Review

Learning Goals: Big Day for PreK™ provides measurable, developmentally appropriate learning goals throughout its curriculum materials. The Professional Handbook describes "Pathways to Readiness" with goals for pre-emergent, beginning, emerging, and developed skills. Furthermore, each Teaching Guide ends with a "Knowledge, Skills, and Concepts" chart that summarizes the learning goals covered in that unit. All learning activities in the Teaching Guides specify learning goals, and the learning activities support children in making progress toward these learning goals. The curriculum lacks guidance on how to use the learning goals with diverse children or how to use the learning goals to individualize learning experiences for all children.

Learning Goals: The curriculum specifies measurable, developmentally appropriate learning goals in the Teacher's Handbook, Formative Assessment book, and within each Unit. The learning activities support children in making progress toward these learning goals. The curriculum provides an example of how a child's Individualized Education Program goals align with Assessment, Evaluation Programming System (AEPS) objectives for a specific learning experience. However, it lacks guidance on how to use the curriculum's learning goals to individualize learning experiences for all children.

Learning Goals: The curriculum specifies learning goals and specific skills for each goal within content area chapters of the Handbook. The skills are presented in order of difficulty, with easier skills preceding more complex ones. Most of the learning goals are measurable; and while many are developmentally appropriate, some goals are too advanced for preschool children (e.g., distinguish objects of the more "recent past" from objects of the "distant past;" use a simplified, illustrated telephone listing). Overall, the "Teaching Ideas" and "Cross-Curricular Connections" would support children in making progress toward the learning goals within each content area. However, the learning goals are not explicitly integrated or connected with these learning experiences. In addition, the curriculum lacks guidance on how to use the learning goals to individualize learning experiences for all children.

Learning Goals: Volume 6: Objectives for Development & Learning: Birth Through Third Grade specifies the curriculum's 38 measurable, developmentally appropriate learning goals. It also describes how to use the learning goals when working with children with disabilities or children who are DLLs. The objectives are integrated throughout many of the curriculum's materials. For example, the Intentional Teaching Cards specify objectives and provide learning experiences to support children's progress towards these goals.

Learning Goals: The Child Assessment Tool provided in the Teacher's Manual identifies measurable, developmentally appropriate objectives that serve as learning goals for each of the curriculum's domains. In addition, the front matter of each Theme Guide provides a visual map that organizes the objectives by the domains identified in the curriculum. While the learning activities support children in making progress toward the learning goals, the goals are not explicitly integrated or connected with the activities. In addition, the curriculum lacks guidance on how to use learning goals to individualize learning experiences for all children.

Learning Goals: The Volumes identify developmentally appropriate "objectives" by learning domain at the beginning of each unit. Some of the objectives are stated as measurable learning goals (e.g., identify name in print, classify by color), but many are not measurable (e.g., recognize the value of transportation in society, be exposed to children's literature and cultures from around the world). Objectives are not consistently addressed within the units. While most learning activities described in the Volumes would support children in making progress toward the objectives listed, some objectives are not addressed within the unit's lesson plans. In addition, the curriculum lacks guidance on how to use the learning goals to individualize learning experiences for all children.

Learning Goals: Galileo® Pre-K integrates measurable, developmentally appropriate learning goals throughout its curriculum materials. The Curriculum Guidebook presents the learning goals in a scope and sequence that is organized by domain, age group, and time of year in which the skills are to be addressed for typically developing children. Furthermore, each of the G3 Activities and G3 Storyteller Activities specifies relevant learning goals. The learning activities support children in making progress toward most of these learning goals. The curriculum provides specific guidance and support for using learning goals to individualize learning experiences for all children. For example, teachers input individual children's assessment data into the online Galileo G3 Assessment Scales (G3 Assessment Scales), and the online system helps teachers create lesson plans with activities that focus on learning goals that match children's individual needs. In addition, G3 Lesson Plans include goals at multiple levels of difficulty so they can be used with children from ages 3 to 5, as well as children who have disabilities or other special needs. The curriculum also includes English language acquisition goals, by skill level, to support children who are DLLs.

Learning Goals: The KDIs are the curriculum's measurable, developmentally appropriate learning goals in all eight content areas of the curriculum. The KDIs are integrated throughout many of the curriculum's materials, which provide teaching practices and learning experiences to support children's progress toward these goals. The KDIs can be used to individualize learning experiences for all children.

Learning Goals: The DLM Early Childhood Express® specifies learning goals at the beginning of each thematic unit as well as embedding them throughout the lesson plans. The learning goals are measurable, and while many are developmentally appropriate, some goals are too advanced for preschool children (e.g., child recites numbers from one to 30, child produces most common sound for a given letter). Overall, the learning activities in the Teacher's Editions support children in making progress toward these learning goals. The curriculum lacks guidance on how to use the learning goals with diverse children or how to use the learning goals to individualize learning experiences for all children.

Learning Goals: Welcome to Frog Street provides "Prekindergarten Guidelines," which are the curriculum's measurable, developmentally appropriate learning goals. All learning activities in the Teacher Guides specify learning goals, both from the "Prekindergarten Guidelines" as well as from the ELOF. Overall, the learning activities support children in making progress toward these learning goals. The curriculum provides modified activities to help younger learners or children with disabilities make progress toward the learning goals. It also provides specific learning goals and teaching practices embedded throughout the Teacher Guides to support children who are DLLs.

Learning Goals: The Assessment and Planning CD specifies "Frog Street Threes Learning Outcomes," which are measurable and developmentally appropriate learning goals. They are the same goals included in the ELOF. All activities and practice centers in the Teaching Guides specify the learning outcomes. Overall, the learning activities support children in making progress toward learning goals. The Welcome to Frog Street Threes introductory guide provides some information on differentiated instruction, such as adjusting expectations, modifying instruction, and allowing children to participate in various ways. This guidance supports teachers in individualizing learning goals and allowing children to take different paths to reach learning goals.

Learning Goals: The curriculum specifies learning objectives that are fully embedded within the curriculum. A majority of these learning goals are measurable and developmentally appropriate, and specific learning experiences are designed to support each objective. The curriculum provides learning objectives and experiences for 4-year-olds, and a parallel set of objectives and learning experiences modified for learners of different abilities. Objectives and learning experiences provide scaffolded lessons for 3-year-olds and those in need of extra support; extension activities focused on kindergarten standards for advanced learners; and suggestions and pre-teaching strategies for children acquiring English. 

Learning Goals: The Planning and Assessment Teacher's Guide with Professional Development Handbook lists measurable, developmentally appropriate learning goals organized by the domains of learning and development. Each of the learning centers and small and large group activities specifies the learning goals supported in the activities. Overall, most of the learning activities support children in making progress towards these learning goals. However, the curriculum lacks guidance on how to use the learning goals with diverse children or how to use the learning goals to individualize for all children.

Learning Goals: Pre K for ME specifies learning goals that are measurable, developmentally appropriate, and organized by the domains of learning and development within the  Pre K for ME Curriculum Guiding Documents (Guiding Documents). The curriculum uses the Maine standards as its learning goals. However, these standards are not consistently addressed within the units. For example, a number of standards do not have an associated learning experience. Likewise, some learning experiences and lesson plans do not mention the related standards. In addition, the curriculum lacks guidance on how to use the learning goals to individualize learning experiences for all children.

Learning Goals: The curriculum specifies measurable, developmentally appropriate goals for children's learning and development that are integrated throughout the curriculum. Within the Teacher Guides, learning goals are specified in relation to each of the Learning Centers and Small and Large Group activities, and the learning activities support children in making progress toward these learning goals. However, the curriculum lacks guidance on how to use the learning goals with diverse children or how to adjust the learning goals to individualize learning experiences based on strengths and needs.

Learning Goals: The curriculum specifies measurable, developmentally appropriate goals for children's learning and development. Within the Teacher Guides, learning goals are specified in relation to each of the Learning Centers and Small and Large Group activities. The learning activities support children in making progress toward these learning goals. However, the curriculum lacks guidance on how to use the learning goals with diverse children or how to adjust the learning goals to individualize learning experiences based on strengths and needs.

Learning Goals: Tools of the Mind^® specifies measurable, developmentally appropriate goals for children's learning and development. The goals concentrate mainly on children's underlying cognitive skills (self-regulation, focused attention, and deliberate memory), social-emotional school readiness (e.g., emotional and behavioral self-control), and foundational skills in literacy and mathematics. Each activity in the Training Manual provides a list of learning goals ("Purpose"), the rationale for the activity, and a "What to Expect—Developmental Learning Trajectories" chart showing the developmental continuum of skills across ages. Overall, the learning activities in the curriculum support children in making progress toward these goals. Building on the Vygotskian approach to teaching, the curriculum's activities provide scaffolding strategies to support children in reaching the goals ("Zooming in on the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)"). The curriculum also provides the Tools of the Mind^® Training: Additional Scaffolds Appendix Pre-K Manual, 7^th Edition (Additional Scaffolds Appendix Manual) with individual scaffolds for children who need more support in reaching the learning goals and for children who are DLLs.