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PK at Eaton
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Anonymous
| For any parents whose children recently attended PK at Eaton: Were you satisfied with the amount of playtime your kids received? I was told by staff members that there isn't too much emphasis on academics at this stage, but I feel doubtful that that is really true. Any thoughts? TIA. |
Anonymous
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It was our experience that Eaton preK has pretty much no academics beyond basic letter recognition and counting to 10 in preK. K was basic phonics (initial letter sound only) and real reading teaching did not take place until 1st grade.
Kids take a nap every afternoon and get a story, so whatever "academics" there is, only took place in the AM. |
Anonymous
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Maybe I am parsing the details too much, but I would categorize our recent pre-k experience at Eaton as being a bit different from the prior poster's. Generally speaking, the "academic" portion of the day occurs during the morning hours - usually for about two hours prior to lunch break. There is both letter recognition and phonics taught in pre-k. My child also was counting in groups of ten midway thru pre-K (e.g., 1-10, 11-20, then the 20s, 30s, etc.) and DC did not learn that from me. Weather permitting, there are two playground times scheduled during the day. And there is a one-hour rest/nap time (I believe this is standard in all DCPS pre-k). My sense though is that even though there is a DCPS pre-K "curriculum", there seems to be some latitude among the pre-K teachers as to what is taught and when. Afternoons often seem to involve free-choice.
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Anonymous
What do they do with kids in K who already know how to read? |
Anonymous
| My son is in PreK at Eaton right now. We love it. They assess children and implement differentiated learning. |
Anonymous
| to the PP, do you know if all the PK teachers do this? I've heard that the 3 teachers are quite different and have a lot of discretion over what they do in their individual classrooms. |
Anonymous
| to my knowledge all do the assessment--i have friends in each pre k class. at our past parent-teacher conference the teacher went over the results and talked about the approach my for child. |
Anonymous
Make them follow the same curriculum as everyone else, and if the child was finished with the "regular" work, they could read whatever book they could find in the classroom quietly to themselves. This was our experience with an advanced reader in all grades through 2nd, when we left. There was no differentiated reading instruction in terms of reading level (except for one year with an exceptional teacher who did differentiation entirely on his own initiative). |
Anonymous
Can you give some examples of differentiated learning in preK or other grades? Are the children divided into reading groups that match their assessed reading levels? What do they do if a preK child reads on a 2nd grade level? Are the children divided into groups for math? What do they do with kids who already know 50%+ of the math material on the beginning of the year assessment? If kids are not divided into groups for reading and math, do they receive "enrichment?" Is this enrichment pull-out or within the class? Is it taught by a teacher or a parent or is it part of an after/before school or lunch club? Does it happen more than once a week? |
Anonymous
| My son is the one that attends Pre K at Eaton--I would suggest that you meet with the principal and observe the classes--you seem like you have very specific questions. ms Gartrell the principal is very open to meeting with current and prospective parents. |
Anonymous
| One thing to be aware of is that K and PreK a lot of the learning is socialization. My children have been around 1 year ahead, I know they know the info being covered, but they have not been bored at these grade levels. In fact, when I meet with their teachers and review assessments, they sometimes do not "perform" as well in school as at home (e.g., read at a much lower level in school). Your child may need differentiated math instruction, but he/she may be happy in the regular room. Agree the best approach: visit the class, see for yourself, look for someone in the classroom that reminds you of your child, see how he/she is doing. |
Anonymous
I did attend an Open House where the parent tour leaders were able to answer none of these questions. Observation of the classroom is difficult to do outside of the brief open house peek. It is my understanding, based on what we've heard from various sources Eaton, that there is very little regular differentiation in the classroom. There is some weekly enrichment offered on an ad hoc basis by parents. There are "clubs" outside of the regular classroom at lunch or after school that may provide some enrichment, but as my daughter commented, " not a lot of kids want to come in from recess to do book club." The school does seem to "differentiate" when it comes to identifying students below but near a DC CAS break point to give those children extra attention to push them into the higher acheivement level, but that is far different than systematic differentiation in the classroom. |
Anonymous
| I don't think attending the Open House is the best way to observe class rooms--and teahcing. Eaton is a very loving and wonderful school. It does seem like the folks that post to this forum are very snobby and are very anti-Eaton. I for one am a happy parent there and make decisions based on my own observations and relationships I build with staff and parents at the school. Eaton has great scores (which is not why I decided to go--but it is a factor of their success) and also has a very high advanced test scores which only seems like that is a signal that kids are not bored and they know how to teach to the children attending. |
Anonymous
I'm curious how you think prospective parents should get answers to their questions about Eaton if not at the open house. I tried to get information on this forum a few months back on K at Eaton and I think one person responded to my post. I wanted to know -- similar to some of the PPs in this thread -- what my kindergartener who can already read was going to do while when they were teaching letter sounds. I couldn't get any good information here, nor at the open house. I don't think people are "snobby" simply because they're concerned about their children languishing for a year in school. |
Anonymous
| How and why do you think Eaton students are languishing? There is a VERY high percentage of advanced learners at Eaton--if you care about scores check out the AYP -- the % breakdowns. You get your questions answered by visiting Eaton and talking with parents and staff. It is a process and from what I can tell there are very few Eaton folks on this thread seems mainly like this forum has Eaton bashers which is really mind boggling because it is such a great school. Open houses are typically just a starting point to assess a school |