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Beefing Up the First Line of Defense

Insights on academic rigor from inside a pre-K classroom

By Sophia Pappas (New Jersey '03)

Tanasia's first day of school was entirely unproductive. She did not come closer to making academic gains, nor did she begin to feel like a valued member of our classroom community. That's because she stayed home. As I learned from listening to her desperate pleas to leave school when she joined us the following week, Tanasia's fears about the unknown world of pre-K had kept her home with mom that day. For about four weeks after that, whether I was doing a dramatic reading of Leo the Late Bloomer or teaching the students how to use our toys independently, Tanasia remained sullen and, in between sobs, fervently declared, "I want my mommy!"

Tanasia's disengagement from class activities concerned me, especially when I reviewed her literacy skill deficits. She was unable to identify any letters or words, including her own name. Fortunately, direct instruction and participation are not the only ways to begin moving pre-K students forward.

In my classroom, I integrate basic literacy skills and knowledge into daily routines. To be counted for attendance, my students must find their name card and place it under the correct letter in a large, illustrated, alphabet chart. Instead of calling their names to line them up, I rhyme their names using the letter of the week, making Tanasia, "Sanasia," for example, when we explored the letter S. Even if she daydreamed about mom picking her up early, Tanasia still needed to follow certain basic procedures to function in the class. If she was going to leave the classroom, find her seat on the rug, wash her hands, or be called on to answer a question, she simply could not avoid constant exposure to a wide range of literacy concepts.

I noticed progress when Tanasia began making connections between letters and letter sounds using her friends' names in our learning centers:
Ms. Pappas: Where does the microscope go, Tanasia?
Tanasia then points to the correct label on the shelf.
Ms. Pappas: How do you know it goes there?
Tanasia: I see Michael's name.

Tanasia's discovery of "Michael's name" was in fact the M in microscope, but her association of sounds with letters was a definite step forward.

As she became more invested in our activities, her general disposition changed. She would respond to questions with on-topic answers, join in chanting "word wall" words, and even reply to my daily greeting with a smile and a full sentence-usually, "I feel happy." After months of finding letters in our morning message and repeating words that start with them, Tanasia finally started coming up with her own words and identifying high-frequency words such as "like" and "the" before leading the class in spelling them out.

Tyrique posed different challenges. He came in as one of my lowest-level learners. He knew only the first letter in his name, could not handle a book properly, and lost his focus after five minutes on the reading rug. Despite being behind his peers in many basic literacy skills, Tyrique snarled at the idea of meeting with me before going to play in the area of his choice. I worried that his resistance to my instructional strategies would hamper his preparation for kindergarten.

Tyrique was interested in exploring only on his own. Structured whole- and small-group activities held no appeal. In an effort to engage him, I observed him during independent choice times and developed small-group literacy games based on his interests. I noticed that he enjoyed Dr. Seuss's Hop on Pop, so I created phonics games using the rhyming book's words and characters.

In the past, Tyrique had spent most of our small-group time gazing wistfully at his friends playing freely in the "blocks and sand" area. Yet when I introduced the Hop on Pop lesson, he turned toward our group with a smile to help me come up with words that rhyme with "all."

Now Tyrique can not only come up with several rhyming words independently, but can identify the beginning letter and sound and help me write the words on our class "word family" charts. Just last week I had to both celebrate his enthusiasm and remind him of our class rules when he chimed in during another group's lesson with the letters needed to label a picture.

Some in the early childhood community might point to Tanasia's and Tyrique's initial difficulties as evidence that pre-K should concentrate on facilitating a comfortable transition from home to school rather than on meeting rigorous academic benchmarks. The idea is that kindergarten, now commonly referred to as "the new first grade," will focus on core academic skills.

Yet by the time students enter kindergarten at the age of 5, the achievement gap is already apparent. And there is no guarantee that gap will be bridged in kindergarten. We therefore need to seize the opportunity as early as possible to introduce school as an exciting place with high expectations in which all children can realize their potential. Pre-K classroom leaders can-and should-lead their students toward concrete learning goals, equipping them with the mind-set and academic tools needed for future success.

Sophia Pappas teaches pre-kindergarten at an inner-city public school in New Jersey. You can read her daily blog, "Inside Pre-K," at http://mspappas.preknow.org/.