Early Childhood - Connecticut State Department of Education

Curriculum Chapter 2
Starting Small: Teaching Tolerance in Preschool and
The Early Grades
Teaching Tolerance Project (1997). Montgomery, AL:
Southern Poverty Law Center
This video and text training kit offers early childhood
educators strategies for implementing tolerance
education programs for young children. The 250-page
book includes research-based commentary, suggestions
for activities and a comprehensive resource list. The 58minute
video highlights seven exemplary programs at
sites throughout the country.
Valuing Diversity: The Primary Years
McCracken, J.B. (1997). Washington, DC: NAEYC
This book presents ideas and suggestions for how
teachers can develop and implement developmentally
appropriate anti-bias curriculums, teaching children
in early elementary school to value diversity.
Guidelines for evaluating and developing curriculums,
environments, learning materials and activities are
provided, emphasizing realistic depiction of a wide
variety of human cultures and characteristics in ways
that provide children with experiential learning while
fostering principles of democracy alongside pride in
each child’s heritage. Lists of recommended resources
are provided.
EARLY CARE RESOURCES
Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS-R)
Thelma Harms, Dick Clifford and Debby Cryer
This program-quality assessment instrument has been
revised and expanded to include new interaction items,
expanded curriculum materials, more inclusive and
culturally sensitive indicators, and more items focusing
on staff needs. It looks at quality in terms of categories
that include personal care routines, furnishings and
display, fine- and gross-motor activities, language and
reasoning, creative activities, social development, and
adult needs. Designed for use by classroom teachers,
administrators, board members, trainers, state licensing
staff members and family members as an evaluation
tool for all day-care settings, this also can be used as an
instrument for team-based decision making.
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Teachers College Press
P.O. Box 20
Williston, VT 05495-0020
Phone (800) 575-6566
Fax (802) 864-7626
E-mail: tcp.orders@aidcvt.com
Web: http://www.teacherscollegepress.com
Active Learning for Children With Disabilities
Bailey, P.; Cryer, D.; Harms, T.; Osborne, S. and Kniest,
B.A. (1996). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing
Co.
This manual was designed to complement the other
volumes in theActive Learning series (see Active Learning
for Infants and Active Learning for Fives). It provides
suggestions and resources, targeted to care providers
and family members, for helping young children with
disabilities learn through play. Learning situations
posed throughout the book can be adapted as training
activities.
The Art of Awareness: How Observation Can Transform
Your Teaching
Curtis, D. and Carter, M. (2000). St. Paul, MN: Redleaf
Press
This text is organized in “study sessions” to focus users
on specific aspects of observation (e.g., observing how
children form relationships and negotiate conflict,
observing children with their families). It is designed to
offer ideas, activities, experiences and realistic strategies
to help teachers and readers learn to value children and
their individuality within diverse contexts.
Eager To Learn: Educating Our Preschoolers
Bowman, B.; Donovan, M.S. and Burns, M.S., eds.
(2000). Washington, DC: National Academy Press
This 468-page report reviews and synthesizes several
bodies of research related to early childhood pedagogy,
including research concerning special populations
(children living in poverty, children with limited English
proficiency, children with disabilities). In addition to a
distillation of the knowledge base, it offers implications
for practice in early childhood education programs, the
training of teachers and child-care professionals and
future research directions. The document includes a
17-page executive summary, which provides a brief
overview of findings and implications.