Running head: OBSERVATION #2 PLANNING 1

Observation #2 Planning

Allison Gerlach

Raritan Valley Community College

Professor Kimberly Schirner

October 15, 2018

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EDUC 212 Foundations of Education

I. Observation #2:
Planning

II. Grade Level and Subject Area:

Preschool II

III. Setting:
The classroom is in a childcare department that is a part of the Somerset Hills
YMCA. The class is comprised of 20 children ages 4-5 years old typically. The
day that I was in the classroom, there were only 16 children (11 girls and 5 boys).
There are two teachers in the room. There are three other classrooms of younger
children in the childcare department.

IV. Pre-Observation:
Before my observation of the teachers’ lesson plan meeting, I expect to
that they will be using NJ Preschool Teaching and Learning Standards to guide
their planning. Even if they are using a unique curriculum in their preschool, this
will help them to prepare their students for kindergarten next year. The standards
not only provide suggestions for ways to implement these goals in lesson plans,
but they also give advice of effective teaching methods (New Jersey State
Department of Education, 2014). Additionally, I think that I will see an influence
of wellness and healthy lifestyle lessons in their lesson plans because the Y is so
heavily focused on instilling that in their young people (Focus and Core Values).
I also expect that there will be definitely be an aspect of collaboration in
lesson planning because this is a co-teaching classroom. Because they have
worked together for a while, I expect their teamwork to be smooth. I also assume
that within the child care department there is an element of collaboration between
classrooms. The students in Preschool II have all been enrolled in the younger
classes in the past, so I expect that the teachers would use the knowledge of the
other staff to help them if there was an issue. Through my research I learned that
collaboration is so important to a school. When teachers collaborate, they are
sharing ideas, strategies, and thus giving their students the best education they
can. When you work together, you are bound to get the best results (Yuan and
Zhang, 2016). All the teachers have the same director so I imagine their lesson
plans would be similarly designed and have common themes. The YMCA has a
list of core values: caring, respect, honesty, and responsibility so I expect that the
teachers will integrate these into their lessons (Focus and Core Values).

V. Data:
 Preschool follows the Creative Curriculum
 Themed based lessons
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 The school has not purchased the curriculum so the teachers just model their lessons
like the curriculum would have provided
 Each class does the same themes but on different weeks
 The director used to decide themes but now the teachers have a say
 Teachers collaborate within classroom
 Ask other teachers for suggestions when they need a different technique to see what
works
 They have weekly planning, done in blocks on a sheet
 Preschool 1 and Preschool 2 have the same lesson plan format
 They do not list the NJCCS with the plans
 They are familiar with them enough to know what is appropriate and developmentally
correct
 The Creative Curriculum does have the standards matched up with the lesson plans
that they provide to their teachers but the preschool cannot afford to buy it
 The teachers use the same themes as last year because it worked
 They go to Pinterest for project ideas that go with the theme of the week
 The theme of the week is connected to the book and the project of the day
 Because of the lack of space, they can’t have centers
 They allow their students to be involved in lesson planning by being flexible on
songs, books, or activities (ex. They let the students choose what songs to sing at
circle time or what book to read during free time)
 A student did not want to come to school so the teachers asked him what he would
like to do more at school to help him become more engaged
 This class has a hard time sitting still so they are more engaged in active activities, so
rather than sitting quietly to read a story, they do a lot more music and movement
activities
 During transitions, the children have a tough time waiting, so the teachers always
give them physical to do (ex. Wave their arms, pose, stretch, sit down, put their finger
on their lips)
 They do touch on YMCA values in their kindness pledge, although that isn’t
intentionally planned to align with YMCA core values

VI. Analysis:
The Creative Curriculum for Preschoolers (TCCP) is an interesting
educational model. It is “a comprehensive, research-based curriculum that
features exploration and discovery as a way of learning” (The Creative
Curriculum for Preschool). Something that was I was glad to learn was the
curriculum does have its own set of objectives that are basically the same as the
Common Core Standards for preschool. They too have social- emotional,
physical, language, cognitive, literacy, mathematics, science and technology,
social studies, art, and English acquisition goals (The Creative Curriculum for
Preschool). Something this curriculum model does not have however, is any
mention of world languages. This is an important piece that the NJ Department of
Education includes in their standards for preschoolers (2014).
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In a study done by Kimberly Seifring in a New Jersey preschool, she

sought out to find the markings of the most effective preschools. She looked at
The Creative Curriculum for Preschoolers and found that the results of student
assessments were not statistically significant from those of their peers that were
not in a classroom with TCCP. Another thing she noted was the emphasis that
TCCP put on interactive activities that benefited the children’s learning. These
activities included “blocks, dramatic play, library, art, toys and games, discovery,
sand and water, cooking, computers, music and movement and outdoors”
(Seifring, 2010). Aside from library, toys, music, and movement, the lesson plans
I observed did not offer these activities to their students.
Notably, the preschool does not even have access to the actual Creative
Curriculum. The teachers are essentially modeling their lesson plans after their
own ideas and projects that they find on Pinterest. As you can see in the lesson
plan in Appendix A, there are no standards or objectives listed. Yes, the teachers
may know what is appropriate, but there is little being implemented in terms of
lessons. The students spend most of their day playing in the gym, on the
playground, or having music time. The teachers note this is because their class is
full of active students and they love moving around, so they model their day
around what the students enjoy doing. They take into account the general student
engagement and try to incorporate what they know their kids will enjoy.

VII. Recommendations:
The issue I found with my observation was mainly the lack of structured
lesson plans. While their students are happy in their classroom, the teachers are
not really doing that much formal teaching. I realize that preschool teaching is
largely play based (Seifring, 2010) however, this classroom is all play based.
Because of the lack of centers, the students do not get a chance at varied learning
opportunities. There is no dramatic play. There are no blocks or science
experiments. While the lack of space could be to blame, I think that the teachers
could combat this by implementing these hands-on activities into their schedule.
Instead having so much time for play, which you can see in their Daily Schedule
from Appendix C, maybe make some time for building blocks and Legos or for
putting on a play. This would benefit the students on a number of levels and meet
many of the learning standards both from The Creative Curriculum and the
Preschool Teaching and Learning Standards.
Something the teachers could also add to their lesson plans, to supplement
the material their students are getting based off of TCCP, would be more world
language. Exposing students to a different language, such as Spanish, would
benefit this class immensely. Not only are there a number of students in the class
who are bilingual in Spanish and English already, but this would benefit the
students who do not know any Spanish, by expanding their knowledge and their
global awareness (Stuehling 2017). I noticed that the students who speak Spanish
in this class are the particularly quiet ones, so giving them a platform where they
can feel welcome and a part of the lesson directly, would benefit them socially.
Another critique I could give to these teachers is to stick to the lesson
plan, and plan more closely. By leaving the lessons so vague, they leave room for
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down time and this will encourage misbehaviors for students who cannot sit still
that long. If the day was more closely planned and the schedule was possibly laid
out for the students then they would know what was expected of them and when.
This would lead to the students being more on task as well as more engaged
academically (Seifring).
Finally, I think that the entire teaching staff, other classrooms included,
would benefit from more collaboration (Yuan and Zhang, 2016). While it is true
that the students are all at different levels because of age, there would be a better
sense of community in the child care department if the teachers planned some
things together. For example, during gross motor play time when all the classes
are together, instead of letting all the children run wild, they could create big
activities. The teachers could each teach a dance or a new song, or the children
could play a game of soccer. This would engage them in a way that is appropriate
for all the ages (New Jersey Department of Education, 2014) and the
collaboration would make the teaching team stronger (Yuan and Zhang, 2016). If
the teachers work together and turn all the moments they can into teaching
moments, the children would ultimately benefit.

VIII. Post Observation:

Something valuable I learned from this observation was that teaching in an
Early Childhood Education classroom is not easy. Even with the oldest class of
student, at age 4, they cannot sit still for formal lessons. As a teacher, flexibility is
so important and I admire the teachers of this class for that. It truly is difficult to
have everything under control all the time when you have so many students who
like to move around so much. As their teacher, it is your job to stay ahead of them
and keep them engaged and learning and I can see how you could easily get off
task. Even just observing implementation of lesson plans, I got off task to help
students. But when you are teaching, you need to stay on top of everything no
matter what they throw at you!

IX. Citations:
Focus & Core Values | Somerset County YMCA. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.somersetcountyymca.org/about-us/our-focus-core-values

New Jersey State Department of Education. (2014). Preschool Teaching and

Learning Standards. Retrieved from

https://www.state.nj.us/education/ece/guide/standards.pdf

Seifring, K. C. (2010). Best practices in a high quality preschool program: Change

recommendations for the mount ephraim school district (Order No. 3432681). Available

from Education Database. (822668159). Retrieved from

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https://ezp.raritanval.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-

com.ezp.raritanval.edu/docview/822668159?accountid=13438

Stuehling, A. L. (2017). "We speak 'hola' in school": A case study of global education in a

partial-immersion spanish preschool (Order No. 10605637). Available from ProQuest

Central. (1950503375). Retrieved from https://ezp.raritanval.edu/login?url=https://search-

proquest-com.ezp.raritanval.edu/docview/1950503375?accountid=13438

The Creative Curriculum® for Preschool - Teaching Strategies. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://teachingstrategies.com/solutions/teach/preschool/

Yuan, R., & Zhang, J. (2016). Promoting teacher collaboration through joint lesson planning:

Challenges and coping strategies. The Asia - Pacific Education Researcher, 25(5-6), 817-

826. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezp.raritanval.edu/10.1007/s40299-016-0300-7