now presenting… my major project!

Here we are, at the finish line of a three-month long journey in this course. I am so pleased to be presenting my Major Project to you all!

I have created a PDF document that explores concepts of Digital Citizenship and Media Literacy in a Pre-Kindergarten context. This resource explicitly connects to the Pre-K curriculum (4 holistic domains of learning and Essential Learning Experiences, or ELEs) in each lesson, as well as providing extension activities and suggestions of ways to incorporate this learning into play. You can view or download the entire PDF document below.

Kara Fidelack Pre-K Digital Citizenship and Media Literacy Curriculum ResourceDownload

Read on to learn about my journey of creating this curriculum resource document this semester.

January

• I chose which Major Project option I wanted to do and wrote my first blog post explaining my choice. At this time, I envisioned creating a continuum that slowly built upon these concepts throughout Pre-K, K, and Grade 1 (when I started to actually create my resource, however, I realized that focusing solely on Pre-K was going to provide more than enough content to justify being a Major Project)
• I began researching Digital Citizenship and Media Literacy in the early years, and found that most resources began at Kindergarten grade level. While many resources out there could be tailored to fit into a Pre-K context, this grade/age level represented a significant gap in the content available online

February

• I continued to do preliminary research and collect relevant resources, such as the Digital Citizens characters by Common Sense Education
• Following the guest presentation by Mike Ribble, I narrowed the focus of my resource from all 9 elements of Digital Citizenship to just the ‘Safe’ category of skills. I used Ribble’s Dig Cit Progression Chart extensively while creating my resource and looked, primarily, at the concepts that were in the K-2 range
• I was struggling with the tensions between teaching digital skills and the aversion to screen time in the early years. In my blog post update, I discussed an epiphany I had, in which I realized that teaching these digital skills didn’t necessarily require students to be on a screen. My idea of creating a unique resource that introduces Dig Cit and Media Lit skills in a play-based, hands-on context was born!

March

• After much ruminating and motivation-gathering, I began to plan and create the actual resource and flesh out individual lessons. I decided to start at the very basics with introducing what the internet actually is (I discussed this in detail in a blog post on March 3)
• I tweeted out the first draft of my scope and sequence and got a lot of useful feedback that helped me to tweak things as I went along
• I continued to develop the individual lessons and plan for ways to incorporate the concepts in a play-based, Pre-K context. I grew more and more excited about the resource I was creating and blogged about my progress
• As I planned for creative ways to introduce Dig Cit and Media Lit to 3 and 4 year olds as part of my Major Project, I saw changes in my own practice. I blogged about some exciting developments in using devices with my students

April

• I finalized, proofread, and made final tweaks to my curriculum resource. That brings us to today – where I am sharing my Major Project journey, and the final product, with all of you!

Thank you for viewing my Major Project and reading this blog post! If you have any feedback about my curriculum resource, or want to chat about teaching these concepts in an early years context, I would love to hear from you! I am looking forward to trying out some of these lessons in my classroom in the future, and continuing to grow as a digitally-conscious early years educator.

Until next time,

-KKF

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