Teaching Kindergarten: Learner-Centered Classrooms for the 21st Century

Julie Diamond · Betsy Grob · Fretta Reitzes

Jan. 2015 · Teachers College Press

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Today’s kindergarten teachers face enormous challenges to reach district-mandated academic standards. This book presents a model for 21st-century kindergartens that is rooted in child-centered learning and also shaped by the needs and goals of the present day. Classroom teachers working with diverse populations of students and focusing on issues of social justice provide vivid descriptions of classroom life across urban and rural communities. Teacher reflections and commentary from the editors link teacher decisions to principles of good practice. Teaching Kindergarten illustrates how a progressive, learning-centered approach can not only meet the equity and accountability goals of the Common Core State Standards but go well beyond that to educate the whole child.

Book Features:

Rich examples of learner-centered teaching in diverse public school settings.Depictions of integrated curricula in science, social studies, math, arts, and language arts that address Common Core and other standards.Connections to recent developmental research and pedagogy.Programs promoting social and cultural awareness.Photographs of children’s projects and a list of children’s books.

“The teachers you are about to read tell stories no one has heard before, at a time when it is difficult to hear the individual voices in the classroom. No grade level needs this soul-searching examination more than kindergarten. This book maps a remarkable number of journeys toward this goal. I hope teachers will be inspired to add their own voices to the process of renewal.”
—Vivian Gussin Paley, internationally renowned educator, author, and classroom teacher

“We need this book. It speaks eloquently to what good practice looks like in real schools, as well as what it means to be a good teacher. These are stories of amazing educators whose work addresses what equity is all about—starting with 5 year olds. It’s too bad the next 12 years of school are not more like these kindergarten classrooms.”
—Deborah Meier, education activist, senior scholar at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Education