Reflective Analysis of Portfolio Artifact

Rationale/Reflection 7
NAEYC Standard:
STANDARD 7. EARLY CHILDHOOD FIELD EXPERIENCES
Candidates have field experiences and clinical practice in a) at least two of the three early childhood age
groups (birth age 3, 3 through 5, 5 through 8 years) and in b) the variety of settings that offer early
education (early school grades, child care centers and homes, Head Start programs). (NAEYC, 2010)

Brief Description of Evidence:
During the fall semester of 2012 during my ECED 130-Developmentally Appropriate Guidance
course I visited a preschool/child care facility and an infant room for field experience. The fall semester
of 2013 during my ECED 255-Generalist Practicum course I was responsible for the library at an
elementary school (children ages five to twelve) and the spring semester of 2014 during my ECED 235-
Preschool Practicum course I was in a preschool classroom with three to five year old age preschool
children.
Analysis of What I Learned:
Through my field experiences and practicums I have been able to see firsthand developmentally
appropriate practices in action. I have also been witness to a child care/ preschool setting that was rigid
and did not give the children choices. The rigid setting did have an established routine but the children
were not actively learning through exploration of their classroom environment. I learned what not to do
from my visit to this facility. After visiting this child care/preschool facility I thought of ways to improve
the learning experiences for the children.
How This Artifact Demonstrates my Competence on the NAEYC Standard:
During my Generalist practicum at St. Paul School I was responsible for creating a reading igloo. This
projects objective was to create an atmosphere of excitement and anticipation to read inside the igloo.
The children were involved in the construction of the igloo by bringing in plastic gallon jugs from home.
My preschool practicum gave me the opportunity to develop and implement lesson plans based on the
Montessori method, make connections with the children, their families, the teacher and my mentor.
During my preschool practicum I was able to assess, determine strategies and set goals for my case
study child at the beginning of the semester and then evaluate again at the middle and end of the
semester to see what progress she had made and adjust accordingly if the strategies were not effective
and the goals were not being met. Being in these various settings gave me the opportunities to observe,
document, think of strategies for positive learning outcomes, develop meaningful curriculum, find
resources, collaborate with other educators, and partner with families for the best learning outcomes
for their child.