Recognizing High Quality Daycare and Kindergarten Programs

Any parent with a child in daycare or kindergarten has wondered at one time or another about the quality of his or her child's early years program. While searching for information on this I found a great website that lists criteria, including a checklist, for families to use when assessing their child's early years environment. An excellent resource that I wish I had years ago!

Direct Observation as an Assessment Tool

I believe that too often educators overemphasis the use of product-driven, developmentally inappropriate tasks like worksheets when assessing young children. A much more effective tool is direct observation.

A description of the strategy/tool: This is the focused observation and recording of what children say and do in a specific activity. Is it considered an essential first step of planning because it provides teachers with a very effective way to quickly and clearly gather information in order to assess student knowledge and progress up to that point.

How it could be used: A variety of methods of gathering information should be used by teachers in order to observe students in action, record information about what the students are saying and doing, and compile the information in a meaningful and systematic way. Three common formats include anecdotal records, observation checklists and rating scales.

When it could be used: It should involve repeated observations of students in a variety of contexts and activities and occur over a long period of time.

Why it could be used: Directly observing students and recording exactly what they say and do helps teachers to recount incidents with children, helping to document the specific language and behaviour associated with the action. Teachers might consider recording their interpretation of the incident along with the direct observation.

A tool I use frequently in the classroom to help organize my direct observation of students in action during lessons, whole and small group organized activities, centers, and independent free choice time is a VENN diagram graphic organizer. At the top of the page I quickly describe the context within which the observations took place (circle, centers, gym class, etc.). I label each whole circle (e.g., the left as independent, the right as not independent) and I record the children’s names and brief information regarding each (what they did, what they said) within the appropriate circle. This way I can still record information specific to each child, but I can also organize it in a systematic way so that by quickly glancing at the page I can see where students fell within the continuum of the VENN diagram.

Websites for further reference:

Detailed description of what direct observation is and how it can also be used in research: http://www.idemployee.id.tue.nl/g.w.m.rauterberg/lecturenotes/UFTdirectobservation.pdf

VENN Diagrams: http://arb.nzcer.org.nz/strategies/venn.php

Homework in Kindergarten?

I was recently reading an article about whether students should have homework (http://www.windsorstar.com/Students+homework+excessive/2346291/story.html). It was an interesting read with many considerations. Having homework teaches children responsibility for completing work and returning it to school, gives them an incentive for working more diligently during school hours so they don’t have work to take home, provides them with extra language and math practice, and encourages families to become active in and aware of what is happening at school. Those against homework argue that often it is parents and not children who complete it, it is often consuming and performed in place of other activities, it often takes hours after school, it monopolizes family time, and often involved projects are sent home just before major holidays.

The article discussed children in kindergarten being assigned ten minutes of homework each night. It made me reflect on whether this was an appropriate practice for young children. I have heard it argued before that kindergarten children should have homework so that they become accustomed to it as preparation for older grades. I couldn’t disagree more with this.

As a kindergarten teacher I have sent home ‘book in a bag’ programs that encourage families to read a book together and engage in a small activity such as playing a corresponding game or drawing a picture in a communal class book. But these take home bags are only sent home periodically. These activities are not meant to be homework, but rather starting points for encouraging families to engage in literacy-related activities together.

I think that teachers must carefully consider the needs and interests of their students before assigning homework simply because families ask for it, or because it is what they have done in past practice.

Admission Test for Kindergarten

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Ranking children before they even set a foot in the classroom?

This article from the New York Times discusses an admissions test that is currently in use in many areas for acceptance into kindergarten.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/nyregion/21testprep.html?ref=us

I disagree completely with this practice. Too often kindergarten is seen as the beginning step for a life-time of standards-based, quantitative, one-best-way approaches to learning. Children develop at such unique stages and come from such differing backgrounds. How can we possibly measure their "preparedness" for kindergarten with a tool? Why would we even want to? Isn't the individuality (strengths AND needs) of children what makes for rich and diverse experiences in the classroom?

Hello world!

Well, here it is! After years of thinking about, writing, and publishing in paper format I've decided to start a blog about my passion...kindergarten! I think that it is probably one of the most important grades (and experiences) that young children will ever have. I hope that this blog will help inspire many of you to reflect upon your practice and evolve your program in order to encourage your students to explore, experiment, and reflect upon their experiences in the classroom. I believe in creating an early years classroom that encourages democratic and aesthetic exploration among young children. One of my favourite things to write about is how to create an equal, democratic early years environment. I believe in embodying Paulo Freire's problem-posing concept of education so that children are encouraged to create personal and collective understandings through active engagement with the world (inside and outside) around them.