While engaged in The Kindergarten Program, young children begin to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes that will assist them in making positive life choices. Team members provide the opportunities for children to demonstrate their learning through a wide variety of dynamic, authentic and relevant instructional strategies that will meet the needs of all learners.
It is particularly important in the early years to use rich, language-oriented activities and resources that are relevant and meaningful to the lives of young children. In this way, the program will provide ample opportunities for thinking, problem solving and experimenting. Listening to stories and other kinds of texts enables children to learn new words and extend their experiences, and helps them become familiar with the patterns, rhythms and structures of language. Ophea's Early Learning Resource includes the following teaching/learning strategies:
- family/caregiver involvement;
- idea generating;
- learning centres;
- modelling;
- direct teaching;
- literature links; and
- role-playing.
Early Learning-Kindergarten team members should also endeavour to provide children with positive, successful experiences in a wide range of physical activities. Appropriate experiences should emphasize fun, play, success, cooperation and self-fulfillment. Activities should meet the needs and interests of all children and should be structured to enable maximum participation (e.g., minimize waiting for turns, provide sufficient equipment, choose appropriate activities). Children need opportunities to practise and repeat activities to improve their skills. Vary teaching styles to assist children in becoming independent learners.
Some of the common teaching strategies used in this document include the following:
- Command Style (e.g., “When I say ‘go,’ you…”)
- Demonstration and Exploration (e.g., “Try this…”, “What other ways can you…”)
- Discovery and Exploration (e.g., “How many ways can you…”)
- Guided Discovery (e.g., “Balance with three body parts touching the ground.”)
- Teaching by Task (e.g., “At each station, read the card, look at the picture and do the task.”)
- Problem Solving (e.g., “Move from the red line to the black line while keeping the ball away from your partner.”)
Differentiated Instruction
Differentiated instruction considers each child as an individual by taking into account his or her own unique needs and current stage of development and then offering appropriate teaching strategies that meet those needs. Differentiated instruction is based on the premise that equity of opportunity is not achieved through equal treatment. Rather, it recognizes that there are many ways to learn, that all children learn differently, and that therefore, children must be provided with learning opportunities accordingly to best help them succeed.
Adapted from Growing Success, (2010), p. 146, Ontario Ministry of Education, © Queen’s Printer for Ontario, 2009.
Responding to the needs of individual children does not require the creation of individual teaching and learning plans. Rather, differentiated instruction offers children a choice from a limited range of options. Teams may wish to group children according to their learning preferences and provide a few different ways to process new material.
Adapted from Start Where They Are: Differentiating for Success with the Young Adolescent, (2008), p. 13, Karen Hume, Pearson Education Canada.
Take the following into consideration when determining whether to use specific differentiated instructional strategies:
- type of information and/or knowledge being taught: declarative knowledge (i.e., concepts and facts) may be best served by one approach, while procedural knowledge (i.e., strategies and skills) may be best served by another;
- depth of understanding of individual children’s readiness to learn new concepts and their individual learning preferences; and
- familiarity and comfort with the various differentiated instructional strategies.
Adapted from Start Where They Are: Differentiating for Success with the Young Adolescent, (2008), p. 161, Karen Hume, Pearson Education Canada.
