Submission Type: Practice-Based
Final Rating: Best Practice
Date Submitted: Spring 2022
Focus Area: Child Development
Focus Population: Children, Teachers, Owners, Caregivers
Contact Information:
Rachel Proper
Board Member/Secretary Oklahoma Child Care Association
(405) 942-0771
Oklahoma Child Care Association
Oklahoma Child Care Association | Professionals Serving Professionals
P.O. Box 2485 Oklahoma City, OK 73102
Goals and Outcomes:
The purpose of this submission is to provide a high quality, research -based curriculum for early childhood providers in Oklahoma at little to no cost. Obtaining a research-based curriculum is difficult for many providers. Cost for quality curriculum is the primary barrier, followed by low access to technical support and training. Traditionally high turnover for staff also creates a barrier and disrupts implementation, which can lead to further costs. Most childcare providers resort to “home-grown” or “self-developed” lesson plans and curriculum. These lesson plans tend to draw from the knowledge and expertise of the provider but are not gauged on their impact or effectiveness.
The ELM curriculum provides a solution to many of these challenges by providing the curriculum at no cost to the provider (yes…it is free!) along with the resource guides and training components needed to support implementation. The Oklahoma Child Care Association (OCCA) and Sunbeam Family Services, with support from Purdue University Department of Human Development and Family Studies, will promote the ELM curriculum to early childhood providers in Oklahoma and support implementation of the curriculum to any provider who would like to use ELM in their program. Included within the ELM Curriculum are classroom resources, family engagement resources, staff training resources and observations tools.
Classroom Resources:
Fully-developed, flexible activity plans support children’s engagement in learning across the entire year. Each activity plan includes: a model of high-quality use of the plan; scaffolding tips for providing extra support or enrichment to children; a related center (interest area) activity; and ways to adapt the plan in family childcare. Plans for infants and toddlers also include “What to Look For” guidance in responding to children’s experiences.
In addition to comprehensive activity plans, ELM’s classroom resources include: planning forms for adapting activity plans and supporting individual children; printable classroom materials and lists of materials used in each set of activities; Guides for Observing and Individualizing that help staff observe and plan follow-up supports focused on foundation skills promoted by ELM; and an ELM Snapshot of Child Progress for summarizing observations and results of progress assessments.
Family Engagement Resources:
Supports for engaging families include: What Children Will Learn This Week (for preschool), a list of skills and classroom activities emphasized in a given week; Readiness Starts Early, a set of parenting tips that families can use to reinforce and extend their child’s classroom learning; and examples of portfolio entries that describe a child’s progress in important developmental areas.
Staff Training Resources:
User Guides for infant/toddler and preschool versions of the curriculum describe each of the developmental areas promoted by the curriculum; summarize research evidence on best practices used in the curriculum; include a chart of the sequence of foundation skills throughout the year; offer guidance on planning the daily schedule and using activity plans, including transition activities; and provide suggestions for promoting a developmental area beyond the activity plans. Staff also have access to six online training lessons focused on specific aspects of the curriculum, such as how to individualize children’s experiences. Three lessons are for training & curriculum specialists and managers, and three lessons are for direct care staff. The trainings span infant/toddler and preschool ages.
Observation Checklists:
ELM Activity Observation Checklists help trainers and managers identify strengths and opportunities for growth in a classroom’s use of ELM. There are separate checklists for infant/toddler and preschool classrooms.
ELM's clear, easy to understand format makes it well designed for implementation across variety of early childhood settings. To implement, providers must:
1. Access the Early Learning Matters website
2. Review the “Getting Started” Video
3. Read the ELM Curriculum User Guide for desired age group
a. Birth to 36mos
b. 3-5 years
4. Review ELM Training Lessons (3 lessons for each group)
a. Training for Curriculum Specialists and Managers
b. Training for Direct Care Staff
5. Access Activity Plans and Resources
6. Begin Implementation
OCCA and Sunbeam believe that promoting ELM Curriculum across the State will increase provider access to high-quality, research-based curriculum that fits their needs and is flexible enough to adapt as program parameters, such as staff turnover, change. ELM offers a well-balanced, economical way to directly improve the learning environments for many of Oklahoma’s children. A central, coordinated effort to promote ELM to interested providers would help providers in many ways.
Our goals:
• Coordinate Purdue “train the trainer” series to establish a network of ELM trainers in Oklahoma
• Facilitate marketing campaign to inform, promote and recruit providers across the State.
• Train and provide initial curriculum materials to participating programs
• Provide supporting classroom materials and technical assistance for implementation
• Survey participating programs to determine implementation progress
• Provide implementation supports for a 2-year period
Our intended outcomes:
• Providers will gain access to Early Learning Matters Curriculum
• Providers will be supported in implementation
• Children in participating programs will participate in high quality, research-based curriculum
• Parents will participate in children’s learning outside of the classroom
• Providers will become self-sufficient and empowered to perform curriculum on an on-going basis
Brief Summary:
Curriculum in an early childhood setting is the content and concepts which children learn as they go about their day. It is vital to a child’s learning experience as it supports and strengthens their learning and development.
As described by the National Association of the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), curriculum that draws on research, assists teachers in identifying important concepts and skills as well as effective methods for fostering children’s learning and development. When informed by teachers’ knowledge of individual children, a well-articulated curriculum guides teachers so they can plan learning experiences that promote children’s growth across a broad range of developmental and content areas. A curriculum also helps ensure that the teacher is intentional in planning a daily schedule that (a) maximizes children’s acquisition of desired knowledge and skills through the effective use of time and materials and (b) offers opportunities for children to learn through play and through structured activities, individually and in groups, according to their developmental needs and interests.
The Early Learning Matters Curriculum, or ELM, is a comprehensive, evidence-informed program that supports optimal learning and development of children from birth to five years of age. The curriculum promotes skills linked to school readiness and life success with developmentally appropriate teaching strategies and a coordinated mix of staff-guided and child-initiated learning experiences.
ELM was developed by a team of early childhood experts, led by Distinguished Professor Douglas Powell, at Purdue University’s Department of Human Development and Family Studies. ELM was created for the Department of Defense Child Development Program, as part of the DoD-USDA Partnership for Military Families. The ELM Curriculum is available for use by any program of early care and education. The curriculum is available free of charge at www.virtuallabschool.org/elm-curriculum.