Any PK in DC getting homework?

[Anonymous]

My daughter is in PS3, and her teacher sends her home with a book every Monday. We're to read it together, write it in the log, and return it the following week so that she can share with the class.

She seems extremely proud of it. The teacher puts the book in a little carrying bag, and my daughter treats it like nuclear launch codes. I don't have an issue with it.

[Anonymous]

No, don't have any at Murch and don't think it's appropriate at all. There are a few times where teacher sent a bag home and said collect objects that start with letter "b" which I guess could have been homework but I didn't consider it that. I also didn't make a big deal if we forgot to do it. Plenty of time for that stuff later.

[Anonymous]

Seems entirely harmless. If you like it and think appropriate for your child do it. If not, don't and let the teacher know. Your angst is more likely to be harmful to your 4 year old than a homework assignment.

[Anonymous]

homework for individual children in pk who seem to enjoy it is harmless. A complete makeover of pk into a place that assigns homework and gets ready for tests in most definitely NOT harmless.

[Anonymous]

My DD who is in PS3 gets homework. It's normally draw a picture of x,y or z. Sometimes they have to venture off based on what the lesson is for the week/month. Last week they had to take a picture with an animal if they had one. A month ago it was to visit a restaurant and take pictures there. The class ended up having the parents come to the classroom which was set up like a restaurant and the kids were the cooks, waitresses, greeters etc. it was pretty cool. They served ice cream and even had toppings!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid came home this week from PK a printout from "reading a to z" and the teacher said she should read it as homework and then on Friday she could read it to the class. My kid knows all of her letter sounds and sort has started sounding out words but isn't reading yet. Anyway the book had this repeating pattern of " I see a _______" and there was a picture of whatever that blank was so between the repeating pattern and pictures she wasn't really reading as much as figuring out the pattern.

Anyway was curious if other DCPS parents had experienced this.

Pre K teacher here.

Sounds like the teacher has found your child "capable and advanced" enough to complete great pre reading/sight word activities such as those that reading A to Z offer. If your child can identify basic sight words, give beginning letter sounds and sound out simple words, what's wrong with encouraging that? Entering Kindergarten, students will be tested within the first 30 days with a Dibels assessment. This assessment tests, letter recognition, beginning sounds and parts of books (ie. front, back, title, where to start reading etc.) Your child will do great.[/b] It's February - time to get ready. [b]Homework is fine. Or are you still just wanting your child to play and nap? Especially if your child can do more? You decide.

Some teachers push rigor/academics especially if your child is capable. Some push playing. However,[b] in Kindergarten there is little to no play. So there is no right or wrong, just different. I encourage you to support your child's learning.

This assumes a public school. I guess this thread is about public school, so, OK then.

But be assured there are still kindergartens out there in DC and MoCo that don't track this philosophy -- they're in independent schools, like my son's. Where he spent a great deal of kindergarten playing!

Yeah. You're in the public school forum.

Anyway, the anecdotal evidence on this thread from people with children who actually attend DCPS & charter schools shows there is a lot of variation from school to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid came home this week from PK a printout from "reading a to z" and the teacher said she should read it as homework and then on Friday she could read it to the class. My kid knows all of her letter sounds and sort has started sounding out words but isn't reading yet. Anyway the book had this repeating pattern of " I see a _______" and there was a picture of whatever that blank was so between the repeating pattern and pictures she wasn't really reading as much as figuring out the pattern.

Anyway was curious if other DCPS parents had experienced this.

Pre K teacher here.

Sounds like the teacher has found your child "capable and advanced" enough to complete great pre reading/sight word activities such as those that reading A to Z offer. If your child can identify basic sight words, give beginning letter sounds and sound out simple words, what's wrong with encouraging that? Entering Kindergarten, students will be tested within the first 30 days with a Dibels assessment. This assessment tests, letter recognition, beginning sounds and parts of books (ie. front, back, title, where to start reading etc.) Your child will do great.[/b] It's February - time to get ready. [b]Homework is fine. Or are you still just wanting your child to play and nap? Especially if your child can do more? You decide.

Some teachers push rigor/academics especially if your child is capable. Some push playing. However,[b] in Kindergarten there is little to no play. So there is no right or wrong, just different. I encourage you to support your child's learning.

This assumes a public school. I guess this thread is about public school, so, OK then.

But be assured there are still kindergartens out there in DC and MoCo that don't track this philosophy -- they're in independent schools, like my son's. Where he spent a great deal of kindergarten playing!

Pay for play. Is this what school is for?

[Anonymous]

I don't need the government telling me how to spend time with my 3-4 year old! Down with homework!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is in PS3, and her teacher sends her home with a book every Monday. We're to read it together, write it in the log, and return it the following week so that she can share with the class.

She seems extremely proud of it. The teacher puts the book in a little carrying bag, and my daughter treats it like nuclear launch codes. I don't have an issue with it.

\

This seems like a great approach to encourage reading in low-SES homes. I don't have a problem with it, although I think it's not necessary in most high-SES homes. As a PP said, what I DO have a problem with is turning PRESCHOOL into a test-prep environment!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid came home this week from PK a printout from "reading a to z" and the teacher said she should read it as homework and then on Friday she could read it to the class. My kid knows all of her letter sounds and sort has started sounding out words but isn't reading yet. Anyway the book had this repeating pattern of " I see a _______" and there was a picture of whatever that blank was so between the repeating pattern and pictures she wasn't really reading as much as figuring out the pattern.

Anyway was curious if other DCPS parents had experienced this.

Pre K teacher here.

Sounds like the teacher has found your child "capable and advanced" enough to complete great pre reading/sight word activities such as those that reading A to Z offer. If your child can identify basic sight words, give beginning letter sounds and sound out simple words, what's wrong with encouraging that? Entering Kindergarten, students will be tested within the first 30 days with a Dibels assessment. This assessment tests, letter recognition, beginning sounds and parts of books (ie. front, back, title, where to start reading etc.) Your child will do great. It's February - time to get ready. Homework is fine. Or are you still just wanting your child to play and nap? Especially if your child can do more? You decide.

Some teachers push rigor/academics especially if your child is capable. Some push playing. However, in Kindergarten there is little to no play. So there is no right or wrong, just different. I encourage you to support your child's learning.

It is really too bad that a PK teacher has this attitude. There is absolutely no reason for a 4 year old to " get ready" for a DIBELS assessment in Kindergarten. There is no reason at all to encourage a child to "do well" on the DIBELS. Literally all they need to do is to point to a picture that begins with the sound "ssssssl" and name some upper case and lower case letters. And all it does is give the teacher a baseline pic of early reading skills to be sure the student is progressing over the kindergarten year.

Well educated teachers in early childhood Ed should know it is entirely developmentally inappropriate to push reading and writing etc. at age 4. They should be doing so much other critical educational activities at this age around social skills, self regulation and understanding how their physical world and community function. When students decide like crazy in 1st grade but have no idea how the post office works or don't have the self control to sit and read a book, then problems begin

And where did you get your advanced ed degrees? Because I have two advanced education degrees and am certified in multiple reading programs and I disagree with your obnoxious post. Not all of it, but the idea that it is so awful for 4 year olds to be playing with reading and writing. There are developmentally appropriate ways to do this, by incorporating it into play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree that homework in the traditional sense isn't great for PK. My charter doesn't have daily homework, but does send home projects to work on over the summer and Christmas break -- but there's no actual enforcement. I think the idea behind a lot of the PK and K homework is to get parents to be engaged with their kids. Some of the things folks are describing as homework (e.g., reading an age appropriate book together once a week) are honestly things I'm doing anyway (and more).

I actually suspect that you'll find more schools that have "homework" where there's more concern about whether parents are engaging kids at home. So, e.g, where you have a lot of high SES families with the time or resources to engage their kids on a regular basis, you're less likely to see regular "homework."

Of course, I have absolutely no data to support my hypothesis. Just my thoughts. =)

Over 70% of DC public and charters qualify for free or reduced lunch. So teaching to the masses means reading prep, homework and etc. it is clearly a parent issue. Teachers have to teach academics and social skills, if not then DCUM parents trash test scores. No win situation.

[Anonymous]

my son's pre-k class has had a few "homework" assignments, which were really just projects for parents to do with the kids. we were asked twice to do journals documenting what we did over a school break. my son and i both had fun doing them, and i think my son enjoyed sharing them with his class and seeing what other kids had done too.

didn't seem inappropriate at all.