Question:
Good Morning Anita,
Jennifer asked me to e-mail you with my question on the discovery area.
We have an unique school. Our classrooms are very small and so we have our centers set up in an open area called the bay in front of the classrooms. My question is, do we need to have live items in both areas, the room and the bay, in order for them to be counted?
Answer:
Thanks for your question. I hope you don’t mind if I post it on the blog for others to see.
There are two issues at play with this. One is access to and the opportunity to interact with living things. The other is having materials available for a “substantial portion of the day”.
In the ITERS-R, item 22 Nature/Science, indicator 5.2 states: “Some daily experiences with living plants or animals indoors (Ex. Plant in the room to look at,; staff point out trees, flowers, or birds from a window; children visit an aquarium).” (in the school). The key here is that it is evident that there is some interaction with nature while indoors, and it must take place during the observation to receive credit. It should be obvious that it is a daily occurrence. It can be in the classroom, your bay area, or anywhere inside your building.
In the ECERS-R, item 25 Nature/Science there are two things to consider. One is that “living things” are one of the nature/science categories referred to in the scales (see p. 51 in the ECERS-R scale). To receive credit in 3.1, items from 2 categories must be accessible. In 3.2 they must be accessible to the children for at least one hour during the day. To receive credit for 5.1 there must be 3-5 examples from three categories accessible, and 5.2 requires that they be accessible for at least 1/3 of the hours your program is open.
To score this item, the assessor will observe where the items are located and will record the times that the items in all locations are accessible to children, meaning that the children are free to use the items and can access them on their own. Therefore if the time that the children use the centers in the bay area is restricted, it may not be possible for the children to have long enough access to receive credit. You’ll need to assess the daily schedule and how that area is used. Also, the assessor will interview the teacher at the end of the observation. The teacher will have the opportunity to state other times during the day that these materials are accessible. Also, the posted schedule should list all the times during the day that materials are freely accessible.
I know this was a long answer, I hope it helps.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
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1 comment:
It also sounds like MOD could be a concern for each of the ITERS class groups, for materials other than Nature/Science.
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