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Kindergarten Roundup

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Title: Kindergarten Roundup


1
Kindergarten Roundup
  • February 2008
  • Presented by Dr. Shannon Varley
  • Director of Curriculum and Instruction
  • svarley_at_avonworth.k12.pa.us

2
Purpose
  • To provide parents with information about what
    they can expect of our kindergarten program
  • To provide a timeline for enrollment and other
    important events, such as meeting your childrens
    teachers

3
Welcome Class of 2021!
  • We are preparing this class for
  • A flat world immediate communication, access,
    and emergence of Asian countries as superpowers
  • Careers that do not presently exist- cybrarians,
    web gardeners, robotic engineers, astrobiologists
  • Competition for jobs with people who can work for
    less from their own country tutors,
    telemarketers, any customer service, medical
    diagnoticians
  • Skills needed work together productively,
    understand divergent views, media literacy,
    create a case, create change

4
The Learning Gap
  • According to The Learning Gap Why Our Schools
    Are Failing and What We Can Learn from Japanese
    and Chinese Education
  • Effort needs to be emphasized in education Asian
    countries focus on effort America focuses on
    ability (high vs. low, can vs. cant) We need
    to teach students how to maximize ability through
    hard work

5
The Learning Gap
  • Examined parents satisfaction and expectations
    with their childrens education
  • To protect self-esteem, Americans tend to adjust
    standards downward to a level considered to be
    appropriate for the childs level of ability
  • Conclusion American parents, by holding low
    expectations for what their children can
    accomplish, form evaluations of their childrens
    abilities and academic performance that are
    unrealistically high

6
The Learning Gap
  • Conclusions were echoed in How Well Are American
    Students Learning? (The Brookings Institute)
  • American students were the most confident in
    their math and science classes. They were happy
    about their performance (happiness quotient in
    learning).
  • They were also among the lowest achieving.

7
The Learning Gap
  • How does this apply to kindergarten?
  • We need to begin teaching children how to
    maximize their abilities through hard work by
    providing them with challenging, but not
    frustrating, tasks
  • We need to challenge our expectations of what
    kindergarten students are capable of and not
    limit them to an idea of what a five year old
    should be doing (old developmentally appropriate
    model)

8
Best Practices in Kindergarten
9
General Principles
  • Assessment Drives Instruction
  • Use assessment to determine where children are
    in their learning and decide next steps
  • Curriculum is Concept Based, Not Activity Based
  • Curriculum is based on big ideas in disciplines
    activities are not included as they must be based
    on assessment of what a particular group of
    students needs to grow
  • High Expectations
  • Teach Forward
  • Teach every child at a higher level than what
    they are presently capable of

10
General Principles
  • Differentiate Instruction
  • Students come to us with different interests,
    readiness levels, and learning styles. We need to
    adjust our instruction to accommodate these
    differences.
  • Zone of Proximal Development
  • Students are truly learning when presented with
    tasks that are challenging but not frustrating
  • Gradual Release of Responsibility Model
  • I do you watch we do together you do on
    your own

11
Standards-Based
  • Pennsylvania Department of Education has
    developed and approved standards for
    Pre-kindergarten and Kindergarten
  • Avonworth meets yearly with representatives from
    local pre-schools to align our programs based on
    these standards
  • Standards are available on PDE website and
    Avonworths website

12
Standards-Based
  • New Standards (National Center on Education and
    the Economy) has created models of writing for
    each grade level, k-5, in four genres narrative,
    informational, how-to, and response to literature
  • National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
    Focal Points Identifies three big ideas and
    connections for each grade, PreK-8. Kindergarten
    should focus on numbers and operations, geometry,
    and measurement.

13
Focus On Emergent and Early Literacy
  • Why should students begin learning to read in
    kindergarten?
  • According to Starting Out Right,
  • Enriched preschool environments and excellent
    primary grade instruction can be a deciding
    factor between success or failure that will
    follow them all their lives . . . No time is as
    important, or as fleeting, as a childs early
    years of life and schooling.
  • Research consistently shows that children who
    get off to a good start in reading rarely
    stumble. Those who fall behind tend to stay
    behind for the rest of their academic lives.

14
Focus On Emergent and Early Literacy
  • According to Starting Out Right,
  • Research consistently demonstrates that children
    need to enter first grade with good attitudes and
    knowledge about literacy. Otherwise, they will
    probably find first grade instruction in
    accessible.

15
Focus On Emergent and Early Literacy
  • According to Starting Out Right,
  • Conclusion Children who do well in reading from
    the beginning rarely stumble later on. Those who
    have difficulty in the primary grades tend to
    remain behind their classmates as the years go by
    even though they receive remediation. This
    fact, reconfirmed again and again, is a painful
    testimony to the importance of addressing reading
    difficulties as early as possible in a childs
    life. As important as it is to hold out hope for
    every struggling reader in our middle and high
    schools, there is no substitute for an all-out
    effort to ensure that all of our children start
    out right

16
Focus on Emergent and Early Literacy
  • According to Building Blocks,
  • What young children need most during their
    early years of schooling is a sturdy foundation
    upon which to construct the ability to read. The
    failure to help all children put such a framework
    in place has been the greatest failing of
    Americas schools. It is no wonder that so many
    pupils find their house of reading in splinters
    by the time they reach the fourth grade. In most
    cases, patch-up jobs just wont work and young
    children who struggle to read become teenagers
    whose learning falters and then adults whose
    futures are compromised.

17
Focus on Emergent and Early Literacy
  • According to Building Blocks,
  • Children need extensive exposure to rich
    language in a multitude of forms to become
    strong, swift readers who glide across a page
    like a graceful swimmer cutting through water.

18
Focus on Emergent and Early Literacy
  • The probability of remaining a poor reader at the
    end of fourth grade given a child was a poor
    reader at the end of first grade was 88
  • 74 of children who are poor readers in third
    grade remain poor readers in ninth grade
  • It takes four times as long to remediate a
    student with poor reading skills in fourth grade
    as in late kindergarten or early first grade

19
Kindergarten Literacy by Anne McGill-Franzen
  • Recommendations
  • Personalizing Instruction Is the Heart of It All
  • Increasing the Intensity of Kindergarten Is
    Beneficial
  • Bringing Home Literacy Practices to School Is Key
  • Kindergarten Reading Changes Lives

20
Kindergarten Literacy by Anne McGill-Franzen
  • The progress children can make in reading and
    writing during the kindergarten year can change
    the rest of their entire academic lives.
    Kindergartners whose teachers help them begin to
    read and write are far more likely to go on to
    become proficient readers and writers than
    children who are not provided with these
    opportunities.

21
Kindergarten Literacy by Anne McGill-Franzen
  • Across all groups, children who spent the most
    time in reading instruction experienced the
    greatest gains and long-term effects so that the
    more reading instruction, the better results.
  • Children grow into the intellectual life around
    them as the famous developmental psychologist
    Lev Vygotsky suggested, and adults should teach
    them at the growing edge of their competence.

22
Breaking the Code The New Science of Beginning
Reading and Writing by J. Richard Gentry
  • Kindergarten classrooms that are organized for
    writing, where teachers teach and support writing
    explicitly, allow students to exceed minimal
    expectations such as writing names, most of the
    letters, and some words
  • Develops a system that connects reading and
    writing

23
The Changing Paradigm of Kindergarten
  • Kindergarten of the Past
  • Hands-on
  • Manipulatives in Math and Science
  • Mostly whole group instruction done in a circle
  • Letter of the Week Students did not get all
    letters until spring!
  • Kindergarten of the Present and Future
  • Hands-on and Minds-On
  • Manipulatives in All Areas
  • Mix of Whole Group, Small Group, and
    Individualized Instruction
  • No More Letter of the Week

24
The Changing Paradigm of Kindergarten
  • Kindergarten of the Past
  • Curriculum centered on holidays
  • Developmentally Appropriate
  • Five year olds cant do that!
  • Social skills in artificial settings
  • Kindergarten of the Present and Future
  • Curriculum focused on big ideas to promote
    thinking
  • Developmentally Responsive
  • Five year olds can do that!
  • Social skills in context

25
For More Research
  • Send your name and address to
  • Dr. Shannon Varley
  • 258 Josephs Lane
  • Pittsburgh, PA 15237
  • svarley_at_avonworth.k12.pa.us

26
Bibliography
  • The Learning Gap Why Our Schools Are Failing and
    What We Can Learn from Japanese and Chinese
    Education by Harold Stevenson and James Stigler
  • Starting Out Right A Guide to Promoting
    Childrens Reading Success by the National
    Research Council
  • Building Blocks Making Children Successful in
    the Early Years of School by Gene I. Maeroff
  • Kindergarten Literacy by Anne McGill-Franzen
  • Breaking the Code The New Science of Beginning
    Reading and Writing by J. Richard Gentry

27
Kindergarten Readiness
  • Kindergarten children are confident in spirit,
    infinite in resources, and eager to learn.
    Everything is still possible.
  • Robert Fulghum

28
Kindergarten Readiness
  • Social Readiness
  • play cooperatively
  • follow the rules of a game
  • respect the property of other children
  • share
  • communicate feelings and ideas
  • wait for a turn
  • ask for help
  • independence from parents

29
Kindergarten Readiness
  • Intellectual Readiness
  • Identify common shapes
  • Recognize and name colors
  • Recite the alphabet
  • Print first and last name
  • Recognize rhyming patterns
  • Know month and day of birth
  • Recognize numbers to 10
  • Count to 20
  • Draw a person with several recognizable features
  • Understand positional vocabulary

30
Kindergarten Readiness
  • Emotional Readiness
  • Readily says goodbye to a parent
  • Forms friendships with peers
  • Be flexible when confronted with new situations
  • Take pride in accomplishments
  • The foundation of emotional readiness is
    self-esteem that the child constructs through
    successful experiences.

31
Kindergarten Readiness
  • Physical Readiness
  • Coordinate large muscles as in balancing,
    running, jumping, hopping, and skipping
  • Coordinate small muscles as in writing, painting,
    coloring and cutting
  • Take care of bodily needs such as dressing,
    eating and toileting
  • Speak clearly enough to be understood

32
Kindergarten Curriculum
33
Math
  • Scott Foresman series
  • Calendar Math by Great Source
  • Students study position and sorting, graphing and
    patterns, numbers through 100, time and money,
    measurement, geometry, and addition and
    subtraction

34
Reading
  • Trophies by Harcourt
  • Guided Reading series by Scholastic
  • No More Letter of the Week program at the
    beginning of year to quickly introduce letters
  • Word Families and Sight Words
  • Students focus on big ideas identified by
    National Reading Panel phonemic awareness,
    phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension

35
Reading
  • Text Talk, a read aloud series by Scholastic, to
    promote vocabulary and comprehension
  • Culminating Activity Author Study
  • Students study concepts about print, decoding,
    word recognition, listening and speaking, genres,
    and literary elements and devices

36
Language Arts
  • Students write every day
  • Includes grammar and spelling
  • Students study writing process, parts of speech,
    capitalization, punctuation, and spacing

37
Science
  • Students study the five senses, seasons, wood and
    paper, animals, solar system, living things
    (animals and insects), and oceans and the water
    cycle

38
Social Studies
  • Heartwood Curriculum respect, courage, loyalty,
    justice, love, honesty, and hope
  • Students study themselves and their school,
    feelings, families, our town, Pittsburgh Pride,
    and holidays

39
Kindergarten Assessment
40
DIBELS
  • Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills
  • Fall Initial Sound Fluency, Letter Naming
    Fluency
  • Winter Initial Sound Fluency, Letter Naming
    Fluency, Phoneme Segmentation Fluency, Nonsense
    Word Fluency
  • Spring Letter Naming Fluency, Phoneme
    Segmentation Fluency, Nonsense Word Fluency
  • Used to determine placement in flexible groups
    for skill instruction, need to work with a
    reading specialist, and possible, future,
    placement in Title I

41
A Day in the Life of a Kindergartner
42
Typical Half Day Schedule
  • 830 Arrival Time
  • 850 Open Activities (Morning Message, Read
    Aloud, Poem of the Week, Interactive Read Aloud,
    Calendar Math)
  • 920 Math
  • 940 Writing Workshop
  • 1000 Reading and Language Arts
  • 1045 Guided Reading/Centers
  • 1115 Wrap Up
  • Note Mid-day transportation will not be provided

43
Sample Full Day Schedule
  • 830 Arrival
  • 850 Morning Message, Journal Writing, Literacy
    Centers
  • 1025 Recess/Lunch
  • 1105 Science or Social Studies
  • 1145 Math
  • 1230 Guided Reading/Centers
  • 145 Specials (Music, Art, Computers, PE)

44
Sample Full Day Schedule
  • 230 Independent Learning Project
  • 300 Journaling or Mystery Reader
  • 315 Wrap Up
  • Note Full day schedule may change yearly based
    on specials and lunch time

45
Learning Centers
  • Discovery Center (mainly science)
  • Writing Center
  • Puzzles and Blocks
  • Reading for Meaning
  • Big Books/Overheads
  • Word Making
  • Language Arts Manipulatives
  • Math
  • Math Manipulatives

46
Selection of Full Day/Half Day Preference
  • Please select your preference based on what you
    feel is best for your child and family. You may
    wish to consult your childs preschool teacher.
  • Preference does not guarantee placement.
  • Data from preferences will be shared with school
    boards Curriculum Committee after Roundup and a
    recommendation will be made about how many
    sections of full day and half day to offer next
    year will be made. Total enrollment at Roundup
    will determine how many sections we can offer of
    each and if all parental preferences can be
    honored.

47
Next Steps
  • You will receive a letter in mid-March telling
    you of your childs placement, if parental
    preferences are honored. If space is available,
    you may still change this placement at this time.
  • If, due to total enrollment, parental preferences
    cannot be honored, procedures for enrolling your
    child in either program will be detailed in the
    letter.
  • In May, kindergarten screening will occur. At
    this time, you will have the opportunity to meet
    the teachers assigned to kindergarten for the
    2008-2009 school year.

48
Kindergarten Screening
  • Students will spend ½ day with kindergarten
    teachers so we can get to know your child.
  • May 12 or 13 sign up for A.M. or P.M. session
  • Students will take the Brigance screening test.
  • Students will work with the kindergarten
    teachers, a speech teacher, and reading
    specialists so we can gather data before their
    arrival in August.

49
Frequently Asked Questions
  • If you have questions about our kindergarten
    program, please email them to Dr. Varley. If your
    questions are specific to your child, I will
    respond to your email individually. If they are
    general questions, they will be answered and
    posted in a Frequently Asked Questions document
    on the districts website by the beginning of
    March.
  • You may also wish to refer to our kindergarten
    guidebook.
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