Thursday, 19 November 2009
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Graded Papers in Kindergarten - Are You Kidding Me?
Tutu's Bliss recently wrote a post about Kindergarten - here and this got me thinking.
My son Cheeky goes to Kindergarten. He has been a happy go lucky kid who enjoys school. Last year he went to Pre-k and had so much fun. True to his name he is quite Cheeky too.. he had told his teacher that his hand hurts and very often would get out of any writing they required him to do! While suppressing my laughter I tried very hard to tell him he shouldn't do that! He hid under the table at clean up time and played truant! He is a fun kid and means no harm, just that he is Cheeky! The teachers have always loved him and he has never been in trouble at school.. not even a time out! He is a well behaved kid and likes to let the teachers have that good impression about him!
This year he started Private Kindergarten. He seems so stressed about school now! I think it is just the fact that there are so many rules to follow? So much pressure to perform? I am not sure! There is no pressure from us for him to perform. I must add that he is way ahead of the kids in his class. He can read well already, he can do math way advanced for his age.. and most of this out of interest, he sits with me and enjoys working with his worksheets at home! But he seems to feel the pressure when they ask him to do work sheets at school.
Is it because school has meant a fun place for him and now all of a sudden they are expecting him to do a lot more? I am not sure! He has lots of friends at school and seems to have a good time overall! He enjoys the fun activities and his teacher had glowing reports about him at the recent parent teacher conference. However there is one problem though. They give them graded papers every once in a while. And give the kids grades - A+ and so on. Cheeky has got an A+ on every one of those papers.
When he brought back the first paper home I just laughed and assumed that every kid would be given an A+. But no, the little imp tells me some friends make B- and even D. And somehow he seems to know that A+ is the best grade to be at! The other afternoon he was very upset! He claimed he had been asked to draw a zebra and he just couldn't draw the body! "I am not going to get A+, I am going to get a bad grade" he wailed. I looked at him in surprise. I went to school in a country that gives way too much importance to grades, and according to my parents I did not do that well in Kindergarten. But then I never once gave it much thought. When my mom would tell me to focus more or otherwise I will just have to repeat Kindergarten again I was thrilled! "Yay!! Then I would be the oldest in the class!" I am said to have declared!
And here my son was fretting over the grade for drawing a zebra? Are you kidding me? I assured him that I did not care what he got.. and that he should just put down whatever he knew and not worry about it either! I marched to school the next day to demand why they are grading his zebra.. apparently they had no intention of grading it either!
At the conference I discussed this with his teacher, and while she agrees with me that grading Kindergartners is a bit ridiculous; she says she has to follow the curriculum! Also she adds that other kids are like me.. bragging to parents about a D and my son is the only one who is stressing over getting everything right! She thinks that is just his nature and there is nothing we can do about it other than keep assuring him that is okay to be wrong too!! I have told him that, but my son enjoys being right and has taken to making me grade his worksheets at home! Sigh! I am told with the public school system next year this will change and they will only share the progress/ grades in the report cards and not on everyday papers. I am hoping that will ease the pressure a bit! For now, we are just going to take a vacation and have some fun!
So what do you think? Is grading at Kindergarten ridiculous or a developmental necessity?
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About the Author
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- From: CheekyTales
- Name: CheekyTales
- About Me: I am a parent, freelance writer and an IT professional - Oh yes in that order! For parenting does take a lot of time and energy. However it has taught me something.. being a parent has taught me that I can never be the master, I am always going to fumble and that it is okay to laugh out loud about it! Cheeky tales is an attempt to laugh at the little oddities in day to day life! And I find the reason to laugh in my toddler, my family, my daily observations and most of all in myself! Join me in my wonderful quest for laughter and life!
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Comments (47)
I think giving actual grades is ridiculous in kindergarten. Sure, if we're looking at whether or not the child completed the assignment, put any effort into it, etc, then that's one thing. I think that's totally fair to look at things like that and assign some sort of grade (I would think that the grade shouldn't go under a C, though, unless the child had absolutely not done any part of the assignment).
I'm not sure grading is ever "necessary", although it is certainly the most efficient way to measure the paper trail of the American education system. However, yes, kindergarten is way too young to be imposing those sorts of things upon children.
That is ridiculous. But grading does start in grade 1, so I guess it prepares them for that.
Meh, kindergarten for me was a funapalooza. We did absolutely nothing. First grade was like a culture-shock for me. I guess if they took one or two grades at the end of the year, I wouldn't have complained, but this?
That's madness.
I've been teaching 1st grade, and official grading isn't developmentally appropriate here, even...
@razzle_dazzle_lip_gloss@xanga - In 1st grade, the "grading" shouldn't even be letter grades. We put (+5) or (-1) type comments on tests, but on everyday work, it's pretty much a star :P
I'm not sure what to say...
It's his personality. Some ppl are naturally perfectionists. However, you can also turn someone into a perfectionist by pressuring them too much. Since there is not much pressure at home, it's probably his personality. I never felt stressed out about grades until high school! And it sucks. I tried to commit suicide last year because I was reallyyyy stressed out and depressed. I'm not saying that he will hurt himself, but he is def. a high achiever. And high achievers are prone to illnesses like depression, eating disorders, OCD, self-injury. When he gets older, you need to watch out for him. You may want to sit down and have a serious talk with him. Tell him that grades don't matter as much as trying your best. Show him affection when he makes a mistake because it is a learning experience.
If he's stressed out, you may need to take him to counseling when he's older or take him now and deal with it sooner. The sooner he learns the stress-reduction skills he needs, the better prepared he will be for the future. If you need tips, for stress reduction, you can ask me.
I have like workbooks and workbooks of advice and tips.lol
That is the biggest crock I've ever heard. No way is your kid the only one fretting about the grades. That sounds so bogus. ESPECIALLY since your child suddenly knows what the best grade is.
A vacation sounds like a great idea.
I think that grading in Kindergarten is absolutely rediculous and completely unnecessary.
I remember learning in Kindergarten. I remember studying letters with blow up letters and macaroni noodles. I remember painting with marbles. I remember a sandbox and a water table and books. I don't remember grades. I know now that I was learning, but at the time it was just fun.
THAT is what kids should be working on, learning through play, not learning to become obsessed with another person's opinion of the value of their work, not becoming obsessed with grades!
As a public school teacher myself, I feel that grading in kindergarten is ridiculous. Assessments need to be done to keep track of progress, but assigning A's, B's, C's and D's to young, beginning students, is wrong. In my school district, things are graded using an expectations and improvement system. I teach high school, so I may not have this exactly right, but the elementary schools grade according to "exceeds expectations," "meets expectations," and "needs improvement." There is not emphasis on "high stakes" grades with As and Bs - it just helps guide students in a direction to improve and succeed, which is where you should aim kindergartners anyway!
Additionally, throughout the district, k-12, we also give a 1-3 grade for effort, participation, and quality of work for each student. I think this encompasses a greater amount of information for more accurate assessment of the student overall.
Everything Ive learned in my Early Childhood Development and Education classes, tell me this is not a good idea. A childs self esteem is still too at risk and it can have pretty negative side effects. The spectrum of where A childs development should be s just far too broad. Some will really excel and some are still a little behind.. but its all NORMAL. The curriculum should take all the children into account and make sure its developmentally appropriate. I dont feel a child should be punished with a negative grade because they arent right where the curriculum says they need to be. It upsets me and I feel bad for the kids.
I'm having a big problem with the grading in my 1st graders class. She gets a report card every 6 weeks and a progress report every 3. They have grades 0 - 4 on them (basically F - A, respectively) and they use the grades from the papers they do. Well, in the last 3 weeks (since her last progress report) my daughter had 1 math test. Normally she is excellent in math but on this test she got 5 wrong out of 10. That gave her a 50. So her math grade went from a 4 to a 3 in three weeks because of this one test. She is devastated. She got 1 wrong out of 7 and made an 86. She knows that the highest she can get is 100 and for a 1st grader 86 is way way less than 100 so she gets really upset by it. She loved kindergarten but now she really dislikes school. She only gets 15 minutes for recess, 20 minutes for lunch where, by the way, they aren't aloud to talk, and so many tests and grades that she's already stressed about school! Why can't kids be kids anymore?
@ All - I was surprised when my son brought home homework.. so the grades were a complete shocker. I have spoken to the teacher about this and told her what I think! I have been talking to my son and telling him its ok to not do well in a test. Just write what you know and dont worry about the grade I have told him.. but even when I am having this conversation, it is just incredulous to me that I am talking to my 5 yr old about it. I will be glad if the school takes my feedback and does something about it! The teacher told me something about this being how the Abeka curriculum operates! Hope this changes! Fingers crossed!
@nellspixia@xanga - That is so true.. there is something terribly wrong with our system! Till they are 4 and 5 we let them think school is so much fun.. and when the reach Kindergarden and first grade, we start grading them and giving them a whole bunch of rules to follow and start making these kids get stressed about school! That is just so sad! Grades are important, for older kids! The younger ones should just learn to love what their doing and as a result develop an interest for it and do even better. That is how you encourage kids to excel, not by giving them grades and stressing them out!
@babyspiess@xanga - My son's progress report contains the same time of grading Exceeds Expectations, Met expectations and so on. The public school system follows that too. I think the mistake I did here is did not check deeply about how this Abekka curriculum works! The school is a well renowned established school, with wonderful staff and they have great extracurricular activities. I really love the school otherwise and so does my son. However the one problem with the curriculum they are following is this grading system. I think I will speak to the school director about this!
I am a teacher and have had my share of experience with kindergartners... so coming from a teaching standpoint, I can understand the necessity of assigning grades. I assign letter grades to my 2nd graders' papers. Then I can backup what I put on their report card with actual numerical statistics, instead of just trying to use my own judgement to determine what grade should appear there.
I agree that it can get out of hand, but I don't think it's the teachers' fault. We have to do what the school tells us to do, so if the teacher says it's part of the curriculum, I don't think she has much of a choice. Plus, consider how hard it is to give out grades that are "s" for satisfactory or "n" for "needs improvement".. it's much more fair to everyone when there is a specific grading rubric for each assignment.... if that makes any sense at all -- it's hard to explain!
I do agree, though, that it is probably just your son's nature to be as competitive as he is. He sounds like a perfectionist and it's good that he wants to do well. I think you're doing everything you should be -- reminding him that it's okay to be less-than-perfect, to make mistakes, or to lose is one of the hardest lessons for ANY kid to learn, much less a competitive perfectionist like your son. Just constantly reminding him that you love him no matter what, as long as he tries his best, is the best thing you can do for him!
Honestly, I don't think that it is THAT bad. If the kids don't learn grades, when will they learn?
Other than that, the most they can do is put plus and minuses on a paper.
The kids come to school to learn, not to play.
We were graded in the way of getting a "star" or sticker for a good job. Apparently the curriculum supports competition and believes that this system drives students.
It seems to me that children that young are still learning social skills and having themselves graded for something so arbitrary as drawing is completely inappropriate, giving them too much to be self conscious about at such an early age.
I don't think he's had enough experience in life to have been affected strictly by the change in systems , and his behavior could be a sign of another underlying anxiety problem in general or something else that may not be the grade specifically but may be showing up there.
Remember, the child is also VERY aware of what you are saying and thinking and of how you are reacting about this too, and he is interpreting this in some way and that is causing an effect as well.
I think its crazy to grade papers in kindergarten. crap!
I don't remember getting grades in Kindergarten or Preschool/Head Start (yes I went to Preschool and I went to Head Start). From 1st-2nd grade we didn't have "A+ to F". We had "S+, S-, S, U".
At some point your child, just like every other has to enter a world were they are graded and basically judged. That is what school is about. Although kindergarten is a bit young, it is only one grade lower then when I remember getting grades. I don't remember having actual grades in kindergarten, but I do remember it in first grade, although it was E, S, & U, (excellent, satisfactory, and unsatisfactory).
Your child stressing over grades is his personality and is something he is likely to do at all stages of his life. If he wasn't being grading in kindergarten and stressing, he would at the next level.
Do you and your child expect to only get gold stars for doing the work all his life rather than getting a fair grade based on what he is ABLE to do?
I am not trying to sound mean, and I'm very sorry if it does, but your blog comes across as very whiny, and almost as if you are saying that people shouldn't be graded, just give them an A for doing the work whether it is correct or not.
I do however hate teachers who grade art projects/drawings as not everyone is able to draw or has artistic abilities. Whereas everyone is capable of learning.
i was never graded in kindergarden! that's insane. :O poor kid.
why we didnt get grades til Gr.4
I am very sorry to hear that your son is suffering. I do understand that your bad experience influences your feelings about this, and I'm sorry.
From my perspective growing up in the US, I was graded in Kindergarten. I felt a sense of accomplishment. I believe it's a part of life, but shouldn't be taken very seriously at that age. I don't remember feeling concerned about it at all even though I knew it was happening. I think it really depends on how seriously the parents and teachers treat it. If they're easygoing, I don't think it's a big deal for kids.
I believe if a child is overly stressed, then that child might need help on a case-by-case basis. For most children, I don't think it's a problem.
I do agree that kids need to be graded and they need to learn from the beginning that their work matters and has an impact on their final assessment. However I have a problem with 100 point scale grades, especially on every paper, and I have a major problem with 1 test bringing a kid down an entire letter grade. I was graded as Excellent, Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory until 4th grade (5th was A or F) and it worked great without adding a ton of stress to kids. My daughter is naturally anxious about quite a few things and adding this kind of stress in 1st grade is ridiculous. I'm not going to tell her that her grades aren't important or that she shouldn't worry about them but I'm not going to jump down her throat for a bad one either. I asked her why her grade went down, she told me, I asked her if she knew that stuff now, she said yes, I told her she did an awesome job on her report card and I hope she tries just as hard for the next one. We talked about paying attention to directions and careless mistakes on tests. She is still really upset that her grade went down and now tells me that she hates school. Awesome.
My sister, when she was in THIRD GRADE, was required to learn pre algebra. PRE ALGEBRA! She would cry because she didn't understand... She was in a regular public school. The same one I went to, where I learned it in 6th grade, but only because I showed I was advanced along with a few others. THIRD GRADE....
Every year, our school would get together to go to a "meeting". We were told if we don't "pass" the PSSA's, we would be REQUIRED to do all of this extra work. Each year, the "passing" rates were expected to grow by 5%. Really? That is ridiculous too. This was just for funding. We would put aside our MAIN COURSE just to prepare for the PSSA testing for weeks.
That is a little off topic...but just saying...pressure will fry this kids one day...
School's fail. Too much learning of unnecessary things that do not prepare you for life(not saying that nothing they teach you prepares you for life). I'm personally glad I'm graduating, and I will be homeschooling my children if I have them.