DAP

Key Assessment
EDT272E B

By
Gunther Poth

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Gunther Poth
EDT272E B
Dr. Karen Montgomery
3/21/13

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BE = Beginning Essentials text

DAP = Developmentally Appropriate Practice text
P# = NAEYC principle
DAP Key Assessment

Part 1: DAP Description

1.
During my experience at Elizabeth Starr Academy, the class
curriculum was based around social interactions, lots of playtime,
phonological awareness, motor skill development, and the overall
exposure and experience that they would obtain in the classroom. All
of these domains, physical, social and emotional, and cognitive-are
important, and they are closely interrelated (DAP pg. 11, P1). These
areas are interrelated and are the children are in their developmental
prime, even at such a young age. It is important for the children to get
as much exposure as possible because all of these factors contribute
to the child as they grow older and develop. For my activity, the
students would match an object to a corresponding letter (i.e.
Alligator with the letter A). This cognitive recognition activity
included as many of the developmental activities as possible, making
sure that there was a social interaction about each object while having
the child move and physically place the object on the letter.
2.
Some of the activities that the children in the classroom had interest
in were educational I Pad games, simple puzzles involving
transportation, dramatic play, and games and projects that were
related to the books that we had just read. The teacher had the
classroom set up in stations so that they could have exposure to each
area in their developmental domain. Childrens experiences shape
their motivation and approaches to learning, such as persistence,
initiative, and flexibility (DAP pg. 15, P12). The teacher stressed at
this age that it is not necessarily teaching the assigned curriculum, but
rather having the children be exposed to hands-on learning and
interactions with their peers as much as possible. In the activity,
there were discussions about the sounds and images, as well as the
letters that were placed and where they think that object would be
best placed. The children would even sometimes imitate some of the
objects and begin to role-play with other students.
3.
The children in the class ranged from the ages 3 to 5 years old. The
range of development and abilities was truly shocking. Some of the 3
year olds were at higher-level then older students, making the activity
a challenge to properly make the game one that could somehow push
all their cognitive abilities in different ways. While performing this
activity, there tended to be a lot of onlooker play from other students
while the child was participating in the activity. When performing the

4.

5.

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activity with the older preschoolers, they would use a lot more
cooperative play because they would talk and plan out what they
were going to play. The children were helping one another and
planning who would put each object down, if they would switch off
every other object, etc. It was easier to personalize the activity for the
younger preschoolers because they wanted solitary play and one-on-
one time.
The classroom is filled with diverse children from multiple
backgrounds and experiences to help shape who they are and their
present-day knowledge. Each child has an environment that shapes
their knowledge and their development; no single child is the same.
The students in our class had a wide range of diversity and socio-
economic status that had effects on their learning and cognitive skills.
This had to be compensated for and I had to make sure that the
activity was adjusted to the appropriate level.
See photo essay.

Reflection
Standard 1a: Knowing and understanding young childrens characteristics and
needs, from birth to age 8

The students had a wide range of developmental levels. Regardless of
gender, the children also had many different interests. This helped the activity work
towards a more personal level and how they each observed the objects. Children
would have different stories or thoughts about each object and how they could
relate to that certain object. To understand the children on a better level, I got to
know them the first few days by performing dramatic play in the kitchen and
reading to them. Doing this helped me gain a lot of their trust and had them a lot
more comfortable when the time to do the activity began in the second week; they
were very excited to impress and try their best in front of me. The childrens overall
favorite activity was the dramatic play and was their best chance to socialize and
interact with one another. Play promotes language, cognition, and social
competence (DAP pg. 14, P10). This play allowed me to better understand the
children, and allow them to socially develop and better understand me as a teacher
and adult.
Standard 1b: Knowing and understanding multiple influences on early
development and learning

For my activity, I worked with three different children who were at three
different levels on the developmental scale. Throughout this teaching block, we
have been stressed, development and learning occur in and are influenced by
multiple social and cultural contexts (DAP pg. 13, P8). Keeping that in mind, I made
sure to account for their differences both in and outside the classroom. Influences
such as family, culture, socio-economic status and more all contribute to how the
child behaves and develops as they age.

When starting to develop, every experience a child has will have an effect on
their development and learning process. Early experiences have profound effects,
both cumulative and delayed, on a childs development and learning; and optimal

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periods exist for certain types of development and learning to occur (DAP pg. 12,
P5). Every experience will shape a child, whether good or bad. All three children
that I selected lived in middle to lower class families. The first child was very close
to being on the autistic scale. The teacher said he appeared to be Autistic, but was
yet to be diagnosed. His house had burned down recently and it was difficult for the
child to focus on his academic work and continuous play. The other two children
were the same age, with supportive parents, but in poor living situations. One of the
children was at a higher cognitive level then the other, giving me an opportunity for
a low-medium-high activity that they could participate in.
Standard 1c: Using developmental knowledge to create healthy, respectful,
supportive, and challenging learning environments for young children

It is known that children develop best when they have secure, consistent
relationships with responsive adults and opportunities for positive relationships
with peers (DAP pg.13, P7). The child who performed best had Spanish-speaking
parents who knew barely any English, but had the most supportive parents who
wanted him to succeed. This child had a positive learning environment and knew
that his parents had the utmost confidence in him. Parents or a guardian who
promote the safe environment encourages the child in all aspects of social and
cognitive development. Children can have a difficult time focusing on their work in
general, but is extremely difficult when there is not a strong emotional or supportive
structure at home or in the classroom.

Each child has different strengths and weaknesses and have to make sure
that I select the right Zone of Proximal Development for each child. This is
important because development and learning advance when children are
challenged (DAP pg. 15, P11). The activity for children has to be on the perfect
level for it to be successful and help them develop cognitively speaking. Knowing
their skills will allow me to find the best teaching strategies and interactions that
are effective in supporting all kinds of learning (DAP pg. 14, P9). Finding these
strategies and strengthening the student-teacher relationship will help influence
their development through all aspects, both social and cultural (DAP pg. 14, P8).
Standard 4b: Knowing and understanding effective strategies and tools for
early education

Knowing to build the activity off of what I had learned about the children in
the first week allowed me to successfully shape the activity to their skills, abilities,
and developmental traits (DAP pg. 11, P2). The activity started simple, then would
increase in difficulty and become more complex so that the child would have to push
their level of development in hopes to broaden their range and capacity (DAP pg. 12,
P6). I would perform the activity during station time, usually when they were
playing with blocks. They were familiar with the topic because they had been doing
certain letters and letter sounds all week, following their theme of phonological
awareness and development. The children were more then willing to spend one-on-
one time with me and perform the activity. They loved to tell me how they related
to each topic and were curious to see what I liked or disliked about the certain
object.

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Photo Essay

Game: Object and Sound Match Up

Purpose: The goal of the activity was to help the students work with and recognize
beginning sounds of the 26 letters of the alphabet. The activity included social
interaction with the student, telling me stories or experiences they have had with
certain objects.

The Three Levels:
Level 1 Emergent: Guided instruction with sounding out the object and
identifying the object for the child.
Level 2 Intermediate: Telling the child what the object was, with them
placing it on the correct beginning sound.
Level 3 Advanced: The children do the entire activity by themselves,
identifying the objects on their own and putting the object in the correct spot.

Level 1 Emergent: This level includes matching the object with the beginning
sound, with assistance from me to help identify and sound out the word.

There was little to no conversation in between Brad and I except for directly
relating to the completion of the activity. We were only able to get halfway
through the activity before he appeared to become impatient with the activity
and was not putting any effort in at any point, thus ending the game. This is
what I expected to happen and saw his cognitive ability be pushed to its limits.

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Level 2 Intermediate: This level of the activity involved telling the child what the
object was, with no emphasis on the beginning letter. The child then will put the
object on the letter that they believe is correct.


Rose was able to complete the activity
with barely any guidance. For half of
the objects that she selected, she would
tell me things about them. For
example, Rose had no problem telling
me that she was extremely scared of
alligators, but liked frogs. This was a
great chance to see social development
as well as cognitive identification skills.

Rose discussing with me while working
on the activity was exactly what I
wanted from her out of the activity, all
while working cognitively to help
contribute to their theme of the week.

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Level 3 Advanced: This level of activity came with no instruction besides telling
Josh what the overall goal of the game was. There would be no assistance or
even identification of the objects.

Josh is seen in the picture looking at the
activity before it begins, analyzing and
assessing how he will approach and
complete it. He was discussing with me
how excited he was to participate in the
game and that he knew his letters well.
For the start of his activity, he knew
exactly what he had to do and could
multitask during the activity, telling me
stories and previous experiences with
birds, baseball bats, and other objects.

Josh made the connection that we were
doing a phonological exercise similar to
other activities in the week, making him
connect to the theme of the week and
benefitting from it.