educators as they grapple with a plethora of issues, questions, and practices surrounding the use of standards in the early childhood classroom. Carol Seefeldt—well-known educator and bestselling author—offers teachers an overview of the standards movement; describes the status of standards in early education; presents the issues around the design and selection of standards; and provides practical strategies for effectively implementing standards with young children (preschool through the early primary grades). This book provides both the background knowledge and a working understanding of standards to help teachers: * Successfully judge and select standards. * Design appropriate ways of using and working with standards. * Develop appropriate assessment strategies. Illustrated with children's work, this "how-to" guide: * Provides practical illustrations of how standards can be used to benefit early childhood classrooms, including many sample activities. * Demonstrates how to work with standards in the separate subject areas of the sciences, arts, language and literacy, mathematics, and social studies. * Offers ideas for including all children, such as those with special needs and those just learning English. * Describes a project, Children Study Their Play Yard, illustrating how thematic, standards-based, problem-solving learning can be integrated into the total curriculum.

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