Kindergarten: A Teacher, Her Students, and a Year of Learning

by Diamond, Julie

  Center on Educational Policy

  Central Park art trip (Christo’s Gates project)

  Central Park East School

  Chabon, Michael

  characteristics of good teachers

  attention to detail/and capacity to notice

  capacity for self-criticism

  capacity for uncertainty

  empathy

  identifying with children

  intellectual engagement and curiosity

  intellectual independence/ autonomy

  maturity

  trust/faith in themselves

  trusting children (faith in children)

  valuing childhood

  the will for connectedness

  Charney, Ruth

  and “authentic teaching”

  on faith in children’s learning

  and moral dimensions of classroom routines

  and teachers’ ”courage to admit failure,”

  and teachers’ moral responsibilities

  on trust

  The Child and the Curriculum (Dewey)

  Children and Their Primary Schools, A Report of the Central Advisory Council for Education

  classroom, organization of

  artwork and documentation of children’s work

  defining the classroom as laboratory/workshop

  furniture and its functions

  initial emptiness/spare appearance

  Isaacs’s classroom

  making a plan on paper

  classroom culture

  and art projects

  conditions necessary to forming

  end of year reflections

  and rituals initiated by children

  classroom metaphors

  as clues

  and everyday classroom activities

  how spontaneous metaphors arise

  and individual children’s interests/ characteristics

  making paper casts (Caroline’s broken arm)

  making use of

  and play

  teachers’ responsibility to notice

  themes of change and transformation

  Click Club

  Coalition of Essential Schools

  Cochran-Smith, Marilyn

  Cohen, Dorothy

  collaborative teaching

  and alternative schools

  in contrast to dominant models of staff development

  intellectual autonomy and teachers’ confidence

  and Reggio schools

  and teacher development

  collage projects. See also art projects

  A Color of His Own (Lionni)

  “Comments on Language by a Silent Child” (Weber)

  competition in classrooms

  The Courage of Sarah Noble (Dalgliesh)

  Cruz-Acosta, Louisa

  Cuffaro, Harriet

  curriculum, finding (“emergent curriculum”)

  and art instruction

  attending to children’s understanding of a subject

  and children’s exuberance/feelings of connection

  and children’s readiness to identify and imagine

  in contrast to mandated standards/ learning objectives

  defining “authentic” work/tasks

  determining developmental appropriateness

  and Dewey’s definition of education as a process

  differences from traditional methods

  how children’s questions provide information about their thinking

  and importance of teachers’ shared talk/collaboration

  noticing children’s thinking processes/theory-making

  noticing when learning is not occurring

  and progressive education and respect for children’s thinking

  the “psychological reality” of children/“logical reality” of adult disciplines

  and relationship among children, teacher, and content

  and social/emotional aspects of children’s functioning

  teachers’ roles

  topics that resonate for children

  See also squirrel study

  Dahl, Roald

  Democracy and Education (Dewey)

  democratic school environments

  Dewey, John

  education and the social group/ social control

  on educational values

  and “psychological reality” of children/“logical reality” of adult disciplines

  dictation as tool

  “difficult” children

  categorizing/labeling as

  and seeing children as unique individuals

  teachers’ narrative accounts of

  See also Henry’s story (a “difficult” child)

  Dinkmeyer, Don

  documentation

  children’s drawings

  children’s journals

  for parents/families

  portfolios and “whole language” approach to literacy

  and Reggio schools’ educational philosophy

  sending home work files at end of school year

  and understanding children’s thinking/learning styles

  dreams, talking about

  Dreikurs, Rudolf

  Duckworth, Eleanor

  Dyasi, Hubert

  Dyson, Anne

  Encouraging Children to Learn (Dinkmeyer and Dreikurs)

  Encouraging Creativity in Art Lessons (Szekely)

  “The End” (Milne)

  end of the school year

  accepting “what’s left unsaid,”

  ambivalent feelings (of teachers/ students)

  and classroom metaphors

  final rug meeting

  June events and activities

  the necessary sense of incompleteness

  packing up the room (rituals of)

  poor planning/not finishing book reading

  reflections on the class

  thinking about the next school year

  visiting a first-grade class

  England, progressive educational reforms in

  English as a second language

  Experience and Education (Dewey)

  fairy tales

  faith in children. See trusting children (faith in children)

  Feiffer, Jules

  Filippini, Tiziana

  Firsenbaum, Phil

  first-grade classrooms/teachers

  Fish Is Fish (Lionni)

  folk tales

  Freeman, Hollee

  Freire, Paulo

  Friday Letter to Families

  Gallas, Karen

  and children’s narratives

  and children’s theory-making

  on classrooms

  and literacy learning

  on mandated curricula/preplanned units of study

  on tasks as teacher-researcher

  and teachers’ narratives

  and teachers’ use of language

  gender differences

  behavioral problems

  sexual division of teaching profession

  teasing behavior

  transgressive classroom rituals

  undersea animals studied

  girls. See gender differences

  good teachers. See characteristics of good teachers

  Graves, Robert

  Greene, Maxine

  Greenfield Center School (Greenfield, Massachusetts)

  Grob, Betsy

  Guggenheim Museum

  Hall, Arshea (assistant teacher)

  children’s discussion of her pregnancy

  children’s relationship with

  pregnancy leave

  Hanlon, Ginger

  Harvard School of Education

  “The Having of Wonderful Ideas” (Duckworth)

  Hawkins, Frances

  Heckedy Peg (Wood)

  Henry’s story (a “difficult” child)

  art work

  challenging the teacher’s authority

  concentration abilities

  early social isolation

>   at end of school year (changes in his behavior)

  eye contact

  first impressions of Henry (beginning of school year)

  and group activities

  increased reliance on the teacher

  increased social interaction

  making his own progress/choosing his own role

  measuring the rug with Amina

  observations of Henry’s purposeful actions

  parents/family

  parent-teacher conferences

  physical appearance

  projects and love of building things/ making things

  recommendation for psychological evaluation

  resistance to assigned activities

  scribbling on tables and floor

  “sneaky” behavior/secrecy

  and sociability expectations for five- and six-year olds

  social behavior

  writing skills

  Hey, Get Off Our Train (Burningham)

  Imagination and Literacy (Gallas)

  individuality, children’s

  and art work/aesthetic judgments

  and classroom metaphors

  giving space to develop individual passions

  and goals for the school year

  literacy and different language styles

  literacy teaching and individual needs

  and points of view in writing and drawing

  and teachers’ tasks of observation

  understanding unique capacities of individual children

  Insight (Educational Development Center)

  intellectual autonomy, teachers’

  Intellectual Growth in Young Children (Isaacs)

  Isaacs, Susan

  on classroom rituals

  research on school environments and social/cognitive development

  and standardized testing/ measurements

  on teachers’ responsibilities in relation to children’s behavior

  journal writing

  Kantrowitz, Andrea (art instructor)

  Kasarjian, Linda

  Kellam, Gwyn

  “Keziah” (Brooks)

  language acquisition. See also literacy (teaching reading and writing)

  The Languages of Learning (Gallas)

  The Learning Child (Cohen)

  learning disabilities

  Asperger’s

  and Henry’s social isolation

  and language processing

  “Leaving the Rest Unsaid” (Graves)

  library, classroom

  alphabet books

  beginning reading books

  books about babies

  books about squirrels

  books marked with Post-it notes

  books that engage children

  children’s participation in organizing

  Lionni, Leo

  listening. See also talk, children’s

  literacy (teaching reading and writing)

  activities that teach letter-sound associations

  alphabet activities

  and Ashton-Warner

  assessing difficulties in language processing

  and attitudes transmitted by teachers’ language

  and children’s purposes in writing

  choosing books/forging personal ties to reading

  and curriculum guides from 1950s–1980s,

  determining individual needs

  dictation as tool (recording children’s stories)

  and English as a second language

  explicit instruction

  first words/“key” or “organic vocabulary,”

  focusing on real things/real experiences

  helping children gain confidence

  and individual language styles

  “instructional detours,”

  journal writing

  language acquisition/development

  and “language arts”

  and listening

  literacy goals

  morning messages

  name cards

  name lists

  names and other words

  noticing books/topics that engage children

  and programmed literacy instruction

  reading

  repetition and learning to write numerals/letters

  responding to themes in literature

  and talk (language in the classroom)

  talking about books

  teachers’ roles

  teachers’ trust/faith in themselves

  transcription of children’s talk/ discussions

  Weber’s insights

  weekly secret code words

  word cards

  writing as communication

  writing folders

  writing rooted in experiences

  writing skills and different levels of knowledge

  See also books read to the class; library, classroom

  Little Blue and Little Yellow (Lionni)

  Little Red Riding Hood

  The Logic of Action (Hawkins)

  Lon Po Po

  Malaguzzi, Loris

  “managing” a class

  “authentic teaching”

  and authority as teachers

  and children’s quarrels/fights

  confusing a teaching style with adult passivity

  “harness and harangue”

  reflecting on one’s mistakes

  seeking effective techniques (selfmanagement)

  material rewards in classrooms

  math

  calendar

  classroom area for

  counting

  counting days of school

  and hundredth day of school

  materials

  measuring

  and patterns of leaves and animals

  surveys of graphs

  time

  year’s work in

  Meier, Deborah

  mid-school year

  adapting to new student teacher/ new assistant

  assessing the class at mid-year

  baby study project

  celebrating one-hundredth day of school

  changes in structure of activities/ children’s work modes

  managing quarrels/fights