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Purposeful Planning

What do I want to teach?

Purposeful planning requires you to think about the following things as you begin to map out the lesson:

  • What is the concept or skill I want my children to learn?
  • Where are my children in their language development as it relates to this concept or skill?
  • What vocabulary do they need to know around this concept or skill?
  • What do they need to learn about grammar and sentence structure as it relates to this concept or skill?
How do I teach it?

After you know what it is that you want to teach, it is important to think through the process that you will use and what instructional strategies to use. Some of the things that you will want to think about may be:

  • Do I use rich or simplified language when I am introducing this skill or concept?
  • What are the vocabulary words that I need to teach?
  • How will I know when my children KNOW what I have taught them?
  • What visuals, demonstrations, and supplementary materials could I use?
  • How can I connect the lesson to students’ experiences?
  • How will I allow students to practice new skills?
  • What technology resources could I use to enhance the lesson?
  • How can I incorporate cultural diversity into my lesson?
What steps do I follow?
  • First, tell them what you want them to learn.
  • Then model the concept or skill.
  • Always practice with your children many times.
  • Finally, provide lots of independent practice throughout the day – in centers, during recess, at lunch, during transitions.
Click here to read related VPK Education Standards

Language and Communication

  1. A. Listening
    1. Gains meaning by listening 

      Benchmark: Child shows understanding by asking and answering relevant questions, adding comments relevant to the topic, and reacting appropriately to what is said.
       

    2. Follows two- and three- step directions  

      Benchmark: Child has mastery of two- step directions and usually follows three- step directions.
       

  1. C. Vocabulary
    1. Shows an understanding of words and their meanings 

      Benchmark b: Child has mastery of instructional language of the classroom and objects in the classroom.
       

      Benchmark c: Child understands the meaning of many thousands of words, many than he or she uses.
       

    2. Uses an expanded vocabulary to describe many objects, actions, and events   

      Benchmark b: Child uses category labels.
       

  1. D. Sentences and Structure
    1. Uses age-appropriate grammar in conversations and increasingly complex phrases and sentences 

      Benchmark a: Child typically uses complete sentences of four or more words, usually with subject, verb, and object order.
       

Emergent Literacy

  1. A. Emergent Reading
    1. Shows understanding of text read aloud 

      Benchmark b: Child asks and answers appropriate questions about the story.
       

Cognitive Development and General Knowledge

  1. B. Subdomain: Scientific Thinking
        B(a). Inquiry g
    1. Asks questions and uses senses to observe and explore materials and natural phenomena

      Exploration is the heart of the four-year-old child’s world. Looking, touching, lifting, listening, and experimenting are all very natural at this age. Children are just beginning to articulate their observations about the world in an organized way.
       

    2. Makes comparisons among objects

      Four-year-old children readily make comparisons about observed objects when encouraged and guided.
       

The following printable documents will help you when planning a unit of study. This lesson plan was developed around a Weather Unit. Weather is a concept that appears in most Prek curriculums and includes learning about the seasons as well as weather conditions like hot, cold, rain and snow.  Even though our children in Florida may not experience snow, we want them to know about all weather conditions to help build their background knowledge.  We will use this unit in several additional lesson plan examples throughout this section.  This lesson also includes information about Tier 1 and Tier 2 words, this concept will be explained later in this section on vocabulary.

ActivityPurposeful Planning Lesson Template
Purposeful Planning Sample Lesson
Pictures of the Seasons

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