Hear from an expert on Common Core kindergarten standards and developmentally appropriate expectations.
by Richard Gentry, PhD
Hey, kindergarten teachers, it’s test time again! Use your own teacher experience and expertise to show parents—or anyone—how a kindergartner’s reading brain is developing by answering one question: what phase on the five-phase pathway to code breaking is this kindergartner in today? Right now kindergarten kids are expected—at a minimum—to be in phase 2. So here’s a time-tested phase 2 checklist—research-based, easy-to-use, and understandable to parents. Complete the checklist in less than three minutes for each child, identify that child’s phase, and show whether he or she is below, on, or beyond the expected phase for this time of year in kindergarten.
This powerful formative assessment based on what you have already observed makes sense to parents and shows them what essential, basic literacy skill (“phase by-products”) their child can or cannot do—right now in kindergarten—plus what’s expected before the end of this year. I’ll also show you how to link the checklist to Common Core or comparable kindergarten state standards in ways that parents understand.
Teacher Talk: Common Core State Standards for kindergarten are spiraling, grade-by-grade, build-on-what-students-already-know expectations. The five-phase observation shows what your child already knows about literacy so it’s ideally suited for assessing Common Core expectations: it shows what your child can currently do as a reader, writer, and speller—the known skills we are building on in kindergarten. By building on these known skills we will move your child up to the next phase.
The phase your child is in closely parallels his or her reading brain architecture and development. That is to say, phase observation is a developmental gauge of how a child’s reading brain is developing based on what he or she can or cannot do.
Today we will look at how your child is progressing with phase 2 expectations—the minimal expectations for this time of year in kindergarten. Your child is expected to demonstrate the ten skills below by the end of the school year.
Teacher Talk: Here’s the Phase 2 Expectations Checklist.
As a reader your child can:
As a writer your child can:
As a speller your child can:
Many kindergartners have moved beyond these minimal kindergarten expectations. In some schools and districts where standards are established locally, kindergartners are expected to enter first-grade phases.
In a recent post on the Psychology Today web site, I used phase observation as a lens for interpreting each of the Common Core kindergarten literacy standards. Check it out here.
Let's face it. Teachers love phase observation. Heinemann has had a surge of requests for Assessing Early Literacy with Richard Gentry: 5 Phases, 1 Simple Test (a three-part, DVD-based kit with videos of children that make the phases come alive).
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Follow Richard on Twitter @RaiseReaders.