Preschool’s Emergent Reader Assessments Are A Problem

Each year schools are asked to do more and more based on the political whims of the day. As a result they have less time for basic academics – reading, writing and arithmetic. Kindergarten which used to be a year of getting used to school conditions now is expected to teach reading and math.

In fact, preschools are being asked to do more and more academics also.  Preschool children are assessed during their first month in Kindergarten to see if they are ready to learn to read. There are a number of problems with this assessment, but I want to discuss a foundational issue – Schools teach curriculum; preschools teach children.

Teaching children can be as simple as feeding their curiosity using curriculum as a tool for the teachable moment. School teachers teach a curriculum that controls every part of the child’s day. Preschool teachers know their approach is best. Maria Montessori proved it over 100 years ago.

Moreover, if they don’t comply a volunteer preschool can be put on probation. Publicly shaming them to their community. And cutting off the less than $15

A Volunteer Preschool Can be Put On Probation

You’re wondering what could they possibly do to be put on probation? Actually Florida has standards of what skills these children should know entering Kindergarten. So they can’t just play together and be four-year-olds or can they?

Above we see a class of preschool children being the letter k. They are having fun learning their letters and the sounds those letters make. These are three of the benchmarks the state wants in one game.  

As they progress Rocket Phonics games cover over two dozen of these benchmarks. The beauty of these games is that it lets four-year-olds be four-year-olds and as a side effect they go to kindergarten ready to read. And some are already reading.

Academically, a four-year-old that can rhyme can read phonetic words. Their short term memory can hold about 4 sounds so the words need to be short. The mental processing this takes means you should keep the games to 15 to 20 minutes and then do something else. Even better these children haven’t been taught to guess at words so with no bad habits and regular games they will be stars in Kindergarten. Thereby, mastering the preschool’s emergent reading assessments within the preschool spirit.