An Introduction to the High/Scope Educational Approach
We have purchased a number of resources and training materials, which are proving to be beneficial in moving our program to this next level. As we get started, we want to provide you with an overview of what High/Scope has to offer you and your child/ren.
High/Scope is an "Active learning" educational approach. Active learning means students have direct, hands-on experiences with people, objects, events, and ideas. Children's interests and choices are at the heart of the High/Scope programs. They construct their own knowledge through interactions with the world and the people around them. Children take the first step in the learning process by making choices and following through on their plans and decisions. Teachers, caregivers, and parents offer physical, emotional, and intellectual support. In active learning settings, adults expand children's thinking with diverse materials and nurturing interactions.
In a High/Scope setting, children explore, ask and answer questions, solve problems, and interact with classmates and adults as they pursue their choices and plans. During this process they engage in teacher and child-initiated learning activities in 10 child development content areas. Within each content area are "key experiences" that foster developmentally important skills and abilities. There are 58 "key experiences" for the preschool years, with accompanying teaching strategies.
Other essential components to the High/Scope approach are the Daily Routine Schedule and the Plan-Do-Review Sequence:
The Daily Routine Schedule
A daily routine helps child:
* Pursue their own interests
* Have adequate time to persist in their own efforts
* Share control of their learning with others
* Receive support from attentive adults
* Experience flexibility within a predictable sequence of events
Plan-Do-Review
PLAN: Planning Time is when children meet in small groups to make decisions about what they intend to do during the work time that follows. The children have various interest centers to choose from, and as they choose, they share their plans with their classmates and teachers. They are encouraged to think not only about what they will do during work time but also about what materials they might need to carry out their plans, who they will play with, and what they might do if a problem occurs while carrying out their plans.
DO: During Work Time the children are busy playing in the different interest areas of the classroom. Many children will carry out the plans they made during planning time, but others may make new plans and explore many different toys and activities. Children are not required to carry out their original plans, although we may discuss their new plans with the children during this time, helping them solve problems and encouraging them to try new ideas. While the children are busy playing, they are developing their intellectual, social, emotional, physical, and language skills.
After work time, the children and teachers engage in Cleanup Time, returning items to their proper places within the classroom. Many of our shelves and containers are labeled so that the children can more easily put the toys back in their place. Learning to match a label with an object is also the beginning of learning how to read. It is the same type of connection children make when they begin to understand that letters match sounds and that written words stand for objects and letters.
REVIEW: The children meet again in small groups to share what they did during their work time. During this Recall Time children begin to think about how they carried out their actiities and how they might do things differently next time.
At the end of your child's day we invite you to get involved in this process by assisting your child in his/her cleanup efforts and then encouraging review time on your way how. This is one of the mayn ways the High/Scope Curriculum incorporates parents into the learning process, allowing for an extension into the home of the principles learned in the classroom.