The CCSS Standards in Kindergarten

Section 1: Introduction

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The CCSS kindergarten standards form part of the early childhood curriculum, which are forged upon the precincts of excellence by establishing clear principles, purposes, and values for pupils from birth to five years, specifically those in kindergarten. They are formed to allow early learning and development because children develop substantially quickly during the early years, and for this reason, early practitioners should strive to help them have the best start in life by effectively developing their curriculum. In addition, as the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of a child stipulate, there needs to be a provision for supporting the development of children's talents, personalities, and abilities irrespective of their culture, language, ethnicity, gender, sex, learning disabilities, family background, as well as learning difficulties.

Policing in the kindergarten curriculum captured in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), is responsible for setting the CCSS standards that providers for early year education must observe and meet in order to ensure that all infants develop and learn effectively, as well as ensuring that the children have an optimum level of school readiness that will guarantee that the children amass broad range of skills and knowledge that provides a strong foundation for a good futuristic progress in both life and school (Palaiologou, 2011).

The kindergarten CCSS standards primarily concentrate on both the process and the product. Ideally, during the planning process, the teacher is responsible for ensuring that the children achieve the stipulated learning outcomes as the CCSS standards allow. Essentially, during planning, the teacher has to think various aspects, for example, how the infants will be grouped together, what games they will play, the various resources required for the learning process, as well as how the adults should be deployed in the classroom.

Kindergarten curriculum for the infants is specifically designed so that it takes care of their needs optimally, as well as shaping their experiences between birth and five as this period impacts to a large extent the future life chances they are exposed to. Therefore, it is imperative to note that the curriculum for the toddlers should be safe, secure, and promoting a culture of happiness among the children. In addition, because parents play an important role in the development of children aged between birth and five, the curriculum should factor in good parenting. As such, these two components, high quality early learning coupled with good parenting provide a strong foundation in nurturing and making most of the abilities and talents of children.

Various models are used in setting the CCSS standards. For instance, the standards capitalize on the behavioral model where the kindergarten curriculum is based on testable and observable outcomes. Both teachers and children must meet various outcomes. Therefore, the product becomes what needs to be covered in the curriculum. However, in some instances, the progressive model is in some instances used, whereby the child is allowed to reach an individual potential. As such, the CCSS standards allow the kindergarten curriculum to be negotiable and open, thereby facilitating the learning of what is important to the kid. In addition, the developmental model has strongly been derived from in the development of the curriculum. For instance, children are listened to, allowed to express their views and opinions, participate in decision making, as well as supported to make their own decisions.

Their main advantage is that they are internationally benchmarked thereby allowing the standards to align favorably to other countries standards. The CCSS standards also allow the states to have the standardized test scores compared accurately due to generality in the assessments. They also allow instructors to monitor the progress of students. They also ensure that the children comprehend what is expected of them. However, cons include the fact that children may find it hard to adjust to the set requirements, thereby making it difficult for them to transition. Also, the assessments may not have tests designed for children with special needs.

Section 2: Proposed Kindergarten Curriculum Framework

According to Braslavsky (2003), the history of education as related the term curriculum to the concept of a spectrum of course of studies which pupils should follow in a teaching institution. However, in recent decades, this has evolved significantly, owing to its increasing use within the frameworks of pedagogy theory, globalization, and sociology in education. Even so, the author underlines that the term curriculum is used to mostly refer to an existing contract between educational professionals, the states, as well as the society regarding to the various educational experiences that learners need to undergo in their life phases. Specifically, as Braslavsky (2003) points out, majority of experts and authors define curriculum as: what, why, how, where, and with whom to learn with. Considering this assertion in educational concepts, the curriculum can be defined as the educational contents and foundations, their sequencing in relation to the amount of time available for the learning experiences, the characteristics of the teaching institutions and teaching institutions, characteristics of the learning experiences, the methods and resources used in teaching and learning including the technologies and textbooks used, as well as the teacher profile and evaluation.

On the other hand, pedagogy is described as the discourse and act of teaching (Alexander, 2004), the application of professional judgment or any by any person that is primarily designed for enhancing learning in another (Mortimer and Watkins, 1999). As such, pedagogical practices for various age groups need to be varied in such a way that they take care of the educational needs of the various students, importantly, focusing on the age differences (Eaude, 2011). Therefore, pedagogical practices for infants should be different from those of adults. For this reason, the pedagogical practices that are observed in the early year setting (EYFS) should range from the didactic interactions that are more typically associated with the learning process, specifically via modeling, scaffolding specific skill acquisition, questioning, prompting exploration, as well as nurturing a childs disposition to learn (Waller et al., 2011).

In the UK, policy makers, as well as managers of early years provision practitioners are currently comfortable in considering their practice in relation to the written curriculum. However, asking about pedagogy disturbs some of these practitioners as they find it difficult to express how they act in their quest to support learning. Alexander (2004) raised questions about the lack of any tradition of systematic pedagogy in policymaking and practice in primary education in England in spite of the growing research and interest in teaching the young. The research found out that there is inadequate explicit engagement with pedagogy in the early years education. According to Moyles, Adams, and Mosgrave (2002), the Study of Pedagogical Effectiveness in Early Learning (SPEEL) project commenced in the premise that the characteristics of effective pedagogy is embedded in practice (Allen and Whalley, 2010).

Moyles, Adams, and Mosgrave (2002) also argued that just as much as children should engage in metacognitive processes, the practitioners should also include these paradigms in setting out the curriculum. They also warned that their inability to express and articulate their practices can be a huge constraint in the process of outlaying effective pedagogical practices. For this reason, it is important to come up with a working pedagogical practice that should be included in the curriculum for those aged five and below.

The following kindergarten curriculum has been based on the above pedagogical assumptions, as well as careful CCSS standards consideration.

CCSS English/Language Standardization

Reading: Kindergarten Foundation Skills

Timeline: Week 1 and 2.

Printing Concepts

Indicator Date Taught Date Retaught Date Reviewed Date Assessed Date Re-Assesed

CCSS Reading Foundation Skills: Demonstrating the comprehension of organization of various print features. CCSS Reading Foundation Skills: Following words from page by page, left to right, and also top to bottom. CCSS Reading Foundation Skills: Understanding that the words are separated by spaces in print. CCSS Reading Foundation Skills: Recognizing that word are represented in written format with specific sequences in the lettering sequence. CCSS Reading Foundation Skills: Recognizing and naming upper and lower case alphabetical letters. CCSS Reading Foundation Skills: Demonstrating the comprehension of sounds (phonemes), spoken words, as well as syllables. CCSS Reading Foundation Skills: recognizing and producing rhyming words. CCSS Reading Foundation Skills: Counting, pronouncing, and segmenting syllables in spoken words. CCSS Reading Foundation Skills: Blending and segmenting onsets and rhymes of single-syllable words while speaking. CCSS Reading Foundation Skills: Isolating and pronouncing initial, medial vowel, as well as final sounds in consonant-vowel-consonant succession. CCSS Reading Foundation Skills: Adding and substituting individual sounds to make new set of words. Phonics and Word Recognition

CCSS Reading Foundation Skills: Knowing and applying grade-level phonics, as well a word analysis coupled with decoding words. CCSS Reading Foundation Skills: Demonstrating knowledge of letter-sound correspondences by uttering primary sounds. CCSS Reading Foundation Skills: Associating long and short sounds with similar spellings considering the five vowels. CCSS Reading Foundation Skills: Reading common high-frequency words. CCSS Reading Foundation Skills: Distinguishing similarly spelt words via identification of letter sounds that differ. Fluency

CCSS Reading Foundation Skills: Reading texts with understanding and purpose CCSS English/Language Standardization

Reading: Kindergarten Literature

Timeline: Week 3 and 4

Key Details and Ideas

Indicator Date Taught Date Retaught Date Reviewed Date Assessed Date Re-Assesed

CCSS Reading Literature: While prompting and supporting the children, ask them to answer questions about what they have read in the literature or text. CCSS Reading Literature: Via prompting and supporting the children, ask them to retell the stories while including the key details they picked while reading the literature. CCSS Reading Literature: Through support and prompting the children, ask them to identify main characters, major events within the story, as well as the settings. Literature craft and structure

CCSS Reading Literature: Asking and answering questions about various unknown words within the literature. CCSS Reading Literature: Recognizing common types of texts, including storybooks and poems. CCSS Reading Literature: Through prompting and supporting the kids, assist them in naming the author of the stories, and define the roles of each of the characters in telling the story. Integration of the knowledge and Ideas

CCSS Reading Literature: Through supporting and prompting the infants, describe the underlying relationships between illustrations and the story, in other words, what each moment in the story portrays. CCSS Reading Literature: Comparing and contrasting various adventures and experiences of the characters presented in the story, as well as other familiar stories. The range of reading and level of text complexity

CCSS Reading Literature: engaging the children actively in a variety of reading activities with t...