"I am so far from one!"

One of the joys of being around young kids is getting a glimpse of the world through their eyes.  Here are two priceless stories.

I was lucky enough to take courses from one of the leading Gesell Institute researchers, Norm Heimgartner, during my Master's study. The Gesell developmental assessment is based on observing young learners to document their development on a continuum of growth.

During one of Norm's many research stories, he recounted watching a young boy saw on a board for over 20 minutes. Norm finally strolled over and asked him what he was making.

"Sawdust."

Such a perfect kid answer to a predictable adult question.  We're product oriented. There should always be an end in sight. Making sawdust comes from an entirely different way of experiencing the world!

Here's another story. 

I was helping a kindergarten teacher colleague assess her students. One of the tasks was to count to 100. After I gave him the instructions, Darrin launched into his counting. He got through the 30s, then the 40s. He was on track to make it--amazing for a kindergartner!

"91, 92, 93, 94 ..." He stopped and looked at me, amazed, eyes wide. "I am so far from one!"

Not only could he count to 100,  he had well-developed number sense for a kindergartener.

I still remember that scene over 20 years later because it's stories like this that remind me to listen ever so carefully to little ones.The early childhood folks have known this for a long time--among them Maria Montessori, Jean Piaget, Reggio Emilia, and Vivian Paley. Kids have the right "to grow and learn at their own pace and in their own way" (Arnold Gesell).

Today more and more of our assessments are taking place in front of a computer screen. Assessments are impersonal, devoid of the stories of children's lives. Are kids able to show what they really know? Maybe just as important, what are teachers getting a chance to learn?

Are we there yet? How kids make sense of the world

The concept of "developmentally appropriate" is a backdrop for every learning experience we orchestrate as educators.  You know when something isn't DA because kids don't "get it," or simply because the lesson flops. Kids spout off guesses, call out in confusion, or put their heads down. It's happened to all of us.

Here's one of my favorite "developmentally inappropriate" stories.

I was driving from Illinois to Indiana with a 7 year old. You'll recognize the routine: Every five minutes she asked, "Are we almost there? When are we gonna get there?"

I explained that our trip would take about the same amount of time as the beginning of school until lunchtime. I explained we were driving from the state where she lived--Illinois--to the state right next to it. Maybe I talked about Indiana and Illinois as being two of our 50 United States. I pointed out the sign, "Welcome to Indiana."

The conversation was fraught with abstract concepts that a 7 year old doesn't yet comprehend: states, crossing from one state to another, and the United States. I knew all this after 20 years of teaching kids her age, and knew that my explanation was a stretch for a 7 year old, but I thought I did a decent job of it. 

A few minutes later she called home. Her dad asked where she was, and I still laugh to remember her answer: "We're still in America, Dad, but we're on a different road!"

Is that foxglove?

A few moments ago I walked by a patch of flowers and the foxglove memory came back. Here's how it went.

Years ago, one of my colleagues created me a series of spring break till the end-of-the-school-year "advent" calendars. Each year she came up with a different scheme, and one particular year it was a series of flower pots with numbers on them. Day by day my students and I flipped up a numbered pot to find another pot with a wildflower picture pasted above, the flower name in calligraphy on the pot. The flower illustrations had originally been hand-painted by James Audubon. An intact set of pictures in book form was included for my first graders to browse and learn more. I decided to match each child with a wild flower and as that flower was revealed, the kids took on the role of helper for the day.

Trillium, primrose, goldenrod, forget-me-nots, phlox, anemone. Each day another flower, each day another new name to playfully roll off the kids' tongues and to match with a flower. Who knew how engaged urban first graders could be with wild flowers!

In mid-May I scheduled a field trip to Snake Lake, a local nature reserve. Our elderly docent handed out nature name tags (Canada goose, fir tree, wood duck ...) to the kids and we set out on our walk. We paused at each natural feature along the trail for her descriptions, and she would then invite the kids to "take 5 bunny hops" or to "tip toe behind Canada goose" to the next stop on the tour. (Ah ... I should have known she was a retired kindergarten teacher!)

"Does anyone know this plant?" she queried at one stop. Brandon stepped from behind another student to look more closely. "Is that foxglove?"

Imagine her amazement! And imagine my own. Then again, she asked rather than telling the name. That alone is significant. And we had been studying wildflowers by chance!

Even though I know how smart even the youngest kids are, I continue to be amazed by what catches their attention and sticks with them. This recognition has helped me reconsider the "what" of curriculum. Seven-year old Leslie wanted to learn more about famine. A 9 year old student of a colleague decided to study how property taxes are assessed, an interest that was precipitated by his father's irritation that their taxes had increased. Another first grader shared that the last small gas station in Redmond was closing. When a classmate responded, "So what--there are lots of gas stations," he clarified that this was a family-owned gas station! Without fail, I now always focus part of my time with kids on learning more about their keenest interests.

Language researcher, Gordon Wells, reminds us that all of us learn language from the company they keep. If you want someone to sound like a lawyer, invite them hang out with lawyers. Kids learn "vocabulary" as they use it to talk about new concepts, and to a much lesser degree, through memorizing words and their definitions. (If you would like to read more about any of this, let me know and I'll share resources.)

Is that foxglove? Indeed.

Reading with Beginning Readers, Ages 6 & 9

In response to my first post, Jacqueline asks about the kinds of literacy curricula used in primary classrooms and how she might play a backup role when what's happening in her daughter's classroom is not what she hopes for. I'll try to keep this post both simple and helpful, and focus here on reading.

What can a parent look for?

* Instances of best practices in reading (the original organization of more/less comes from Zemelman, Daniels & Hyde, and also includes writing, math, and science). These lists can help you think about general increases and decreases in particular teaching practices over the last 10-15 years. We know, for instance, that asking children to read "round robin" (or sitting in a group reading one at a time) is less effective than pairs of students reading and talking together.
* A 90 minute literacy block. Kids might also be using reading and writing across the day, so consider this a general rule.
* A range of literacy materials, including different kinds of writing materials and pens/pencils. A large assortment of print materials, including picture books, big books, "just right" books, poetry, and nonfiction. Charts on the wall likely include ideas like how to choose the right book or what to do when you're reading and get stuck.

When I worked with fourth grader Nick, who started the year reading much like a kindergartner, and when I worked with Maris to determine her strengths as a first grader, I used three kinds of reading engagements. Their moms also read aloud with them regularly, so I've added read aloud as a fourth engagement.

Look for these kinds of reading in the classroom, and if they're not yet in place, you can try them yourself at home. I'll list three characteristics of each one in the school setting, and then how they played out with Nick over many months and with Maris in 2 hours.

READ ALOUD
• Purposefully chosen texts.
• Read aloud, with feeling!
• Few interruptions so listeners keep the momentum of the reading. Read again and talk about your responses.

Both Nick's and Maris's families read aloud with their kids on a regular basis. This NCTE resource includes strategies and sure fire read aloud titles: Read Together: Parents & Teachers Working Together for Literacy. IRA also offers parent resources.

INDEPENDENT READING
• Many kinds of print materials and genre available for students to read.
• The books keep the students engaged as readers--not too simple to disinterest the reader or too difficult for them to stick with the reading.
• In primary grades, students may read quietly aloud, alone or in partners.

The books I used with both of these readers are the Benchmark and Bridging books from the Dominie Reading & Writing Assessment Portfolio, by Diane DeFord (the kid books are available separately on a school purchase order), but there are many good options. Often called leveled readers, these books are organized by difficulty and allow one to predict a reader's approximate grade level. With beginning readers I read each book first, then invite the child to read it. With this support, Nick was quickly able to read first grade books, and within a month or two, books at the second grade level. We did this kind of reading for 20-30 minutes a day, and he read several of them repeatedly over 10-12 days before setting them aside.

Maris readily read one of the first grade books, giving me an indication of her ability as a reader. I recommend that interested parents ask to check out "just right" books from the school if they aren't currently available for homework reading. And if you're not sure if a particular book is a good one for your child, read it aloud. If you enjoy it, it's likely your child will too. If not, enough said!

SHARED READING
• Engaging texts that all readers can see and read together.
• Texts available for readers to later read independently or in small groups.
• Use to support readers as they participate in reading texts beyond their current ability.

This strategy--whether used with songs or poetry or chapter books--helps readers read texts along with you that they wouldn't be able to read alone. I used Roald Dahl's Enormous Crocodile with Nick, a slim chapter book with outrageous characters and absurd events. The story contains a lot of dialogue, and with me taking the role of narrator, he was soon able to chime in as one of the characters. I read quietly along with him if he got stuck, keeping the emphasis on the story and expressive reading. Reading short chapter books like this one helped Nick see that his skills were much closer to his peers than he might have believed.

Maris and I read Mouse Tales together. She really enjoyed the story and read her part with gusto, putting a smile on her mom's face. Books like these are readily available in school and public libraries. The Fox books by Edward and James Marshal are also favorites. This strategy is called Readers Theater if you invite a few other young readers to join you.

INQUIRY, OR READING TO LEARN ABOUT A TOPIC OF KEEN INTEREST
• Opportunities to study a topic of interest.
• Text sets of materials compiled to explore the topics and answer learners' questions.
• Opportunities for learners to study their topics firsthand (i.e. creating their own rocket, or observing birds at a bird feeder) and then to use the text sets to learn more.

Nick and I first explored books on soccer (he is a highly skilled soccer player) and then settled on studying crows together. We talked about what Nick knew (crows live in the neighborhood and chase other birds) and what he was interested in learning (what does 'caw caw' mean, where else do crows live), and then took our cameras to the beach to watch them in action. In two hours we took over 50 photos, watched a crow pecking the eyeball out of dead fish, and watched several flocks of crows feeding on the ground while a sentry looked out from a tree top.

When we returned home, Nick browsed bird books with enthusiasm. Over the next month we created a PowerPoint presentation with text, photos and video footage to document everything we'd learned. Studying crows was an engaging inquiry for both of us.

In preparing for my session with Maris, I gathered books on several topics that I predicted would interest a first grader, and I had guessed right. She chose two books on big cats (one was a Zoobook and the other a 30 page "show me book" for young readers from the Dominie materials). I offered each of us post-its and asked her to mark three interesting pages from the book she preferred. After a few minutes we shared. She chose each of her pages with photos because they were "cute." I then shared mine: a page that showed 8-9 different big cats, as I can still confuse ocelots and jaguars; a picture that showed a Siberian tiger, with a caption that stated that each tiger has a unique striping pattern; and a picture of a mother lion licking her cub (I admit it--I told her I chose that one because it was cute!). When we met with mom, I asked Maris to share both of our marked pages, and she surprised us by reading the italicized caption about tiger striping patterns. It seemed likely to me that Maris had not yet been asked to use her developing literacy skills to learn about the world around her. I was happy to report to mom that she was well on her way as a reader.

Finally, I advocate for such a range of reading engagements from the beginning, as without them, young readers are offered the most simplistic and meaningless texts, e.g. Dan can fan the man. Can the man fan Dan? The man can fan Dan. (The actual words from a book I used early in my career!) One guideline is that books should always sound like real language. A second is that it's never too early to learn through reading!

I know this is a lot of information, but there is nothing I would love more than to hear from parents who give one or more of these reading engagements a try!

If you would like academic information on learning to read, you might be interested in a position paper on the topic from NCTE's Commission on Reading.