A few years back, we got rid of OAC, the extra year or 5th year of high school, and implemented all day daycare....oops, I mean kindergarten. I have supplied in my fair share of JK/SK classrooms and I understand these kids are 4 and 5 years old, but having 'play based learning' for a majority of the day sort of seems like a waste of time. If these students are in school, why not teach them the basics of math, such as organizing questions and simple addition/subtraction. Now, I'm not talking about sitting there and making them do drill after drill, but we should be spending more time working with the pencil and paper math skills these students will eventually need to acquire. After all, early intervention is the best medicine for most problems that will arise, in my opinion. We should attempt to stop the problem before it starts. But as we continue to keep these students on a socially acceptable timeline, we, as teachers, have to come up with the out of this world lesson plans in an attempt to close the Gap for a lot of students who would rather be doing something/anything else. I am not saying I don't come up with engaging lesson plans, but there is an expectation to cover your year of Math, plus close the ever growing Gap, which does cause some stress....AND people say teachers get paid too much!
I thought this picture was appropriate:
I agree with the ever growing GAP as I encounter them with each and every other student. And yes our curriculum strives for a play based learning pedagogy at an early age. And I am all for play based learning but I have to agree with you that we must learn to take some time out and learn the basics and fundamentals as you have mentioned.
ReplyDeleteLearning how to tackle this problem with be on-going as you will have parents/teachers/principals who are for and the other half who are against. And having a classroom of 20-30 students things can get quite challenging.
Play based learning will only take you so far, when does the playing stop and we actually drill some fundamental skill...this is the dilemma we face each and everyday the bell rings!
I see your point also Michael - definitely see firsthand the gaps that are present and appear to be ever-growing... and I'm with you on the feelings about play-based learning, and is it most beneficial?
ReplyDeleteFrom my experience with supplying also, I think that comes down to the teacher and what they are willing to incorporate into their routines. Although we call it 'play-based,' and it sounds just like all fun and games, there is time in many rooms for concrete and somewhat more structured learning to occur. Teachers should have smaller blocks of time to bring groups of children aside and work on the fundamentals of math & language, and from what I've seen, many incorporate this well. I used to tutor a 5 yr old (I know! the mother wanted it!) and our 'play' was using different manipulatives to essentially add, subtract, count, and make groups of... We also wrote out math sentences to go along with what we were doing, and I see kids doing this at my school even now. So I do think it depends on where you go, who the teacher is, and sometimes - if you're supplying, they just give you a 'busy day,' so it doesn't look like much is being done!
Hopefully many teachers are on board and are giving our young students the fundamentals they need!
This is an interesting approach Michael. I agree that JK/SK classes could be doing more to help prevent gaps and struggles in math later on. I think that the most common argument against your suggestion would be 1)They're too young to start real math and 2)They don't have enough time to cover the basics and math too. I would address the first by saying, children are capable of amazing things and as they start education younger and younger, they are able to begin math at a younger age. Once students can identify the numbers they are working with, they should be able to start learning simple math. For the second point, I would say that full day kindergarten has now given us the opportunity to include so much more than time for play-based learning (which I agree is important). Having a short period of the day dedicated to math will not take anything away from other developmental education - it will only help prevent future struggles in a core subject that can open so many doors for students.
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