Common Core: Your preschoolers are too dumb for kindergarten

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

If you do not push the kids who come in behind though and continue to rightfully let the more prepared kids move ahead, how do the kids who did not have preschool catch up?

It is not a matter of just not having preschool. It is the home environment. Here is a fact: No Kindergarten class is going to have all kids equally prepared or ready.

Yes. And so therefore...?

Sorry, I thought it was clear. The teacher will teach all the children--those who are advanced and those who are not. Few teachers will have a class in lock-step.

Yes, of course the teacher will teach the children, and the class will not be in lock step. Presumably a major part of the purpose of the kindergarten assessment is to find out where the children are, so that the teacher can teach them what they need to learn. Is there a larger point that you are making? I don't understand.

[Anonymous]

Yes, of course the teacher will teach the children, and the class will not be in lock step. Presumably a major part of the purpose of the kindergarten assessment is to find out where the children are, so that the teacher can teach them what they need to learn. Is there a larger point that you are making? I don't understand.

Gee. Maybe it would help if you read the question to which I was responding.

[Anonymous]

If you mean, how will they catch up? I guess I was not clear.

Some will catch up because they are just not ready right now. Some teachers will push kids who are not ready to perform tasks for which they are not ready, and these kids will likely continue to struggle. Most Kindergarten teachers know better to do that, and, hopefully, they will be allowed to teach the kids at their own level.

Some kids will never catch up because they have missed those two years of early childhood development where language is developed. If the home environment has not been good and the parents have not encouraged language development and read to their kids, it is likely that most of these kids will lag. Schools have a very difficult time making up for the formative years when the children are learning so many words. Building vocabulary is key. I am not addressing the math skills, but they, too, are developed at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Addition to 5--at the beginning of K? Ridiculous.

It's not asking the kid "what's 3 + 2"? It is adding to five using manipulatives, ie, you have 3 blocks, how many more blocks do you need to to have 5 blocks.

[Anonymous]

Addition to 5--at the beginning of K? Ridiculous.


It's not asking the kid "what's 3 + 2"? It is adding to five using manipulatives, ie, you have 3 blocks, how many more blocks do you need to to have 5 blocks.

I realize that. Many K kids could not do that at the beginning of the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Addition to 5--at the beginning of K? Ridiculous.

It's not asking the kid "what's 3 + 2"? It is adding to five using manipulatives, ie, you have 3 blocks, how many more blocks do you need to to have 5 blocks.

I realize that. Many K kids could not do that at the beginning of the year.

Nobody is requiring them to do that at the beginning of the year.

[Anonymous]

^^^or more accurately -- Nobody is requiring them to be able to do that at the beginning of the year.

[Anonymous]

Nobody is requiring them to do that at the beginning of the year.

Well, is that one of the questions that a child ready for K should be able to do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Nobody is requiring them to do that at the beginning of the year.

Well, is that one of the questions that a child ready for K should be able to do?

Maybe, but it's not a requirement for them to do that at the beginning of K. It's just asking, "can they do it"? Some can, and some can't. Like some kids can read at the start of K, and some can't. Neither being able to read nor adding to 5 is a requirement for starting K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Nobody is requiring them to do that at the beginning of the year.

Well, is that one of the questions that a child ready for K should be able to do?

I don't know for sure, but since the relevant Common Core standard for kindergarten for the END of the year is "Fluently add and subtract within 5.", I'm guessing that the answer is no.