Instructional Process
This domain covers planning, delivering, and managing instruction for young children - developmentally appropriate practice, lesson structure, grouping, play-based and integrated curriculum, and classroom climate.
Developmentally appropriate practice (NAEYC)
DAP rests on three core considerations: what is known about child development and learning (age-related commonality), what is known about each individual child, and knowledge of the social and cultural context. DAP is not "easier" work; it is work matched to how young children learn - concrete, active, social, and play-based.
Lesson architecture and grouping
- State the objective as an observable child behavior.
- Anticipatory set → modeled instruction → guided practice with feedback → independent practice → closure.
- Gradual release ("I do, we do, you do"), think-alouds, and explicit vocabulary instruction.
- Flexible grouping: whole group for routines and shared text, small group for targeted skills, centers for exploration.
- Transitions with warnings, songs, and visual schedules prevent most management problems.
Worked example
You want to build phonemic awareness in a pre-K class. Best choice: a daily ten-minute oral game at morning meeting - clapping syllables, matching beginning sounds, silly alliteration - because phonemic awareness is auditory and is taught without print. A letter-sound matching worksheet targets phonics, not phonemic awareness, and mismatches four-year-olds' fine-motor and attention levels.
Traps
Calling a task DAP just because it is hands-on; confusing accommodations (how a child accesses content) with modifications (what the child is expected to learn); treating whole-group instruction as inherently bad; forgetting that teacher-scaffolded play is instruction, not a break from it.