Myers, J. & Beach, R. (2004). Constructing critical literacy practices through technology tools and inquiry. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education [Online serial], 4(3). Available: http://www.citejournal.org/vol4/iss3/languagearts/article1.cfm
Constructing Critical Literacy Practices Through Technology Tools and Inquiry
Pennsylvania State University
University of Minnesota
This article describes how students have made use of technology tools
in several critical literacy activities that help to achieve the paramount
goals of language and literacy education to enable students to develop
critical consciousness and community agency through literacy. The technologies
helped students define intertextual connections, pose questions about
the basis for meaning, integrate multiple voices and perspectives, and
adopt a collaborative inquiry stance. The technology tools include software
programs for video editing, hyperlinked knowledge bases, and asynchronous
virtual communication. Examples of technology projects are embedded
as links in this article.
Beliefs About Literacy, Technology, and Pedagogy
In Inquiry-Based English Instruction (Beach & Myers, 2001) an
English language arts curriculum is detailed in which students explore how words,
objects, and symbols are used to enact literacy practices and discourses that
construct multiple social worlds, each with its own valued identities, relationships,
and activities. The book provides a framework for teachers and documents how
students have made use of technology tools to conduct inquiries into issues
related to their own lived peer, family, school, community, workplace, and virtual
social worlds and the social worlds represented in literature and media.
In this multimedia, multicultural world, teacher educators must prepare future
teachers of literacy, language, culture, and citizenship to expand the forms
of representation typical in the school classroom and to reframe the purpose
of school on the critique and production of diverse representations of experience
and knowledge (Gallego & Hollingsworth, 2000). As students learn to use
technology tools to build representations of a social world’s characteristics,
they generate reflective critical thought through their analysis and critique
of the identities, relationships, and values constructed by the cultural practices
and discourses in that social world.
A social worlds curriculum focuses the study of language, literature, media,
and culture on the central issue of how people construct meaning from experience.
Meanings about the words people use, the objects we produce, and the activities
in which we engage, are negotiated through social interaction with others in
multiple, overlapping, and often contesting communities. Through our participation
in these communities, or social worlds, we develop skills in using particular
objects, or tools, or texts to accomplish the activities valued within these
social worlds. In English language arts classrooms, these skills are often identified
as reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing, with more specific subskills
like summarizing, using transitions, intonation, note taking, and identifying
propaganda techniques. In the study of literature, students focus on inferring
elements of character, plot, theme, symbolism, and so on.
Often these literacy skills are defined as cognitive abilities with which
some students struggle because they lack ability or motivation. Students’ lack
of motivation helps English educators to envision language arts skills as
socially constructed literacy practices, or goal directed ways of using language
and symbols valued within a social group to which the student hopes to belong.
Although skills may readily transfer to other social contexts, the skills taught
in the typical English classroom seem to many students to be valuable only
within the specific context/discourse of school. When students and teachers
begin to understand skills as socially developed over time in particular
cultural groups, they can analyze how language and symbols shape their
identities, relationships, and activities within particular social worlds.
We (the authors) have found technology projects to be especially beneficial
in supporting the development of language and symbol use within social worlds.
These technology projects also support the realization that skills are socially
negotiated ways of using symbols (not cognitive predispositions and limits)
that enable all learners to extend different language actions into different
contexts to develop new forms of negotiating meaning, belonging, and social
activity within and across social worlds (http://www.ed.psu.edu/k-12/socialworlds).
Surrounding any classroom literacy project is a cultural practice that frames
and directs individuals’ use of words, symbols, and objects to interpret and
produce meaning. Words, symbols, and objects can be described as the tools through
which individuals construct a social world with shared meanings for desired
values, relationships, activities, and identities. Literature provides a wonderful
example of just how this construction of a social world takes place. In teaching
about character development, we have long focused on what a character thinks
and says, on what others say about the character, and on what the author describes
about the character. Words are the tools of constructing the meaning of a character’s
identity, desires, and agendas. The character moves through many social interactions
in a story that often creates some tension within a social world or between
multiple social worlds. The character may be staunchly positioned in one world,
caught between loyalties to several worlds, or challenged by others within an
unraveling and uncontrollable social world. For example, the following excerpt
from the novel, Bless Me, Ultima (Anaya, 1972), illustrates how Antonio
moves within multiple, competing social worlds as he attempts to negotiate and
construct his identity, relationships, and values:
Then the golden carp swam by Cico and disappeared into the darkness of the
pond. I felt my body trembling and I saw the bright golden form disappear. I
knew I had witnessed a miraculous thing, the appearance of a pagan god, a
thing as miraculous as the curing of my uncle Lucas. And I thought, the power
of God failed where Ultima’s worked; and then a sudden illumination of beauty
and understanding flashed through my mind. This is what I had expected God to
do at my first holy communion! If God was witness to my beholding of the
golden carp then I had sinned! I clasped my hands and was about to pray to the
heavens when the waters of the pond exploded. (p. 114)
As this story, and any story, develops and concludes, social worlds emerge,
dissolve, retreat, overlap, and persevere, all through the symbolic meanings
constructed through the words and objects used by the characters in particular
social interactions or cultural practices. The worlds and its members are
co-constructed dialectically through the symbols.
The English language arts curriculum needs to reframe activity with texts
around the development of literacy activities that highlight and critique these
social, constructive, negotiated practice of using words, symbols, and objects
to negotiate membership within and across multiple social worlds (Alvermann,
2002). Students of all ages and language experiences are able to inquire into
how words, symbols, and objects are used by various groups within their lived
communities to define valued identities, relationships, and activities.
Likewise, texts such as literature, film, and mass media, offer represented
social worlds that can be analyzed in terms of the identities, relationships,
and activities promoted within the media text world. Through inquiries into both
lived and represented social worlds, students can use many technology tools to
produce their own representations that describe the identities and activities
valued in a social world. In some cases, students can also explain how valued
ends are constructed through the way words, symbols, and objects are used in
As teachers of English, we have come to think about video authoring as an
indispensable technology tool for interpreting any work of literature. We have
emphasized so often the strong connection between reading and writing, how one
supports the development of the other. Similarly, media authoring supports the
development of critical media literacy. When students author multimedia
products, like video, they begin to see the way commercially produced film and
video manipulates image and sound in an attempt to persuade an audience.
Students have authored video biographies, novel enactments, film trailers for
novels, issue documentaries, and mass media critiques. Students often liken
their projects to music videos, sharing comments like the following:
The coolest part was the video. We really got to express our feelings on
our topics. The least was the essay. I thought it was boring and not very
fun. I learned a ton of technical stuff but I also learned to problem solve
before looking for help. We wasted time and it affected us in the long run.
I would have people do certain jobs. This project was really fun. It was almost
like a vacation from English. (Teen Issues Project, 2/99; see http://www.ed.psu.edu/k-12/teenissues/)
We find it interesting as English teachers who seek opportunities for our students
to learn to express their ideas, that they found that a rich ability in authoring
a video but did not consider it an English classroom activity because it was
not restricted to the printed word. As educators, we firmly believe that hypermedia
authoring develops significant critical literacy skills.
However, as teachers we have noted one extremely difficult tension in our evaluation
of students’ videos. The nature of the media itself relies on the implicit communication
of ideas far more than the explicit communication of ideas characteristic of
written essays. Thus, we often find ourselves in interpretive limbo, seeing
some fascinating ideas in student videos and not knowing if they were intended
critiques or messages. Likewise, we sometimes miss what we think students might
have been communicating because we lack the intertextual background that the
students take for granted in their peers because they share lived social worlds.
Of course, we talk about these interpretive issues with students, because intention
and audience are essential rhetorical issues in any act of representation and
are part of the critical literacy practices of inquiry, questioning, and negotiating
multiple perspectives. However, to evaluate video authoring intentions adequately,
we require students to provide a written account of their process and product
to help us most fully understand their rhetorical understandings. Students also
write presentations to evaluate the larger rhetorical purposes for their videos
in preparing them for display in classroom film festivals and award ceremonies.
We have found that most all rubrics traditionally used to evaluate writing projects
work equally well with evaluating students’ video projects.
Over the past decade, we have worked with students from the age of 12 and
older in the authoring of QuickTime videos using various software projects. The
most expensive and powerful of these tools has been Adobe Premiere, while Avid
Cinema, Strata Video Shop, or iMovie have shipped free of charge with computers
or video input devices. With all of these tools, we have found the learning
curve to be very short with students and long with teachers. Although teachers
may struggle with many technical issues, teachers who have experienced success
with the use of these tools in their classrooms have been willing to take the
risk of not knowing as much about the use of the tool as the students and to
learn from them. As in any learning situation, giving students responsibility
for teaching teachers and peers can bolster their sense of agency and membership
in the social world of school achievement.
Video Editing Tools With Fahrenheit 451
Technology tools can be used to help students engage in critical inquiry
about social worlds (Beach & Bruce, 2002; Jonassen, 2000; Myers & Beach,
2001; Myers, Hammett, & McKillop, 2000). These tools can be used to foster a
collaborative inquiry stance and analysis of significant themes in and
characteristics of the social worlds represented in literature.
Tenth grade English teacher Peg Vlasak and her intern Andrea Acker built the
study of Fahrenheit 451 around the students’ identification of central
themes over the course of reading the book, then included a culminating project
in which small groups created their own video interpretation of one of the book’s
themes. Drawing from a reader response style of discussion over 2 weeks of reading,
the students identified “thought control, censorship, utopia, individuality,
and knowledge as power” as five main themes in the novel. While reading and
discussing the novel, the students connected their responses to the novel with
other texts from their life experience, such as music, movies, pictures, news,
or other books. They took turns bringing in these media texts to play for the
class and explaining how the meanings of the media and novel intersected.
By juxtaposing various media texts to the quotations from the novel, the
students established the critical literacy practices sought by the teachers.
Playing a song or a movie clip created a meaningful connection between the
literature and life. The meanings of the once separated media text and novel
text became connected and generated new layers of meaning for each other. The
discussion of connections and new meanings elicited multiple voices and
perspectives in the class and raised new questions about the basis of
interpretation from prior readings of the once separated text and media.
What pushed this study of a novel beyond what many English teachers already
do were the culminating video projects accomplished by the students over the
final week of the unit. During this week the students worked in small groups
of three or four each in the computer lab to author QuickTime videos using Macintosh
computers and software called Avid Cinema. Either Macintosh or PC computers
can support video editing software, and most recent computers with hard drives
of at least 4 gigabytes have plenty of memory for video editing. Video editing
hardware components are abundant now and can be easily added to computers at
a cost of approximately $100. The short 2-3 minute videos brought together images,
movie clips, music, quotes from the novel, voiceovers, and text to make a statement
about one of the five main themes identified by the class over the past weeks.
The teachers noted high levels of engagement and collaboration as students often
paged back through the novel for ideas and negotiated how to organize the material
of their video to make the greatest impact. We will examine the literacy practices
constructed through this tool by drawing from the videos produced by three classes
and published on the web at http://www.ed.psu.edu/k-12/fahrenheit.
|Figure 1. Knowledge as Power – Period
The critical literacy practice of defining intertextual connections forms the
basis of play, creativity, and critique with this tool for deconstructing and
reconstructing meaning. The students combined and juxtaposed multiple texts
in ways that created new composite texts that interrogate the meanings of the
original texts. The “knowledge as power” (http://www.ed.psu.edu/k-12/fahrenheit/knowledgeaspower4.mov)
video made by a small group of 10th graders in fourth period includes
one segment in which soft piano music frames the image of a fireman’s silhouette,
surrounded by flames, with a scrolling quote from the novel about the calmness
with which the character lights her porch on fire in resistance. As shown in
Figure 1, the textual word “contempt” is visualized by the image of flames and
the calmness of the music prompts reflection on the act of self-destruction
Likewise, in the “utopia” (http://www.ed.psu.edu/k-12/fahrenheit/utopia8.mov)
video authored by a small group in Period 8, a gospel voice singing “everybody
is free” is used to replace the soundtrack for the “Wizard of Oz” scene of
Dorothy and friends running through the field of flowers. This new juxtaposition
redefines not only the pace and style of movement of the movie, but the sense of
meaning about the characters’ goals as they run toward the Emerald City.
|Figure 2. Utopia – Period
Peppy acoustic guitar music by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young begins the small
group “utopia” (http://www.ed.psu.edu/k-12/fahrenheit/aperfectworld7.mov)
video from Period 7, as four definitions of the term utopia are timed to flash
as text on a black screen. The spirit of the music makes the ideals of the juxtaposed
definitions of utopia seem possible in life. The cheerful music continues as
a student-drawn cartoon of a sunny day with faces cut from photos form heads
on cartoon bodies that bounce happily into the video frame (Figure 2).
This sequence illustrates how the careful use of transitions also supports
the construction of a message by creating textual connections between sequential
juxtapositions or links. The video continues with alternating text scrolling
above or below images of smiling groups of people and the music changes over to
a song from Rusted Root creating a very happy and optimistic utopian outlook.
However, the scrolling text suddenly begins to question the kind of utopia
one should desire. This problematic representation heightens with the text over
the image of Hitler that gives the viewer the incomplete sentence “Hitler’s idea
of a utopia was one in which . . .” After time for the viewer to reflect, a
flying block transition into the next image of two people illustrates the text
that scrolls to complete the thought: “everyone with blonde hair and blue eyes.”
In this video format the viewer most often misses the fact that over the entire
sequence of words and images the text itself does not construct a grammatically
complete statement or question because the entire experience of image, sound,
and text creates a complete thought by enacting the critical literacy practice
of posing questions that interrogate the basis of meaning for words, images, and
sounds. The students quickly learned how to pose questions and critiques about
ideas like utopia by using these new intertextual grammars of multimedia video
Figure 3. Knowledge as Power – Period
The vast number of ways to juxtapose media texts in a QuickTime video makes
it easy for authors to integrate multiple voices and perspectives. The best
examples of this integration invite the viewer to inquire into a variety of
possible meanings about the video’s central idea. Period 7’s small group video
on “knowledge as power” (http://www.ed.psu.edu/k-12/fahrenheit/knowledgeaspower7.mov)
opens with a female vocalist repeatedly singing “sitting on top of the world”
juxtaposed with words torn from magazines and newspapers: “Decide & Conquer,”
with two frames of a cartoon featuring Garfield the cat sitting in front of
a computer first in deep thought, then with a light bulb glowing in his thought
balloon. A music transition to “you’re world champion now” accompanies a series
of new images “ASK,” “THINK,” “LEARN,” and a scrolling quote from the novel
about knowledge being lost for good if they die (Figure 3).
With this initial series of events, the video quickly suggests that knowledge
involves different forms of thinking and remembering, all with consequences
for great power over others in the world. The video next introduces a perspective
on power through a movie clip in which a man tries to impress ladies by quoting
fancy words from books as his own ideas. As the man is exposed as a fraud, the
message suggests that one should think on one’s own to have genuine power. Then,
music and scrolling text introduce another perspective “POWER INVOLVES LAWS.”
This is followed by a cartoon, a quote from Fahrenheit 451 that emphasizes
the importance of books and a student speaking, “Communication is the key to
love. Communication is the key to life. There must be over a thousand ways to
communicate,” to generate even more perspectives on power through communication
and reading. The video later presents additional perspective on power through
several dissolve transitions of sports cards with scrolling text “Knowledge
about your interests makes you powerful!” (Figure 4).
|Figure 4. Knowledge as Power – Period
It concludes with an overlay of all the text presented in the video and a group
singing repeatedly, “looking back, looking back,” which could very well suggest
even another perspective about power and knowledge being based in the activity
Critically Examining Media Representations Through Media Collages
Another example is of using technology tools to examine critically media representations
of different aspects of social worlds (as advocated by Alvermann, Moon, &
Hagood, 1999; Hammett & Barrell, 2002). Media representations found in television,
newspapers, magazines, art, photography, film, music, MTV, etc., are the ways
in which the media portrays particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas,
or topics from a particular ideological perspective. Rather than simply reflecting
or mirroring “reality,” media representations serve to “re-present” or actually
to create a new reality (Hall, 1997).
In studying ideas relevant to students’ lives by examining media representations
along with the study of literary representations, students pose questions such
as, “Where do these representations come from?” “Who produces these representations?”
“Why are they producing these representations?” “How is complex understanding
about life limited by these representations?” and “What is missing or who is
silenced in these representations?” (Hall, 1997).
Media representations also reflect various discourses, or ways of knowing or
thinking that guide how a representation is made, communicated, and interpreted
(Fairclough, 1995; Gee, 1996). These include discourses of gender, class, race,
age, business, religion, science, law, technology, etc., that shape the possible
identities of people as they use these discourses. The way words and symbols are
used in these discourses position the speaker and others according to certain
ideological orientations. Museums frequently represented colonized cultures in
terms of the discourses of “Orientalism,” reflecting a Western imperialist
ideological position (Said, 1978). Discourses of gender construct models of
identity are related to idealized notions of what it means to be a male or
female. Different racial or ethnic groups are represented both in terms of the
images portrayed and the discourses of race constituting those representations.
Central to the cultural construction of race is a discourse of whiteness as the
desired norm, against which people of color are defined as “other” (Roediger,
Rather than assume that students are passive dupes who readily accept these
representations teachers can use technology tools to help students construct
alternative representations that challenge various media representations (Radway,
2002; Tobin, 2001). Part of this entails assuming an active role in constructing
their own alternative, counterrepresentations as is evident in Ad-Busters’
Magazine (http://www.adbusters.org/) that parodies
ads. In doing so, students are taking the original, problematic representations
and re-contextualizing those representations into their own critical framework
or space. For example, the female adolescents use online zines as a tool to
challenge and subvert sexist media representations (Knobel, 2002; Radway, 2002).
Creating Media Collages
Students may begin the critical thinking process by constructing media
- Selecting a certain group, world, topic, issue, or phenomenon and then finding
different representations of this topic/phenomenon in magazines, television,
newspapers, literature, Web sites.
- Noting patterns in these representations in terms of similarities in portrayals/images,
instances of stereotyping, or essentializing categories.
- Noting value assumptions in terms of who has power, who solves problems,
how problems are solved, and who is best served by solving the problem.
- Defining the intended audiences for these representations: What appeals
are made to what audiences? Whose beliefs or values are being reinforced or
validated? How are certain products linked to certain representations for
- Defining what is missing or left out of the representation: What
complexities or variations are masked over? What is included and what is
- Considering the larger discourses (gender, class, race, or age) and
institutional forces shaping these representations.
In a recent media studies methods course taught by Beach, small groups of teachers
selected a topic: gender, class, race, age, love, home, family, and body weight.
They then cut out images from popular magazines that represented these different
topics. Next they attached these images to poster-size sticky notes and shared
their critiques with the class. The group dealing with representations of race
noted that whiteness was the presumed norm—that people of color were shown only
in limited roles as athletes or celebrities. The group dealing with representations
of class noted that class was represented primarily by images of consumer goods
functioning as upper-middle or middle-class status markers. The group dealing
with love noted that most of their images related to sexuality; there were few,
if any, images associated with romantic love.
Using Hypermedia Productions to Critique Media
Through constructing and critiquing the representations in these media collages,
students can also construct hypermedia productions that critique media representations.
For example, a high school student named Stephanie created a Quicktime video
containing a montage of images from magazines that portrayed how the media represents
ways in which participation in sports is shown as marking one’s identity in
a peer group or community (http://www.ed.psu.edu/k-12/socialworlds/stephanie.mov).
As she explained,
For my final project I used the computer and scanned in pictures and added
music to it. The social world I was portraying was sports teams while linking
it to the social world of friends. In my final project I chose all the images
from magazines for a purpose. I went through tons of magazines before I found
them.…When you play on a sports team one thing you should expect is for people
to cheer for you and give you team spirit at your games. The very first image
of the fans in the crowd was chosen because not only do you become friends
with your team but you become friends with the fans as well. Everyone’s dream
and desire is to win their game they are playing. One of my pictures fitted
this thought. This picture was of a baseball player sitting on the shoulders
of his teammates because he won the game. (Beach & Myers, 2001, p.
Technology can also be used as a tool for engaging in critical inquiry about
community issues and representations of those issues. A group of preservice
English teachers worked with middle-school students involved in study of a St.
Paul neighborhood. Teachers and students communicated with each other on a WebCT
bulletin board, in which they described activities related to the project,
communication that can create ongoing dialogues about issues (Doering &
Beach, 2002). Groups of students focused on studying a range of issues
associated with particular aspects of an urban neighborhood: architecture,
community development, community history, parks and recreation, business
development, segregation, entertainment opportunities, employment opportunities,
housing, public safety, restaurants, pollution, and recycling. Both teachers and
students formulated perceptions of issues based on background reading of texts
and Web sites, discussed issues common to urban neighborhoods, defined questions
related to these issues, engaged in interviews with neighborhood people, and
took digital photos and field notes. Based on the data, teachers and students
then analyzed neighborhood people’s ability to address particular issues and how
those issues are represented in the media. For example, the group focusing on
crime examined the ways in which local television news often represented this
and other St. Paul urban neighborhoods as crime ridden.
A central focus of these projects was the use of digital photography to
document and display the nature of the problems facing community members. For
example, students and teachers employed photos to document the range of
available housing, from dilapidated to upscale, gentrified housing that local
residents could no longer afford. The teachers and students used these photos
for presentations of a poster-session in the school gym open to students and
community members. Teachers developed hypermedia presentations in consultations
with their students and created Web-based presentations about specific issues.
Integrating Hypermedia Inquiry Projects Into English Teacher
Our hope in this article was to illuminate how various technology tools can
support critical literacy practices with the entire range of text and media
and to describe some curricular activities for adding inquiry projects that
make use of technology tools to the traditional print based English classroom.
Additional inquiry frameworks for technology projects can be explored at http://www.ed.psu.edu/k-12; additional links
related to critical inquiry can be found at http://www.inquiry.uiuc.edu/.
We encourage teachers to learn how to integrate these new technology tools
for representing life worlds into the study of ideas and issues represented
through text. Teacher educators must also include hypermedia projects in their
teacher preparation courses if there is any hope of bringing the field of English
education in line with the multimedia lives of citizens. Not only are these
tools for making and sharing meaning pervasive among today’s youth, when the
media texts they produce are brought into juxtaposition with print texts, both
forms of representation are brought into a critical space in which meaning can
be better negotiated as they seek to make sense of and construct shared value
for life experience.
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Pennsylvania State University
University of Minnesota


The Shoshone (also spelled Shoshoni) are a Native American tribe with three large divisions: the Northern, the Western and the Eastern. The Northern are concentrated in eastern Idaho, western Wyoming, and north-eastern Utah. The Eastern lived in Wyoming, northern Colorado and Montana. Conflict with the Blackfoot, Crow, Lakota, Cheyennes, and Arapahos pushed them south and westward after about 1750. The Western ranged from central Idaho, northwestern Utah, central Nevada, and in California about Death Valley and Panamint Valley. This group is sometimes called the Panamint. The Idaho groups of Western Shoshone were called Tukuaduka (sheep eaters), while the Nevada/Utah groups were called the Gosiute (Goshute) or Toi Ticutta (cattail eaters). The estimated population of Northern and Western Shoshone was 4,500 in 1845. 3,650 Northern Shoshone and 1,201 Western Shoshone were counted in 1937 by the United States Office of Indian Affairs.
Possibly the most famous member of the Shoshone tribe was Sacagawea who accompanied the Corps of Discovery with Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in their exploration of the Western United States. The success of their expedition was due in no small part to the willing support of Sacagawea, who remains one of the most famous Native American women in history, and is a fine example of peaceful inter-cultural cooperation. Unfortunately, despite her cooperation and the good faith efforts of Shoshone leaders such as Washakie to enter into peaceful agreements with the white Europeans, the massive influx of settlers and travelers through their lands disrupted and forever changed the Shoshone way of life. Today, Shoshone live on reservations and strive to preserve and pass on their traditional culture to further generations and at the same time engage in contemporary ventures.
The Europeans encountered hundreds of native tribes occupying vast territories of this mineral-rich country, and they quickly recognized the potential wealth to be gained by tapping into the natural resources of the land. After the opening of the American West by the Lewis and Clark expedition, the success of which was due in no small part to the involvement of Sacagawea the Shoshone woman who became their guide and translator, the Shoshone way of life would never be the same.
The Shoshone had no idea that their freedom and way of life was about to become yoked and extinguished. After they signed a treaty on August 7, 1855 in good faith, the US Government refused to ratify it. They claimed that it was because Garland Hunt, who was the Indian Agent, had overstepped his authority in offering the Shoshone Indians the treaty.
Before the ink had dried on the peace treaty of 1863, the white man had already begun to inhabit Shoshone lands, and the authorities did nothing to stop the influx of the invasion. The Northern Shoshone fought conflicts with settlers in Idaho in the 1860s which included the Bear River Massacre. They fought with the U.S. Army in the 1876 Battle of the Rosebud against their traditional enemies, the Lakota and Cheyenne, and again in 1878 in the Bannock War. Disheartening as it was, the Shoshone realized that they could never defeat all of the white men. Most fought bravely and were slaughtered, while some became resigned to being dishonorably treated and accepted reservation life. They were granted a small plot of land after Nevada officially became a recognized state, an area which was thousands of miles less than they were accustomed to roaming.
Sacagawea was a Shoshone woman who accompanied the Corps of Discovery led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in their exploration of the Western United States, traveling thousands of miles from North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean.
Sacagawea was born to the Agaidika ("Salmon Eater") tribe of Shoshone near what is now Lemhi County, Idaho, but in 1800, when she was about 11 or 12, she was kidnapped by a group of Hidatsa in a battle. She was taken to their village near the present Washburn, North Dakota, where she grew up culturally affiliated with this tribe. At the age of about fifteen, Sacagawea had been taken as a wife by Toussaint Charbonneau, a French trapper living in the Hidatsa village. Sacagawea was pregnant with her first child when the Corps of Discovery arrived near the Hidatsa villages to spend the winter of 1804-1805. Lewis and Clark agreed to hire Charbonneau as an interpreter when they discovered his wife spoke the Shoshone language, as they knew they would need the help of the Shoshone tribes at the headwaters of the Missouri River. Carrying an infant child, she maintained her translating duties, while simultaneously leading the expedition through the Northwest to the Pacific Coast.
The expedition left Fort Mandan and headed up the Missouri River in pirogues, which had to be poled and sometimes pulled from the riverbanks. On May 14, 1805, Sacagawea rescued items that had fallen out of a capsized boat, including the journals and records that Lewis and Clark were keeping. The corps commanders, who praised her quick action on this occasion, would name the Sacagawea River in her honor on May 20. By August 1805 the corps had located a Shoshone tribe and was attempting to trade for horses to cross the Rocky Mountains. Sacagawea was brought in to translate, and it was discovered the tribe's chief was her brother Cameahwait.
Clark's journal recorded the reunion:
August 17 Saturday 1805 The Interpreter & Squar who were before me at Some distance danced for joyful sight, and She make signs to me that they were her nation […] the meeting of those people was effecting, particular between Sah cah gar we ah and an Indian woman, who had been taken prisoner at the same time with her and who, had afterwards escaped from the Minnetares [Hidatsa] and rejoined her nation.
A statue of Sacagawea and baby Pomp appears on the grounds of the North Dakota State Capitol, and a replica of it represents North Dakota in the National Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol.
Washakie was a renowned warrior who first appears in 1840 in the written record of the American fur trapper, Osborne Russell.
Much about Washakie's early life remains unknown, although several family traditions suggest similar origins. He was born to a Flathead (Salish) father and Lemhi Shoshone mother, two tribal groups that were frequent hunting and trading partners. After his father was killed, he may have become the adopted son of the band leader of a Shoshone or Bannock and Shoshone band, but for the next two-and-one-half decades (c. 1815-1840) he learned the traditions and the ways of a warrior that were typical of any Shoshone youth of that period.
Although the name by which he would be widely known has been translated in various ways, it apparently dealt with his tactics in battle. One story describes how Washakie devised a large rattle by placing stones in an inflated and dried balloon of buffalo hide which he tied on a stick. He carried the device into battle to frighten enemy horses, earning the name "The Rattle," or "Gourd Rattle." Another translation of "Washakie" is "Shoots-on-the-Run."
In 1851, at the urging of trapper Jim Bridger, Washakie led a band of Shoshones to the council meetings of the Treaty of Fort Laramie. Essentially from that time until his death, he was considered the head of the Eastern Shoshones by the representatives of the United States government.
Perhaps he realized that the expansion of whites into Shoshone country was inevitable, but in 1863 and again in 1868, he signed treaties with the U.S. at Fort Bridger. The 1863 Treaty of Fort Bridger established a generic Shoshone country, whose borders extended eastward to the crest of the Wind River Mountains, south to the Uintah Mountains of Utah, and on the northern side, to the crest of the Bitterroots. The western border was left undefined, but was understood to include most of the Snake River basin as far as the Oregon border. This treaty included a number of Shoshone and Bannock Indian bands besides that of Washkie.
The 1868 Treaty of Fort Bridger proved more significant, for it established the Shoshone and Bannock Indian Agency located in west-central Wyoming. Moreover, this was land selected by Washakie and his headmen of the Eastern Shoshones. The initial reservation included about three million acres (12,000 km²) in Wyoming's Wind River country for his people. Although an 1872 land cession reduced the size by 800,000 acres, this valley remains the home of the Eastern Shoshones today.
Washaki was also determined that Native Americans should be educated, and he gave land to Welsh clergyman John Roberts to establish a boarding school where Shoshone girls learned traditional crafts and language. Washakie's prowess in battle, his efforts for peace, and his commitment to his people's welfare made him one of the most respected leaders in Native American history.
In 1911 a small group of Bannock under a leader named "Shoshone Mike" killed four ranchers in Washoe County, Nevada. A posse was formed, and on Feb 26, 1911, they caught up with the band, and eight of them were killed, along with one member of the posse, Ed Hogle. Three children and a woman who survived the battle were captured. The remains of some of the members of the band were repatriated from the Smithsonian Institution to the Fort Hall Idaho Shoshone-Bannock Tribe in 1994.
In 1982, the Western Shoshone, who also invited "unrepresented tribes," made a declaration of sovereignty and began issuing its own passports as the Western Shoshone National Council.
Newe is the Shoshone language word which means "The People." The tag "Shoshone" was coined by the Euro-American hunters and traders in the 1830s or early 1840s. The name stuck and many contemporary Newe refer to themselves as Shoshone. However, the number of people who speak Shoshone has been steadily dwindling over the last few decades, so there are only a few hundred people who speak the language fluently today, although a few thousand know it to one degree or another.
Shoshone is the northernmost member of the large Uto-Aztecan language family, which includes over thirty languages whose speakers originally inhabited a vast territory stretching from the Salmon River in central Idaho down into northern and central Mexico. Shoshone belongs to the Numic subbranch of Uto-Aztecan. The word Numic comes from the cognate word in all Numic languages for "Person."
The Shoshone were largely farmers and hunters. They have a culture rich in family values and tradition, and parents and grandparents bestow the oral history of their ancestors to their children. As with most other Native American groups, the Shoshone have ritual dances to express their gratitude to the earth for planting the seeds in the autumn, and the harvest in the spring.
The Shoshone lived in extended family groups in which cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles and in-laws all banded together. They migrated through valleys and areas large enough to sustain their encampments with hunting and gathering resources. At certain times during the year such as harvest time, many tribes would join together to sing and dance, although there was no central organization throughout the Shoshone nation. Each of the Shoshone villages managed its own affairs internally, by tribal council, governed by village elders and generally a head chieftain. Varying in size and shape, the larger villages were generally fortified well to protect against an enemy attack, and they had populations up to and over 1,000, and spanned from one to ten acres (40,000 m²). They practiced agriculture and produced crops such as wheat, squash, corn, pumpkins, and barley. The typical village had 50 to 400 people organized in tipis. Villages were abandoned every few decades as the nearby forest grew thin and so they would migrate into more fertile areas.
Storytelling is a popular part of entertainment in many Native American societies. This stood also true for the Shoshone. Stories would recount their origins and would retell the deeds of heroes long gone. There are also many Shoshone legends about sacred animals including possums, raccoons, turtles, birds, chipmunks, and wolves.
In Shoshone beliefs, the archetypal deities appear as visionary beings who bring blessings and receive love. Shamans would receive visions in their dreams and lead the people to different areas on the map, dwelling where the spirit beings told them to. A vast collection of myths defines the relationships between man and nature and plants and animals. Man depended on the blessings of the gods, who in turn depended on prayers and ceremonies.
In Shoshone mythology, the Coyote brought them to the lands of the Great Basin. Two Shoshone women gave Coyote a basket by two native women coated with pine pitch to make it waterproof. Coyote was supposed to carry this basket to the Great Basin, and was warned against opening the lid. However, his curious nature overcame him, and when he opened the lid, some of the beings inside jumped out and ran away, which is how they say their ancestors came to dwell in the land of the Great Basin.
Shoshone hold the wolf in great respect, as the creator god. The coyote, however, as a trickster was avoided. Shoshone tales tell of Coyote's resentment against Wolf. In one tale, Coyote tried to trick Wolf, who had the power to bring the dead back to life. Coyote told Wolf that he should not bring the dead back to life because there would be no more room on the earth for everyone, expecting this to cause the Shoshone to hate Wolf. However, the trick was reversed, as Coyote's son died and Wolf did not revive him. The Shoshone people say that was how death came to their lands, and the experience of sorrow when someone dies. They continue to admire Wolf's power and wisdom, despite this.
Today, many of the Shoshone tribes are still waiting to become formally recognized by the federal government, along with over 200 other Native American tribes. One of the most notable Shoshones is a gentleman by the name of Ronald "Snake" Edmo, a Shoshone poet, and linguistic anthropologist. He carries the oral tradition of his people with him and travels the country enlightening modern Americans about the vast culture of the Shoshone people.
Contemporary Shoshone live on a number of reservations. Following are some examples.
Wind River Reservation
Wind River Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation shared by the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes of Native Americans in the central western portion of the U.S. state of Wyoming. It is the seventh-largest Indian reservation in the United States, encompassing a land area of 8,995.733 km² (3,473.272 sq mi). The 2000 census reported a population of 23,250 inhabitants. The largest town is Riverton. Headquarters are at Fort Washakie. Also home to the Wind River Casino (Northern Arapahoe) and Shoshone Rose Casino (Eastern Shoshone), which are the only casinos in Wyoming.
Duck Valley Indian Reservation
Duck Valley Indian Reservation was established as a homeland for members of both the Shoshone and Paiute tribes. It lies on the state line between Idaho and Nevada in the western United States. Archaeological record attests to the use of these areas for over 15,000 years. These people had villages along the Snake, Bruneau, Owyhee, Boise, Payette, Salmon and Weiser Rivers and their major tributary streams in southwest Idaho. Fishing, hunting, and gathering provided the basis for our ceremonial, subsistence, and economic livelihood. Salmon was the single most important resource.
Ely Shoshone Indian Reservation
Ely Shoshone Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation for the Shoshone people of Nevada, in and near the south side of the city of Ely, in south-central White Pine County. In 2005 it had a population of around 500, a textile business, and its own court system.
Goshute and Skull Valley Indian Reservations
The Goshutes, a Shoshonean people, maintained a territory in the Great Basin extending from the Great Salt Lake to the Steptoe Range in Nevada, and south to Simpson Springs. The tribe once numbered 20,000. Only 500 remain. The name Goshute derived either from a leader named Goship or from Gutsipupiutsi, a Shoshonean word for Desert People. Prior to contact, the Goshutes wintered in the Deep Creek Valley in dug out houses built of willow poles and earth. In the spring and summer they gathered wild onions, carrots and potatoes, and hunted small game in the mountains.
The Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation are composed of Goshute, Paiute and Bannock. The reservation lies on both sides of the Nevada-Utah border, in White Pine County in Nevada, and in Juab County and Tooele County in Utah. It has a land area of 459.517 km² (177.42 sq mi) and a resident population of 105 persons was counted in the 2000 census.
Located about half-way between the Goshute Reservation and Salt Lake City, Utah is the Skull Valley Band of Goshute. The tribe consists of about 125 people, of whom 31 live on an 18,000 acre (73.004 km²) reservation in Utah. The Dugway Proving Grounds lies just south of Skull Valley. To the east is a nerve gas storage facility and to the north is the Magnesium Corporation plant which has had severe environmental problems. The reservation was a proposed location for an 820 acre (3 km²) dry cask storage facility for the storage of 40,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel. Only 120 acres are for the actual facility, and the rest of the land is a buffer area. After more than eight years after application, this facility was licensed by the NRC.
Reno-Sparks Indian Colony
The Reno-Sparks Indian Colony is an urban Native American Tribe comprised of members with Washoe, Paiute and Shoshone heritage. The Tribe has a colony in central Reno, Nevada and a reservation in Hungry Valley, which is about 15 miles north of Reno. The colony started out as a neighborhood in Reno where Native Americans who worked in local businesses and ranches lived. Under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 these people formed a tribal government. The Tribe was later granted land in Hungry Valley for a reservation.
Fort Hall Indian Reservation
The Fort Hall Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation of the Shoshoni and Bannock people in the U.S. state of Idaho. It is located in southeastern Idaho on the Snake River Plain north of Pocatello, and comprises 2,110.514 km² (814.874 sq mi) of land area in four counties: Bingham, Power, Bannock, and Caribou counties. Founded in 1863, it is named for Fort Hall, a trading post that was an important stop along the Oregon Trail and California Trail in the middle nineteenth century. The ruins of the fort are located on the reservation. The community of Fort Hall, along Interstate 15, is the largest population center on the reservation. The total population of the reservation was 5,762 at the 2000 census.
The reservation was established by an agreement between the United States and the Shoshone and Bannock tribes in the wake of the Bear River Massacre, in which the United States Army under Colonel Patrick Edward Connor slaughtered over 200 Native Americans in present-day southeastern Idaho. The massacre was the culmination of a long struggle between the Shoshoni and U.S settlers, which included numerous attacks by both sides. The Shoshoni, led by Chief Pocatello, were motivated to attack emigrant parties in part because of the despoliation of natural resources in the region by the increasing tide of settlers. The Mormons, led by Brigham Young, had subsequently pursued a policy of reconciliation with the Shoshoni, but the arrival of the U.S. Army into the Utah Territory in 1858 led to a full-scale conflict between the U.S. and the Shoshoni. Connor led his troops from Fort Douglas in January 1863 in order to "chastise" the Shoshoni. Pocatello was able to receive advance warning of Connor's advance and led his people out of harm's way. He subsequently sued for peace and agreed to relocate his people to the newly-established reservation along the Snake River. The U.S. government agreed to supply the Shoshoni annually with 5,000 dollars in goods.
The reservation, located on the open plains, was not especially amenable to agriculture, and the U.S. government did not always fulfill its obligation of payment of goods. In the years following their relocation, the Shoshoni suffered from disease and hunger. Hoping to relieve his people's suffering, Pocatello led them to a missionary farm in the Utah Territory to receive mass baptism and conversion to Mormonism. Although the Shoshoni received baptism, the local population of settlers agitated for their removal. In response, the U.S. Army forced the Shoshoni back onto the reservation.
The main agriculture on the Ft. Hall Indian Reservation today is the cultivation of wheat and potatoes. The reservation has recently become the site of a casino, The Fort Hall Casino, operated by the Shoshone-Bannock tribes along Interstate 15, exit 80, north of Pocatello.
- ↑ Henry E. Stamm, IV, People of the Wind River: The Eastern Shoshones, 1825-1900. (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0806131757), 23-40.
- ↑ Stamm, 1999
- ↑ Washakie Architect of the Capitol Retrieved November 11, 2007.
- ↑ Washakie Architect of the Capitol. Retrieved November 11, 2007.
- ↑ Native Americans in Early Nevada Taken in part from :Helen Dunn, Indians of Nevada. (Nevada Department of Education)-, 1973) And in part from the Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs Web Page. Retrieved November 20, 2007.
- ↑ The Officer Down Memorial page Policeman Edward Hogle Retrieved November 20, 2007.
- ↑ Inventory and Assessment of Native American Human Remains from the Western Great Basin, Nevada Sector, in the National Museum of Natural History Region: Great Basin Associated Cultures: Bannock, Paiute, Shoshone, Washoe. 1992. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved November 20, 2007.
- ↑ Western Shoshone History Wells Band of Western Shoshone Retrieved December 11, 2007.
- Crum, Steven J. 1994. Road On Which We Came: A History Of The Western Shoshone. University of Utah Press. ISBN 0874804345
- Ditchfield, Christin. 2004. The Shoshone: True Books. Chicago: Children's Press CT. ISBN 9780516246437
- Edmo, Ronald. 2002. "Snake" in Spirit Rider: A Collection of Contemporary Poetry in the Shoshoni Language. Idaho State University Press. ISBN 9780937834671
- Smith, Anne. 1998. Shoshone Tales. University Of Utah Press. ISBN 9780874805703
- Sonneborn, Liz. 2006. The Shoshones' Native American Histories. Lerner Publications. ISBN 9780822528494
- Stamm, Henry E. IV. 1999. People of the Wind River: The Eastern Shoshones, 1825-1900. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 9780806131757
- Waldman, Carl. 2006. Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. Checkmark Books. ISBN 9780816062744
All links Retrieved November 12, 2007.
- Northern Shoshoni Treaties
- Ely Shoshone
- Goshute Indians
- Reno-Sparks Indian Colony
- Te-Moak Tribe of the Western Shoshone Indians of Nevada
- Timbisha Tribe of the Western Shoshone Nation
- U.S. Treaty with the Western Shoshone 1863, Ruby Valley
- Western Shoshone Defense Project
- Western Shoshone history
- The History of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe
- Shoshoni Indians
- Fort Hall Reservation and Off-Reservation Trust Land, Idaho United States Census Bureau
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- Shoshone (Jan 27, 2007) history
- Fort_Hall_Indian_Reservation (Jan 27, 2007) history
- Washakie (Jan 27, 2007) history
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By: Susan Friedman
Digital storytelling for dual language learners; deep diving on a virtual Titanic; and more innovative uses of technology for early learning.
Computers, tablets, smartphones, apps, and other digital tools are part of our everyday lives. When used appropriately, technology can help children explore their world, express and make sense of what they know, and interact with other children. Technology tools can also assist families as they support their children’s at-home learning.
So, how can early childhood educators choose appropriate technology tools to enhance and support children’s learning?
NAEYC and the Fred Rogers Center created the position statement, Technology and Interactive Media as Tools in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8 as a guide for early childhood educators as they make decisions about how and when to incorporate technology into their programs.
In a recent NAEYC survey, educators were asked about their use of the technology position statement. Respondents describe referring to the joint position statement as they plan university courses, develop curriculum, explain developmentally appropriate uses of technology to other teachers, administration, and families, and make decisions about when to incorporate technology into their own classrooms.
Teachers also asked for more examples of developmentally appropriate uses of technology in early childhood settings. Following are three examples of educators integrating technology into their work with young children in ways that are developmentally appropriate. We hope you will share the technology position statement and these examples with colleagues. Then let us know how you are using the technology position statement and integrating technology tools into your work with young children.
Three examples of technology that supports early learning:
A 5-year-old child fascinated with the Titanic is given a book and interactive CD-ROM with a large screen desktop computer. The transmedia materials allow him to explore and express his interests, and develop his small motor and social skills.
Parent educators in Maine integrate iPads into a curriculum that provides parents of migrant preschoolers with early literacy and math activities to help their children get ready for school.
Also to read and share:
Adapted from an online Author Q&A with Heather Biggar Tomlinson, contributing author of Developmentally Appropriate Practice: Focus on Preschoolers.
Q: What are some general guidelines we can follow as we think about DAP?
A: There’s not one answer to the question - is something developmentally appropriate or not. It depends on the child’s personality, abilities, culture, and family, as well as the purpose of activities and the context of the class. Keeping in mind the five guidelines for effective teaching the following could be the starting point for a teacher checklist, to be adapted for specific programs and children:
1. Did I know everything I needed to know about each child today? Did I notice each child’s mood, apparent health, and general sense of well-being and engagement?
2. Have I checked in with each child’s family lately, either through drop-off conversations, written notes, or emails, to provide updates and receive updates? Are there any cultural issues I should address with a particular family, such asking about upcoming holidays or activities?
3. Did I feel like I had a good relationship with each child today? Did I show warmth and appreciation for each child’s presence and efforts today? Did I acknowledge their comments and behaviors in positive ways?
4. Is there any child I need to have special time with or help in any unique way tomorrow, based on my observations, other teachers’ observations, child comments, or parent updates?
5. Do I know the objectives for children’s learning for today/this week/this unit?
___ For physical development (fine motor and gross motor)
___ For social and emotional development
___ For approaches to learning, including enthusiasm, attention, persistence, and flexibility
___ For advances in knowledge content and mastery of concepts
6. Do the objectives for today/this week build on what we did previously? Do I need to make any connections for the children?
7. Does the classroom environment match the objectives? Does it look cheerful, tidy, and interesting for the children? Do I need to change any of the materials, centers, or wall displays to keep things fresh?
8. Have I been using a wide range of teaching strategies this week, including:
___ modeling problem solving
___ sharing my thought processes out loud
___ encouraging children and acknowledging good work
___ providing new information such as facts and new vocabulary
___ demonstrating correct ways to do something and giving direct instruction
___ giving specific feedback on areas for improvement
___ giving assistance and asking questions to advance each child’s level
___ adjusting the level of challenge (simplifying or adding complexity) to meet each child’s level
9. Have I been using various learning formats, including:
___ large groups (whole class together)
___ small groups
___ play/learning centers and outdoor time when the child can do what he/she wants
___ daily routines (taking advantage of arrivals and departures, snack times, transitions)
10. Have I thoughtfully considered based on children's level of engagement whether to move on or allow more time on this unit/theme/skill? Am I sure the amount of time allotted is sufficient for every child?
11. Have I taken stock of each child’s progress and mastery related to the objectives?
12. Have I made records of each child’s progress through notes from observations, interviews, and conversation; photos; and/or portfolios?
13. Have I observed the child in different contexts and settings?
14. Have I asked the family for information in relevant areas?
15. Have I checked in with other teachers/aides about each child’s well-being and success toward their goals?
16. Have I considered whether language and/or home culture is influencing children’s performance in each area? Do I need to reassess any child in any area or get help from someone else to accurately understand any child’s performance and well-being?
17. Do I need to adjust the teaching plans based on what I know from the assessments?
18. Is there any aspect of my schedule, environment, plans, materials, or interactions with children, parents, or colleagues that I feel stuck on or unsure about? Is there any child I’m worried about for any reason? Have I asked for help yet (from supervisors, colleagues, family members, specialists, or online communities)?
19. Do I feel like I made a positive difference in someone’s life today? Did I smile, laugh, and enjoy the day?
20. If not, what one step can I take to make things better tomorrow?
What would you add to this list?
By: Kyle Snow, Ph.D.
While early educators continue to be concerned about threats to play in early childhood, (see Crisis in the Kindergarten, for example) there is growing evidence that play is not a distraction from children’s learning, and may actually be a catalyst for it. This argument is not new – it was made in the book A Mandate for Playful Learning, among others. A recent piece in the Atlantic, “5-year-olds Can Learn Calculus", sounds like a further push-down of academics into early childhood. But it is less about increased academic pressure in early childhood and more a summary of the ways play supports children’s learning of mathematics. The article considers how play can be used to support children’s understanding of patterns and geometry – areas of mathematics that may sound intimidating, but are engaging for young children.
The relationship between play and mathematics development was also the theme of a recent blog by Doug Clements and Julie Sarama, “Play, Mathematics, and False Dichotomies,” posted as part of a National Institute for Early Education Research forum “Reflections on Play.” Drs. Clements and Sarama argue that academic learning and play are not incompatible – that it is not an either/or choice for teachers of young children – but are mutually reinforcing. While the argument that play and learning is a false dichotomy has been made before (including this blog post by NAEYC), Clements and Sarama underscore the need to move past the “pernicious false dichotomy that harms the children.” They argue that “Combining free play with intentional teaching, and promoting play with mathematical objects and mathematical ideas is pedagogically powerful.”
This approach to integrating play and mathematics is not new – it is incorporated into the NAEYC position statement on early childhood mathematics, and part of holistic views of early childhood mathematics education (The brief Mathematics Education for Young Children:What It is and How to Promote It and National Academies book Mathematics Learning in Early Childhood provide good overviews of the holistic approach to early mathematics). Still, research, like the study by Lee and Ginsburg, Early Childhood Teachers' Misconceptions About Mathematics Education for Young Children in the United States shows that teachers of young children may struggle with how to effectively teach mathematics. Clements and Sarama give several examples of how teachers can use young children’s play with math in this post, as well as a blog specifically for teachers. More ideas for supporting young children in developing math skills can be found in The Young Child and Mathematics and Supporting Early Math Learning for Infants and Toddlers.
NAEYC Math Resources:
Here are the four strategies:
1. First, align quality and access by addressing the inequities that are a result of historical distinctions between child care and early education.The growth in publicly funded pre-kindergarten programs is enormously important, but these programs will only partially support seamless experiences for children as long as serious gaps in quality and access remain for infants, toddlers, 3-year-olds, and children in before and after school care. Financing mechanisms must simultaneously address family needs for child care and family support and children’s needs for high quality learning experiences.
2. Second, address the different expectations for professional preparation, professional development, and compensation across settings and sectors. Children deserve skilled teachers and caregivers regardless of how their program is funded—whether child care, Head Start, state preK or school funding formula.
We recommend the NAEYC Early Childhood Professional Preparation Standards as a unifying framework. These evidence-based standards specify what all those working with young children birth through age 8 should know and be able to do. They start with a focus on child development, within the context of culture and community, and address family engagement, effective curriculum, intentional teaching, appropriate assessment and professionalism. The same standards apply across associate, baccalaureate and advanced degrees. When NAEYC implements these standards through accreditation, practicum experience is required in two of the three age groups—infant/toddler, preschool, and kindergarten/primary, critical to promoting a seamless continuum.
A common knowledge base is critically important, but children will not experience seamlessness without ensuring compensation parity for those with comparable responsibilities across settings. Until we have seamless opportunities for professional preparation and career advancement across the birth to 8 continuum, we cannot expect seamlessness for children.
3. Third, integrate early care and education practice with Kindergarten through third grade practice. Educational quality and outcomes would improve substantially if elementary teachers incorporated the best of preschool’s practices (for example, attention to the whole child; integrated, meaningful learning; and parent engagement) and if preschool teachers made more use of elementary school practices that are equally valuable, such as robust content and attention to learning progressions in curriculum and teaching.
4. Finally, and perhaps most important, ensure that teachers and administrators across the birth to 8 continuum reflect the diversity of children they serve and have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to help all children achieve their full potential.
TYC contributor Laura Colker answered this question in an online Q&A* about the value of creating a construction focused learning center in a primary classroom, and how to explain its importance to an administrator.
The key to approaching an administrator who may question how Legos, blocks, and other building materials fit into the curriculum is providing clear examples of the ways a construction learning center can inspire and enhance academic learning. To do this, focus on the clear link between construction and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) learning. It is generally agreed that to be competitive in our global economy children need to develop learning and skills in science, technology,engineering, and mathematics. Building with blocks, Legos, and other building materials can connect to STEM learning in many ways.
*Adapted from a January 2013 Q&A with Laura Colker on Learning Centers.
By: Kyle Snow and Peter Pizzolongo
In late January 2014, researchers at the University of Virginia released a working paper with the provocative title “Is Kindergarten the New First Grade?" The paper amplifies concerns provided by other reports like “Crisis in the Kindergarten” and “What Happened to Kindergarten?” Critically, this paper uses data to describe changes in kindergarten that took place during the early years of No Child Left Behind (NCLB).
This report compares kindergarten teacher responses to surveys conducted in 1998 and 2006. The analyses validate what we have been hearing for a while now - that academic content and focus has become more prominent in kindergarten. The amount of time spent in literacy activities has dramatically increased over time, with a more modest increase in mathematics and drop in time spent on the arts and physical education. In addition, teachers in 2006 report spending more time on activities that were only briefly taught, or not yet introduced, in kindergarten in 1998.
In this study, approaches to instruction are captured using a couple of broad indicators – the percentage of classrooms that use 3 or more hours per day of large group, teacher-led instruction, and the percentage of classrooms that provide children 1 or more hours per day of child-directed activities. They report that nearly one-third (29 percent) of kindergarten classrooms spend 3 or more hours per day in teacher-directed, large group activities, and less than half (43 percent in the report) of classrooms provide child-directed activity one or more hours per day.
These findings lead the authors to conclude that “today’s kindergarten classrooms focus on more advanced academic content, are more literacy-focused, and rely more heavily on teacher-directed whole group instruction.“ Other findings they report about physical education and use of standardized assessment, suggest kindergartners in 2006 have less PE and more testing than 1st graders in 1998. So, they conclude, “kindergarten in 2006 looks quite distinct from both kindergarten and first grade classrooms in the late nineties.”
What can we learn from these findings?
What is clear is that the academic content, and approaches to delivering that content, changed in dramatic ways between 1998 and 2006. What should we take away from these findings?
Academic content should be welcome in kindergarten but how it is delivered should be examined
Time spent on academic content, and even time spent on increasingly challenging academic content should not automatically be seen as a threat to kindergarten. Children learn from birth, so kindergarten should provide children with opportunities and supports appropriate for where they are. Early childhood education has always embraced the (academic and social and emotional) content that young children need to learn. Kindergartners (and all young children!) can learn academic content that is appropriate to where they are developmentally. However, large group, teacher directed instruction is not the only way for children to learn academic content. Hands-on investigative activities and small group instruction need to be a bigger part of how children take in academic content. Our expectations for young learners are built from many years of research and theory, as well as teachers’ knowledge of each child’s prior learning. As more children participate in early educational programs, it is not surprising that they come to kindergarten with different learning and developmental needs than when children did not regularly participate in such programs.
Maintaining Developmentally Appropriate Practice
Seeing a focus on academic content tells us what children are being taught, but it does not dictate how children should be taught. Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) provides the best frame for how to teach young children. Young children learn best when taught using a variety of learning formats, including large and small group work, as well as instruction and play. Some content can be introduced to the whole group of children during a circle time or class meeting. Children can further investigate the content and learn it more deeply via small group experiences in which they play an active role in the investigation, through exploratory play alone and with other children, through one-on-one activities with a teacher, during routines such as setting a table for snack. Some content can be memorized for current and later use (e.g., the names of the letters of the alphabet and their sounds, the numerals that represent numbers). Even here, singing and moving to songs that emphasize letter sounds or involve counting may be more effective than a worksheet or rote activity. The goal is to provide a variety of learning opportunities, not to become reliant on a single approach. There is plenty of room within DAP to include academic content in kindergarten (See NAEYC’s latest book on DAP and kindergarten).
Social and emotional skills are important, but are they built into the classroom?
It is important to note that while teachers’ ratings of the importance of academic skills increased from 1998 to 2006, at both times they rated social and regulatory skills as being more critical for school readiness. This view is increasingly being voiced by educators and researchers alike. Unfortunately, the time teachers spend on building these skills is not captured by the data in this report. If the increased focus on literacy and math is partially driven by standards, then should social and emotional skills be written in to K-12 standards like they are in preschool standards? Experts from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning conducted a review of state standards in 2013. They found that 49 states have specific standards for social and emotional development in preschool, while only 3 have specific standards in K-12). While many state K-12 standards include some standards for social and emotional learning within content areas, the report warns, “when [social and emotional learning] standards are integrated into other standards they are often scattered and lacking in comprehensiveness. Typically they are not systematically and developmentally sequenced across grade levels.”
The findings from this most recent analysis of data from the early Childhood Longitudinal studies may be the first to quantify changes in kindergarten over the past decade. But these data provide only a broad picture of the differences, and do not provide ready explanation for them. But understanding ways that kindergarten changed under NCLB is critical as states move to implement the Common Core State Standards. As critics have noted, the Common Core focuses only on English Language Arts and Mathematics, two areas that saw increased focus under NCLB. As a result, without concerted effort, the trends reported here are likely to become more, rather than less, pronounced, further driving kindergarten away from early childhood. NAEYC’s report on Common Core provides a framework for connecting Common Core to children’s development and ensuring high quality educational experiences for all children. NAEYC’s report on Kindergarten and Common Core outlines considerations to connect common core to better quality and more equitable kindergarten experiences for all children.
Helpful DAP Resources
DAP: Focus on Kindergartners (NAEYC book)
5 Guidelines for Effective Teaching (infographic)
10 Suggested Teaching Strategies (infographic)
By: Susan Friedman
Television, smart phones, tablets, video games - As children spend more time using screen media, what do parents think their children are learning? A national survey of more than 1500 parents of children ages 2-10, conducted by the Joanne Ganz Cooney Center, asked parents about how much their children learned from educational media.
The resulting report, Learning at home: families’ educational media use in America was released on January 24, 2014 and offers many insights.
Here are some highlights from the study:
- More than half of the parents surveyed (57%) believe their children have “learned a lot” from educational media
- The use of educational media drops at age four, just when screen time goes up
- Two to four year olds spend more time each day with educational media than any other age group
- Parents report that on average, their children spend 42 minutes a day with educational TV, compared to 5 minutes with educational content on mobile devices/computers and 3 minutes with educational video games
- Parents reported their children learned more from educational content on TV than from mobile devices
- Children are reading an average of 40 minutes a day, including 29 minutes with print, 8 minutes on computers, and 5 minutes using e-platforms
- Parents don’t believe their children learn as much about science from educational media as they do about other subjects
- Many parents observed that their children extend what they learned from educational media beyond the screen by asking questions, engaging in imaginative play, and wanting to do projects related to something they learned
Upon the study’s release the Joan Ganz Cooney Center gathered a group of educators, researchers, and those involved in children’s educational media to discuss the study.
Some highlights from the discussion:
- Parents may not feel as confident evaluating the educational value of content offered on mobile apps as they do evaluating the educational content TV
- Parents need more information about what is educational and how to evaluate the educational value apps and other new media
Educational media developers could think of ways to to address the needs of the children in low-income households in particular around the vocabulary gap
- For some low-income families, mobile devices are a lifeline to many essential services, and this may impact how children use educational media on those devices
- Not all children have the same level of access to educational media
To read the report and see video of researchers and educators discussing the findings, visit the Joan Ganz Cooney Center website.
How do you talk to families about their children's media use?
1. You sing the “clean-up song” when cleaning at home.
2. You recite from Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and Pete the Cat when conversation lags at a dinner party.
3. You chant "Ten Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" to yourself while walking down the street.
4. You hand the person in front of you at the DMV a tissue when she sneezes.
5. All the chairs in your house look really big to you.
6. You use the term "phonemic awareness" in your day-to-day conversations.
7. You explain to parents in the park how much their kids are learning when they dig in the dirt.
8. You tell a dad in the grocery store, who waits patiently as his son counts all the apples, how he's supporting his son's learning.
9. You are used to the fact that the children think the classroom is where you live.
10. You can find 20 ways to use empty yogurt containers as learning materials.
11. You can count a group of toddlers in 5 seconds.
12. You wash your hands at least 30 times a day
13. You can explain why the boys in your class are allowed to play with the dolls if they choose.
14. You know that a child who drew two random lines has a whole story to tell when you ask, "Tell me about your drawing." And you write it down.
15. You print more pictures of the young children in your class than your own family.
16. You wonder how dinosaurs, crayons, and Legos end up in your laundry every week.
17. You growl (or make a face) when called a babysitter.
18. You’ve actually eaten what you’ve baked as a class, no matter the preparation, ingredients, or outcome.
19. You know that when children draw, paint, make art - it's about the process and not the product.
20. You deserve a Nobel Peace Prize for the arguments you’ve mediated and tantrums you’ve redirected.
21. You can explain the toddler biting stage to the families of the child who bit AND the child who was bitten.
22. You can turn a simple nature walk or trip to the grocery store into an action-packed learning adventure…..and connect it to early learning standards.
23. You know that even though your paycheck does not reflect the work that you do, you go to bed at night knowing that you are shaping the world and wake up every morning with your superhero cape.
Thanks for all that you do!
Add your own ideas to the list by posting below!
It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to Polly Greenberg (1932–2013), former editor of NAEYC’s journal Young Children and author and editor of NAEYC books about early childhood education, children’s character, and social justice.
Throughout her 15 years as an NAEYC editor, Polly contributed to the cause of progressive social change through promoting educators’ understanding of the role of early childhood education, family, and community—in the home, in early childhood settings, and in the early primary grades.
Polly described her special interest as “the art, mechanics, and interdisciplinary science of achieving through childrearing and education – social change toward a truer democracy- one in which more people might experience fairly comfortable and somewhat fulfilling lives.”
We share with you Polly’s editor’s notes from “Let's Learn From an Inspiring Person! A Conversation With Vera B. Williams, Award Winning Author and Illustrator” published in the November 2000 issue of Young Children:
In this era of "drown them in books" many of you have often heard me voice my opinion that it isn't just books in which children must be immersed if early literacy and love of writing and reading are to result; it's good books with good art.
One way to find the best books is to buy (and get from your library) award-winning books. You'll find that some authors win one award after another - for one book after another. These are the outstanding authors and artists whose work you may want to watch for.
Vera B. Williams is among them, right up amongst the stars of contemporary literature for young children. Quite likely you've run into a few of her beautiful, brilliantly colorful books - perhaps her first book, A Chair for My Mother. Almost always Vera both tells and illustrates her wonderful tales, tales full of everyday people of various sages and ethnicities, doing everyday things that are very meaningful to them, and with lots of affection, extended family, and a lovely childlike zest for life.
- Polly Greenberg
NAEYC will honor Polly’s memory in a column, In Memoriam, in the March 2014 issue of Young Children.
Happy New Year from NAEYC! What will inspire your work with young children this year? We reviewed some of our web posts from this past year and found these ideas and inspirations. Make sure to share your own inspirations with us below.
1. Classroom Stories That Celebrate Teachers and Children
2. Support for Strong Start for America's Children
Children’s early learning experiences set the course for success in school and life. We were inspired by how many of our members and readers participated in the Strong Start campaign. Thanks to you all! If you haven’t participated yet you still can.
3. The New DAP Focus Series
These age specific DAP books offer ideas for Developmentally Appropriate Practice for each age and stage. If you’re new to DAP this online DAP primer explains DAP and offers links to many resources to help you in your teaching.
4. Ten Things to Say instead of “Good Job”
Wow! So many readers shared this article on social media so we know it really resonated. Recognize children's achievements and encourage their learning with these ten alternatives to saying "good job" from TYC.
5. Integrating STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math
Early childhood teachers are preparing children to be critical thinkers by integrating Science, Technology, Engineering and Math learning in thoughtful ways. The opening session of the 2013 annual conference showed how the arts can be integrated into STEM learning. This excerpt from Spotlight on Young Children: Exploring Science shows science learning in action at the water table. And a new survey gathers information on how teachers are using the Technology and Young Children position statement in their work.
6. New Research on Dual Language Learners
This blog post updated us on the growing body of research which shows many benefits to growing up learning and thinking in two languages and offers ways early childhood teachers can support the dual language learners in their programs. A Young Children article offers more ideas for supporting the literacy development of dual language learners.
7. The 10 NAEYC Programs Standards
Did you know that there are over 6500 childcare programs accredited by NAEYC serving more than 1 million children? NAEYC accredited programs follow the 10 Program Standards. Read about them here.
8. Ten Things Every Parent Should Know about Play
Here’s another post that our readers shared widely on social media. Through play children learn and develop cognitive skills – like math and problem solving in a pretend grocery store and so much more.
9. Teachers Who Do Their Own Research!
An infant teacher writes in her journal as part of her self-reflection; another teacher explores how 2-year-olds make theories about physical and chemical changes taking place during cooking. These teachers ask and explore deep questions as they teach and then write about their own teacher research.
10. NAEYC Members
We are so proud and inspired by the many diverse and wonderful ways NAEYC members promote quality early childhood education in the work they do. Read about our members and share your story with us. Not a member? Learn about the many benefits of joining the NAEYC community.
Share what inspires you below!