Powerful Interactions: How to Connect with Children to Extend Their Learning, Second Edition
Powerful Interactions: How to Connect with Children to Extend Their Learning, Second Edition
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Overview
In early childhood settings, children and teachers interact all day long. The benefits to everyone—teachers and children—are enormous when even some of those everyday interactions become intentional and purposeful Powerful Interactions!
- In step one of a Powerful Interaction, Be Present, you pause to tune in to how you are feeling and consider how you might need to adjust to create a “just-right” fit with a child.
- In step two, Connect, you let that child know that you see her; are interested in what she is doing, saying, and thinking; and want to spend time with her. Deepening your relationship this way helps the child feel safe, confident, and open to learning. Staying connected and observant helps you make good decisions in step three.
- In step three, Extend Learning, you make use of your strong connection with the child to stretch her knowledge, skills, thinking, or language and vocabulary just a bit.
Now revised and updated, this reflective guide contains everything you need to understand what Powerful Interactions are, how to make them happen, and why they are so important in increasing children’s learning and your effectiveness as a teacher. Whether you work in a child care center or family child care setting, Early Head Start or Head Start program, or a public pre-K or primary classroom, you make a difference in the lives of children and families—and Powerful Interactions can make that difference even bigger.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781938113734 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | National Association for the Education of Young Children |
| Publication date: | 11/03/2020 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 44 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Amy Laura Dombro, MS, creates resources for teachers, family support professionals, and community leaders. Former head of the Bank Street Infant and Family Center, Amy works with and for national organizations to translate complex information so that it is engaging and easy to use. In addition, she often documents stories of successes, challenges, and lessons learned so that readers can benefit from the experiences of others. Her publications include The Power of Observation, Smart Start in Action and Honoring Our Babies and Toddlers, a guide for caring professionals working with military families.
Judy Jablon, MS, is an educator and author with more than 30 years of experience in early childhood and primary education. A former teacher, Judy is grounded in theory and practice that emphasize child development, observation, critical thinking, and experiential learning. Judy provides facilitation, leadership coaching, and training to a wide range of educational institutions and agencies. She has coauthored numerous publications including Observation: The Key to Responsive Teaching, The Power of Observation and The Work Sampling System.
Charlotte Stetson, MEd, spent the first 20 years of her career in early childhood education teaching young children in varied settings. During the second 20 years, she was a consultant and author. She worked with teachers, coaches, and administrators to implement best practices in the areas of classroom environment, curriculum content, observation-based assessment, and teacher-child interactions. In addition to Powerful Interactions, she is a coauthor of Observation: The Key to Responsive Teaching; Winning Ways to Learn; The Creative Curriculum Study Starters; and the DVD The Creative Curriculum in Action! Since retiring in 2014, Charlotte is learning to play the cello, volunteers for Acadia National Park, and pursues her longstanding photography hobby.
Amy Laura Dombro, MS, creates resources for teachers, family support professionals, and community leaders. Former head of the Bank Street Infant and Family Center, Amy works with and for national organizations to translate complex information so that it is engaging and easy to use. In addition, she often documents stories of successes, challenges, and lessons learned so that readers can benefit from the experiences of others. Her publications include The Power of Observation, Smart Start in Action and Honoring Our Babies and Toddlers, a guide for caring professionals working with military families.
Judy Jablon, MS, is an educator and author with more than 30 years of experience in early childhood and primary education. A former teacher, Judy is grounded in theory and practice that emphasize child development, observation, critical thinking, and experiential learning. Judy provides facilitation, leadership coaching, and training to a wide range of educational institutions and agencies. She has coauthored numerous publications including Observation: The Key to Responsive Teaching,The Power of Observation and The Work Sampling System.
Charlotte Stetson, MEd, spent the first 20 years of her career in early childhood education teaching young children in varied settings. During the second 20 years, she was a consultant and author. She worked with teachers, coaches, and administrators to implement best practices in the areas of classroom environment, curriculum content, observation-based assessment, and teacher-child interactions. In addition to Powerful Interactions, she is a coauthor of Observation: The Key to Responsive Teaching; Winning Ways to Learn; The Creative Curriculum Study Starters; and the DVD The Creative Curriculum in Action! Since retiring in 2014, Charlotte is learning to play the cello, volunteers for Acadia National Park, and pursues her longstanding photography hobby.
Read an Excerpt
Teachers and children interact with each other all day long. Let’s call these “everyday” interactions. In the typical classroom, most everyday interactions are perfectly fine—warm, caring, and encouraging. Sometimes they happen spontaneously, sometimes in a rush, often with little thought about a purpose. Children may or may not learn from them. Sometimes children learn what the teacher intends to teach, but other times they learn unintended lessons.
Not every interaction a teacher has with children can be—or even needs to be—an interaction that promotes their learning. But we might expect that many would have learning as the goal.
At the other end of the continuum from everyday interactions are what we call “Powerful Interactions”—very intentional and purposeful exchanges between a teacher and a child that can have a significant and highly positive impact on learning.
In a Powerful Interaction, the teacher intentionally connects with a particular child in order to extend that child’s learning.
You launch a Powerful Interaction when you make a conscious decision to say or do something that conveys to the child, “I notice you, I’m interested in you, and I want to know you better.” This moment of personal connection builds upon the trust and security that exists between the two of you. Within a trusting and secure relationship, a child is more open to learn from the guidance and instruction you offer.
How Do You Turn an Everyday Interaction into a Powerful Interaction?
You can transform an everyday interaction into a Powerful Interaction using three steps.
Step One—Be Present
When you are “present” you are in the moment and self-aware, and therefore you can be more open to the interesting and significant things that children do. By physically and mentally slowing down for just a few moments, you can pay better attention. This frame of mind allows you to be intentional; that is, before you act, to tune in to what a child is doing at that moment, how you are feeling, and what you want to accomplish. Being intentional in this way means you think about what to say and do in the interaction to be most effective as a teacher for that child.
Step Two—Connect
You acknowledge and validate children by letting them know you see them, are interested in them, and want to spend time with them. Connecting in this way awakens the sense of trust and security that previous positive interactions between you and the child are helping to develop. As your relationships with children grow deeper, children feel more confident and focused, and they are more open to learning from you. Positive relationships lay the foundation for children’s exploration and learning. Positive relationships also enhance the likelihood of children’s engagement and achievement in school.
Step Three—Extend Learning
When you extend a child’s knowledge and understanding hand-in-hand with nurturing a positive relationship with that child, you create the perfect moment for you to teach and the child to learn. During the few minutes of a Powerful Interaction, children are open to your adding to their knowledge, encouraging them to try new things and think in new ways, modeling language, introducing interesting new vocabulary, and other learning possibilities.
Table of Contents
Welcome
Powerful Interactions: A First Look
Step One: Be Present
Step Two: Connect
Slow Down, Stay in the Moment
A Day in the Life of Ms. Pat
Powerful Interactions: You Make the Difference!
References
Acknowledgments
About the Authors