“WE LOST THE PLADO”: Tracing privileged school literacies in one kindergarten classroom

Drawing from a network case study, this article traces enactments of a letter writing enquiry in one Kindergarten public school classroom in New York City, and in doing so, explores both the affordances and limitations of sociomaterial approaches employed by the researcher towards school literacies. Looking down at one morning meeting revealed rotting pumpkins, playdough, pocket charts and cheese sandwiches, doing the work of environmental nonprofits, DOE officials, and cafeteria staff, all becoming entangled with the teacher and students in solving the problem of food waste at lunch, and ultimately to students writing letters to their school administrators. Yet, in looking out from this same data, I reconsider how the curriculum was not only constituted by networks of circulating materials, but also by networks circulating students' bodies into unequal school spaces, fuelling changes in the school’s enrolment and funding through neighbourhood gentrification. I propose ways in which sociomaterial accounts of literacy curriculums may contribute bridgework along with accounting for structural inequalities mobilized in and through schools.

THE COMPETITION IN PRESCHOOL AGE: A SHORT REVIEW

<p>Competition matters in our daily life. Humans compete in their jobs, in their relationships, in the classroom etc. for different reason and with different way. We know a lot about competition for the adults but we lack of knowledge on what is happening during the preschool age and this is the focus of the present paper. The literature review shows that young children from the age of 4 years old perceive the concept of competition and express competitive behaviour. The factors which affect young children’s competitive behaviour are the gender, the age and the composition of the team as to gender and size. Moreover, during the implementation of the curriculum children express competitive behaviour in kindergarten classroom. They express competitive behaviours, which are divided into two main categories, verbally and physically, which include and subcategories. Competitive behaviour is expressed by children more often during organized activities and less during free activities, like breakfast time and discussion.</p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0870/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Aligning Preschool and Kindergarten Classroom Learning Experiences

The focus of transition from preschool to kindergarten is often placed on what can be done to prepare the child. Relatively little emphasis is placed on how differences between learning experiences across settings might impact the child's transition from one setting to the other. This chapter presents the results of secondary data analysis of the 2009 FACES study that show that the alignment of prekindergarten-kindergarten (PK-K) learning experiences impacts children's kindergarten outcomes. In particular, HLM modeling found that children who had at least as many or more activity-based centers in their classrooms in kindergarten as they had in prekindergarten showed significantly better literacy and math outcomes at the end of kindergarten than children who had less or no activity-based centers in kindergarten. This chapter advocates for a systemic focus on transition that puts an emphasis on continuing developmentally appropriate practices between preschool and kindergarten settings as a way to facilitate transitions and improve outcomes for young children.

Creating Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Classroom Communities in Early Childhood Language Immersion Schools

This chapter examined the development of a classroom community through a case study of a kindergarten teacher in a Spanish language immersion school. Case study data includes observational field notes, classroom artifacts, informal conversations, and interviews with an immersion kindergarten classroom teacher. Additionally, interviews with the two administrators from the Spanish and French immersion schools (networking schools) were collected and analyzed to learn about their perspectives regarding culturally and linguistically responsive teaching practices and their commitment to encouraging the creation of classroom communities within their schools. The results revealed both the administrators and the case teacher in the kindergarten classroom supported practices of drawing from their own and students' cultural identities and resources to create a culturally responsive learning and social environment, in partnership with students and families. Recommendations for future studies on diverse early childhood settings are discussed in regards to teacher preparation and policy enactment.