ends] 

Gail: Such an excellent resource, such a great video that we have there. In your viewer's guide, just another call to the viewer's guide, there are a lot more examples of curriculum modifications and links to places where you can learn even more about those modifications adaptations. Such simple things to do.

Ariane: Yeah, totally.

Gail: The ball in the milk crate.

Ariane: Many of us have that ball anyway in our classroom. I appreciate folks on the chat reflecting on that.

Gail: Exactly.

Ariane: I love how in that video, Jen's highlighting like, "Hey, we have a pillow. Let's use this as a seating option" for somebody that might prefer to lay down and be able to engage a little better when we're thinking flexibly about how kids can participate in our routines and how we can be really intentional about using things to promote that engagement.

Gail: That key being kind of matching the modification to what the child needs. It's not just like bringing the ball for everybody unless everybody needed it or something. That could be kind of fun if everybody needs it.

Ariane: That would be a very active, bouncy circle.

Gail: The point I'm trying to make is making sure that we're matching it there. Let's think about we have the bottom of our House is in place. Everything, the foundation is strong. We made some modifications and adaptations, and we still have ... there's a child that might have some skills they're not quite making progress on with modifications alone. We've made some modifications to the environment to get them to engage, but they're still needing some extra practice with some certain skills, and children with disabilities that have an IEP in our programs will have some specific goals and objectives that they're working on. 

It's either that a child is needing some additional practice on a skill or that the child has a specific learning objective that they're working on that we might move to the next tier of our roof framework there, and that is embedded teaching, embedded teaching or embedded learning opportunities, as we sometimes call that. When we're thinking about embedded learning opportunities or embedded teaching, it requires us really to think about what it is that we're going to teach, what's the skill that the child needs extra practice on or that learning objective from their IEP. 

Then we're going to think about or IFSP. They could have an IFSP as well. Then we're going to think about when are we going to teach it. When could we teach it during the day in the context of that early learning classroom? The individual child is right there practicing the skill embedded in that. We're also going to think about how we're going to teach it. What prompts might we give? What scaffolding or support might we give to help teach that skill as well? That requires some planning time. It's not just something that we can do without that planning. 

We're going to watch a quick video of embedded teaching in action. Here the child is working on the skill that we're working on with the child, is making a request if you will, broadly making a request. As you're watching the video, we want you to write in your viewer's guide or share in the chat, what did you notice? What did the teacher do and what was the child's response there? This is we're embedding this skill the child needs extra practice on, making a request into this kind of fun activity. 

[Video begins] 

Teacher: One, two, three.

Child: Go!

Teacher: Go! Nice counting. Stop! One.

Child: Two, three.

Teacher: Three.

Child: Go.

Teacher: Go! Nice. 

[Video ends] 

Ariane: Cute. I love that video.

Gail: Adorable. Let's see what people have noticed in the chat. I'm just scrolling down here to see what comments may be coming through here. What did they notice that was happening? What did you notice, Ariane?

Ariane: Yeah, what we really love about that video is number one, we see a child really enjoying that interaction with the teacher. This is a child that enjoys that moving around, that spinning movement. We knew that about that child, that intentionality earlier. We see this lovely interaction between the child's teacher and the child. But we leverage that opportunity to practice this requesting skill. But we were really intentional about that happening within this activity that this child really enjoyed. That was happening during free choice. It wasn't pull - out. It was within the classroom, with everybody together.

Gail: We didn't have to pull them out outside and say, "Let's practice making requests" and then give them a sticker. It was right there. We've gotten some great ... Our viewers are really on it. Now it's coming in. The child was having fun. It was this one - to - one interaction that they did in the context of that free - play time, which was really fun, active engagement. But you saw ... we've got somebody. [Laughter] 

This person knows. Match the activity to the child. Yes, exactly. The teacher provided some prompting there. They gave him that cue. Gave him the cue, had that expectant look, might call it a time delay, expectant look, and then provided some prompting in there like one, two, three.

Ariane: Yeah, a little like verbal hint. Then we heard the child respond to that and approximate "Go!” Then we saw the teacher - that's our colleague - teacher Jordan continue that fun engagement with that child.

Gail: Then what was fun is that there were many opportunities to practice that skill, and I think that's another thing to remember about these embedded teacher embedded learning opportunities is that once a week is not going to do it. We need lots of practice. Even like once a day, wouldn't be enough. In that activity, she's able to kind of stop it and get another request and she probably did that 10 times.

Ariane: Absolutely.

Gail: Lots of positive practice.

Ariane: When we think about embedded teaching, and this came up in our chat earlier. We want to remember that it's that match that people mention. The match between the child's learning objective and where we can provide that extra practice within an existing classroom routine or a certain activity or a transition that is already happening within our classroom. 

It's our opportunities to kind of think deeply about that match as some colleagues pointed out in the chat. Our goal with embedded learning is to, as Gail said, provide a lot of opportunities throughout the day that let the child practice this skill in a time and a space and with materials that are really motivating and interesting to that child. 

For example, we know many of our preschoolers are working on name writing. It's a difficult skill to learn. If we've got a child that has maybe an IEP goal around writing their name, very common, we could maybe pull that child to the side and say, "Hey, Gail today, let's come over here and let's practice your name.”

Gail: Not be very motivating.

Ariane: No, it wouldn't be very motivating. It's not what other children are doing. Maybe we take a different approach. Perhaps this is a child that really loves our computer station in the classroom. Maybe in this classroom, we think about children signing in when they want a turn with a specific activity or a specific center. 

It's something that all of us are doing, and we're really kind of leveraging and capitalizing a chance for this child to practice writing their name as they're waiting for a turn to engage in an activity that they really enjoy during free choice. We call ... And when they have a chance to do that. If I'm practicing writing my name, and I can sign in for a computer, and then I did it, and it's my turn to play on the computer. It's my favorite activity.

We call this that naturally occurring reinforcer. The child gets to do something that they really love. We think about the child's learning objective and really when it makes the most sense to embed this within our ongoing day, thinking about that match between the objective and which activity or routine is a good fit for that.

Gail: Love that. You can kind of creative thinking about how many opportunities can you provide throughout the day. We're going to do that a little bit right now. We're going to get a little bit creative here. Let's say that we have some ... We're going to connect our learning activities or the objectives that we have here, the skills we're going to practice, and we're going to then think about when they would happen during or when we could embed them during an activity a routine or a transition. 

On the left - hand side there, you'll see these are maybe some skills that a child is trying to ... that a child needs some extra practice with. Imitating actions to a song, asking for a turn. These are maybe different children with different objectives. Drawing shapes, counting one to five objects, maybe using one - to - one correspondence there. Writing name. You already talked about that one. Following group directions. Those are all the types of skills that we might be working on. 

Now, on the other side, we've put down some common activities, routines and transitions. Free play time or center time, small group or art time, circle time, large group, cleanup time, outside music and movement. We're going to think about how we might make some connections here. When could we do some good embedding? If we're going to start with imitating actions to a song, "Teacher Time" viewers, right into the chat there, when might you do that? 

If the child is working on imitating actions to a song and you want to provide a lot of embedded learning opportunities or embedded teaching opportunities for that child to work on that, when are they going to do that during that time? We're going to give viewers a moment to kind of think about it. When is the most likely time they could do it? When's a creative time they could do it? OK, I'm seeing ...

Ariane: Yeah, rolling in.

Gail: Yeah, they're rolling in, all of them. Yeah, I think we could do it with all of them. Let's see. We've got ... We thought circle time, large group and music and movement seemed like pretty obvious times that we could do it. But you could do it in other ones as well. You think about maybe there's actions to the cleanup song or something. They were doing action as they clean up. But it could be in there. 

It could be in the free play time. But the most likely times where we could give a lot of opportunities is circle time and music and movement. Then that means we just have to be really intentional that during circle time, we want to make sure that we're doing songs with movements that they can imitate. Yes. Lots of great ideas are coming in. Let’s do another one. That was fun. Asking for a turn, that is a skill that children might need to work on.

Ariane: Yes. This is a lifelong skill. All of us are always working on asking for a turn.

Gail: Absolutely. Let's wait. Let's see. When could you work on asking for a turn? People are saying... Lunch or breakfast. Or maybe that might have been for the other one. Circle time.

Ariane: Yeah, maybe with materials that are being used or passed around.

Gail: Outside. Free play and outside.

Ariane: Yeah. Great ideas.

Gail: A lot of time. We were thinking like, yep, free play time would be a good time. We saw that video. Making a request. Free play time and outside time.

Ariane: Many fun things to ask for a turn is outside.

Gail: "Can I get a turn on the tricycles?”

Ariane: Yes, "Can I have bubbles, the stomp rocket?” Stomp rockets are a beautiful turn - taking tool.

Gail: That's such a great idea to also think about something that we could put outside or in the learning center that would really require turns. I think about the ball tracks.

Ariane: Yes, those kind of fun ball dropper toys.

Gail: You have to wait for something to be done before you can take it. Great. We're thinking that we have to not only think about the time but really think about how we're going to set it up, that they can practice that stuff. You already gave us some hints on this one.

Ariane: I did.

Gail: Writing name. Working on writing a name.

Ariane: When might we work on that?

Gail: Yeah. I think people are ... Let's see. When could we most likely work on writing a name for a child, embedding some opportunities there? Waiting for people to write in.

Ariane: This is such a good example of how if this is an embedded learning goal that we have for someone, being really intentional about where we have writing implements. Because we can be really creative. I agree with you. This is kind of the fun part of planning for embedded learning and thinking about, "Hey, I've got a group of kids that really enjoys the block area.” How could we think about using some writing implements to practice the skill in the most popular area of that classroom?

Gail: I could see that. Sometimes children are building with blocks, and they really want to kind of claim their structure. Keep it set up, they can return to it later. I've seen some paper and writing implements they can write their name on it and put it on the block structure.

Ariane: That is very cool.

Gail: "I made this. This is mine. I'm coming back to it.” Let's think where ... We also thought about small group time as a time. That one makes a lot of sense. Children are doing artwork and we want them to write their name on it.

Ariane: I love the suggestion from John. I'm thinking about the sand table as an opportunity to practice name writing with your finger in the sand. If you've got a child who loves your sand table and that sensory play.

Gail: Beautiful.

Ariane: What a creative way to think about that.

Gail: Small group or work time. Oh, waiting for a turn sign - up sheet. That's kind of like the idea with the computer one. But if you get some highly kind of exciting, highly motivating materials and children want to have a turn...

Ariane: Maybe that's kind of a custom in your classroom where children are signing in, waiting for a turn with whatever fun item it is. Maybe it's a stomp rocket. Who knows.

Gail: I see this one, outside. Somebody said outside time, chalk writing outside. One of my favorite examples of this because I agree with you, Angela, that this is a great time. One of my favorite times seeing this was somebody was working with a girl who loved jumping. She had just advanced skills in gross motor and was really, really active and did need a little bit more practice with some fine motor skills and writing her name. The teacher brought sidewalk chalk out. 

Now, this child that was hesitant or reluctant to be writing her name wasn't going to go run and grab the sidewalk chalk. The way that they did this is they set up a jumping kind of contest. The child got to jump and then they wanted to mark where they were, they grabbed the chalk, wrote the mark, and wrote their name. They wrote their name multiple times. I love that. Just putting the chalk outside is one thing and then also thinking about how can we use it.

Ariane: What incredible teachers. I want to be in that class.

Gail: I know. It was really fun. OK. Oh, somebody wants to know what a stomp rocket is.

Ariane: Oh, my gosh. OK. We'll have to follow up and put it in chat. But essentially, it's just a little toy where you can push down and then it shoots a big foam rocket up. It's a nice toy.

Gail: We've got another one. Riding name with water on the outside walls. Great, large motor.

Ariane: That is a great idea.

Gail: Yes.

Ariane: It doesn't take a lot of extra materials for that one, too. Easy to implement.

Gail: That's great. OK. Then we also thought about free play time, kind of that idea of writing your name for a turn is a good one as well as some other things. Yeah, lots of opportunities there. Then we have ... This is in your viewer's guide. And this is tips for embedded learning opportunities. We just wanted you to be aware of that in case you wanted to go a little bit deeper in thinking about embedded learning opportunities. That is something that's in your viewer's guide. People are continuing to put ideas in chat. Arrival time.

Ariane: Yes. A sign - in for arrival time, absolutely. Thank you all so much. We just had a great conversation about embedded teaching. We know sometimes we might have a preschooler or young child in our programs who needs even a little bit more support on top of embedded teaching or maybe we're doing some embedded teaching and the child has not yet really learned that skill. 

The next component in the roof, of course, is our intensive individualized teaching. Let's talk a little bit more about that. OK. Now, finally, when a child needs this intensive individualized teaching, we're going to be really intentional with this instruction, right? We're going to watch a short video here. We're going to see a teacher working with a child using a tablet to communicate. This is something that we see all the time in our inclusive preschool classrooms. As we're watching this video together, let's think a little bit, or if you would rather jot down notes in your viewer's guide, please do that. 

But we invite you to reflect on what do we notice here about this interaction with the child and the teacher? What specifically does this teacher do? Then what is the child's response? Let's look for teacher behaviors and child behaviors. The video's just under two minutes. Let's watch this, and then we'll reflect in the chat or of course, in your viewer's guide. 

[Video begins] 

Teacher: Burrito? "I.”

Tablet voice: I.

Teacher: "Want.”

Tablet voice: Want.

Teacher: What do you want? Touch the whole thing. [Indistinct talking] Tablet voice: Water.

Teacher: Water. Awesome. Can we do a sentence? Let's try. "I.”

Tablet voice: I want.

Teacher: Which one do you want?

Tablet voice: Water.

Teacher: OK.

Tablet voice: I want water.

Teacher: Oh, OK, awesome.

Teacher 2: [Indistinct] Would you like a burrito? OK. You can get one. Do you need help? No? OK. Do you need help or can you get it by yourself?

Teacher: Let's try "I.”

Tablet voice: I.

Teacher: "Want.”

Tablet voice: Want. Cup.

Teacher: Let's do the whole thing.

Tablet voice: I want cup.

Teacher 2: Oh, sure, Seth.

Teacher: A fork or a spoon? Try again. "I.”

Tablet voice: I.

Teacher 2: You saw it in a movie? Would you like to try one on the inside?

Tablet voice: Want.

Teacher 2: There's a little piece. Would you like some?

Tablet voice: I want spoon.

Teacher: Alright, Seth. Can we try a sentence?

Tablet voice: I. It's.

Teacher: Try again. "I.”

Tablet voice: I.

Teacher: "Want.”

Tablet voice: Want.

Teacher: What do you want? Which one do you want? Which one?

Tablet voice: Applesauce.

Teacher: You want applesauce. Alright.

[Video ends]

Ariane: What did we notice in that video? We obviously saw children sitting around, having snack time together. What did you notice? What were the things that those teachers or those specialists did with that child? Then what was the child's response? Reflect in the chat.

Gail: Yes, we have people already writing some things in. Teacher using hand over hand to help, we think about some very gentle physical prompting there to learn to use this new communication device, the tablet.

Ariane: Totally, and what a great example of a skill where we often do really need to be intentional about that. Individualized teaching because using a tablet to communicate is a new skill for children that are using that mode. We saw, yeah, I agree with folks here. We saw that gentle kind of physical prompting. We saw some gestures. Did anyone else notice the teacher kind of helping the child navigate? This is where the buttons are to push. This is how you push that top bar, which reads the sentence, of course, yeah. Then we saw ... We're excited about the child being able to ask for what they wanted. 

"I want applesauce. I need a cup.” I love folks reflecting on what they were noticing and somebody really emphasizing that even with this intensive individualized teaching, it's still not happening outside a routine in the classroom. We are providing this more intensive instruction during lunchtime with a child sitting at a table with all of their peers. But we are more intentional and planned around this and it often requires a little bit more kind of one - on - one support as children are learning these new objectives.

Gail: Somebody wrote in using most - to - least prompting. Isn't that amazing? Say a little bit about what that is.

Ariane: Yes, I love that reminder. Thank you so much. When we think about most - to - least prompting, we're thinking about ways in which we're providing the right amount of support for a child. Sometimes we also talk about least - to - most prompting, which when we're doing most to least, we start by being as supportive as the child might need. As we saw in that case, you would imagine that that child was learning to use that tablet to communicate. In those cases, we want to make sure that that child is successful with this new device. 

We saw a teacher be really intentional about providing the right type of prompt and giving that child a lot of help to use the device in a meaningful way to get their needs met, get their wants met during mealtime. Then kind of fading back, we saw the teacher move to just some gestures and then asking the child, using more of a verbal prompt, providing less support as the child started to become a little bit more independently, a little bit more independent, excuse me, in using that device.

Gail: That was great because we want to be ... I love that. We want them to be successful when they're learning to use this.

Ariane: Everyone wants to feel good.

Gail: Getting all that support and then really intentionally kind of fading that out and see how the child can do it independently. We love it that this is happening at the snack table in the inclusive classroom and that they're asking for something and getting reinforced by getting access to the cup or the snack. Such a great powerful video.  

Before we get into some more steps to how you might put this in place in your early learning classroom, we want to remind you that in Head Start programs, you are not alone with doing all of this in terms of providing intensive and individualized support. There is a team of people of Head Start staff who are there to support you in providing individualized teaching. You have your education managers, you have your coaches, you have your disability service coordinators. You have perhaps the early childhood special education itinerant teacher that's coming in. 

In that video that we saw, that's probably a speech therapist, a speech language pathologist that's coming in and helping support.

Ariane: We're not the only ones providing this highly intensive instruction. We've got a whole team.

Gail: A whole team, absolutely. Remember that you're not alone, and you also have a lot of resources that you can draw on. Go to that viewer's guide.

Ariane: Yeah. Another resource that, of course, we really emphasize is our partnerships with families. Now we know this is such a priority and a really crucial component of our work with all young children. We know that families are the child's first and best teacher and they know their child best, and they have much information to share with us about their child's wants and strengths and areas of growth. This is especially important when we think about children who do need that individualized support, that family partner. 

It's just really critical. We really think about ... We position families as integral to the seven steps for providing highly individualized teaching and learning for preschoolers. We also know that when we're able to collaborate with families, we're able to enhance our own cultural competence and better understand the child and the families' cultural background and their values and their priorities, which, of course, aligns with conventional practices. Really always want to emphasize and hold family close in this process.

Gail: Absolutely. Such a great resource. You talked about that we have some steps to get through this and we're going to talk about five steps that will help us think about how we can provide highly individualized teaching and learning for preschoolers with disabilities, and they might be helpful to any child that needs some extra practice on something or is having some difficulty accessing learning and thriving in the environment. Here we go. We just have some simple steps to follow, and they are in your viewer's guide as well. The first one is to assess the learning needs of the child. 

We're going to go through each of these with a little bit more detail. Then we're going to create a plan to implement curriculum modifications. Third, we gather information on individual goals and objectives. Fourth, we create a plan for embedded teaching and construct what we call an activity matrix. My guess is some people that are watching today have used these or created these. If you aren't familiar, we'll take you through how to do one of those, and then of course, it's implementing the plan. 

We're going to go with the first step. Step one is assessing the child's learning needs. This is where we part a little bit from when we think about assessment in Head Start. In Head Start, we think a lot about ongoing assessment where we might be using an instrument like teaching strategy school, for example, is doing assessment. Here we're thinking about assessment of how is the child doing throughout the day, it's a little bit different. Those other assessments come into play. 

But here, we're really thinking about throughout the child's stay in our preschool program and our Head Start program, or if they're in a home - based program, their routines during the day. We're thinking about how does the child do during those different activities, routines, and transitions. Are they successful with them? Can they do them independently? Are they really great at them? Is this a strength for them? Are they participating to their fullest ability? 

Do they need extra support to access, participate, and learn during the activity routine? Or maybe they need a little extra challenge. They're ready to have it leveled up for them. That is the first step. And you will see in your viewer's guide, and also there's a link to where you will find this that a useful tool here is the child assessment worksheet. 

Remember this is different than when we think about ongoing child assessment. This is really thinking, "OK, I have a child and I'm noticing that they're experiencing some difficulty.” Then I would start with this child assessment worksheet. The way it works is down the left - hand side ... We're going to say this a lot because we do a lot of things on the left - hand side. We're going to start with the left - hand side is the daily schedule, I'm going to actually write everything that the child does during that day. 

Then in the middle section, we write down, what are the expectations? What do I as a teacher, what do us as a teaching team, what are our expectations of what a child would be able to do during that time? I will say that when we do this, this is always a great intervention, isn't it, because sometimes the two teachers are like ...

Ariane: We might have really different ideas.

Gail: Yeah.

Ariane: Especially with circle time as we saw the video with Dr. Jung. Yeah, kids can sit on their bellies. Maybe another teacher is like, "I'm not really comfortable with that. I think that they should sit on their bottoms on their circle mat.” Yeah, great team activity.

Gail: Absolutely. Just saying can they hold hands with someone coming off the bus? Should they walk independently? Can the teacher carry that? Thinking about what are the expectations? Again, really good activity. Then once you're clear on what the expectations are, then think about, in that right - hand column, I think it's listed there as the child level of performance.

Is this, when we think about that child I have in mind, in this example, it's Erika, during that activity, is this a strain? Are they doing OK with it? They're average with it? Or is this an area of concern or a place where we might need a little bit more support? That's just where we start with this. Then you have also a blank one of these in the viewer's guide. I'll highlight that for you. Then what are we going to do?

Ariane: OK. As you know, we had a chance, we thought a little bit about our routines, how children are doing within those routines, and really where we need to provide some extra support. Because as we saw with Erika, she's doing great with some of those activities, and there are some that are more difficult. 

Next, we want to think about curriculum modification. In step two, we're going to identify those activities where we want to focus, the ones that were a little bit more difficult for that child. We want to be really intentional in defining exactly what our concern is. If we take circle time, for example, there's a lot of different things that might be challenging for a child during that routine. We want to be clear on what the concern is. Then we do a little bit of brainstorming on which type of modification feels like the right fit that will really promote that participation, that access, that active engagement, and then we plan to implement. 

Keep in mind in that viewer's packet, there's a lot more details on curriculum modifications, if you're wondering more about next steps there. As we move into step two, this is such a fantastic tool. We love this tool, use it all the time. This curriculum modification planning form helps us within this process. We see Erika's form up here. We've identified our areas of concern. We can start to brainstorm which modification is the right fit, which is going to really promote access, our participation, and learning for Erika joining that routine. 

As Gail said, everything in the left - hand column. We see the activities written down there. The ones that are challenging in this case. Then in the next column, the team has been really intentional in providing details on what exactly is the concern for this child. In the column following that, you'll notice the top header reads what modification might work. Maybe you're someone that is new to curriculum modifications. 

On the second page of this document, you'll see those acronyms or those initials defined at the bottom. In the last column, we use this to plan exactly what that's going to look like. Let's look at our first row here. We're looking at circle time, as we know, area of concern for Erika, for many other children. We heard our colleague Dr. Fung talk a little bit about different modifications during this routine. But we know the specific concern for Erika is she's a kid that's moving around on the mat and she's wanting to engage and connect with her peers. The teacher is really wondering how to support Erika. 

We thought about two modifications here. Oftentimes we do use two modifications at the same time. We thought about modifying the activity, shortening the time of circle. Sometimes our circle times are a bit long for some of our learners, and it is absolutely OK to make those a little short. We also thought about the use of special equipment and that bouncy ball for Erika to sit in because maybe she is someone that does need a little bit more of that movement. 

If I can provide her with the bouncy ball to sit on, then she can have access to that while she's at circle with her community. That's Erika's example. We've got another tool for planning. We all know. Many of us, we have these conversations about curriculum modifications with our team or we reflect on this. But we really encourage you to think about using this planning worksheet. We know the best plans, the greatest ideas are at risk of failing if we don't make this concrete plan to implement. 

Here we see Erika's team was really intentional here. They got together and they had a quick meeting. They decided their next steps for implementing this curriculum modification. We can see that different teachers are involved in different aspects of this. We can see that they were intentional about timelines, when we wanted to get these things done by, who was responsible for creating the modification. As we see here in the first row, we thought a little bit about shortening that circle time. That is a fantastic modification. We also thought a little bit about the use of the therapy ball. 

There we did need an extra material. We needed that therapy ball and we see that Angela was the teacher that was going to be responsible for that. Our goal is that we're going to have that ready to implement by next Monday. We've just kind of made a little action plan to really outline what our next steps are to ensure that in our busy, lively, active, early childhood classrooms, everything that we're all juggling as teachers, that we've been intentional about how we're going to move forward with this.

Gail: I love that. Otherwise, time goes by. "We're going to do that. We were going to make that.” Again, curriculum modifications, really small changes. They don't usually require a lot of prep work. You might, if you're going to put a visual schedule or do something that involves Velcro.

Ariane: Right or laminate, totally.

Gail: Yeah, exactly. I love that idea that we're ... If you're going to suggest a modification, you also need to make sure you know who's going to be responsible for implementing it. Our dream team of Q&A support are putting many great things in the chat that we hope everyone's paying attention to because there are entire kind of suites of materials on the different modifications.

Ariane: Yes, such great resources.

Gail: We didn't talk about all of them. We talked about eight different categories. They're all in there. It's great. OK. Let's go to step three. If the child is successful with those modifications that we've put in place and adaptations, then, great, fantastic. We want to continue to monitor, maybe start providing some extra challenges for the child. Ensure that they're continuing to thrive and use the modifications, and if they don't need the modification anymore, that's great. 

But we're also going to be thinking about a child that might need some extra support, extra practice on the learning skill. It might be learning to follow directions. Maybe we put the modification in by having some visual cues. But that's not enough. We might have to be providing extra practice on learning to follow directions as an example. Then we also know, that's where we might get some skills is from that child assessment worksheet. Then we also know that children with disabilities will have an IEP or an IFSP that has some identified goals and objectives. 

We're going to consider how we might embed those goals that they're working on into the everyday activities that they are going to be engaged with in their learning classroom. We're going to make a plan for embedding teaching. Because sometimes we have a child with multiple goals, or we have multiple children with multiple goals, and how are we going to keep track of all this?

Ariane: And organize it?

Gail: Exactly. Because we were going through that like, "OK, well, we could work on that skill during this time. We all went through that activity, and now, whoa, I've got a lot of them. How am I going to organize that?” We're going to also think about making a modify ... making an activity matrix. Before we can do a matrix, we need to think about embedded learning opportunities. Here, we're going to be thinking about what it is that we're going to teach. What is the skill we're working on? As our example, we have making requests.

That's the skill we're going to work on, making requests for food, for toys, for more of something, or an activity or an engagement, materials, or maybe I want to make a request for a turn at something. Then we think about when are we going to teach it? That's just like what we did before. What's the skill and when's a good match in our daily routines to teach that? When are we going to teach it? Here we're thinking about making requests at mealtime, at free play, at outside time. 

Then we're going to be thinking about how we're going to teach it, and this is where we're going to talk about kind of what's the prompt? That's where we started thinking about most - to - least or least - to - most prompting. Maybe it's just something like this. We're going to put a highly desired item just out of reach. The child can see it but can't reach it because then they're going to get an opportunity to make a request. Then we're going to provide some prompts if they need it. If we see them looking, but they're not yet asking ...

Ariane: Ask for a chair. "Looks like you want that shovel.”

Gail: Yes. Nice, verbal. [Laughter] Then once they do it, or an approximation of it, we're going to let them be successful and gain access to that. That is how we might do that. Now we wanted to point out that you have in the resource widget, maybe it's in the viewer's guide too. I'm trying to remember if we did that. You actually have a guide for helping you think through embedded learning opportunities. 

It's a great little assessment of am I doing this correctly? Am I implementing this correctly? Great guidance for you there on how to do embedded teaching. Alright. Because we think about that we might have children that have multiple skills that they're working on, multiple goals and objectives, we might have one child with multiple ones. We might have multiple children with multiple ones. How are we going to organize all of this? Keeping track of it because we've got busy, bustling days in classrooms. How do we organize that? We're going to walk through making an activity matrix. 

We also see that fabulous Tam has dropped in something into chat that you can resource, a resource that you can access as well. I'm excited. I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm excited to talk about the activity matrix. 

Here are some children's names and learning objectives. We have Barukh who's working on requesting items, imitating actions, copying vertical lines. M.J. is working on requesting a turn from a peer, counting objects, one to one, classifying objects. Then we have Mariam who's working on identifying words that rhyme, asking a friend to play, and writing their name. Those are all of the things that they are working on. 

We're going to - When we're thinking about creating an activity matrix, we're going to think about when might a teacher work on those learning objectives that we just listed in their learning environment. Which activities, routines, transitions, can instruction on these skills easily embedded? Just like we did that activity before where we looked at the skill and different times of the day and thought about what might be a really highly likely match, that's what we're going to do. How are we going to make a matrix?

Ariane: That's a lot. Look at the example with Mariam and Barukh and M.J. That's a lot for us to keep track, with everything else that we're balancing. Activity matrices are just such a great organizational tool. Again, it's that left column. When we start making a matrix, we want to think first about our routines and activities where children are already spending their time, what this looks like. Our example, of course, is in a classroom, but we use these oftentimes in home visiting contacts with families and home and community as well. It's not just for use in classrooms. 

But we always start with that schedule down the left - hand side. Then, we simply plug in children's names or perhaps children's initials in that top row. We would want to include the children that have these specific learning objectives. Then those intersecting cells are where we start to plug in what those objectives are, as Gail said, where it makes the most sense for us to provide that instruction. Let's look at what this looks like for Barukh and M.J. and Mariam. We have a circle in this classroom. We start off the day with a morning meeting. 

Here, Barukh has a goal around imitations with objects. Imitating actions with objects. Here, we are just going to be intentional about ensuring that every day we have things at the circle like maracas or scarves, or bean bags, where we can provide that extra practice for Barukh. M.J. is working on classifying different things and different words. Perhaps M.J. is involved in reporting the weather or looking at our classroom jobs or in talking about specific vocabulary in a book that we might be reading. 

Mariam is working on words that rhyme. As we're thinking about our circle plans, we want to be intentional about opportunities for Mariam to practice that scale as we're singing good morning or reading books together. We might be intentional about specific songs we're choosing, there's opportunities to practice that. But here we just see a really clear way that this teaching team has organized everything that's going on within this early childhood classroom, we can really be intentional about providing this instruction.

Gail: I love this. I could see that we've used it in this way, that once we kind of create this, then we got it. This one's all typed out. I've seen them written on whiteboards.

Ariane: Sticky notes. If we were doing more in - depth, we'd be able to show a lot of photos. A sticky note matrix can be nice because it's just really easy to switch out, and then sometimes we might pull that sticky note out as a reminder of like, "Oh, that's right, Mariam, we got to work on rhyming words," and then maybe I'm going to stick that inside the book I'm reading at circle.

Gail: I love that. We might have these matrices with us when we're planning the general week of activities and learning activities. We're always keeping that and being mindful about that. How will we do some kind of classification? Maybe we're going to bring out some small and some large things at circle time and have children kind of help, but every child maybe has something and sort them. OK, great. 

You don't have to type these out. You can handwrite them. We've seen them done on whiteboards where you just kind of make a little matrix on a whiteboard. I love the Post - It Notes. That's great. We wanted you to know that you also have a blank activity matrix available to you in the resource widget. There's links to it in the viewer's guide, but they're not difficult to make. We've given you a blank one, but we're pretty sure, as long as you keep kind of the daily schedule down the left - hand side, and across the top are the different children's names, and you have to check. 

Maybe you want to just put their initials. Some programs want to just have those initials on there because you really want to have this in the classroom with you, might want to use initials to kind of protect a child's privacy. Then you're writing down maybe a little bit about how you're going to teach that, not only what the objective is but how you're going to teach that in there. That's how you do that. 

Ariane: Our last step is a fun step. We've done all this work, we've assessed a child, we've really thought deeply about activities that might be challenging. We've thought about if this is a good fit for a curriculum modification, or if the child might need a little bit more help with embedded learning. We're going to do our plan. We're going to implement our plan. We're going to use all of those forms to start to get to work with the children on these objectives. Then we're going to reflect to see if the child is making progress. 

Are they learning these things that we've worked been working on? Sometimes we see progress right away. It's exciting, and that's fantastic. Let's celebrate that as a team and maybe move to a new goal. Sometimes, we might be looking at our data and reflecting on a child's participation and notice that the child is not making the progress that we would really like to see. There's kind of two approaches to that. Number one, we always have to reflect back on like, "Oh, gosh, did we actually implement the plan?” 

With many things going on in our lively early childhood classrooms and in settings and families' homes, sometimes we just need to go back and make sure we're following that plan and the child is having those opportunities. In other cases, we might need to provide additional support. Maybe it's more opportunities for the child to practice or learn this skill, or maybe the child does need even more intensive instruction.

Gail: I was peeking ahead to our viewer's guide here. We have our section called the Teacher Toolbox. Please make sure to print out your viewer's guide from the resource widget because your viewer's guide has a link to all of these Teacher Toolbox ideas in addition to all of the many charts that we shared.

Ariane: Yes. We shared many tools.

Gail: We have lots of charts in there. You got those all in your viewer's guide. Our amazing kind of Q&A team is dropping all kinds of links and resources in the chat there and lots of really great ideas. You've got a lot of things. We wanted to highlight a couple other things. You have the Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center Practice Improvement tool practice guides. We have links to those there. They are excellent.

Ariane: Incredible resources.

Gail: We use them a lot, go to those a lot. You have the embedded learning opportunities training module at Head Start Center for Inclusion. Then we have an exciting thing, which is the Inclusion app. This is amazing. You're going to see - Hopefully you've already downloaded this. 

If you haven't, go to wherever you get your apps and download the Inclusion Lab app. This is an app that you can use that helps you to kind of move through those steps that we just talked about in supporting a child with a disability in your inclusive classroom. You'll even see one of the videos that we showed is even on there. There's other videos.

Ariane: Great examples of these things in action. It's nice to be able to go back and look at that as a team.

Gail: Yeah. That is Sol, the sea horse. We love Sol, the sea horse, and shout - out to Jen Fung and her daughter for coming up with Sol, the sea horse, that we really love. Now it is one of this has been our favorite time. But now we get to go to the Teacher Time Library. I was there earlier this week and captured a little video with our Teacher Time librarian, Emily Small, who is going to help make the BookCASE for one of these books. 

All of these books are about inclusive environments. We thought that they would be really good to highlight for today's segment. Enjoy our BookCASE. 

[Video begins] 

Gail: Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Teacher Time Library, and we are joined here today with our teacher Time librarian, Emily Small.

Emily Small: Thanks again for having me.

Gail: We love having you and love all the books that you bring to us. If you're just new in Teacher Time land and joining us for the first time, you might not be familiar with The BookCASE, let's talk about what The BookCASE is. The BookCASE is actually an acronym that helps us think intentionally about the books that we select and the ways in which we use books to help young children learn in our early learning settings. 

CASE is the acronym, C stands for connection, thinking about where is there a connection between the book that I'm going to read and an ELOF goal? The next is A for advanced vocabulary. What are the advanced vocabulary words I can teach young children from this book? Maybe it's a word actually in the book, or maybe it's a word I think of when I look at the pictures that I want to introduce to young children. 

S stands for supporting engagement. How do I support engagement with young children while I'm reading the book? Then E is for extension. How can I extend the learning beyond the book? When we're done reading the book, is there an activity or something that we can do that keeps that learning fresh? Emily, you've brought several books with us. I can't wait to hear what they are about, and you're going to make the case for one of them.

Emily: Yes. There are cases for all of them in your viewer's guide, but we're just going to talk briefly about four and then dive deep into one.

Gail: Excellent.

Emily: These are all books about inclusion.

Gail: Yay! Excellent. That's our topic.

Emily: Our first one is "Every Body: A Celebration of Diverse Abilities," and this features photographs of children. Let me show you a page. One of my favorite things about this book is that the small white text is actually quotes from the children in the photographs.

Gail: I love it.

Emily: A few of the fantastic photos.

Gail: Beautiful photos. Diverse children, diverse backgrounds, diverse abilities. Then I remember you saying it's really important for children to have exposure to fiction and nonfiction books, and this is a great nonfiction.

Emily: This is a great nonfiction one that reads very easily and doesn't feel like nonfiction.

Gail: Excellent. Great. OK, "Every Body.”

Emily: "Every Body.” Then we have "Wepa," which this is in English and in Spanish, English and Spanish on the same page. Well, same page spread, you can choose which language you're reading it in.

Gail: Excellent.

Emily: This is about a little girl who has a lot of extra energy and is figuring out how to navigate her body in this world.

Gail: Excellent. What a cool book. I love that, the English and Spanish on the same spread. Cool.

Emily: That's "Wepa.”

Gail: Great colors.

Emily: Yes.

We have "My Brain Is Magic: A Sensory Seeking Celebration," and this is about a little girl who's very sensory - driven and is looking for different ways to get that sensory need filled.

Gail: I love that, and what a great phrasing, "My brain is magic.”

Emily: Yes. We have "A Day with No Words.” This is you're going throughout the day with this child who's using a tablet to communicate. This one has gorgeous illustrations as well. Let's see.

Gail: They are great.

Emily: Yeah. Just a few of them.

Gail: They're using an augmentative communication device to get in there. Excellent. Love it.

Emily: Then the one we are making the case for together is "Just Ask!" by Sonia Sotomayor and it's illustrated by Rafael Lopez. This is also available in Spanish.

Gail: OK. I love this. "Be Different, Be Brave, Be You.”

Emily: Yes. This one starts based on Sonia Sotomayor's ... I should say Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Gail: I was wondering. It's the same one, yes.

Emily: Same one. Starts a little bit about her childhood and being diagnosed with diabetes. Then we look at other children and what their abilities are. One of the great things about it is that it has open - ended questions that you could use to ask your class.

Gail: Love those sort of questions.

Emily: This is connected to the ELOF in terms of approaches to learning for children's main unique abilities and strengths. Then we have fantastic novel words in this book, such as diabetes, autism, blind, allergies. Yes, fantastic vocabulary. I already mentioned the open - ended questions, but you could use those to support children's engagement, as well as this book, you could just read one page and then stop. You don't have to read it from beginning to end, which is another way, being aware of the kids' needs, and maybe they're wiggly that day and they're just kind of done.

Gail: It's great.

Emily: Then I think for extending the learning, you could do self - portraits and write a little bio about every child.

Gail: That would be great and having them ... I love that there's some of those open - ended questions like, "How do you move from space to space?” Everybody can talk about the different ways in which somebody might run or skip. Somebody might roll, different ways that they go. I love that. You could even think about that being part of that self - portrait.

Emily: Yes, absolutely.

Gail: Thank you so much for bringing these books and check out your viewer's guide because you have that extensive case about all of these wonderful books that you're going to want to get at your library and put them in your BookCASE in your early learning programs. Thank you.

Emily: Thanks for having me. 

[Video ends] 

Gail: That's fun.

Ariane: Great resources. Those books, "A Day with No Words" is a big favorite in my house with my preschoolers.

Gail: Love it. Then just a reminder that you can get the whole case for all of these and check out our back episodes of The BookCASE. They're great. There was that lovely BookCASE. We are running to the end here, but we want to take just a moment to remind you that it is all about you. We want you to be healthy and well because this work is hard. We started with that wonderful mother talking about how important the work is that you do.

We want you to be able to be healthy and well and do this work for a long time. I thought that today's tip, since we talked about that you're not in this work alone and that you have a support team that supports young children, we wanted to say, “hey, let's reflect and see, do we have our own personal support team?” There's three relationships that are important to have on your own support team. This is just a time to check in and say, "Do I have somebody that fills each of these roles?” 

One is that emotional support person. Do you have that person that loves you unconditionally, that is always there to hear you? I was just thinking about my brother texting me last night and he's like, "Are you open for venting?” Or something like that, and I was like, "Yeah," you've got to have this emotional support person in your life. The other support person you need is an instrumental support person, and that means somebody that can help you out when you need it. 

This is somebody that can pick your child up from childcare, if something happened to you and you're running late and couldn't get there, somebody that might be able to get groceries for you if you were ill, somebody that might be able to help you with shoveling your walk, whatever it is. Just having who is that person that can kind of be my emergency contact in kind of non - emergency contact that's instrumental? That might not be the same person that's your emotional person. 

Gail: I've got some great emotionally supportive friends, but I would not count on them to...

Ariane: Or maybe your emotionally supportive friends are in a different geographic location, and they can't come and water your plants or let your dog out, whatever needs to happen.

Gail: I know this might seem kind of silly and obvious, but maybe you recently moved and you don't know your neighbors yet or anything. It's just a good reminder who is that instrumental kind of backup person that can help you stay healthy and well by easing some of the stress you might have by being that backup? Then the third relationship is that mentoring one. Who is mentoring you in your career, in your life and finding that mentoring person. 

That mentoring person might not be, again, the same emotional person or the instrumental person. You can find all these things in one person or you can find three different people. But it's just time to kind of take a check and say, "Do I have somebody in each of those categories?” I'm thinking about it right now. Do I have somebody in each of those? If you do, great. We actually have even a space in your viewer's guide to note that person, think about writing them, extending some gratitude to them that "you are on my support team.” 

If you don't have that person, think about who that might be and reach out and start building that exceptional relationship with them because they might be looking for that as well. With that, we want to ... Before you sign off, everybody, super want to thank you. But we also want to hear from you. What other topics are you interested in learning more about with "Teacher Time"? We are gearing up for the next season of "Teacher Time.” 

If there are things that you want to know more about that you know that your educational colleagues want to know more about, any suggestions for us, please put that in the chat right now. We are seriously going to take this. It will guide what we're going to do next. Take some time and let us know. While you're taking time letting us know that, thank you.

Ariane: Oh, the pleasure was mine.

Gail: It's fun.

Ariane: Thanks to all the folks who were able to join us today. Everyone's balancing so much. You provide this instrumental and mentoring and emotional support to the children and families that you're working with. It's just such a pleasure to be here.

Gail: Thank you for sharing your time and your expertise. I'm lucky to call you a colleague and a friend. Great. OK, well, with that, we're going to say goodbye for the end of our "Teacher Time" season and shout - out to the best producer ever, Ryan, who's behind the camera here. OK. Bye, everyone.

Ariane: Thank you so much. Thank you.