Curriculum
Activity
- The
literacy practices are based on recommendations from the National
Reading Panel, as well as such reviews of the literature as
Preventing Reading Difficulties (Snow, Burns, & Griffin,
1998) and Eager to Learn (Bowman, Donovan, & Burns, 2001).
Tools addresses the five aspects of literacy defined by the
National Reading Panel: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary,
comprehension and fluency. In addition the literacy research
conducted by Daniel Elkonin has been used to inform phonemic
awareness instruction. Literacy practices meet state and national
standards for preschool and kindergarten.
- The mathematics practices are based on recommendations from
the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and the
National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
Activities directly address NCTM early childhood focal points:
number and operations, geometry, measurement, data analysis,
and algebra. The work of Vygotskian mathematics researchers
Davydov and Venger have also been used to shape the sequence
of skill acquisition to determine the scope and sequence of
activities (Davydov, 1986; Davydov & Zinchenko, 1993; Venger,
1994).
- The Tools of the Mind program covers all developmental
domains—cognitive, social-emotional, language,
physical—and emphasizes the development of underlying
skills, such as remembering on purpose, symbolic thinking and
symbolic representation, and the development of literacy, mathematics,
and science.