I do not want you to feel defensive about what you are about to do in terms of how and what you are teaching in your prekindergarten. I want you to think about it in view of the research that is out there and the impact on the majority of 4-year-olds who will not be ready for learning sight words at that age. This is really important. The fact is you will do what you will do. Many of us who have responded to your post are offering advice that you should move in the direction that you are considering with caution. Most 4-year-olds will not be ready for acquiring the ability to recognize the Dolch sight words, which is why so many of us are calling it an inappropriate practice.
I have been in the field of ECE since 1967. My own children went to a cooperative nursery school and then entered kindergarten, one in 1979 and the other in 1982. There was one student who was already reading in my daughter's kindergarten. Did it give her "a headstart"? No, the others did as well as the child who was the early reader. The other children in the classes in which my children were students were given experiences and opportunities that were developmentally appropriate. They were taught letter sounds and developed through their writing activities a "sight" word vocabulary. More importantly, by being read to a lot, both my children developed strong, extensive vocabularies, which served them well throughout their education in public school. They played with blocks, etc. which developed their math, physical, and social skills. Both children went to very good colleges and universities. I am hoping that you will rethink how you are planning to develop sight word recognition with your children.
The description of what will happen in your class sounds more like a late kindergarten/first-grade curriculum. Here is a link to New Jersey's the draft of newest guidelines for prekindergarten that were recently developed:
https://www.nj.gov/education/ece/guide/2018PreschoolGuidelines.pdf. Also, to help you think through how you can include sight words in your prekindergarten classroom, I am including a link to NJ's prekindergarten learning standards:
https://www.nj.gov/education/ece/guide/standards.pdf.
In 1972, I taught kindergarten in the United Nations School in Geneva, Switzerland. The children came from all over the world. For some of them, English was not their first language. The school followed a British Integrated Day approach. We were required to have each child keep a journal (remember this is kindergarten, not prekindergarten) where they were asked to draw a picture on one side of the page and on the other dictate a story to me about the picture. I wrote down what they said. They read back what they said as I pointed to each word. Enough space was left between lines that the students could then copy the words under the words that I had written. Because the Dolch sight words is a list of common words seen over and over in books, the students began to recognize those words without formally introducing them one at a time. Again, it is important to remember that this was kindergarten.
When I returned to the United States in the Fall of 1973, I went back to my position in a very low-income neighborhood in the South Bronx. I had learned a number of unusual ideas from my year in Geneva that I brought back to my kindergarten class in NYC. To the journal story-generating activity, I added an additional part: I integrated an adaptation of Sylvia Ashton Warner's ideas about "organic vocabulary". I viewed the words in the stories that the children generated as their personal vocabulary/reading words. I put each word from their stories on a card that was stored in the back of their journal. The students could then learn to recognize those words independently of the sentence they had generated. They could also match them to the stories they had dictated. They could copy them. This was very effective but it was effective because the words came from them and they were 5 to 6 years old and not 4 years old.
I hope you will think deeply about how you introduce and use the Dolch Word List with 4-year-olds and in so doing, review the research on how children of this age learn best. Good luck.
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Nora Krieger, PhD
Associate Professor Emerita/Past Chair NJEEPRE
Bloomfield College/NJ Educators Exploring the Practices of Reggio Emilia
Highland Park, NJ
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-24-2019 03:29 PM
From: Jennifer Hatcher
Subject: Learning Standards For Preparing Pre-Kindergartners for Kindergarten
Hi Nora,
Thank you and everyone who answered my questions about Preparing Pre-Kindergarten children for Kindergarten. I appreciate all of your help and your viewpoints on this matter. I have no problem letting everyone know that I live in Illinois. My director does have a degree in education and is fully aware of the ins and outs of ECE. I am not fearful of anything relating to education or my school's beliefs.
I like my job and look forward to working in my pre-k classroom and integrating both the Project Approach and Handwriting Without Tears theory of handwriting. I asked my director to be moved into the pre-k classroom from the 3's classroom because I wanted a more challenging environment where I had more time to teach hands-on and fun learning experiences.
I would have never asked the following question if I had known that it would cause such an uproar on whether teaching sight words was developmentally-appropriate or not. This is what is required of me at my school and I plan on doing my best by both the children, their parents, and my director's wishes.
All I wanted from this discussion was a basic overview of what the majority of pre-k teachers taught in their classrooms. I have looked at my state standards and am implementing the standards into my curriculum.
I plan on staying at this school. I am finally in a position where I am the lead and only teacher in the room and have full control over the running of my classroom. I have worked very hard over the years to obtain a pre-k teaching position.
I understand that teaching sight words may be inappropriate, but when these students enter kindergarten and beyond they will have a basic knowledge of early reading concepts, handwriting, and so on. Many of the children are excited to begin reading simple books such as the "Bob" books and so on. Some of the children have started reading simple stories with their parents at home. I myself, was reading simple stories before I entered kindergarten.
I will individualize all my lessons to each of the children's levels and pinpoint their individual needs. Again, I thank all of you for being so helpful and taking your time to answer my questions. I very much appreciate your encouraging words.
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Jennifer United States
Original Message:
Sent: 08-24-2019 07:53 AM
From: Nora Krieger
Subject: Learning Standards For Preparing Pre-Kindergartners for Kindergarten
Dear Jennifer:
I understand your reluctance to confront your superior with information about how best to teach 4-year-olds and what they should learn in order to be ready for kindergarten but this does begin to sound like a question of ethics with which you are grappling. If you cannot discuss your teaching beliefs and back it up with research to the director, this may not be the best place for you to be working. I feel sorry for you and for the children whose parents have enrolled them in your school.
Just to be clear, the Project Approach is not a curriculum. It is about the how of teaching, not the what. Handwriting Without Tears, from what I have seen in the Exhibition Hall at NAEYC's annual meeting, is a how-to teach handwriting - a method for teaching the skill of handwriting. You still have the problem of "what" to teach. Except for the emphasis that you are placing on sight words that some children may be able to handle and others will not, I do not get a sense of what you see as appropriate curriculum for 4-year-olds.
There is a new book out, The Knowledge Gap, that discusses why a skills-based approach to teaching will not lead to what I believe your director believes and wants - later high assessment scores on standardized tests. Children need to be exposed to content, integrated with skills, and exposed to it through interaction with you and other children and direct hands-on experience.
Does your director have a college degree in any field connected to early childhood education? It does not sound like it from what you are being asked to do.
I am also wondering whether you are genuinely afraid of something connected to your job. Rather than sign your posts with your name and location - not necessarily your school - you have just listed yourself as living in the United States. Why?
This is a reckoning time for you. It is the beginning of the school year. There are many jobs posted that would provide you the type of experience that would allow you to become or be a great preschool early childhood teacher. The fear I read in your posts has led me to believe that continuing in this position will eat you up inside.
I wish you had shared the State in which you work. I do not know of any place in the United States that says that 4-year-olds should be taught sight word reading as a goal in preschool.
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Nora Krieger, PhD
Associate Professor Emerita/Past Chair NJEEPRE
Bloomfield College/NJ Educators Exploring the Practices of Reggio Emilia
Highland Park, NJ
Original Message:
Sent: 08-02-2019 01:08 AM
From: Jennifer Hatcher
Subject: Learning Standards For Preparing Pre-Kindergartners for Kindergarten
Hi Mars,
Thank you for your well wishes! I want to let you know that I do have a reflective attitude towards developmentally-appropriate learning, I also understand that there are different and new approaches that are being suggested by you and other teachers. I am new to this classroom. I need to follow certain learning objectives that are currently in place at my school.
I never wanted this discussion to turn into a right way/wrong way argument. I just simply wanted to know what Pre-K learning standards needed to be met and the different curriculum choices that were effective for this age group.
I have decided that I will be using the Project Approach as my curriculum. For handwriting, I will be using Handwriting Without Tears.
I feel as if some teachers are suggesting that I should walk into my director's office and tell her that what she is doing is developmentally-inappropriate. Please take a moment to think about my position. I am a new teacher to this room, I am coming from a younger preschool room, and I am following direct instructions given to me by my superior.
I will not risk my employment because I do not like how our program is being run. Sometimes, we need to work as best we can with what we are given. This is what I am currently doing and will continue to do for now.
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Jennifer United States
Original Message:
Sent: 08-01-2019 10:29 PM
From: Mars April Caulton
Subject: Learning Standards For Preparing Pre-Kindergartners for Kindergarten
Good luck, Jennifer. I hope you'll continue to ask questions about various preschool approaches. A reflective attitude is super helpful here, making sure you have clarity of what you believe as well as facts. I say this because it seems like you had asked for the best way to begin Literacy work, but when positions contrary to your own were raised, you returned to your director's position as non-negotiable. I think this forum is a beautiful place to ask for ideas and knowledge, especially when highly experienced and educated teachers offer their knowledge. I hope this discussion did deepen your understanding in some way.
Happy First Day of School!
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Mars April Caulton
Teacher & Teaching Artist
Chicago IL
Original Message:
Sent: 08-01-2019 09:44 AM
From: Jennifer Hatcher
Subject: Learning Standards For Preparing Pre-Kindergartners for Kindergarten
Hi Kayleigh,
Welcome to Hello! Thank you so much for answering my question. I already have environmental print in the classroom, but I appreciate your suggestion. My director is insistent about me teaching sight words, early reading, and subtraction/addition. I will do my best to make this learning experience as fun as possible for all the children.
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Jennifer United States
Original Message:
Sent: 08-01-2019 07:23 AM
From: Kayleigh Francis
Subject: Learning Standards For Preparing Pre-Kindergartners for Kindergarten
Hi Jennifer,
Please know I completed my Hello account creation to respond to your question because I felt for you so deeply when I first read it. I could recall a slight familiar frustration as I flashed back to my first center experience as a teenager.
What I'm saying is, I have been in your shoes. Do your best. I really think tasteful environmental literacy can help here, if you haven't already considered. Things such as labelling the containers with pictures of the contents and the title. I would do "door" and "window" but you also don't want to overwhelm children with too much.
This may not be appropriate for a Reggio based program, so it might not be right for you but I would consider looking into it. If you have bilingual children in the room, including the word in their home language would be a great cultural inclusion practice, again with care not to be overwhelming.
I wish these forums had "like" buttons. So many excellent post! You've got this Jennifer! I can tell because you cared to ask : ) (smile)
Kayleigh F.
Student
Indianapolis, IN
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Kayleigh Francis
Ivy Tech Community College
Indianapolis IN
Original Message:
Sent: 07-27-2019 12:13 PM
From: Jennifer Hatcher
Subject: Learning Standards For Preparing Pre-Kindergartners for Kindergarten
I am very excited about starting a position in a pre-k classroom. I currently teach in a preschool classroom (3-year-olds). I will be teaching sight words, early reading, writing, and math (basic addition and subtraction) to pre-k students. I would like to know what specific standards/concepts should I stress to prepare students for kindergarten. Example: should the children only learn numbers to 20 or higher? etc.
The students I will be teaching in the fall are not very advanced. Many do not know how to write their names and other basic skills. This is why I am very interested in specific standards/goals for children who will be entering kindergarten. I want to make sure that I prepare them for their future schooling in the best way possible.
I am also interested in appropriate learning materials/curriculum, (such as workbooks), I can use to provide a bridge for kindergarten skills. I would like to begin using the Handwriting Without Tears workbook for Pre-K. I used the preschool version at a previous position and would really like my director to buy a book for each child.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
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Jennifer United States
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