Discussions are designed to be mini, low-stakes writing assignments. This may be different from what you have experienced in other classes. Discussions are not completion grades. You will be graded on the content and quality of your writing.

Audience: Your fellow classmates, TAs, and instructor

Purpose: To apply vocabulary, concepts, themes, and perspectives to demonstrate learning and understanding

Tone: Informal but articulate

1. To set yourself up for success, complete the recommended reading before starting the discussion. You will need to use information from your book to support your conclusions for full credit.
2. Read the discussion prompt.
3. Watch the video(s).
4. Type out your response in a word processor. Support your conclusions with evidence from the video, your textbook, personal experience, or other sources.
5. At the end of your response, pose a question to your discussion group that encourages your classmates to connect the material to personal experience, course vocabulary, concepts, theories, or different perspectives. You may even bring in external content (i.e., other videos, published research, websites, etc.).
6. Proofread your post for focus, organization, evidence, language and conventions. Check your word count. Save your work to your computer, then copy and paste it into Canvas and submit. Your first post will be the one that is graded, no exceptions.
7. Respond to the discussion prompt with your initial posting by 11:59 pm on the Tuesday before the due date for full credit. Your initial posting must be between 250 and 500 words.
8. Respond to at least two classmateàposts by the due date. Your responses should clearly articulate the question being answered and provide specific examples and/or evidence to support statements. You may even pose additional questions to further the discussion.

Click here for discussion grading rubric

Discussion 7 | Preschool Philosophies

Recommended reading: Chapters 7.3 – 8.3

Learning Outcome: Understand the application of developmental psychology to real-world issues and evaluate the impact of policies and practices on children and families. Propose and justify evidence-based recommendations for improving child development outcomes.

Discussion prompt:

1. 1. After watching the videos, spend 10-20 minutes or more researching an additional preschool approach on your own. Some examples of other approaches include: project-based, religious, cooperative, emergent curriculum, representational development, language immersion, academic, play-based, and collaboration.
   2. Imagine that you are a parent who is planning to enroll your child in preschool. You visit four preschools with four different approaches: Reggio-Amelia, Montessori, Waldorf, and the additional approach you chose to research. Based on your “visits”…
   3. Which school would you choose to send your child to?
   4. Why would you choose that school over the others?
   5. At the end of your response, pose a question to your discussion group that encourages your classmates to connect the material to personal experience, course vocabulary, concepts, theories, or different perspectives. You may even bring in external content (i.e., other videos, published research, websites, etc
   6. VIDEOS

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