RIGOROUS DAP in the Early Years: From Theory to Practice
provides teachers with a roadmap for teaching that helps children meet academic expectations and maintains focus on the appropriate development of the whole child. A construct of eleven practices, RIGOROUS DAP supplies teachers with strategies for 1) making instructional decisions that meet the needs of the individual child; 2) sustaining culturally relevant practices; 3) engaging stakeholders in conversations about educating young children for school success through practices that attend to their individual, sociocultural, and developmental needs; and 4) ensuring all children experience high-level learning and succeed in school.
The eleven practices comprising the construct are:
R
eaching all children
I
ntegrating content areas
G
rowing as a community
O
ffering choices
evisiting new content
ffering challenges
U
nderstanding each learner
S
eeing the whole child
D
ifferentiating instruction
A
ssessing constantly
P
ushing every child forward
An academically rigorous learning environment allows all children to learn at high levels through hands-on learning experiences that address the whole child and connect to the child's world in and out of school. A developmentally appropriate learning environment considers the children's developmental, cognitive, social, emotional, linguistic, and physical development, as well as the sociocultural worlds in which they live.