Quality Rating 4: Planning

Instructions

To meet the requirements for Developmentally Appropriate Learning and Practice: Planning: DAP 5.4 (DAP 4.4 – School-Age Only), your statement should clearly describe the lesson planning process you follow to ensure that your activities are:

  • Age-appropriate
  • Based on essential learning domains
    • Birth –  Age 3: Personal and Social Development, Language Development, Cognitive Development, Physical Development
    • Age 3 – 5: Social Foundations, Language and Literacy, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Physical Well-being and Motor Development and Fine Arts
    • School-Age: Literacy, Language, Science, Art, Health and Wellness, Physical Fitness, and Numeracy
  • Reflect the children’s interests and skills
  • Address the developmental needs of each child
  • Informed by observations and information from families
  • Include information from a child’s IFSP or IEP, if provided by the family

The Policy or Statement Builder provides a step-by-step guide for creating your statement.

Lesson Planning Process

Creating environments where all children are respected and thrive requires careful planning and organization, especially since no two children are exactly alike. Your lesson plans and the process you follow to create them demonstrate the time, attention, and care you devote to creating meaningful experiences across multiple domains and respect for the diversity among the children in your program.

What does the documentation look like?

Your statement clearly describes a lesson planning process that includes activities that:

  • Match the children’s ages and individual developmental levels and needs
  • Cross multiple domains
  • Reflect the children’s interests
  • Are informed by observations and information from families
  • Include a child’s IFSP or IEP, if provided

Activities Informed by a Child’s IFSP/IEP

Individualized Family Service Plans (IFSPs) and Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) provide guidance on ways to meet the needs of individual children with special health care needs or disabilities. Remember you are a critical member of the team who helps put these plans into action. Your lesson planning process is evidence of the steps you take to support individual children and to include a child’s learning goals in your daily activities.

What does the documentation look like?

Your lesson plans and process clearly show ways information from a child’s IFSP or IEP are part of typical routines and activities. Some examples include:

  • Use of specialized equipment (examples: chubby crayons, pencil grips, magnifying lenses, hearing devices)
  • Opportunities for a child to practice targeted skills (examples: speech sounds, fine motor skills, independent / self-help skills)
  • Opportunities for peer-to-peer interaction (examples: reading a large print book together, free choice activities, outdoor play)
  • Adjustments to your plans to accommodate a child’s special health care needs

Policy or Statement Builder

Develop a Lesson Planning Statement that describes your program’s process in developing purposeful activities and meaningful experiences for children. Once you have spent time reflecting on the questions below, you’re ready to build your Lesson Planning Process Statement.

Reflection Questions
  1. What is the process used for developing your lesson plans?
  2. How do you ensure that the lesson plans reflect the children’s interests and skills?
  3. How do you make sure your lesson plan addresses the developmental needs of each child?
  4. If provided an IFSP or IEP is provided, how is that information incorporated into lesson plans?
  5. How do you use observations to help you plan your lessons?
  6. How do you use information gained from families to help plan your lessons?
  7. How do you ensure that the activities are domain-based and reflect the ages of children in your program?
  8. What are some examples of activities used in your program that address the different domains?

Optional for Level 4:

  1. How are ongoing assessments used to plan your lessons?
  2. What do you do to ensure that the activities are culturally competent?
  3. How do they reflect the cultures of the children in your classroom? How do they reflect other cultures?

Did you know that if you include the Optional Level 4 Questions in your Statement that you may be approved for Level 5 in DAP 5?

Statement Builder Resources

Use these optional resources  to reflect on your program’s practices and create your Lesson Planning Process Statement.

Technology Tips

Choose the way that the provided resources will be most useful to you.

You can:

Download the PDF.

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Edit the PDF.

Where can you learn more?

  • Creating Meaningful Activities and Schedules Gain tips for how to incorporate meaningful experiences for children into your daily schedule.
  • Ages and Stages in Child Care Children of different ages need different types of care and nurturing. Quality child care programs help children grow in all areas of development: physical, intellectual, social, emotional, language, moral, and spiritual domains. Child care providers need to understand how children of different ages grow and learn in order to provide warm, sensitive care and positive learning experiences.
  • What is Inclusive Child Care? In the field of early childhood education, inclusion describes the practice of including children with disabilities in a child care setting with typically developing children of similar ages, with specialized instruction and support when needed. Federal law says that children with disabilities have a protected right to be educated in the least restrictive environment.
  • The IFSP: A Family Guide to Understanding the Individualized Family Service Plan This guide is part of Maryland’s Birth to Kindergarten Parent Information Series, a collection of publications designed to support families in the statewide early intervention and education system of services in Maryland. It will help guide families through the IFSP process and written document.
  • What is the Difference Between an IFSP and an IEP? The major difference between an IFSP and an IEP is that an IFSP focuses on the child and family and the services that a family needs to help them enhance the development of their child. The IEP focuses on the educational needs of the child.