Infants and Toddlers Practicum II: Pedagogy for Infants and Toddlers

This capstone fieldwork course is designed to (1) reflect a strength-based stance toward children and families and affirm the identities and cultural and linguistic diversity of all learners, (2) develop practical and evidence-based knowledge for supporting language and literacy acquisition and development, and (3) enable students to demonstrate their competencies teaching infants and toddlers. It requires supervised participation in an early childhood education setting (Birth- thirty-six months) and participation in a weekly seminar. Students will explore principles, methods, and materials, informed by current research, for supporting young children’s language and literacy acquisition and development. Students will utilize practical classroom experiences to make connections between theory and practice, develop professional behaviors around working with infants, toddlers, families, and build a comprehensive understanding of the role of language and literacy in an integrated curriculum. Students will design, implement, and evaluate learning experiences that integrate language and literacy learning for infants and toddlers with diverse learning styles and needs, with strong emphasis on child centered, play-oriented, and culturally responsive approaches to teaching, learning and assessment, as well as knowledge that is integrated across the curriculum. Students spend a minimum of 90 hours in the field.

Fall, Spring

023553