Angi (whatever22) had a question about Kindergarten curriculums in another thread, but I thought it merited its own spot. (Besides, I don't want to take away from the general praise of teachers!)
Here was her question:
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So, was writing a part of your daughter's kindergarten curriculum? I'm just trying to figure out of this something most kindergarten classes incorporate these days. I'm hoping his teacher will teach the children to read and write so any efforts I make at home will be reinforced at school. I haven't had a chance to speak with his teacher yet and if she doesn't send a letter home soon, I will have to take her aside and ask because I am dying to know what the curriculum is this year!
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Each Kindergarten curriculum is different, but I think most programs teach some elements of reading and writing. The extent depends on the program. Most schools have an Open House by the 4th or 5th week of school that allows the teacher to describe the program.
My daughter went through 2 kindergarten curriculums. One was a private program; one was in the public school. (For full details of the reasons, consult my web site!)
The first curriculum was VERY difficult, and the teacher who ran it used no common sense when it came to making assignments. The children were taught ball-and-stick writing (letters made with straight lines and circles, for the most part). The teacher would give the kids an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper where they would fill up one set of lines with capital letters, one with lowercase letters, another with upper and lower case letters, and the rest of the papers with words that started with the letters.
This was very difficult for the kids, and even the fastest child writer would need an hour to do it properly... much longer than the average kindergartener's attention span. My daughter didn't see the point of this exercise and would get very frustrated when she couldn't do it in the time allotted (45 minutes). What's more, as she grew accustomed to knowing that she wouldn't complete the task, her progress became slower and slower or her work would be so sloppy that the teacher would send her out in the hallway to make her repeat the exercise "the right way".
It was horrible. I kick myself even now for not yanking her out of that terrorist's reach.
Anyway, that program didn't really concentrate on reading that much. They looked at the individual letters and the sounds that they made. However, my daughter had known that information since before she was 4.
The second Kindergarten program also worked on writing, but they use D'Nealean letters instead of ball-and-stick letters. The writing exercises were much more brief and reasonable, at most requiring the letter to be formed 6 or 7 times in one setting. Unfortunately, my daughter had the same terrorist teacher, and it required extra work to break the habit of forming letters the ball-and-stick way.
Our school is in the second largest school district in the state of Illinois. Many of the schools in the district, including ours, have performed poorly on state literacy tests. To try to help the situation, the school has been awarded literacy grants for what is called PAL (or Project Accelerated Learning). This might sound like a gifted program, but it's not. What it does is screen the kids coming into the program and try to predict which ones have the tools required to learn to read by the end of first grade. So at the beginning of the Kindergarten year, they give each of the kids a test to see if they know letters and basic concepts of reading (like letters form words, you read from left to right and top to bottom, and simple phonics questions). The kids that do poorly on the test are sent to a full-day Kindergarten program where they are pretty much deluged in stuff that promotes reading. (Everything is labelled, kids are challendged to learn letters and sounds, etc.) It's great for the kids who are in the program, and a good number of the kids exit the program with the ability to write letters and to know simple phonics rules. The rest of the kids go to a half-day program. In all cases, the class sizes are small (no more than 15-16) to allow for more individualized attention.
This doesn't necessarily mean that they are reading.
I think at the end of the second Kindergarten program, about 1/4 of the kids were reading. My daughter was reading before the end of the first Kindergarten program. However, from what I've read, she was an exception rather than the rule. I think out of the 30 kids or so in the first grade in my daughter's school last year, all but one or two were reading at or above first grade level at the end of the year.
I wish I could find the article right now, but I once read something that said that a child cannot learn to read until something in the brain grows in a certain way. Since all kids don't grow at the same rate, not all kids will learn to read at the same time.
My advice for parents who want to teach their kids to read and write at home is this:
1. Find out what system of writing your school teaches before you start teaching it at home. This will prevent the confusion that my daughter went through with trying to convert from one system of letters to another. It sounds easy for you and me, but for a child who wants to do it right, it can be a pain.
2. Read to your child at least 15 minutes every day. Run your finger along the lines as you read. Even without you telling the child how books work, the child will learn.
3. Don't shy away from reading the same books over and over again. It might be boring for the parent, but once the child knows the words, they will start to recognize the words.
4. Not all children learn by using phonics. My daughter recognized over 250 words by the time she was tested for the PAL program. This actually helped her learn the phonics because she recognized that the 'a' in cat and hat was a 'short a', and she was able to use that knowledge for learning to sound out other words.
5. Let your child read to you. Even if he's just repeating the words that he has heard you read a million times, going through the motions of reading the words will give him the confidence for continuing on later.
BTW, before the end of first grade, the school tested my daughter again for reading and comprehension. They ran out of tests at the mid-5th grade level. They expect that she is reading and comprehending at past the 6th grade level. Since I've heard her reading 'Harry Potter', I expect that they're right.
But there was another little boy who wasn't reading until the beginning of 1st grade. However, when he learned, it was like someone lit a fire under him! By the end of the year, he was reading at around 3rd grade level.
More evidence that, regardless of what the curriculum says, kids will learn when they're darn good and ready.
I'm so glad your daughter got out of such a frustrating learning environment!
When Poe ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.
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