Let me start off by saying that kindergarten isn't all the songs and games and easel paintings that I had imagined. It is really serious. We have weekly tests, they are needing to write coherent book reviews, read non-patterned books, know numbers up to 30, and lord knows what else. It is intense. And full-day! I thought kinder was supposed to be half-day. Not here. They go from 8:30-3:30 with lunch from 11:20-12:00 and a recess from 1:45-2:00. That's it.
Now, add to that the specific challenges of our community. Very high poverty (everyone qualifies for free breakfast and lunches). Many immigrants/refugees/non-English speakers. I'm currently team-teaching with another teacher and combined we have 28 students. Of those 28, we have 2 African-American students and about 3 others who come from English-speaking homes (Chicano or mixed families). The other 23 are English language learners (at varying levels of proficiency). Some were born here, some weren't, and some arrived in the US less than a year ago. They come from very diverse places: Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, China, Mexico, and El Salvador (home languages include Swahili, Spanish, Somali, Thai, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Burmese, and Khmer). Many of their parents have very limited English skills and some have few academic skills. Many of the families have arrived in San Diego as refugees, fleeing wars and violence in their home countries. One of my mothers has lost her hands and bears scars across her face from the violence in Somalia.
Out of the 10 students who are officially mine, 4 students will certainly leave kindergarten at grade-level and ready for first grade. 3 of those students come from English-speaking homes and have literate parents, which helps and I'm sure some schools across this country take for granted. I have 2 students who are language learners and are behind mostly because of language (Swahili and Spanish), but are making good progress and should be near grade-level at the end of the year.
I have one African-American student who has a really unstable home-life and is absent about 40% of the time and, therefore, is WAY behind grade-level. Family hasn't been very cooperative and blames me/the school for everything, threatening to take her out of the school (as if that is going to do anything but put her even further behind at this point).
I have another student from Myanmar who is still at the Beginning (very low) language level in English and is actually a first grader, but had no prior schooling (he was in a refugee camp in Thailand last year) so he is with the kindergartners and will be repeating first grade next year. Still, he is near proficient in kindergarten math and knows his letter sounds well (just doesn't have the vocabulary to know what words he is sounding out).
Then there are 2 students who have mastered nearly nothing all year. No reading, no numbers. One can make a handful of letters (string of letter stage) and the other can make an A because her name starts with that, but doesn't know the name of the letter and otherwise mostly scribbles. One is a language learner (Somali) with very low English skills which is part of the problem. He is also out of control sometimes. He will destroy things, jump around, shout and make noises without stomping, hit people, and generally not cooperate. He gets frustrated and can't control his emotions, can't communicate his frustrations, and hasn't been socialized into how to behave respectfully and how to treat people and materials. I think he gets away with everything at home. The other comes from an English-speaking home, but may have some sort of mental processing issue. She doesn't have good fine-motor skills, and may be developmentally delayed.
Add to this the issues inherent with the age group, particularly those who have never attended preschool (which is most). They usually can't be reasoned with. I mean, why not crawl under the tables at center time and make cow sounds? That sounds perfectly reasonable. Struggle daily with self-control, sharing, lining up, etc.
Basically, it has been a daunting task. Many of the kids are succeeding, some are not. What to do? I wish I knew some time.
I praise all kindergarten teachers. I just hope I'm not one of them next school year. =)
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ha! The image of a kiddo crawling under a desk and making cow noises totally made me laugh, especially because today one of my kiddos--a dude that I'd made go back to his seat because he couldn't read without talking in our reading corner--decided that I wouldn't notice if he crawled back into the reading corner. I mean, it's mostly for attention, not because (I think, anyway) he really thought I wouldn't notice, but really? Crawling? heh.
But really, this post made me think about how screwed people can get in our education system. I mean, if 4/10 kids leave your class at grade level--or even if a bunch make great gains, and 7/10 leave your class at grade level, that still means that too many of them are behind. And every year it's harder to catch up, yknow? I mean, I know that holding people back has all sorts of psychological ill effects and that the drop-out rate among held-back students is much higher and whatnot, but really? How are they going to make a year and a half's worth of progress in 1st grade if they weren't at a point to make a year's worth in kindergarten? I'm curious about your thoughts about what the best way of dealing with that is.
Of course, this was probably a better email or phone call--but maybe other people have thoughts too?
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