It was fun researching this week for the annotated bibliography. I searched for a variety of information pertaining to different aspects of my topic.

The annotated bibliography and the process itself will help tremendously in writing my literature review. Not only did it help me organize my research and sources, but it helped me identify the holes in my research. Once I organized the articles and journals from previous weeks, I realized that I didn’t have any real research on transitional kindergarten curriculum itself. That was the key focus this week and I was able to locate the following:

The Implementation Guide: A Resource for California Public School District Administrators and Teachers states that “Implementing a high-quality TK program requires a deep understanding of standards, as well as extensive knowledge of child development and instructional strategies (Heroman and Copple 2006.”

“The Dramatic Play Area is collaborative in nature and should be well stocked to promote positive peer interaction and cooperative learning experiences. Vocabulary development and conceptual knowledge will be promoted by varying the learning themes in this area. Initially, the following items should be included in the Dramatic Play Area.”

“The Desired Results Development Profile School Readiness (DRDP-SR) was designed for TK and kindergarten teachers to observe student learning and to document progress toward developmentally appropriate academic and social–emotional goals.”

This information was important to my research because it clarified some of the concerns I had regarding transitional kindergarten such as the expectation of knowledgeable staff. With that said though, I am still a little concerned in the validity of the information in the implementation guide. It seems more like a “what we would like” guideline, instead of “what is required”. It was a big relief to read that transitional kindergarten is also supposed to incorporate dramatic play within their curriculum planning and classroom environment.

In addition, I realized that transitional kindergarten teachers use a different assessment tool for their student’s development then what preschool teachers use, which was an important addition to my research.

I feel pretty comfortable with my research, the only think I am going to search for is the difference in salaries for preschool teachers and transitional kindergarten teachers.