Yardsticks: Children in the Classroom Ages 4-14

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1892989190 ISBN 13: 9781892989192

Publisher: Northeast Foundation for Children, 2007

Written with warmth and humor, Yardsticks offers clear descriptions of children's development. This comprehensive, user-friendly reference helps teachers and administrators use knowledge of child development to shape classrooms and schools where all children can succeed.

For each age, this book includes:

• Narrative description of developmental traits
• Charts summarizing physical, social, language, and cognitive growth patterns
• Suggestions for curricular areas: reading, writing, mathematics, and thematic units
• Favorite books for different ages.

What's new in the third edition:

• A new, brief overview of issues in the development of bilingualism and biliteracy among Latino/Hispanic children
• A new appendix on the "birthday cluster exercise" for applying the information in the book to working with a whole class of students
• An updated list of recommended children's books
• An updated list of recommended resources for teachers and parents.

From the Author:

Practical info to help parents/teachers understand children. This book is about children in school. It is designed for both parents and teachers and provides easy reference to expectations about children's growth and development in the classroom. I have tried in this small volume to consolidate a good deal of theory with years of professional experience in schools. My goal is to present important information in a readable format without compromising the key ideas passed down from the worlds of anthropology, child development, pediatrics and education. I hope you will find the information about a particular age immediately useful, and will also be captured by the obvious patterns of development. Enjoy the book. I hope you find it useful in your work with children.

About the Author:

For forty-five years, Robert (Chip) Wood has worked on behalf of children from preschool through eighth grade as a classroom teacher, teaching principal, and teacher educator. After studying at the Gesell Institute of Human Development early in his career, Chip made developmentally based teaching the center of his educational practice. His core belief: knowing what children at each age are developmentally capable of doing physically, socially, emotionally and cognitively enables respectful, successful teaching of all children no matter their life circumstances or cultural background. A co-developer of Responsive Classroom and co-founder of Northeast Foundation for Children (now Center for Responsive Schools), Chip has served as principal of two public schools and was co-founder of Greenfield Center School. He is a facilitator for the Center for Courage & Renewal and co-creator of Leading Together, an approach focused on strengthening the adult community of schools.