Bobbie Warash

• West Virginia University

We focus on integrating developmentally appropriate practices, the project approach of Reggio Emilia, and a behavior analytic model to support a quality preschool environment. While the above practices often are considered incompatible, we have found substantial overlap and room for integration of these perspectives in practical application. With t...

Documentation of children’s projects is advantageous to their learning process and is also a good method for student teachers to observe the process of learning. Documentation panels are a unique way to help student teachers understand how children learn. Completing a panel requires a student teacher to think through a process. Teachers must learn...

Of interest in this study were the factors that lead to quality child care centers. The Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R) was examined for its utility as an effective training device to enlighten directors and classroom teachers of what constitutes quality classrooms. An experimental design was employed for this study. Ei...

Surveyed attitudes and knowledge of parents with children in a university-based preschool regarding developmentally appropriate preschool practices (DAP). Found that many parents understood developmentally appropriate practice. Most parents believed that children learned through play with other children and exploration of the environment. Mothers t...

Examined writing development of 12 children in prekindergarten classes using computers in self-selected language experience activities. Found that 3-year-olds steadily improved in spelling and story writing, and improvement continued the next year. Children who were exposed to writing as 3-year-olds showed greater gains in spelling accuracy the nex...

Experiences of advantaged children were examined among 85 kindergarten, 72 first-grade, 61 second-grade, and 66 third-grade boys and girls. Preschool and nonpreschool/nonday-care groups scored significantly higher on academic self-esteem than a day-care group. The preschool group scored higher on CTBS Mathematics than the other two groups, and the...

Describes preschoolers' creation and use of Japanese Bunraku-style puppets to enhance their reenactments of personal stories dictated to teachers and written down in the children's scrapbooks. Discusses how the puppet project has been integrated into various curricular areas in the classroom. (HTH)

Over the past several years, teachers at the West Virginia University Child Development Laboratory have used the language experience approach to develop the literacy skills of young children. To increase child involvement, a scrapbook project for 4-year-olds was conducted each Wednesday for 1 academic year. Each child received a scrapbook and crayo...

Followed the computer-assisted writing of three prekindergarten children for two semesters. At the beginning of the year, the children exhibited preliterate levels of writing ability and limited reading skills. At the end of the year, they were writing connected text, using a mix of invented and standard spellings. (BC)

Do you know which continent looks like an ice cream cone, a capitalA, or a frowning face? Just ask the four-year-olds at the West Virginia University Nursery School, and they'll tell you. Learning the names and shapes of the continents was part of their studies about the globe.