How can we determine which milestones and skills to include in a written curriculum?

Early childhood developmental domains, skills, and sets of standards are written for age ranges. They can include academic areas, but also include other important categories such as social and emotional development, approaches to learning, physical development, and even hygiene standards. These learning goals come from a variety of sources, such as state education departments and non-profit national agencies devoted to overall child wellness. Some schools create their own learning goals or sets of standards based on a variety of information, including state or district requirements.

There are many options to choose from when early childhood teachers sit down to articulate learning goals in their written curriculum. Depending on school structure and accreditation affiliation, some learning goals will be required in the written curriculum, while other situations allow for more flexibility. As a first step, get clarity on this issue. Be clear from the start about "must haves" in terms of content and then prioritize accordingly.

Early childhood learning goals are often all-encompassing and cover many different domains and skill sets.

One potential hurdle when approaching writing curriculum development is looking at the big picture and making some initial choices. Consider these three categories to narrow the list down into more manageable pieces:

• Learning goals that will help teachers plan for units of study, or organize ideas. These goals will eventually be grouped thematically or practiced over time in many different settings.

• Information that expresses an underlying belief or philosophy of young children. These learning goals can be grouped together to articulate the foundations to a program, such as play-based learning or a Reggio Emilia inspired approach to education. These goals make more sense written as statements of intention or rationale for choices made for the whole program.

• There may be information that is included in other school documentation and is better suited written as expectations and agreements between home and school.

After you have met all requirements of operation, focus your attention on items in the first category: Learning goals that will help teachers plan for units of study, or organize ideas. Once you have a smaller list to work with, focus on how you can organize those learning goals into logical, meaningful, and helpful units of study.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your view), there is no right or wrong answer to these questions, but through conversation and deep reflection, more clear ideas about the purpose, function, and benefits of a written curriculum will emerge. Depending on your audience and stated purpose for documenting your curriculum, you probably have more options than you think!