Early Years Foundation Stage Guidelines

Early Years Foundation Stage Guidelines Hasana khan Explain the observation, assessment and planning cycle. The EYFS requires practitioners to plan activities and play opportunities that will support children’s learning while supporting the areas of learning within the EYFS. Practitioners must plan carefully so that individual children’s needs are met and that the activities and play opportunities help children progress towards their early learning goals. Planning, observation and assessment contribute to supporting the learning and development requirements of children. Observing individual children carefully can help to identify what their needs and interests are. To ensure that practitioners meet the needs of individual children it is important that the follow the observation, assessment and planning cycle. Observation is when practitioners observe/watch children to understand their interests, needs and learning styles. Observing children is a useful process as it provides information which the practitioners can use to support the children when planning and preparing activi ties for them. Observations should be made in a range of contexts, for example they should be done during independent play, during everyday routines and also when the child is engaged in play with others. EYFS MAY 2008 â€Å"planning should be flexible enough to adapt to circumstances†. Observing children will also enable practitioners to understand what their current stage of development is. Without the process of observation practitioners will not be able to fully support the children as they will not have a clear idea on what the child’s needs and interests are. Practitioners must ensure that they gain parent’s permission before they carry out any observations on the children because some parents may not want their child to be observed. During observation practitioners need to look, listen and record what they see in the observation, they must not involve themselves in the observation as it may affect what the child is doing. An assessment is when practitioners analyse observations to see what they tell them about a child. Accurate assessments enable practitioners to make judgements which lead to action to support individual children. They help each child to de velop and learn by ensuring that the practitioners provide children with appropriate experiences and opportunities. Practitioners gather the information in their observations to identify aspects of the child’s learning and development. By doing this it will enable them to assess what a child’s needs and requirements are and how well they can be supported. The final part of the cycle is planning, this is when practitioners then use the information that they have gathered to plan for the child. This could include planning experiences and opportunities that the child could benefit from and also ensuring that the environment is suitable and the child has access to appropriate resources. The practitioner will also need to plan what their role will be in supporting children with their learning and development. Practitioners must ensure that they include each area of learning and development through planning, purposeful play and through a mix of adult-led and child initiated activity. Practitioners must ensure that their planning reflects and supports children’s current interests, learning styles and the stage of development of each child. The planning process enables practitioners to contribute and understand the experiences that they have planned for the children. Practitioners can also ensure that parents and children have a voice in the planning process, for example children can share their feelings and activities that they want to take part in. Parents can also share their knowledge of their child and any additional support that they may require. Observation, assessment and planning all feed into one another and contribute to our knowledge about the child enabling the practitioners to fully support the needs, requirements, learning and development of each child. Describe how to develop planning for individual children. When working with children practitioners will find that they are required to plan activities and experiences for children which support their learning and development. EYFS MAY 2008 â€Å"good planning is the key to making children’s learning effective, exciting varied and progressive†. Practitioners need to ensure that they plan activities which are linked with the different areas of learning within the EYFS. Practitioners must also ensure that they plan and prepare activities which meet the individual needs and requirements of the children. When planning for the children the practitioners need to bear in mind that whatever is planned for the child is age and stage appropriate and suitable for the child to take part in. There are many different sources that an individual can use the help them when planning for the children, for example each child has their own interests and preferences and they may enjoy playing more with some toys that they do with others. A practitio ner can use a child’s interest and make an activity more exciting and challenging for the child. This will also enable the child to learn new things as well as taking part in something that they enjoy doing. Regular observations and assessments support the practitioner when planning for a child because a lot of information can be processed as the practitioner is able to physically see what a child likes/dislikes doing. Observing the children helps the individual indentify a child’s needs, interests and any additional support that they may require to support their learning and development. EYFS MAY 2008 â€Å"planning should include all children, including those with additional needs†. Practitioners must ensure that they make full use of the observations gained in order to support the child and ensure that their needs are fully met. Within the setting the practitioners can work in partnership with parents/carer’s as stated in the EYFS in order to ensure that they are also included with their child’s learning and development. Parents/carer’s will be able to share information with the practitioners about what the child is like at home and what interest and needs that they may have. Parents/carer’s can help the practitioners with planning for the children as they will be able to identify what area a child may need support with. Sharing ideas with colleagues can be useful during planning as an individual may have noticed something about the child which was not noticed by anyone else, this can be useful as a child may be more close to one member of staff than they may be with another staff. There may be times when a practitioner is not always with the children so it is important that information is shared to ensure that all members of staff are aware on the child’s needs and interests. Within the setting some children may also be under the care of other professionals this is useful because the practitioners are then able to work alongside the professionals to share and also learn new ideas on how the child can fully be supported within each setting. The practitioners must ensure that at all times their planning reflects the different needs and interests of the children, the planning must also provide opportunities for the children where they are able to learn and gain new skills. Differentiate between formative and summative assessment methods. EYFS MAY 2008 â€Å"make informed decision about the childs progress and plan next steps to meet their development and learning needs†. When working with children practitioners will find that settings will carry out progress reviews on children’s development, these can be done every six months or on an annually basis. The practitioners will be required to provide parents with a progress report about the child’s learning and development. This will give the parents an idea on what stage their child is at with their learning and development and whether or not they may require any additional support. Practitioners must ensure that they meet the individual needs of all children through following the requirements of the EYFS and it is important to deliver personalised learning, development and care to help children get the best possible start in life. There are two formal assessments, these are a completion of the progress report at age two and also completing the lear ning and progress journey of each child during their time at the nursery. To ensure that practitioners assess the children effectively they must analyse and review the information that they have about each child’s learning and development. They then need to plan next steps to meet the individual needs of children. A formative assessment is when a practitioner keeps a record of the child’s learning and development. The practitioner will take daily observations of a child using notes and photo evidence and keep them in an individual record of the child. The record will be available for the parents to view, this will enable them to review their child’s learning and development within the setting. It will also give the parents a chance to see what their child has achieved and what stage of development they are at. Practitioners must ensure that they regularly update children’s records by including the appropriate information. Formative assessment: This is an assessment based on observations, photos, work from children or any information that a practitioner receives from the parents. It is also an ongoing assessment of children and is carried out on a regular basis through observations that practitioners gather from children. Children are also required to have a progress check done when they are aged two, this is a summary of information that has been gained about the child. Practitioners compare children to the learning areas to identify whether or not a child has achieved their learning goal for their age and stage of development. The progress checks will be given to parents as it will be a summary of the development stages a child has achieved. They will also consist of targets/goals a child will have for the future and how they will be achieved. Summative assessment: This assessment is a summary of any evidence that a practitioner gains through carrying out a formative assessment. This type of assessments are used to review childrenà ¢â‚¬â„¢s developmental progress over a period of time, they are also used to identify if a child has achieved their target/goals for their age and stage of development. This is a summary of all the formative assessments done over a longer period and makes a statement about a child’s achievements. The EYFS Profile is the summative assessment used to review children’s progress along the early learning goals. Explain the two statutory assessments that must be carried out on all children. EYFS MAY 2008 â€Å"all effective assessment involves analysing and reviewing what you know about each child’s development and learning†. When working with children practitioners need to carry out two main assessments of the children in their care, one is the EYFS progress check which is done at age two. The second assessment is the EYFS profile which summarises and describes a child’s achievements and is a record of their development. This profile is a record of the child up to the age of five up until the child leaves the nursery. These two statutory assessments check the children’s development against the seven areas of learning. The EYFS progress check requires the practitioners to make a summary of the child’s development, achievements and also state any targets or goals that need to be met in order for the child to make further progress with their development. The progress checks show the parents and practitioners any additional support that a child may require. The practitioners are required to review the children’s progress and also ensure that parents receive a written record, this will enable them to see what the child has achieved and what stage they are at with their learning and development. The key workers have the role to complete the progress checks for all of their key children. In some settings the practitioners set up parents evening where they discuss the child’s progress and also hand out the progress checks to the parents. This also gives the parents a chance to discuss their child’s learning and development and also share information or ask and questions. The progress checks are useful as they enable parents to see how they can support their child at home and also identify their needs and interest. In order to complete the progress checks the practitioners should use the findings from their daily assessments and observations that they complete on the child, this will help to give an overview on what a child can and cannot do based on their learning and development. The summary must include the information that the practitioner has gathered about a child over the period of time the child has been at the nursery. The early years profile is an assessment of the child that is done at the end of the foundation stage, practitioners must ensure that they complete a profile for every child at the end of the term. This assessment will normally be completed by the reception class teachers, it will be assessed against the seventeen learning goals which can be found in the EYFS. The early years profile will be completed using observations of the child that have been gathered on a regular basis. The profile will consist of targets that the child has met or need to meet during their time at the nursery. The practitioners must ensure that they share the Early years profile assessment with the parents so support them so that they are able to understand their child’s lea rning and development. The parents will also be able to see what their child does within the setting and any progress they are making. To ensure that practitioners fully understand on how to complete the early years profile, it is a requirement that appropriate training is given to those working within a childcare setting. http://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/en/councilservices/children/early-learning-childcare/Pages/Observation-Assessment-and-Planning-Cycle-in-the-EYFS.aspx http://eye.boltonlea.org.uk/observation-assessment-and-planning/oap-cycle/overview http://www.ncca.biz/aistear/pdfs/guidelines_eng/assessment_eng.pdf

Do You Exist Because You Think, or Do You Think Because You Exist, or Neither? Essay

In order to consider â€Å"I exist because I think† or †I think because I exist†, I would define the â€Å"I exist because I think† as â€Å"I think† is the cause of â€Å"I exist†. This implies â€Å"I think† appear before â€Å"I exist† and cause â€Å"I exist† to happen. In the other side, â€Å"I think because I exist† would be â€Å"I exist† is the cause of â€Å"I think†. This implies â€Å"I exist† appear before â€Å"I think† and cause â€Å"I think† to happen. In terms of logic, I would say â€Å"I think because I exist â€Å" is more appropriate. It is because I must exist first, therefore I can think of my existence. Things about me or myself are impossible to happen before my existence and cause my existence. In the following paper, I would like to explain why â€Å"I exist because I think† is false and explain â€Å"I think because I exist† is true. Let me first explain why ‘I exist because I think’ is false. If ‘I exist because I think’ is true, every time when I think I exist and when I do not think, I do not exist. As I mentioned, â€Å"Think† seems to be the cause of my existence in this case. How can my thinking exist before my existence and cause my existence. Therefore, I must exist first, then I can think about â€Å"I exist† or not. In fact, every minute whatever I am conscious or not, I am existing in this world, If my body physically is existing. For example, a person whose body functionally works but loss his conscious. He is still alive but he cannot think, we cannot say he is inexistent, because he is not dead. In other word, I can exist without â€Å"I think†, but â€Å"I think† cannot be without I exist. Furthermore, as Descartes said â€Å"I think, therefore I am† to prove the indubitable truth of self-existence. He suggested that every time when we doubt that â€Å"I† exist or not, we can absolute certain that â€Å"I† am existing by this act. Then he said that the evil genius could not deceive us â€Å"I exist† because before the evil genius’s deception, â€Å"I† must exist first, then I can be deceived in some way by the evil genius. So â€Å"I exist† is indubitable truth. Similarly, to say â€Å"I think because I exist† is true, The first criterion is I ust exist first. Therefore, I can think about my existence. So â€Å"I think† must base on â€Å"I exist†. In contrast, if â€Å"I exist† is based on â€Å"I think†, this is impossible that â€Å"I think† appear before â€Å"I exist†. How can my mind and thinking exist dependently? Although some scientists may argue that brain wave w hat we call ghosts can exist after life, they may be the other forms of human thought â€Å"I think† appearing without â€Å"I exist†. However, who have seen ghost in this world? At least until today no one can prove ghosts exist in this world. So â€Å"I think† is not the cause that I can exist. However, â€Å"I exist† is the cause of I can think. To conclude, â€Å"I think† cannot exist without â€Å"I exist†. It should be â€Å"I exist† first then â€Å"I think† â€Å"I exist†. As the following diagram shows: If it is â€Å"I exist because I think†, it would be missing I exist in the first place, as below diagram shows: Nothing can exist before itself, so before I think, I must exist. In other word, â€Å"I exist† does not dependent on â€Å"I think†, but â€Å"I think† do dependent on â€Å"I exist†. Therefore, â€Å"I think because I exist† is true.

Fiscal Policy in the 1960s and 1970s

By the 1960s, policy-makers seemed wedded to Keynesian theories. But in retrospect, most Americans agree, the government then made a series of mistakes in the economic policy arena that eventually led to a reexamination of fiscal policy. After enacting a tax cut in 1964 to stimulate economic growth and reduce unemployment, President Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969) and Congress launched a series of expensive domestic spending programs designed to alleviate poverty. Johnson also increased military spending to pay for American involvement in the Vietnam War. These large government programs, combined with strong consumer spending, pushed the demand for goods and services beyond what the economy could produce. Wages and prices started rising. Soon, rising wages and prices fed each other in an ever-rising cycle. Such an overall increase in prices is known as inflation. Keynes had argued that during such periods of excess demand, the government should reduce spending or raise taxes to avert inflation. But anti-inflation fiscal policies are difficult to sell politically, and the government resisted shifting to them. Then, in the early 1970s, the nation was hit by a sharp rise in the international oil and food prices. This posed an acute dilemma for policy-makers. The conventional anti-inflation strategy would be to restrain demand by cutting federal spending or raising taxes. But this would have drained income from an economy already suffering from higher oil prices. The result would have been a sharp rise in unemployment. If policy-makers chose to counter the loss of income caused by rising oil prices, however, they would have had to increase spending or cut taxes. Since neither policy could increase the supply of oil or food, however, boosting demand without changing supply would merely mean higher prices. The President Carter Era President Jimmy Carter (1976 - 1980) sought to resolve the dilemma with a two-pronged strategy. He geared fiscal policy toward fighting unemployment, allowing the federal deficit to swell and establishing countercyclical jobs programs for the unemployed. To fight inflation, he established a program of voluntary wage and price controls. Neither element of this strategy worked well. By the end of the 1970s, the nation suffered both high unemployment and high inflation. While many Americans saw this stagflation as evidence that Keynesian economics did not work, another factor further reduced the governments ability to use fiscal policy to manage the economy. Deficits now seemed to be a permanent part of the fiscal scene. Deficits had emerged as a concern during the stagnant 1970s. Then, in the 1980s, they grew further as President Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) pursued a program of tax cuts and increased military spending. By 1986, the deficit had swelled to $221,000 million, or more than 22 percent of total federal spending. Now, even if the government wanted to pursue spending or tax policies to bolster demand, the deficit made such a strategy unthinkable. Note This article is adapted from the book Outline of the U.S. Economy by Conte and Carr and has been adapted with permission from the U.S. Department of State.

Syntax Definition and Examples

In linguistics, syntax refers to the rules that govern the ways in which words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences. The term syntax comes from the Greek, meaning arrange together. The term is also used to mean the study of the syntactic properties of a language. In computer contexts, the term refers to the proper ordering of symbols and codes so that the computer can understand what instructions are telling it to do. Syntax Syntax is the proper order of words in a phrase or sentence.Syntax is a tool used in writing proper grammatical sentences.Native speakers of a language learn correct syntax without realizing it.The complexity of a writers or speakers sentences creates a formal or informal level of diction that is presented to its audience.   Hearing and Speaking Syntax Syntax is one of the major components of grammar. Its the concept that enables people to know how to start a question with a question word (What is that?), or that adjectives generally come before the  nouns they describe (green chair), subjects often come before verbs in non-question sentences (She jogged), prepositional phrases start with prepositions (to the store), helping verbs come before main verbs (can go or will do), and so on. For native speakers, using correct syntax is something that comes naturally, as word order is learned as soon as an infant starts absorbing the language. Native speakers can tell something isnt said quite right because it sounds weird, even if they cant  detail the exact grammar rule that makes something sound off to the ear.   It is  syntax  that gives the words the power to relate to each other in a sequence...to carry meaning—of whatever kind—as well as glow individually in just the right place(Burgess 1968) Syntactic Rules   English parts of speech often follow ordering patterns in sentences and clauses, such as compound sentences are joined by conjunctions (and, but, or) or that multiple adjectives modifying the same noun follow a particular order according to their class (such as number-size-color, as in six small green chairs). The rules of how to order words help the language parts make sense. Sentences often start with a subject, followed by a  predicate (or just a verb in the simplest sentences) and contain an object or a  complement  (or both), which shows, for example, whats being acted upon. Take the sentence Beth slowly ran the race in wild, multicolored flip-flops.  The sentence follows a subject-verb-object pattern (Beth ran the race). Adverbs and adjectives take their places in front of what theyre modifying (slowly ran; wild, multicolored flip-flops). The object (the race) follows the verb ran, and the prepositional phrase (in wild, multicolored flip-flops) starts with the preposition in. Syntax vs. Diction and Formal vs. Informal   Diction refers to the style of writing or speaking that someone uses, brought about by their choice of words, whereas syntax is the order in which theyre arranged in the spoken or written sentence. Something written using a very high level of diction, like a paper published in an academic journal or a lecture given in a college classroom, is written very formally. Speaking to friends or texting are informal, meaning they have a low level of diction. It is essential to understand that the differences exist not because spoken language is a degradation of written language but because any written language, whether English or Chinese, results from centuries of development and elaboration by a small number of users.Jim Miller(Miller, 2008) Formal written works or presentations would likely also have more complex sentences or industry-specific jargon. They are directed to a more  narrow audience than something meant to be read or heard by the general public, where the audience members backgrounds will be more diverse. Precision in word choice is less exacting in informal contexts than  formal  ones, and grammar rules are more flexible in spoken language than in formal written language. Understandable English syntax is more flexible than most.   ...the odd thing about English is that no matter how much you screw sequences word up, you understood, still, like Yoda, will be. Other languages dont work that way. French?  Dieu!  Misplace a single le or la and an idea vaporizes into a sonic puff. English is flexible: you can jam it into a Cuisinart for an hour, remove it, and meaning will still emerge.†(Copeland, 2009) Types of Sentence Structures Types of sentences and their syntax modes include simple sentences, compound sentences, complex sentences, and compound-complex sentences. Compound sentences are two simple sentences joined by a conjunction. Complex sentences have dependent clauses, and compound-complex sentences have both types included. Simple sentence: Subject-verb structure (The girl ran.)Compound sentence: Subject-verb-object-conjunction-subject-verb structure (The girl ran the marathon, and her cousin did, too.)Complex sentence: Dependent clause-subject-verb-object structure (Although they were tired after the marathon, the cousins decided to go to a celebration at the park.)Compound-complex sentence: Four clauses, dependent and independent structures (Although they werent fond of crowds, this was different, they decided, because of the common goal that had brought everyone together.) Syntax Variations and Distinctions Syntax has changed some over  the development of English through the centuries. The proverb  Whoever loved that loved not at first sight?  indicates that English negatives could once be placed after main verbs (Aitchison, 2001). And not all people speak English in exactly the same way.  Social dialects  learned by people with common backgrounds—such as a social class, profession, age group, or ethnic group—also may influence the speakers syntax. Think of the differences between teenagers slang and more fluid word order and grammar vs. research scientists technical vocabulary and manner of speaking to each other.  Social dialects are also called  social varieties.   Beyond Syntax Following proper syntax doesnt guarantee that a sentence will have meaning, though. Linguist Noam Chomsky created the sentence Colorless green ideas sleep furiously, which is syntactically and grammatically correct because it has the words in the correct order and verbs that agree with subjects, but its still nonsense. With it, Chomsky showed that rules governing syntax are distinct from meanings that words convey. The  distinction between grammar and syntax has been somewhat disrupted by recent research in  lexicogrammar, which takes the words into account in grammar rules:  For example, some verbs (transitive ones, that perform an action on something) always take direct objects. A transitive (action) verb example: She removed the index card from the old recipe box. The verb is removed and the object is index card. Another example includes a transitive phrasal verb: Please look over my report before I turn it in. Look over is the phrasal verb and report is the direct object. To be a complete thought, you need to include whats being looked over. Thus, it has to have a direct object. Resources and Further Reading Aitchison, Jean. Language Change: Progress or Decay? Cambridge University, 2001.Burgess, Alan. Enderby Outside. Heinemann, 1968.Chomsky, Noam. The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory. University of Chicago, 1985.Copeland, Douglas. Generation A: A Novel. Scribner, 2009.Miller, Jim. An Introduction to English Syntax. Edinburgh University, 2008.