i'm not really one to complain about kindergarten

[frkls]

being much more academically focused or whatever, but we just came from kindergarten readiness testing. 

the teacher comes back with ryan and says that he did great on numbers, shapes and capital letters but we should work with him on lowercase letters and letter sounds over the summer.  ummm...isn't that what you do in kindergarten?  

then the kid who went after ryan comes back and the big suggestion for him was that he needs to slow down when he's reading out loud!!!!! 

[eb777888]

David got dinged because he couldn't identify a cube or a cylinder at his kindergarten assessment last summer. I'm like "he's 5! We haven't taught him that yet!" lol

[trafficgirl]

I was talking to my friend about her 4th grade class the other day (she's a teacher). She was mentioning the THESIS PAPERS the class worked on.

Granted, these are not 120 page papers, just one or two pages, but they had to have an actual thesis and supporting paragraphs.

My eyes about bugged out of my head.

[Deleted]

Jun 2, 2015 18:15:34 GMT -5 trafficgirl said:

I was talking to my friend about her 4th grade class the other day (she's a teacher). She was mentioning the THESIS PAPERS the class worked on.

Granted, these are not 120 page papers, just one or two pages, but they had to have an actual thesis and supporting paragraphs.

My eyes about bugged out of my head.

This is not difficult to believe.  9-10 year olds should be able to come up with a point and write a few sentences about it.

[honeychai]

A "thesis statement" is academic vocabulary that is introduced around 2nd grade.

The reading expectations as outlined in the common core are extremely rigorous. Kids in kindergarten are expected to read fluently, with purpose and understanding in K.

There's a lot of pressure on teachers to reach these benchmarks regardless of how developmentally inappropriate they are.

[pagas]

One of Finley's report card skills for kinder was "applies decoding skills"

I have no clue what that means. Kindergarten has gotten crazy academic, at finley's school, if you can't read, you don't advance to first. They recommended she read chapter books this summer. Lol

[appleaday]

Jun 2, 2015 18:22:28 GMT -5 honeychai said:

A "thesis statement" is academic vocabulary that is introduced around 2nd grade.

The reading expectations as outlined in the common core are extremely rigorous. Kids in kindergarten are expected to read fluently, with purpose and understanding in K.

There's a lot of pressure on teachers to reach these benchmarks regardless of how developmentally inappropriate they are.

Yep, from my experience this is the case. The universal benchmarks are a bit maddening and why I no longer teach.

[EmilieMadison]

Jun 2, 2015 18:15:34 GMT -5 trafficgirl said:

I was talking to my friend about her 4th grade class the other day (she's a teacher). She was mentioning the THESIS PAPERS the class worked on.

Granted, these are not 120 page papers, just one or two pages, but they had to have an actual thesis and supporting paragraphs.

My eyes about bugged out of my head.

My 4th grader had a "spring project" this year. It was a 5-6(!!) page report on a specific topic, with several drafts, cited sources (at least 4 that were not from the internet), proper format, etc. They had 3 months to work on them and it was a big deal! But that sort of expectation is age appropriate, not overwhelming nor crazy. 

[cville]

Ughhh.

They have the rest of their lives to read and do algebra and shit!


#timeforawerthers

[iamgrace]

Well, Henry is fucked.

[nicanmatt]

They didn't do any testing of my boy today. I just filled out forms and he's in! Is his school gonna suck? I heard it was highly rated for our state!!

[tacokick]

Jun 2, 2015 18:26:12 GMT -5 pagas said:

One of Finley's report card skills for kinder was "applies decoding skills"

I have no clue what that means. Kindergarten has gotten crazy academic, at finley's school, if you can't read, you don't advance to first. They recommended she read chapter books this summer. Lol

She can figure out new words in text without being formally taught them.

[meganew]

My favorite was when my principal would have me tell parents that their kids were behind and struggling, when in fact they were just average readers. Nothing like scaring parents into flashcarding their 5 year old to death to make sure our levels look good for the admin!

[WOT?*]

I just started a Junior Achievement program in a first grade class today. I try to make sure that I have kids read out loud at least one or two sentences, but I also make sure that the ones I'm calling on are comfortable with reading out loud. I only ask for raised hands or double-check with the teacher to make certain I'm not putting anyone on the spot that can't handle it.

For third grade, we've had multiple multi-week projects. Right now they're working on a geography report (Kidlet is doing France), complete with internet and book research, topic paragraphs, poster, etc.

Fifth grade has done reports as well as imaginative writing and multi-level projects. They just finished a Revolutionary War biography project, starting with reading a grade-level appropriate biography and writing on it.

It gets more advanced as each grade level progresses. As it should. And I don't think any of the programs are grade-level inappropriate. I think it's the wording that's being sent home more so than the projects themselves that are the problem.

[grayskies]

Jun 2, 2015 18:26:12 GMT -5 pagas said:

One of Finley's report card skills for kinder was "applies decoding skills"

I have no clue what that means. Kindergarten has gotten crazy academic, at finley's school, if you can't read, you don't advance to first. They recommended she read chapter books this summer. Lol

It means that when encountering unknown words she applies previously learned patterns to "decode" the new word.

[iamgrace]

Jun 2, 2015 19:01:32 GMT -5 @booby said:

I didn't think education was as uptheass here, compared to what I read on gbcn but I took G to "meet the teacher" (for JK, starting this fall) and they didn't assess him but instead, asked me a bunch of questions about his skills, behaviour, socialization, etc.

One of the things she suggested we work on over the summer is writing. As in, he should know how to print his name by September.

Now, I know it's not crazy for some 4 year olds to know how to do this, but I still think it's crazy. My kid is so far away from even wanting to learn this sort of thing (though, I do think he would be receptive in a school environment, you know, 6 months from now).

henry can write his name, sort of.

He first writes a giant H with a lower case e on top. Then the n is also huge and somewhere else on the page. By that time he's lost interest.

[iamgrace]

Jun 2, 2015 19:18:21 GMT -5 puddleofgrace said:

I was talking to the teacher today, and she basically said kindergarten is no longer kindergarten. Its first grade. The expectations on children is incredible. Very little time for play, it's all test scores.
Its sad.

move to ontario! Lol. They do at least 2-3 hours of "play based learning" in every K class I've been in this year. Centres!

[rugbywife]

Jun 2, 2015 19:01:32 GMT -5 @booby said:

I didn't think education was as uptheass here, compared to what I read on gbcn but I took G to "meet the teacher" (for JK, starting this fall) and they didn't assess him but instead, asked me a bunch of questions about his skills, behaviour, socialization, etc.

One of the things she suggested we work on over the summer is writing. As in, he should know how to print his name by September.

Now, I know it's not crazy for some 4 year olds to know how to do this, but I still think it's crazy. My kid is so far away from even wanting to learn this sort of thing (though, I do think he would be receptive in a school environment, you know, 6 months from now).

That's BS booby. There is NO requirement that a child come in writing their name for JK.

[ProfessorArtNerd]

Jun 2, 2015 18:22:28 GMT -5 honeychai said:

A "thesis statement" is academic vocabulary that is introduced around 2nd grade.

And yet they come to college still writing nonsense book reports with no real point...

[irishbride2]

Printing their names was definetly something our school expected kids to be able to do by the end of prek 3. At the end of prek 4 they were expected to know upper and lower case letters and to know basic sounds. At least thats what I took from conferences as those were skills they had on their assessment sheets.

I have no clue what the norm is outside our school. I just roll with it.

[rugbywife]

Jun 2, 2015 19:21:31 GMT -5 ProfessorArtNerd said:

Jun 2, 2015 18:22:28 GMT -5 honeychai said:

A "thesis statement" is academic vocabulary that is introduced around 2nd grade.

And yet they come to college still writing nonsense book reports with no real point...

This is what we talked about a lot when I taught grade 8. Like every.single.year kids write letters for school and yet they still start them like this:

Dear, Mary

WITHOUT FAIL.

[nannersp]

Jun 2, 2015 19:18:21 GMT -5 puddleofgrace said:

I was talking to the teacher today, and she basically said kindergarten is no longer kindergarten. Its first grade. The expectations on children is incredible. Very little time for play, it's all test scores.
Its sad.

Yup, this is what our gal's teacher said, too. 

We didn't have any testing before kinder, just after school started. From what I saw, though, they weren't that intensive, thankfully. 

[meganew]

Jun 2, 2015 19:18:21 GMT -5 puddleofgrace said:

I was talking to the teacher today, and she basically said kindergarten is no longer kindergarten. Its first grade. The expectations on children is incredible. Very little time for play, it's all test scores.
Its sad.

Can confirm. My school wanted the kids sitting quietly for most of the day- silent writing for a half hour, silent reading for 20 minutes, quiet, independent literacy stations for 30-45 minutes. Quiet on the rug, quiet at their seats, quiet during specials- but don't worry! Every once and a while we let them "shake their sillies out" for 20 seconds or turn to a partner and share their thoughts on a book, and lets not forget their 15 minute recess!!

I can't figure out why we had so many behavioral problems!

RAGE.

[frkls]

Jun 2, 2015 18:39:39 GMT -5 cville said:

Ughhh.

They have the rest of their lives to read and do algebra and shit!


#timeforawerthers

#stosselheartswerthers 

[hopecounts]

Jun 2, 2015 18:26:12 GMT -5 pagas said:

One of Finley's report card skills for kinder was "applies decoding skills"

I have no clue what that means. Kindergarten has gotten crazy academic, at finley's school, if you can't read, you don't advance to first. They recommended she read chapter books this summer. Lol

Ability to read a text and imply from it what may happen next, or that x occurred (Henry took off his wet boots when he came inside means it's raining for example)
Not really age appropriate for most kindy kids but CC expects it

[themysteriouswife]

I about flipped when DD had to do a report on a president in K. She has to do 1/2 page and a presentation board. Some kids brought in 2 pages typed. It was obvious on what parents did and what the kids were helped with.

1st grade was a class report where the kids had to research together in the school library. It was 6 pages.

2nd grade there were book reports.

I don't remember doing any of this until 3rd possibly 4th. Forget naps and recess. Kids are being taught to test and sit silent.

[papie]

This is such a foreign concept to me, lol.  Kindergarten here is not academically focused at all.  They learn their letters, and the sounds in K, but it isn't like a big deal or anything.  The big K thing here is social, so even though my daughter could read, the teacher didn't care because it wasn't part of the curriculum.  Instead she got a C in "developing her personality" because apparently I am raising a sociopath, lol.  I was so happy when grade 1 started and the report cards looked "normal". 

Oh look I made this all about me. 

[calmcosmo]

This thread reminds me of this article I read a few months ago:
www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/01/13/report-requiring-kindergartners-to-read-as-common-core-does-may-harm-some/

[meganew]

Jun 2, 2015 20:18:51 GMT -5 papie said:

This is such a foreign concept to me, lol.  Kindergarten here is not academically focused at all.  They learn their letters, and the sounds in K, but it isn't like a big deal or anything.  The big K thing here is social, so even though my daughter could read, the teacher didn't care because it wasn't part of the curriculum.  Instead she got a C in "developing her personality" because apparently I am raising a sociopath, lol.  I was so happy when grade 1 started and the report cards looked "normal". 

Oh look I made this all about me. 

God, I wish. A lot of the kids I taught over the years are going to have such a hard time with sharing, conflict resolution, reading social cues and problem solving because there's no play and no chance to really develop those skills in a classroom setting without your mom standing over you. Sigh.

[themysteriouswife]

Jun 2, 2015 20:30:34 GMT -5 meganew said:

Jun 2, 2015 20:18:51 GMT -5 papie said:

This is such a foreign concept to me, lol.  Kindergarten here is not academically focused at all.  They learn their letters, and the sounds in K, but it isn't like a big deal or anything.  The big K thing here is social, so even though my daughter could read, the teacher didn't care because it wasn't part of the curriculum.  Instead she got a C in "developing her personality" because apparently I am raising a sociopath, lol.  I was so happy when grade 1 started and the report cards looked "normal". 

Oh look I made this all about me. 

God, I wish. A lot of the kids I taught over the years are going to have such a hard time with sharing, conflict resolution, reading social cues and problem solving because there's no play and no chance to really develop those skills in a classroom setting without your mom standing over you. Sigh.

I really think this was DD's issue this year. She started a new school and had no idea how interact. She's always had the comfort of knowing the same kids for pre-k to 1st. Being an only child and having no one around her age to interact with up until this point has been a disadvantage.