Reflective Analysis of Portfolio Artifact

Rationale/Reflection
NAEYC Standard: STANDARD 5. USING CONTENT
KNOWLEDGE TO BUILD MEANINGFUL CURRICULUM
Candidates prepared in early childhood degree programs a) use their knowledge of academic
disciplines to design, implement, and evaluate experiences that promote positive development
and learning for each and every young child. Candidates understand the importance of
developmental domains and academic (or content) disciplines in early childhood curriculum.
They b) know the essential concepts, inquiry tools, and structure of content areas, including
academic subjects, and can identify resources to deepen their understanding. Candidates c) use
their own knowledge and other resources to design, implement, and evaluate meaningful,
challenging curriculum that promotes comprehensive developmental and learning outcomes for
every young child.(NAEYC, 2010)

Brief Description of Evidence:

During summer semester of 2015 during my ECED 243 Cognitive Curriculum course, I did a
project called Invitation to Learn. I observed children to find their interest and applied it to a
meaningful, challenging curriculum that promotes comprehensive development and learning. I
used age appropriate items for the children to explore their developmental domains and allowed
the children to experiment in a positive learning experience.

Analysis of What I Learned:

Through the completion of the Invitation to Learn, I learned how to create, implement and
evaluate the experience of the learning through creating a documentation panel. I learned how to
design and implement a positive learning experience and identify resources such as books,
materials, and tools to expand every child understanding of the activity. Through this project I
learned how to design and develop objectives based on Indiana Foundations through content
areas such as fine motor, math, literacy and science in the activity.

How This Artifact Demonstrates my Competence on the

NAEYC Standard:
This artifact shows the final piece, the documentation panel, which concluded my Invitation of
Learning experience with the children, demonstrates my ability to use research and tools to
create a developmentally appropriate curriculum. I was able to base this curriculum off of the
Indiana Foundations as well as the interests of the children. I was able to design an activity
based on specific content areas such as math, literacy and science. From the knowledge of
Reggio approach, I was able to document the childrens thought process as they were exploring
through the materials based on the curriculum. This not only allows the children to revisit their
work, but also allows families to see a glimpse of what we do in the classroom on a daily basis.