First 10 Blog

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What Is Playful Learning and Why Does It Matter? Research shows that play is critical to children’s development and learning, especially throughout their early childhood years. Unfortunately, play has gradually been pushed out of classrooms to make time for more teacher-directed learning experiences. Playful learning is often described as having...

    Congratulations to the twelve communities that recently received Birth-Third Alignment Partnership grants from the Department of Early Education and Care. Momentum around Birth-Third continues to grow in Massachusetts, and we are expanding the...

A critical step in improving teaching and learning in the early elementary grades is developing an effective, coherent curriculum. To support districts in aligning curriculum to the 2011 Common Core-aligned frameworks, the Department of Elementary...

My colleague Renee Perdue and I are leading a Curriculum Mapping Institute tomorrow (Tuesday) for the MA ESE and the Readiness Centers. See the Massachusetts Curriculum Alignment and Mapping Project for a variety of resources...

NEW RESOURCES OF INTEREST Formative Assessment: Guidance for Early Childhood Policymakers. Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes at NIERR. This policy report provides a guide and framework to early childhood policymakers considering formative assessment. The...

DATE: MAY 17, 2014 TIME: 1:00 – 3:00 P.M. ON SAT. MAY 17TH The Pittsfield Promise is offering a FREE presentation for families, children and educators with Mary Pope Osborne, the #2 Children’s Author in...

As discussed last week, there are multiple entry points for understanding Lowell’s Birth-Third work—the Leadership Alignment Team, the use of the CLASS tool, the emerging school readiness agenda—but a good place to start is with...