Genre Analysis Rough Draft

Intermediate Composition

Tina Wright

October 23, 2011

Genre Analysis

When researching the topic of Kindergarten Readiness it was surprising to find out how well a child knew his ABC’s and 123’s comes in behind other factors such as if a child is able to care for his own needs, or is the child an enthusiastic learner. The websites babycenter.com and onetoughjob.org are both great websites for parents to visit and blog with each other about the questions of kindergarten readiness.  There is also a website, kindergartenreadiness.net, which can be used by parents and teachers.  This site is useful because it links the user to blogs, articles (newspaper and internet based), and other websites that provide information in a way that most people can understand.  All three of these sites are user friendly for the average person.  They each focus on the main issues of kindergarten readiness and the fact that social and emotional wellbeing are just as important, if not more so, than a child being able to write her name.

Information regarding how the early childhood professional views kindergarten readiness, however, is much harder to find and when you do locate it, understanding what they are saying can be brutal, even for someone who is in the field of early childhood education and concerned with helping children to become school ready.  The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is an organization for anyone who is interested in working with or on behalf of the young child age birth through eight years.  You can visit their website at naeyc.org and go to Position Statements to find out where the NAEYC stands on many subjects involving the young child, this includes kindergarten readiness.  Readers can find an abbreviated statement, called Where We Stand on subjects and these are much easier for the general public (and some educators) to understand.  The NAEYC is a professional organization that invites families of young children to join because it is believed that everyone working together can make for a better future for young children.  That is the reason that this site is one of the better when it comes to gathering information and putting it into layman’s terms.  In the full journal article, “Behavioral and Cognitive Readiness for School: Cross-domain Associations for Children Attending Head Start” there is a lot of information that the average person would find tedious and boring.  Even though it is very interesting and somewhat needed information for the early education professional, this is not an article that parents would find helpful unless it was summarized with main points only.  This article is based on a study done on the behavioral and cognitive readiness for children set to enter kindergarten.  They used the domains of classroom participation, prosocial behavior, and aggressive behavior and how these affect cognitive school readiness.  The average age of the children in this study was 4.59 years old.  What this study found was that children who had low classroom participation and behavior issues are likely to fall behind their peers cognitively.

Since so much of the parent websites and articles were based on the age a child should enter kindergarten it was very interesting that the NAEYC stands by their belief that kindergarten readiness is, somewhat, based on age.  In the Position Statement on kindergarten readiness it is stated that at age five most children are capable and ready to learn within a formal school setting.  In this Position Statement it is said, “NAEYC believes it is the responsibility of schools to meet the needs of children as they enter school and to provide whatever services needed to help each child reach his or her fullest potential.” (naeyc.org. Kindergarten Readiness Position Statement – Where We Stand).  In a poll done on babycenter.com it was shown that out of 6835 participants 60% felt that age five was the best age to enter kindergarten, while only 16% believed age six is the best age and 21% agreed that children would be okay to enter kindergarten at age four (3% did not believe children should go to kindergarten at all).  These findings, however, are not what are reflected on the blog posts.  Most parents on the blogs seem to feel it is always better to send a child to kindergarten later, rather than sooner.  Based on what was being said there is genuine concern among parents that children with later birthdays (June, July, August, September) are not socially ready to enter school.  Another common belief reflected in the blogs is that not many parents have ever regretted sending their child to school later, but many have regretted sending them too soon.

The parent genres are the ones that evoke the most emotion when it comes to sending children to kindergarten ready to learn.  I am sure this is because we are dealing with someone’s child and that in itself can bring up emotions.  For the most part parents are the ones who know what is best for their children, but there are many out there who feel they need advice on everything from how to deal with a runny nose to sending them to school at the proper time.  From a professional standpoint the emotions brought out are from those who may disagree on how children learn and the best practices when it comes to teaching.  These emotions can run high when you are a teacher that truly wants to use the most recent information on child development and how children learn in a setting with those who prefer to use the “old school” ways of doing things.  Meeting somewhere in the middle is a great compromise.

No matter which side of the argument you are on, when it comes to kindergarten readiness looking at all of the facts and assessing each child individually is what is most important.  Also, keeping in mind that just because a child does not seem academically ready does not mean they cannot do well in kindergarten.  In a video from “Mind in the Making – Learning Modules for Early Childhood Teachers,” Dr. Jack P. Shonkoff has this to say, “School readiness and school success are dependent on intellectual competence and emotional and social health.  They are not separate in any given child.  The smartest kid who is in emotional turmoil will not be an effective learner in school.”  That sums it all up.  If your child is able to control themselves socially and emotionally all of the rest will fall into place at the proper time.

References.

Babycenter.com. (Search kindergarten readiness for articles and blogs.)

Bierman, K.L., Torres, M.M., Dimitrovich, C.E., Welsh, J.A., & Gest, S.D. (2009). Behavioral and Cognitive Readiness for School: Cross-domain Associations for Children Attending Head Start. Social Development, 18(2), 305-323. Doi:10.1111/sode.2009.18issue-2

Kindergartenreadiness.net.

Naeyc.org. Position Statements. (Search kindergarten readiness.)

Onetoughjob.org. (Search kindergarten readiness.)

What the professional says about Kindergarten Readiness

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has this to say about kindergarten or what they term school readiness, "NAEYC believes it is the responsibility of schools to meet the needs of children as they enter school and to provide whatever services needed to help each child reach his/her fullest potential."  (naeyc.org, Position Statements, Where We Stand)  According to the NAEYC school readiness requires families to have access to resources that will allow them to help their children succeed.  They also believe that all young children and their families should be able to access high quality early education programs that can give the young child the foundations needed to be ready for school, and that programs need to identify children who may be at risk for school failure in later years and begin providing them with the services needed.  Their position statement on school readiness states, "School readiness must be flexible and broadly defined." (naeyc.org, Position Statements, Where We Stand, School Readiness)  The NAEYC also strongly believes that all children should begin kindergartn at the age their state has deemed appropriate.  There is no proof that holding children back from entering school until an older age provides them any gains in academic or social development.

The journal entry from Wiley online library that really caught my attention is one on Head Start and School Readiness.  Since I currently work in a Head Start program I am very interested as to how Head Start stacks up against other preschool settings when getting young children ready for kindergarten.  In this journal entry, Behavioral and Cognitive Readiness for School: Cross-Domain associations for Children Attending Head Start, they looked at how a child's social and emotional maturity effected the status of their cognitive and academic abilities.  It is stated in this journal article,  "Classroom participation and prosocial behavior each accounted for unique variance in cognitive readiness. Aggressive behavior, in contrast, was not correlated with academic knowledge, and was associated with low levels of executive function skills. In multiple regressions, aggressive behavior paradoxically enhanced the prediction of child cognitive readiness."  As a student looking to obtain professional status in the early childhood setting, and particularly with Head Start, I find this very interesing.  This information brings up the question, so public pre-K programs fare the same?  This is somethign I will look into for future information.

Kindergarten Readiness and the Average Person

When I ask the question, "What do you think about kindergarten readiness?" the response I get most is, "What does that mean?"  Until your child is getting close to entering kindergarten or you hear it in a preschool setting, your average person is not even aware of this topic.  Parents are the ones asking all of the questions and teachers, administrators and even some pediatricians are providing what they believe to be the best answers. 

For parents, the biggest question about kindergarten readiness did not seem to involve academic readiness at all.  Most of the paretns question the age of their child when entering kindergarten.  Evidentally there are many parents out there who feel that it is best to hold their child back (from entering kindergaten) if they have what is determined to be a "late" birthday.  That is,  the child is turning five years old in the months of July, August or September.  In Ohio there are schools, such as the schools in Brown County Ohio, that have a kindergarten cut off date of September 30.  This means that some children are entering kindergarten prior to their 5th birthday.  In the Brown County Press there was an article about teachers of one school district wanting to change this due to high retention rates of those who started kindergarten at age four.  With all of this said, alot of the websites I looked at said age should not be a determining factor in kindergarten readiness.  The facts still remain, most children are ready to enter kindergarten at the age of five years old.  Some may be ready at age four, and some may fair better if they wait a year and enter closer to or after their 6th birthday. 

The bottom line on kindergarten readiness and the average person is that many do not know what to think.  Even parents are all over the board on whether to send their children to school early or later.  Every one is looking for the best advantage for their child.  This is not a bad thing, but parents do need to be sure they are looking at the right reasons.

There are many, many websites that parents can go to for information on what kindergarten readiness is and tips on how to tell if your child is ready for school.  A few of my favorites are:  onetoughjob.org, kindergartenreadiness.net, and babycenter.com.  All of these sites give some great information on how to tell if your child is ready for kindergarten or how to help prepare your child, as well as connecting you to blogs or other ways to communicate with other parents.  Babycenter.com has one of the most active blogs I have found on kindergarten readiness and guides you to a few different articles on the subject. 

Hot Topic - Kindergarten Readiness

Many years ago kindergarten was the first step in education for most children.  This was the first place children interacted in a classroom setting and learned how to get along in a society of their peers as well as picking up some information about letters, numbers and things like self care.  Today education is much different.  Preschool is usually the first step for many childern to get experience in how to handle themselves in a social setting, but there is also a new topic that has become very popular - Kindergarten Readiness.  A broad definition of kindergarten readiness is simply to prepare children to enter school ready to learn (http://www.kindergartenreadiness.net/), but what exactly does that mean?  This varies from state to state and sometimes from school district to school district.  The hot topic of kindergarten readiness is what I will be exploring and bringing this information to you, the reader.  Since I live in Ohio that is the state I will be using in my research.  My goal is to give information on what children are expected to know when entering kinderagten and how the preschool teacher and family can work together to help children get there. 

Hot Topics in Early Childhood Education

There are a few hot topics in the field of early childhood education.  I have chosen those that are important to me.

1.  Volunteers in the classroom -  This is a hot topic in all areas of education, and the preschool classroom in no exception.  This is a hot topic in my school district (which is a rural district in one of the poorest counties in Ohio) because getting people to volunteer has been like pulling teeth.  Volunteers are a big deal in todays classroom because of budget cuts.  Many teachers are left with too much to do and not enough hands to do it with.  Classroom volunteers can be a tremendous help.  Also, the importance of the home to school connection is huge when it comes to educating children, especially those at poverty level.  The topic of volunteers in the classroom is an interesting one because when children see family and members of the community in their school it shows them that someone actually cares about their education and that education is important.
2.  Kindergarten Readiness -This is a topic everyone is talking about because kindergarten is no longer the frist step in a child's education.  It is a big deal in the early childhood education field because preschool teachers are now expected to provide more than social/emotional interactions for the children they serve.  The interesting thing about kindergarten readiness is that it is different for everyone.
3.  Literacy in early childhood education -  Literacy in early childhood education is imporatnt because it is the beginning of that literacy foundation in a child's life.  It is a big deal because children are often being pushed to read more, know more, do more at an earlier age.  This is an interesting topic to me because many times children are being asked to do/know things they are not developmentally ready for.

Discipline Specific Format

When writing papers the format most often used in all of my early childhood education specific classes is APA (American Psychological Association).  I also checked out a couple of websites and APA is most widely used in the social sciences which can include education.

Early Childhood Education Manifesto

There are many people out there who look upon the early childhood educator as nothing more than a glorified babysitter.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  If one looks in on a good preschool classroom it may look like the children are “just playing,” but that play can be filled with numerous learning experiences for the young child.  The difference in early childhood education and primary and secondary schooling is how the children learn.  In the preschool classroom the teaching should begin with the child, not the subject matter, therefore, it takes a different kind of teacher to be in early childhood education.

The early childhood educator has to have the natural ability, or be willing to learn, how to treat young children with respect as the capable, trustworthy people they are.  What this means is that teachers have to be willing to allow the children in their class to guide them in how subjects should be taught.  An example of this would be, instead of asking a three to five year old to sit down with ABC flash cards the teacher needs to find fun ways to incorporate the ABC’s into an activity that involves the building blocks the children are so interested in.

Successful teachers in the field of early childhood education must use their knowledge of child development to plan fun and meaningful activities that the children are interested in.  For example a young child will learn so much more from an open ended art project than from sitting down and working on a modeled craft the teacher has come up with.  An example of this would be how children can learn about the properties of glue simply by being allowed to squeeze the glue out of the bottle onto paper.  Teachers will ask questions to further a child’s knowledge, such as, “Where did the glue go when it dried?”

A good early childhood educator will allow children to do what they do best and that is to play and explore.  The young child can be looked at as a little scientist or explorer.  They learn best when they are allowed to actually experience things.  I wonder if the expression “don’t cry over spilt milk” came from an early childhood educator because the child who spills their milk (or pours it out on the table) is learning something.  They are learning that the liquid will spread when not confined in a container; they can also learn to clean up after themselves.  Give the child a paper towel and a regular cloth or a sponge and watch with them to see what happens.  They are learning!

Building relationships with the children, their families and the community is another very important part of being an early childhood educator.  When you build relationships you build trust. When people trust you they are more likely to listen when you try to give them information on how their child learns.  It is important for parents and families to know that their child is not a “bad” child because he/she is into everything.  He/she is just doing what kids do and that is being an explorer.  Building strong relationships in your community is also a great way to get the help of its members.  Bringing in community helpers such as the fire and police departments or a veterinary from your town is a great learning experience for the children.  Better yet, maybe they would allow your class to visit their establishment.

Teaching the very young child can be a challenge, but when teachers use their knowledge and plan activities based on what children like they are giving these children way more than you can imagine.  Studies have shown that a good experience in preschool can lead children to better outcomes in later school years as well as decreasing the rate of high school drop outs.  It may look like the early childhood educator is “just playing,” but there is so much that can be learned from that play!  Anything can become a learning experience when you know what to look for and making it fun and exciting for the children is a key factor in this process.