Sam attends a wonderful public elementary school here in Marin County, California. His principal is an involved and caring leader and his kindergarten teacher is terrific. Sam’s class of 20 students is fortunate to have two parent volunteers every morning assisting two full-time teachers. On Wednesdays, there is a third adult volunteer, an active retiree in the neighborhood with a passion for computer literacy.
Yet, even with a 1:4 adult to student ratio, there are some kids in Sam’s class who seem to get left behind, week after week. I volunteer every other Wednesday and I have been gradually stepping-up my support for those sleepier learners as the gap only seems to be broadening.
The morning begins with Circle Time and then the students work on individual projects in small groups. The groups change every few weeks, allowing students to build a range of friendships as the teachers match students who work well together.
The groups are named for colors — red, yellow, green and blue. I have to confess that at the beginning of the year I was trying to determine the hierarchy of colors. I was convinced that the green group had the majority of so-called advanced learners in it and I wanted Sam to be in that group. But I quickly saw the flaw in my approach and I’m grateful to report that Sam’s teachers group the students carefully in order to build a sense of equality in the classroom. After all, no color is better than another.
After morning circle, the groups circulate among three or four activity centers. Mr. B. sat at the computer center; Ms. F. helped the students work on a creative counting book called “I Have 10 Dots”; Mrs. B. sat with students at a reading and coloring center. Mrs. V. and I sat at a sorting center where students sort pictures based on the beginning sounds of the words.
Today they were working on D and Z words: zoo, dog, desk, zipper, zebra, doll, zigzag and drum. The class has been doing the same activity all year, working on different letters each week. By now, most of the students get the hang of the activity and get right to work as soon as they sit down. They put their name on the paper, cut out their pictures, work out the beginning sounds, sort and paste them where they belong and then attempt to write the words using their best guess spelling. I saw lots of wonderful ziprs, descs, dols and zebrus with more than a few beautifully backward z’s.
But a small number of students who approach the table spend much of their time avoiding the work. They will roll their paper into a telescope, or spend their time cutting and coloring to postpone the writing part as long as possible. At first I thought these kids were simply not stimulated by this type of work. “This student needs food, exercise or sleep,” I thought. But a few weeks ago, I saw one of our sleepy students wake up to the activity. He started doing the work as soon as he sat down last time and he did it again this morning.
I realized that student was lacking confidence in his writing ability. Then I started to identify lower confidence among the remaining handful of students who did not take to the activity.
Slowly, I have been working with these kids, helping them sound out their words, helping them identify the letters that make the sound using the big phonetic alphabet on the wall. I even made dot-to-dots for one girl to write her name — a technique I used when Sam started writing his letters two years ago.
The dot-to-dot girl (let’s call her Dot) finished her page today, for the first time. Then she grabbed two colored pencils and proceeded to scribble all over the pictures. Instead of telling her to color inside the lines, I told her I thought she picked great color combinations. Dot was so delighted with her success she leaned over and kissed my cheek!
It is easy to view these activities as busywork, unnecessary for a child of 5. There is even an ongoing debate among parents at our school who question the role of homework in primary education. On the other hand, all of the students in Sam’s class are capable of doing the work with a little support. I also believe that language skills develop through repetition, exactly like musicianship (and similar to many purely physical activities). I am not writing to tout the value of early literacy programs. Instead, I am working out my thoughts about the way we as parents celebrate the successes of those who excel, regardless of the child’s age or the specific activity.
It is very easy to sit at the activity center and give a few instructions to the more confident kids and watch them run with it. As a parent, you feel like you’ve got great teaching mojo when you make a suggestion and a child takes a creative risk and dazzles everyone. But all children are capable of such leaps. I hope we can find ways as a community to share our time and effort with the handful of kids who are feeling less confident.
