I’m sorry for the long silence, but I have been in the process of moving. For those of you who have never had that experience, it’s like your life is one big jigsaw puzzle to which you have finally managed to get all the pieces in place and see the bigger picture, only to have someone else come along and scatter the puzzle pieces all over the floor. You don’t know where anything is, and you don’t know quite how all the pieces will fit back into the puzzle again. To make matters more interesting, sometimes the pieces don’t fit where they used to or in the way you’re accustomed to them fitting.
But enough about me, yesterday was the first day of school at my previous place of employment. When I arrived there several years ago, it was the first time I had ever worked for a school that used a staggered entry system where only about a fourth of the kindergarten students came on the first day, another fourth on the second day, and so on, until Friday when every student attended for the first time. I had always worked for schools where everyone came on the first day and every day thereafter.
I was a bit dubious at first, but my colleagues swore they wouldn’t want to start the school year any other way. The overlying issue is that of assessing all of the new kindergarten students at the beginning of the year. Many different skills are checked. For example, can they count? Do they know their shapes and colors? Do they recognize the alphabet, and do they know the sound(s) related to each letter?
The procedure went something like this…parents drop off their children in the media center with varying degrees of success. There is a LOT of crying and confusion while two of the kindergarten teachers check each child in, giving the child a name tag with instructions for dismissal and gathering any critical health information or special instructions from the parent. Once the child has the name tag, the parents take their child over to one of four assigned tables where each of the other four kindergarten teachers are waiting and supervising. Children say goodbye to their parents at their own pace and then play with toys and puzzles that have been left on the tables for their amusement.
At the appropriate moment, the children are gathered to a central location in the media center on the rug with songs and body movements, and the parents are given their cue that this is the moment to say their final goodbye if they haven’t already. The children are then divided and lined up with the teacher they have been assigned only for that day. Once in line, the teachers take them on a grand tour of the school so that they can see the building and all of the places they will be visiting throughout the year.
After the tour, the line breaks up into each of the classrooms. There is a welcome time, a brief tour of the classroom, and an activity to start to get to know each other, but keep in mind, this is not the children’s permanently assigned classroom. A particular student may or may not have this same teacher or classroom or classmates for the rest of the year.
Then, as quickly as possible, the teacher tries to engage the students in drawing or working with math manipulatives or puzzles so that she can begin pulling students back one-at-a-time to assess all of the many skills encompassed by the entry assessment. Simultaneously the teacher is supposed to be maintaining control of a group of 5-year-olds that have never been together before, some of which have never even been in a school setting before and don’t know how to behave all the while assessing every single child in that room before the end of the day.
To their credit, our new administration last year assigned the grade level reading facilitators to come pull individual children out of the classroom to test them, which helped ease the burden tremendously, but I still couldn’t help long for the good ol’ days where the first day of school was everybody’s first day of school, and the assessments were either performed before school began or were conducted by the teacher with the help of a substitute or assistant teacher taking over the classroom.
For three years I campaigned to have the assessment performed, as much as possible, during the summer before the school year begins. There will always be those students who are enrolled at the last minute, but by and large, the bulk of the testing would be done, and the administration and teachers alike have a much better sense of the students who are walking through their doors on the first day.
I was thrilled when I heard that our new principal felt the same way and would be conducting entry assessments in August prior to the first day of school this year. What baffled me, though, was everybody’s expectation of still having staggered entry. WHY? For goodness’ sake, why?
Here are my objections. One, it is terribly confusing for the first-time kindergarten students. They don’t understand that the teacher they have for the first day may not be their “real” teacher. The first excited glimpse they have of a real kindergarten classroom, the place where they have their first school experience, may not be their “real” classroom. They are given a false sense of what their class will be like, because only about a fourth of their schoolmates are present that day. They’re also disappointed if they make a new friend the first day and that friend doesn’t end up in the same class with them. Most of all, they don’t understand why, if they got to go to school on Monday, they can’t go to school again until Friday. Or if they don’t get to go to school until Thursday, why couldn’t they go Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday like all the other children they see.
Two, all of this uncertainty only heaps anxiety onto both the children and the parents during a moment in their lives that is already incredibly stressful. It’s tough enough having to separate from your child/parent, perhaps for the first time, without knowing exactly to whom the child will be handed and whether or not it will be the same person the next time. The parent can’t even allay their child’s fears or set the child up for success, because they are unable to tell their child, “Mrs. So-and-So is going to be your teacher, and she’s very nice, and this is where your classroom will be, and this is what you will be doing,” etc., etc. The whole process seems almost cruel to the parents and children from where I sit. At the very least, it isn’t child-centered.
As chaotic as it is on that first day, I still believe it’s better to have those little kindergartners in their own classroom being greeted by their own special teacher, settling in from the very first moment of the school year. Believe me, just because staggered entry delays the first full day with all students present until the actual fifth day of school doesn’t make it any less stressful or chaotic. If anything, I think it doubles the opportunity for tears for those children who are prone to cry, once on the first day they’re allowed to attend staggered entry and a second time on the Friday when all the children return together to their permanently assigned classroom. I’d just rather get it all over with the first day of school, and by Friday, have a classroom that’s already beginning to learn the routines and expected behaviors of school.
I’d love to hear what your thoughts are or how kindergarten entry is handled in your school. Please share a comment!