Back Up Off Me

Wednesday's Emergent Literacy class brought up the modern debate of preschool:  play-based or academic-based?  As an educator with no children of my own, my first reaction is academic-based.  But when it comes to the academic community do my beliefs truly match those of the supporters of an academic-based preschool?

I did some research into play-based and academic-based preschool theories in order to identify my own philosophy.  An article on nbcnews.com does a very good job of briefly identifying the discrepancies in what we believe when we say play-based or academic-based.  The following statement from the article caused me to reflect on what I really mean when I say "academic-based".

"According to Marcon and other researchers, children who are subjected to overly academic environments early on have more behavior problems later and are less likely to be enthusiastic, creative learners and thinkers."  

The key word in this quote is "overly".  Growing up, my mother loved to say, "all things in moderation".  I believe that can be directly applied to this debate.  When I say academic-based preschool I am picturing a colorful, literacy rich environment with children in multiple age ranges working independently, collaboratively, or with a teacher to explore the world with a direct correlation to academics.  I see children engaging in meaningful conversations about relevant life information.  I see children participating in fun and exciting games about letters and numbers that engage all of their senses and learning needs.  I see children on the playground, at snack time, and at rest time.  I see art work hanging on the wall and science experiments growing in a corner of the room.  What I learned from my research is that this is NOT necessarily an academic-based classroom according to some researchers.  

When teaching kindergarten in a state I will not mention in order to protect their anonymity; I was a liaison between our public schools and Head Start programs.  I was supposed to go to quarterly meetings with the intention to share what preschoolers need to know coming into kindergarten to be successful.  But what I really participated in was various circus shows of Head Start students "showing what they know".  My first experience went a little like this:

A group of four and five-year-old children were paraded into the conference room wearing matching black t-shirts. The t-shirts had the student's name on the front and the words "back up off me" on the back.  The "teachers" (and I say this in quotes because they had not attended any type of education preparation program) lined the children up and began what can best be described as an army cadence.  

Teacher:  "Who are you?"
HS Students:  "We are students in Head Start."

Teacher:  "What is your phone number?"
HS Students:  They recite  the phone number for Head Start.

Teacher:  "What is your address?"
HS Students:  They recite the address for Head Start.

Teacher:  "Can you count?"
HS Students:  "Yes, we can count.  1, 2, 3, etc. to 50."

Teacher:  "Can you spell?"
HS Students:  "Yes, we can spell."

Teacher:  "Spell kangaroo."
HS Students:  "k-a-n-g-a-r-o-o"

This continued for quite some time.  I am sure you get the point.  At the end of the "show" the students participated in a chant where they ended with "We're bad and we know it and we're not afraid to show it."  After the show we were invited to participate in a walk through of the Head Start classrooms.  We saw children sitting at tables and writing on worksheets.  There were no books displayed, no manipulatives, no art work, no TALKING!

My point is that the debate on preschool can go on for a very long time unless we begin specifically stating what it is we are expecting from a preschool.  This Head Start program claimed to be "academically-based".  But I think all of us who are true educators know that this is not the case.  I believe in all things in moderation.  Preschool students do need exposure to academic skills, but they also need play time and socialization.  

Reading Recovery in the Modern Classroom

On Wednesday I listened to an interesting researcher presentation on Marie Clay, the creator of the Reading Recovery program.  I found the background information on Marie and her research very relevant to my own first grade classroom.  I teach in Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland.  Our county-wide reading leveling system is a combination of both Reading Recovery and Fountas & Pinnell.  Having used Fountas & Pinnell since the beginning of my career, I felt that I was very familiar with the foundations of the system and the research behind it.  However, after listening to my peers present on Wednesday, I realized that I did not truly understand where Fountas & Pinnell began their own research because I had not made the connection to Reading Recovery.  In the same way, I did not see where Montgomery County was coming from when creating their own leveling systems as a combination of Reading Recovery and Fountas & Pinnell.

Montgomery County uses the Reading Recovery leveling system through first grade.  The Fountas & Pinnell leveling system consists of a much broader range of reading skills in each lower level.  For example a level D (Fountas & Pinnell) are levels 5 and 6 in Reading Recovery.  This continues through the first grade leveling system with each Fountas & Pinnell level being the equivalent to two Reading Recovery levels.  See Reading Level Conversion Chart.

In addition to the leveling system, Montgomery County provides their teachers with an explicit guided reading planning sheet that includes daily high frequency word writing, word work, pre-reading strategies (meaning, structural, and visual), interactive writing, and running records.  When looking more into the Reading Recovery program and after speaking with a veteran teacher at my school this week, I have discovered that our guided reading system is largely based on the one-on-one Reading Recovery system.

So what does all this say about Marie Clay and the Reading Recovery program?  I see this at that Marie Clay's research has laid the foundation for a very strong and effective reading program in Montgomery County as well as many other school systems across the United States.  What Montgomery County has done is taken the best of that program and found a way to use it so that it is not just giving one student at a time the benefit of the system.  The Reading Recovery program provides teachers with skills and strategies that can benefit all students and does not necessarily have to be done in the one-one-one setting to be effective.  The program is still being actively used in my school by one reading intervention teacher, as well as by other teachers in the county.  Although Reading Recovery has its critics you can not argue that for some students it can be life changing.  Check out the provided article to read about one such student who had it not been for Marie Clay and Reading Recovery, he may not be where he is today.

Reading Recovery Student Intervention