How Common Core is wrecking kindergartner -- with SPECIFIC examples
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Anonymous
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The Common Core apologists are always whining and cooing "What standards are bad? Which number specifically? Why is it bad? My child could do that when he was 3! Don't you think children should have standards?"
Here's an article that explains how many of today's kindergartners are being mistreated from their first years in school: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/01/13/report-requiring-kindergartners-to-read-as-common-core-does-may-harm-some/ " Report: Requiring kindergartners to read — as Common Core does — may harm some "Here from the report are some examples from the Core that the authors cite as inappropriate for many kindergartners: The CCSS website states, “Students advancing through the grades are expected to meet each year’s grade-specific standards and retain or further develop skills and understandings mastered in preceding grades.” However, there is no evidence that mastering these standards in kindergarten rather than in first grade brings lasting gains. To achieve them usually calls for long hours of drill and worksheets — and reduces other vital areas of learning such as math, science, social studies, art, music and creative play. Fluency CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.4: Read emergent-reader texts with purpose and understanding. Print Concepts CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.1.D: Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet. Phonics and Word Recognition CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.3.B: Associate the long and short sounds with common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels. Integration of Knowledge and Ideas CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.9: With prompting and support, identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures). Research to Build and Present Knowledge CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.K.7: Participate in shared research and writing projects. Vocabulary Acquisition and Use CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.4.B: Use the most frequently occurring inflections and affixes (e.g., -ed, -s, re-, un-, pre-, -ful, -less) as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word. The authors call for the withdrawal and rewriting of the kindergarten Common Core standards." and earlier in the article 'The authors — Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Geralyn Bywater McLaughlin and Joan Wolfsheimer Almon — found that: Many children are not developmentally ready to read in kindergarten, yet the Common Core State Standards require them to do just that. This is leading to inappropriate classroom practices. No research documents long-term gains from learning to read in kindergarten." and more "The report says that kindergarten has since the 1980s become increasingly academic — with big pushes from President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind and President Obama’s Race to the Top — and that today many children are being asked to do things they are not ready to do. It says: Under the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) the snowball has escalated into an avalanche which threatens to destroy appropriate and effective approaches to early education. The kindergarten standards, in use in over 40 states, place huge emphasis on print literacy and state bluntly that, by the end of kindergarten, children are to “read emergent-reader texts with purpose and understanding.” Large amounts of time and money are being devoted to this goal, and its impact is felt strongly in many preschools as well. Many children are not developmentally ready to read in kindergarten. In addition, the pressure of implementing the standards leads many kindergarten teachers to resort to inappropriate didactic methods combined with frequent testing. " |
Anonymous
| OP here -- I meant to have the subject line say "kindergartners" |
Anonymous
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Per the Common Core standards cited, nothing anywhere near full reading fluency is required. It's basically just recognizing letters, letter combinations, basic phonics and some initial sight words, Sesame Street kinds of stuff that was pretty commonplace even before pre-K when I was growing up. My own kid learned all this stuff well before K from watching "Between the Lions" once or twice a week.
Not developmentally appropriate? Pffft. We coddle kids far too much. The overwhelming majority of kids are definitely capable. But I guess these days we want to dumb kids down and make them illiterate. 
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Anonymous
But, the CC standards for K do NOT rely on Sesame Street type teaching. Go read them. |
Anonymous
So, you could help a child develop a love for school and develop critical thinking skills--but instead you are helping them learn to do things that they could learn quickly a year later. That's wise? |
Anonymous
Meant to add that "ready" and "capable" are not the same thing. |
Anonymous
| My kid did a common core kindergarten and didn't do many worksheets. It's all in the implementation. |
Anonymous
| Because a child learns to read in K does not mean that he will be doing harder work as a Senior in high school..........education is development--not accretion. |
Anonymous
You should read the comments in that story. There are K teachers who say that the standards do indeed require reading by the end of K, and that in fact, one has reading books that were for second graders in the 60s that are less than what they are requiring of kindergartners today. She describes Common Core as horrible. |
Anonymous
They are correct-- |
Anonymous
| Most kindergarten parents I know would be upset if their child finished kindergarten NOT knowing how to read. I think Common Core is in alignment with most parents' expectations in regards to reading. And are you familiar with emergent reader texts? Just a few words to a sentence on each page, mostly sight words, with a few other words that children can use picture clues, phonics, and other strategies to figure out. This is what kindergarten kids are expected to read. We're not talking novels here. |
Anonymous
Anecdotal much? "MOST parents I know......... |
Anonymous
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/16/southern-education-foundation-children-poverty_n_6489970.html
Think these kids are all ready to read in K? |
Anonymous
It is certainly a problem that low income children are at a disadvantage, in more ways than one. That is a different issue than "are 5/6 yrs old developmentally ready to read in K". Most of our experiences are anecdotal. In MoCo MCPS, for example, I think most kids do end up reading at least at a K level by the end of K. Do these kids develop at a different rate than other kids around the country? And actually, there are other kids from other areas that can read by end of K, too. I don't know what the % is between those that can read by the end of K and those that can't. Certainly, there is a larger % of kids from low SES that don't read by the end of K, but again, that is not about being developmentally ready, but more about not having enough exposure at home. So the question, then, becomes if these kids from low SES had early intervention, like Head Start, good PreK programs, would those kids be able to read by end of K? I wonder how many of such kids are able to read by end of K. This then takes us back to the question of "are kids developmentally ready to read by end of k?" but some can't because they are not given the exposure to do so? For example, if a toddler is always strapped to a stroller and never given the chance to exercise those legs muscles and practice walking, then presumably, those kids wouldn't learn to walk until much later. Are they developmentally ready to walk? Yes. Are they given the opportunity to learn? No. |
Anonymous
In many cases the poverty problem at home has a lot to do with a literacy problem at home as well. But, I guess you want to keep them in poverty, by not focusing on improving literacy? |