Betl Ylmaz 1

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Reflection for Preparation Process
Why did you choose this unit topic?
To gain environment awareness, early ages are really important. Therefore, we prefer to choose
pollution unit that is one of the units in early childhood education. In addition to awareness, we
believed that we can use technology in this unit in beneficial way. That is why, pollution is a
broad term and teacher can have difficulty in providing real life experiences about them.
Therefore, in order to show and teach pollution clearly, technology can be used, and these were
the reasons for us to choose pollution unit.
When you are planning your unit and lesson plans, which of ASSURE steps do you think
you spend most of your time thinking about? Why?
Firstly, analyzing learners steps was a little bit hard for us because even if we know the age and
the developmental features of this age of children, still there are some other features and interest
of children. Thus, while preparing activities, as teachers, we use their interest to provide more
beneficial activities. Therefore, because there were not children to consider, it was a little bit hard
for us. Also, while utilizing technology, we had hard time because in general, we do not use so
many technology tools and we generally prefer one type of it such as video. However, in our
lesson plans we used several tools and it was hard to integrate them in our activities.
How did you determine the prerequisite skills or knowledge (if any) for your plan? What is
the rationale behind the time allocation?
We determined the prerequisite knowledge for our plan by considering theme. Because our theme
is related to pollution and animals that live in different habitats, children need to have knowledge
about habitats. They do not need to know which animal lives which habitat, but the main point is
to know there are different life places for different animals. Time allocation is really important for
early childhood education. We as teachers need to maintain rationale for themes and they should
be interrelated if there is limited time between each other. However, there is an important point.
The teacher has to be sure about that children could gain information and develop an
understanding about the theme.

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How did you determine and write your objectives?
First of all, if we have real children in our class, we need to analyze our learners and try to
consider their readiness. In addition, we should consider what they can do and cant do. So we
can prepare developmentally appropriate activities for children. To do this, we need to write
appropriate objectives. These objectives should be challenging, but also logical. While
determining and writing our objectives, we tried to consider all of these issues.
How did you decide instructional methods, media and materials? Why did you choose
them?
We decided instructional methods by considering childrens needs. We thought that most of the
children need scaffolding and if we use this method we can support them appropriately. In
addition, we used problem solving method to prepare them to real life and to make children more
capable of dealing with problems. We decided media and materials to attract childrens attention.
Children cannot understand abstract things. For this reason, if we do not provide them visuals,
they may not understand well and it affects whole learning process. So we should support
childrens learning with using developmentally appropriate methods, media and materials.
What is the instructional theory on which your instructional activities are based? Or do you
use eclectic approach for them? Why?
Actually, we used eclectic approach which includes Piagets theories and Vygotskys ideas. First
of all, we considered the importance of child directed activities and independent learning. We
tried to attract childrens curiosity with using different things such as presentations or puppets. In
addition, we also focused on adult and peer assistance and social learning because children are
social beings and they learn socially. So peers and adults can be a good source for learning.
How did you plan to utilize these instructional methods, media and materials?
To utilize these instructional methods, media and materials, we planned using developmentally
appropriate ones because we should consider childrens level and choose suitable methods, media
and materials. We as teachers should know our children and their features because we spend lots

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of time with them and have a chance to understand all children. So we can decide which
instructional methods should we use or media or materials.
How did you plan for learner participation?
To provide learner participation, we prepared child directed activities because active engagement
is really important for little children. They learn best during hands on activities and experiments.
To promote active learning, we tried to attract childrens attention with using attractive materials
and media tools. We tried to prevent direct instruction because it does not promote permanent
learning.
How did you plan for evaluation and revision? What is the rationale for choosing the
measurement and evaluation methods?
We as early childhood teachers cannot measure children with using exams or quizzes. For this
reason, observations can be helpful for us to measure childrens learning. In addition to
observations, we can use documenting and we can see the progress of children. For example, we
can prepare portfolios for each child that includes all works of this child and we can see the
difference between at the beginning of the term and at the end of the term. Moreover, we can use
assessment questions after each activity to promote learning and revise the main subject. This
assessment can be done with parent involvement with giving some learning at home activities for
children. It also supports the positive communication between teacher and parents.