Transforming Our Experience into Skills and Dispositions
Prepare for the discussion
The Skills and Dispositions discussion is your opportunity to demonstrate your ability with the objectives below:
a. Explain how children are being raised and supported through the various types of households and family groupings.
b. Recognize the relationships between respectful family and community engagement and children's social identity development.
c. Reflect on the knowledge, skills and dispositions required to respond appropriately to aspects of family diversity - such as race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, culture, family composition, religion, age, ability and home language.
Initial Post
Family involvement is one predictor to successful school partnerships and educational outcomes for young children. In Week 2 we are exploring the role of family support in a child's learning and development. We must consider diverse family structures and practices, which may be different than our own. Diverse families might include various family structures, grandparents as parents, single parents, gay or lesbian parents as well as foster families. Further, the supports that these different family structures might provide are essential ingredients to early childhood development.
Share your reflections on the importance and role of family support in a child's learning and development. In your initial post, addressing the following:
- How do your professional experiences with diverse families impact the way that you interact, or will interact with children and their families?
- Expound on the skills and dispositions that are required to successfully engage families in respectful and inclusive ways. Classify at least two skills and two dispositions you believe are necessary for this to occur.
- Employ the required (and recommended) resources to assist you in your discussion together.
Guided Response
Review the posts of several classmates. Respond to at least two other partner groups by reacting to their ideas on what skills and dispositions are necessary, as well as any shared experiences. Please respond thoughtfully by asking questions, comparing your own post to your classmates, or sharing new ideas or resources.
Though two replies are the basic expectation, for deeper engagement and learning, you are encouraged to provide responses to any comments or questions others have given to you (including the instructor) before the last day of the discussion. This will further the conversation while also giving you opportunities to demonstrate your content expertise, critical thinking, and real work experiences with this topic.
Supporting Healthy Social Identity Formation
Prepare for the discussion
- Read all assigned texts and web resources PRIOR to posting in the discussion.
- Put yourself in the shoes of the child in this vignette: Imagine that you are a child whose family/home practices are not valued in your early childhood center. Your parents work long hours so you are at the center from 7am to 5pm everyday. No one in the center shares your home language and you don't see any familiar items that you would see at home on the shelves of your classroom.
Initial Post
a. Discuss how you think this center's approach and environment impact the child described in the vignette. How does the child feel?
o What does the child learn about his or her family culture, language and practices when these are not validated or respected?
o How does this impact the child's social identity formation?
o Have you experienced something similar in your own life?
b. In what ways could this center and its staff support healthy social identity formation through the ways they interact with families and/or prepare our classroom environments?
c. Connect your own ideas to this week's assigned readings. DO NOT write a summary of the readings or web resources. DO write your own thoughts and then make connections to the text and other sources.
Guided Response
Review the posts of several classmates. Respond to at least two peers by reacting to their ideas and experiences around social identity development. Share a story from your experience that is related to the ideas posted by your classmates. Please respond thoughtfully by asking questions, comparing your own post to your classmates, or sharing new ideas or resources.
Though two replies are the basic expectation, for deeper engagement and learning, you are encouraged to provide responses to any comments or questions others have given to you (including the instructor) before the last day of the discussion. This will further the conversation while also giving you opportunities to demonstrate your content expertise, critical thinking, and real work experiences with this topic.