Abstract
Every community has something special to offer. Learning about the local community, thinking about the local landscape, and learning about cultural traditions and values can be the basis for learning about our place. Using an our place approach, one that is place-based, culturally responsive, and with STEAM integration, will help children connect with their local place. Using our place as a curriculum starter and connecter can be rewarding and meaningful to the children, the families, and the community. Building authentic learning opportunities based on strengths in the community, cultural values, and content integration will have a positive impact on all those involved.
TopIntroduction
The Our Place curriculum project will help early educators that are both new to the field as well as those with many years of experience rethink how they plan meaningful experiences with young children. Thinking about young children’s learning experiences using a culturally responsive lens as well as connecting STEAM content to make something that is personal to the whole community.
The chapter will take you on a journey to think and reflect the curriculum-assessment process of today’s 21st century learners and teachers and will address the following questions:
- 1.
What is Place-Based learning and Culturally Responsive Teaching?
- 2.
How do we learn about our own identity and value systems in our community?
- 3.
How do we learn about the strengths of our community?
- 4.
How do we connect STEAM in an authentic way to Our Place?
- 5.
What does the “T” in STEAM look like?
- 6.
How do we assess our place-based, culturally responsive, STEAM integrated curriculum in an authentic way to make learning visible?
- 7.
Where does play fit into the above questions?
After reading, thinking and trying the various ideas in this chapter, the early educator will be able to answer the above questions and make connections to their own learning environments.
TopPart 1: Connecting To Our Place
The smell of pine needles and fresh flowers opens our hearts and helps connect our bodies to their place. When young children use their senses outdoors to smell the air, to see the cracks in the sidewalk and what grows in there, to hear the different bird or squirrel calls, and touch the water in puddles, they are truly learning about our place. Teachers help to guide children to “see” these things, to value these things, and learn from these things. This is what “Our Place” is. Our Place is not a formal curriculum kit you buy in the store. It is a way of thinking in a culturally responsive way, connected to where we live, integrating STEAM content areas, and then making this learning visible.
Learning to see, smell, hear, feel the elements outdoors will help keep children engaged and grounded to their place. Bringing the pine needles and flowers inside helps children connect the two learning spaces and inspire a relationship with the sense of place. Having opportunities to integrate the elements from outside to inside can have a meaningful impact on children’s learning and how they value the place they live in. This will differ depending on where children live, their prior experiences, their cultures, and their teachers. Helping teachers understand how all of these elements can have an impact is important in children’s learning, making this learning visible, and the journey of teaching and learning by using Our Place.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Documentation: A collection of artifacts that help to make learning visible. The artifacts include photographs, videos, work samples, and observations.
Curriculum: A sequence of experiences and learning opportunities that are based on best practices, state expectations, or other standards or guidelines.
Culturally Responsive Teaching: An approach to build curriculum based on strengths of children’s cultures, values, and abilities.
STEAM: An interdisciplinary teaching approach that includes science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics.
Place-Based Learning: A curriculum that is based on meaningful events, places, and environments in the local community.
ePortfolios: An electronic system to capture documentation and make learning visible.
Authentic Assessment: A system to learn about a child’s abilities through real world tools such as observations, work samples, or photographs that document learning and thinking.