Early Childhood Education Commons^™

Silan’S Box [Το Κουτί Του Σιλάν] (2017) By Άλκηστη Χαλικιά [Alkistis Chalikia], Maria Papathanasiou

Picture Books

Silan is an eight-year-old boy who was forced to leave his country and live in a new homeland, in Greece. He lives in a refugee center where he goes to a new school but does not speak the same language as the other children. He carries a little box with him—so precious that he keeps it with him constantly and does not share its contents with anyone. The children ask him every day about the contents of the box and try to guess what his hidden treasure might be. They think of what they would shield in their own box …

Bear Outside (2021) By Jane Yolen, Maughn Gregory

Picture Books

“Some folks have a lion inside, or a tiger. Not me. I wear my bear on the outside.” The young protagonist of Jane Yolen’s 400^th book for children is able to take risks and ignore bullies, not by putting on a ferocious countenance, but by summoning the persona of a giant, friendly bear, that might be an imaginary playmate or a representation of her inner courage. If I wore a bear outside today, what would I do differently? But this story also shows that even young children experience disagreement among their inner selves with different, sometimes conflicting tendencies, needs, …

Enemy: A Book About Peace (2007) By Davide Cali;, Maria Zbroy

Picture Books

Every person, society, and ethnic community builds its worldview on the basis of comparing in-group and out-group, the boundaries of which are variable. The one who seems closest to us may be a complete stranger. And someone who comes from afar, who belongs to a completely different community or nation, can become the closest person. Only we determine who is our friend and who is our enemy. In Davide Cali’s allegory about modern warfare and other kinds of conflict, two soldiers who have never seen each other shoot at each other from inside their trenches until one decides to take …

Story Boat (2020) By Kyo Maclear, Samantha Piede

Picture Books

When the protagonist in Kyo Maclear’s Story Boat (2020) opens the book with “Here we are,” it is unclear to readers where exactly “here” might be. When safety must take precedence over familiarity, one develops a fleeting relationship with place. It is tempting, in stories like these, to emphasize the pain of the refugee experience: the uncertainty, the loss of one’s ‘heres’. But Maclear takes a different tack, giving readers the tools to focus on hope and wonder. Teachers may prompt students, in light of the book, to reflect on what they think a ‘home’ or a ‘here’ feels like …

Thunder Boy Jr. (2016) By Sherman Alexie, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

The uplift and the burden of a name given but not chosen are keenly felt by Thunder Boy Smith Jr., the young protagonist of this thought- and emotion-provoking picture book. Like most children at one time or another, Thunder Boy welcomes some aspects of the identity his name imposes on him and chafes against others. But unlike many of us, at any age, Thunder Boy reflects on his problem with a remarkable degree of self-knowledge and self-possession. And each of the reasons he gives for wanting a different name offers a moment for philosophical reflection.

Understanding Epistemic Cognition : Aspects That Emerge When Early Childhood Teachers Consider Materials And Plan Instruction For Literacy Learning, Kit Marie Saiz De La Mora

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain insight into early childhood teachers’ engagement in epistemic cognition in the context of literacy instruction practices. Early literacy instruction was an important context to examine epistemic cognition because of the complexity of the teaching task. Early literacy instruction involves the simultaneous consideration of knowledge about multiple components of language structure in addition to knowledge of pedagogy, child development, and understandings of immediate socio-cultural context.

Teacher educators need to know how teachers think about knowledge in these multiple areas when they are planning early literacy instruction so they can effectively prepare them …

2. Árboles Pensantes Y Gatos Riendo: Algunos Textos Cortos Para Trabajar En Comunidad De Indagación, Matthew Lipman, Mónica Velasco A. Vidrio

Preschool Curriculum

Los siguientes textos están tomados de “ÁRBOLES PENSATIVOS Y GATOS RISENTES”, un currículo de pensamiento para educación preescolar, publicado por el Instituto para el Avance de la Filosofía para Niños de la Universidad Estatal de Montclair, que autorizó esta traducción y adaptación de cuentos seleccionados para su uso en el programa de formación de maestros del Centro de Filosofía para Niños y Servicios Educativos de Guadalajara, S.C.

Building The Bond Between Families And Schools, Mary Ann Folkes

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Research has shown that parents in today’s society face many obstacles. Many parents have increasing struggles to raise children while earning a living. The more social and political forces parents have to contend with the more the stability of the family structure is threatened (Shonkoff, J.P., Phillips, D.A. (eds). 2000).

There seems to be a chain reaction in our community. As the difficulties in parenting increase so do the difficulties in teaching students. Our community is in need of cohesive programs that will alleviate some of the pressures parents encounter by providing them with programs that will help them rise …

Exploring The Strategies Students Use When Reading, Evelyn Gilles

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Research in the field of reading has shown that oral reading fluency is important because it is correlated to successful reading comprehension. Although some students acquire fluency skills, others struggle to use strategies to develop fluency. My concerns about reading fluency came about because my students were not reading texts smoothly and accurately. This action research project was designed to discover what strategies first grade students use to read unfamiliar words. Specifically, I focused on whether or not blending would be a good strategy to improve reading fluency. In order to address the issue of reading fluency, I gathered information …

Discovering The Connections Students Make During Reading, Suzanne Nepomuceno

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Research shows that reading comprehension is enhanced if the reader constructs meaning by making connections to the text. Connections may be made between readers and their background knowledge and/or between readers and other texts they have read. The purpose of this action research project was to determine if teaching students how to make these two kinds of connections would enhance their comprehension. To this end, a metacognitive strategy called Making Connections was implemented and taught to the students during their normal reading lessons. Data were collected through interviews with the students about this strategy, observation charts that recorded their connections, …

Implementing Differentiated Strategies During Math Instruction, Jessica Cavaleri

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In any elementary school classroom there are students with different abilities, learning styles, and personalities. Teachers need to find a successful way to individualize their teaching in order to benefit every child in the class. I designed this action research study to study the implementation of differentiated strategies in my third grade classroom at Riker Hill Elementary in Livingston, New Jersey. My class consists of 22 students during Math instruction. I studied the use of differentiated instructional techniques through the implementation of specific strategies, including group work, attending to multiple learning styles, and the use of centers. I implemented the …

Utilizing Centers To Enhance My Instruction And Students' Understanding Of Math Concepts, Samantha Rowelle Darden

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Anyone who listens to the news hears many negative comments on the status of education in the United States today. Many say that our standards and the quality of our education have declined. We have fallen behind European and Asian countries. Our requirements and expectations have been lowered. Yet, we have never stepped back to assess what has changed and why. If we had to point to one detail to provide insight into what has changed, we would name the internet. We would call the technology explosion in the 21st century a “singularity”; an event that changes things so fundamentally …

03. Getting Our Thoughts Together: Instructional Manual To Accompany 'Elfie', Second Edition, Matthew Lipman

Early Elementary School Curriculum

The cognitive skills emphasized in Elfie – distinction-making and connection-making – are those on which all-subsequent reasoning rests. They are accompanied by the criteria that are appropriate to them: sameness and difference. Other operations like the making of comparisons, the discovery of uniformities, the identification of classes, the formation of concepts, and the formulation of definition, all depend upon the logical infrastructure of these two sets of skills and criteria. Elfie should therefore be seen as the base of the Philosophy for Children program.

20. Piksi (Slovenian Translation Of Pixie Novel), Matthew Lipman

Early Elementary School Curriculum

Piksi je osnovnošolka, ki je zmedena in navdušena nad številnimi vidiki svoje izkušnje. Ta roman poudarja odnose (logične, družbene, družinske, estetske, vzročne, del-celota, matematične itd.) kot tudi kompetenco pri obravnavanju takih odnosov. Etični koncepti vključujejo rivalstvo med sorojenci, osebnost, spoštovanje drugih, prijateljstvo, skrivnosti, držanje obljub, odnose med staršem in otrokom, poslušnost, draženje in avtonomijo.

Three Stories You Can Read To Your Cat (1997) By Sara Swan Miller, Gareth B. Matthews

Picture Books

When a cat's human friend leaves the house and tells it to be good, the cat does many things it considers good, like shredding the curtains, eating a house plant, and digging into the garbage. In this review, originally published in Thinking: The Journal of Philosophy for Children 16(4), 2003, Gareth B. Matthews demonstrates that young children can understand and enjoy the irony of sarcasm. They also enjoy grappling with the story's philosophical irony: the problem of clarifying the difficult question of what makes an action good or bad.

1. Thinking Trees And Laughing Cats: A Thinking Curriculum For Pre-School Education, Matthew Lipman

Preschool Curriculum

Thinking Trees and Laughing Cats includes fifty-four stories intended to be used with puppets (even if the story is told by a narrator, the narrator should be a puppet). Each story is preceded by an indication of some key concepts found in it, and is followed by a short list of leading Ideas that correlate to the New Jersey state core curriculum standards for early childhood (ages three to four). Those standards are provided in an appendix to the book, which includes an additional category of standards developed at the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children for young …

12. Ліля (Lilya: Ukrainian Translation Of Elfie Novel), Matthew Lipman

Early Elementary School Curriculum

Ліля йде в перший клас і така сором'язлива, що не може говорити на уроці і навіть не може сформулювати запитання. Але мало що вислизає від неї, і її розум ламає голову над усім, що відбувається в класі та вдома. Коли директор пропонує конкурс, спрямований на вдосконалення міркувань, увесь її клас займається з’ясуванням того, як працюють речення та як створюються відмінності та зв’язки. У той же час Елфі та її однокласники виявляють багато відмінностей, фундаментальних для дослідження: видимість і реальність, одне і багато, частини і ціле, подібність і відмінність, постійність і зміна.

13. Поміркуймо Разом: Посібник Для Викладачів. Додаток До “Ліля” Частина І [Let’S Think Together: A Guide For Teachers. Supplement To “Lila” Part I], Matthew Lipman, Ann Gazzard

Early Elementary School Curriculum

Когнітивні навички, які наголошуються в Ліля – розрізнення та встановлення зв’язків – це ті навички, на яких ґрунтується подальше міркування. Вони супроводжуються відповідними їм критеріями: однаковість і відмінність. Інші операції, такі як проведення порівнянь, виявлення одноманітності, ідентифікація класів, формування понять і формулювання визначення, все залежить від логічної інфраструктури цих двох наборів навичок і критеріїв. Тому Ліля слід розглядати як основу програми «Філософія для дітей».

14. Поміркуймо Разом: Посібник Для Викладачів. Додаток До “Ліля” Частина Іi [Let’S Think Together: A Guide For Teachers. Supplement To “Lila” Part Ii], Matthew Lipman, Ann Gazzard

Early Elementary School Curriculum

Когнітивні навички, які наголошуються в Ліля – розрізнення та встановлення зв’язків – це ті навички, на яких ґрунтується подальше міркування. Вони супроводжуються відповідними їм критеріями: однаковість і відмінність. Інші операції, такі як проведення порівнянь, виявлення одноманітності, ідентифікація класів, формування понять і формулювання визначення, все залежить від логічної інфраструктури цих двох наборів навичок і критеріїв. Тому Ліля слід розглядати як основу програми «Філософія для дітей».

3. The Doll Hospital (Novel), Ann Margaret Sharp

Preschool Curriculum

When Jess's doll Roller needs to make a trip to the doll hospital, Jess is worried that Roller won't look the same when she comes home. What Jess doesn't realize is that Roller's trip to the doll hospital will trigger a special change in their relationship. Together with the companion teacher's manual Making Sense of My World, The Doll Hospital is a wonderful introduction for children to philosophical thought.

4. Making Sense Of My World: Teacher Manual For 'The Doll Hospital', Ann Margaret Sharp, Laurance J. Splitter

Preschool Curriculum

Through a range of exercises and discussion plans, Making Sense of My World helps teachers encourage children to think more deeply about the world around them, and to explore the philosophical concepts attached to their daily experience. What makes something real? What makes a 'best' friend? Together with the companion novel The Doll Hospital, Making Sene of My World is an ideal starting point for primary school children and philosophy.

(2000.1) The Doll Hospital (Novel), Ann Margaret Sharp

Collected Papers of Ann Margaret Sharp

When Jess's doll Roller needs to make a trip to the doll hospital, Jess is worried that Roller won't look the same when she comes home. What Jess doesn't realize is that Roller's trip to the doll hospital will trigger a special change in their relationship. Together with the companion teacher's manual Making Sense of My World, The Doll Hospital is a wonderful introduction for children to philosophical thought.

(2000.2) Making Sense Of My World: Instructional Manual To Accompany 'Pixie' (Teacher Manual), Ann Margaret Sharp, Laurance J. Splitter

Collected Papers of Ann Margaret Sharp

Through a range of exercises and discussion plans, Making Sense of My World helps teachers encourage children to think more deeply about the world around them, and to explore the philosophical concepts attached to their daily experience. What makes something real? What makes a 'best' friend? Together with the companion novel The Doll Hospital, Making Sene of My World is an ideal starting point for primary school children and philosophy.

Wild Boy (1998) By Mordicai Gerstein, Gareth B. Matthews

Picture Books

Once there was a boy who lived alone, without a mother or father or any friends, in a forest in Southern France. He was naked. He didn’t even know what clothes were. He didn’t know he was a boy. He didn’t know what people were. He was wild. When a group of hunters discovered the boy, they delivered him to scientists in Paris, who eventually gave up trying to communicate with him. The boy was taken in by Dr. Itard and his housekeeper, Madame Guerin, who taught him to dress himself, to read and write simple words, and help around …

Great Blueness And Other Predicaments (1968) By Arnold Lobel, Gareth B. Matthews

Picture Books

Long ago, there was no color in the world. It was the time of The Great Greyness. Down in the cellar of his house a Wizard mixed up something in a pot and used it to paint the thatched roof of his house. “I call it blue,” he told his neighbors, who begged him to share it. Soon the whole world was blue. It became the time of The Great Blueness. Unfortunately, having blueness everywhere made people sad. So, the Wizard went back down into his cellar and came out with something new .... Philosophy is colorful! Plenty of …

Lulu And The Flying Babies (1988) By Posy Simmonds, Gareth B. Matthews

Picture Books

It was snowing by the time Lulu’s family arrived at the park, so her parents took them to the museum next door. Lulu sulked and protested: “Don’t want to see the pictures!” so her parents left her sitting on a couch. A winged cherub climbed down from a painting hanging above her and flew Lulu into the winter scene of a Flemish painting, then into other paintings where they splashed in the sea, growled at a tiger, rode a horse, and fell off a cliff. Artists, poets, and writers give us ways of escaping our world, but they also give …

Burglar Bill (1979) By Allan And Janet Ahlberg, Gareth B. Matthews

Picture Books

Burglar Bill lives alone with a house full of stolen property. Every night after supper he goes off to work, stealing things. Every dawn he comes home with his sack full of stolen goods and sits down to his breakfast of stolen toast and marmalade and stolen coffee. Some of my favorite children’s stories are written in a style I call “philosophical whimsy.” In the story of Burglar Bill, the whimsy is aimed at encouraging us to think about the life of a full-time thief as if it were an almost boringly normal sort of middleclass life. The story invites …

Now Everybody Really Hates Me (1993) By Jane Read Martin And Patricia Marx, Gareth B. Matthews

Picture Books

Patty Jane has been confined to her room for misbehaving at her brother’s birthday party. She resolves to stay there for the rest of her life, never cleaning it, even if poisonous mushrooms grow on her bed. She conceives an extravagant scheme for walking her dog without leaving her room, and a more extravagant plan to dig a tunnel so she can pull the plug when her brother takes a bath. Patty Jane is never conciliatory or matter-of-fact. Every threat, every promise is an outrageously imaginative idea. Being under the control of others—her parents—she belongs to the great army of …

Mountains Of Tibet (1989) By Mordecai Gerstein, Maughn B. Gregory

Picture Books

High in the mountains of Tibet, a little girl was born who loved to fly kites. Mordecai Gerstein’s picture book, inspired by the Tibetan Book of the Dead, tells of the girl’s previous life as a Tibetan woodcutter who loved to fly kites, and the decisions he made after death to choose the circumstances of his next life. The idea of reincarnation belongs to the culture of many parts of the world. Some adults avoid discussing stories like this with children because they don’t want to face the question, ‘But is it really true?’ Children, however, are often more …

Albert’S Impossible Toothache (1974) By Barbara Williams, Gareth B. Matthews

Picture Books

Albert is a turtle, who complains that he has a toothache. Albert’s father is quite unsympathetic. “That’s impossible,” he says; “it is impossible for anyone in our family to have a toothache.” Though Albert’s father does point to his own toothless mouth (does he also point to its toothlessness?) to establish the impossibility of a turtle’s having a toothache, he never actually says to Albert, “To have a toothache you need to have a tooth and turtles don’t have teeth.”