Compass for Success
Full-Day Kindergarten
Robert Dunn
Superintendent of Education
York Region District School Board
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Changing Structure Does NOT Change Results
Primary Class Size Reduction – fully implemented in 2007-08 School Year
+4%
+1%
+3%
“The only way to improve student achievement is to change classroom
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practice.”
What the Research Says
The only way to increase student achievement is
to change classroom practice!
Classroom instruction is the single greatest
predictor of student success – greater than
SES, Family background, etc.
Most educators are working at or very near the
limit of their existing knowledge and skill.
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Lessons learned from High Performing
Nations
• High performing nations establish high standards
and apply them to all students
– Whatever the approach, such standards shape highperforming education systems by establishing
rigorous, focused and coherent content at all grade
levels; reducing overlap in curricula across grades;
reducing variation in implemented curricula across
classrooms; facilitating co-ordination of various policy
drivers, ranging from curricula to teacher training; and
reducing inequity in curricula across socio-economic
groups.
• Develop Leaders at the Local and School Level
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Everything that I know, I learned in
Kindergarten
NOT!
The amount of time a student is read to by age 2 predicts the student’s
achievement in reading after the second year of formal schooling.
“Pre-schoolers whose parents (especially mothers)read to them, tell
stories or sing songs tend to develop later vocabularies, become
better readers and perform better in school”
“by age 3, children from wealthier families typically have heard 30
million more words than children from low-income families.”
National Longitudinal Study of Children and Youth, Statistics Canada
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Please pause this presentation and watch the accompanying video entitle “Judah Reads” located on the
Compass for Success 2011 Conference page in the presentation by Robert Dunn.
Please pause this presentation and watch the accompanying video entitle “FDK Short Clip” located on the
Compass for Success 2011 Conference page in the presentation by Robert Dunn.
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Please pause this presentation and watch the accompanying video entitle “FDK Longer Clip” located on the
Compass for Success 2011 Conference page in the presentation by Robert Dunn.
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Non-Negotiables of Instructional
Practice
•
Assessment for learning: making learning visible (documentation).
•
Comprehensive literacy is not separate from play.
•
Same program that prioritizes literacy and numeracy includes social and emotional
growth and play.
•
Oral language is threaded throughout the day.
•
Inquiry based play: keeping the curriculum in mind while following children’s
interests.
•
Environment as the third teacher (Intentionality - space, time, resources).
•
Personalization: large group versus small group.
•
Generic worksheets/art activities provide limited assessment information on the
child’s level of understanding.
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Criteria for an Effective FDK Program
Full-Day Early Learning-Kindergarten
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Instructional Focus
• Balanced literacy instruction is not separate from play
based learning (Oral language/ reading writing
connection and introduction to prompts as descriptive
feedback)
• Oral language needs to be threaded intentionally
through the day ( linking whole group and small group
instruction to work at centres)
• Definition of Play: playful and engaging while being
very well planned and purposeful. Planning begins
with knowing each young learner to allow us to
respond with purposeful assessment and instruction
which is differentiated as needed.
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“Play-based” learning
“Kindergarten students spend part of their
school day drifting among “free-choice
centres” that are regularly updated with new
toys and props that reflect interest.”
“The idea is that curriculum should be driven by
curiosity, and that given enough time to
explore, children will ask the important
questions on their own and retain more than
they would from a lecture.”
“Kindergarten split classes will shortchange students; The Globe and Mail, April 26,
2011,p. A12
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Planning
• Personalized
• Precise
• Professional Learning based
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PERSONALIZED
•Who is at-risk?
•What are their
learning needs?
PROFESSIONAL
LEARNING
(Knowledge and
skills of teaches?) &
PRECISION (focus
on Learning needs
of students)
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Data to inform Planning
ASSESSMENT
URPOSE
Oral Language
Assessment
( Crévola)
To determine what structures of oral
English students understand and control
An Observation
Survey of Early
Literacy
Achievement
(Clay, 2002)
Letter Identification
To find out which alphabetic symbols children
re recognising (by name, sound or word)
Concepts about Print
To find out what children know about print and
how books work.
Word Test
To find out the extent to which children are
accumulating a reading vocabulary
Writing Vocabulary
To find out what words children can write
accurately. To find out what features of print
children are responding to
Hearing and Recording
Sounds in Words
To find out children’s ability to analyze words
they hear and/or say. To find out how children
record the sounds they hear on paper. To find
out how well children are learning to direct
their knowledge of letters, sounds a and words
to understanding messages in the text
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Planning Focus – Inquiry Question
• What is the impact of focused, intentional
oral language instruction during guided oral
language lessons, free play time and class
discussions on students’ oral language
development as measured by the OLA and
the ‘ mean length of utterances’ assessment
tool and expressive language profile? How
will learning be documented?
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Closing the Readiness Gap
• Access to high quality programs that are
content rich, challenging, developmentally
appropriate, aligned with standard and
assessments, culturally responsive which sets
high expectations for achievement and is built
around a coherent scope and sequence which
serves as a road map for learning.”
EARLY WARNING! Why Reading by the End of third Grade Matters
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Level 3
End of Kindergarten minimum standard
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Level 7
End of Kindergarten – Target Level
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Reading by the End of Third
Grade Matters – A LOT
• A student who can't read on grade level by 3rd
grade is four times less likely to graduate by
age 19 than a child who does read proficiently
by that time. Add poverty to the mix, and a
student is 13 times less likely to graduate on
time than his or her proficient, wealthier peer.
• YRDSB Research, grade 1 report card predicts
grade 3 EQAO achievement.
2010 KIDS COUNT Special Report: Why Reading by the End of Third Grade
Matters
Donald Hernandez
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High Expectations of ALL Students
Parent’s Measure
Teacher Measure
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School Planning Focus
• Parent Engagement – children whose parents read to them
and engage in “talk” do better in school?
• Attendance- research has indicated that attendance
patterns are set as early as kindergarten – Attendance
Matters! What is the attendance management program in
the school.
• Establishing the non- negotiables of instructional practice
– what are they, do we as leaders understand what is
should look like and what we expect to see?
• Professional Learning – how do we get the non-negotiables
of instructional practice in every classroom?
• Monitoring impact – continuous, clear data which monitors
the impact of instruction on the students.
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Closing the GAP
Changing the structure will not, of itself, close
the gap.
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These are challenging times in public
education, as we enter the second decade of
the 21st Century,
the knowledge economy will require more
highly educated students than ever before in
our history.
“The greatest danger in times of turbulence
is not the turbulence; it is to act with
yesterday's logic” Peter Drucker
OR
Doing what we have always done will get us
what we’ve got.
Is it enough?
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