Praise Doesn't Pay

Praise doesn't pay, according to some researchers. ABC news just published an article highlighting the work of Dr. Carol Dweck, a Stanford University researcher who has found that certain types of praise do not help kids. In fact, it can hurt them. I am sure that many pre-k teachers would agree. However, the article described Dweck's study done with hundreds of 5th graders. I think the results would be different if it was conducted with preschoolers. The effects of the same types of praise might cause positive effects on young children. I have found that positive praise can make or break a child's day in preschool.

"Contrary to popular belief, praising children's intelligence did not give them confidence and did not make them learn better," said Carol Dweck, a professor of developmental psychology at Stanford University and author of "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success."

Dweck found that students who were told they were smart did less well than students who were praised for working hard, after completing a test. These same students were less likely to want to take a test that was described as "harder" than the first test and did less well on the second test when they took it. It appears the smart students thought that only "dumb" kids had to work hard to be successful.

If you're like most parents, you offer praise to your children believing it is the key to their success -- those flattering words can boost a child's self-esteem and performance. But according to a new study, praise may do more harm than good.

I am not sure though that parents offer praise only because they believe it is the key to their childrens' success. This makes it seem that praise is only a manipulation of children by parents. But, I think that most parents actually offer praise because they are genuinely proud of their kids. I have struggled with the conflicting messages of praise that I give my own children. My 8 year old is in a gifted program. It was strange for her to see that many of her friends who were recommended for the program did not get accepted. We struggled with redefining the word "smart," what it meant, and how smart can be represented in different people. I have always subscribed to Howard Gardener's definitions of multiple intelligences and tried hard to pass that on to my children. This definition of intelligence is complicated even more when we realize the racial and gender biases associated with many gifted assessments and the disproportionate ethnic and racial representation in gifted programs.

This labeling is a part of our educational system, especially now that teachers are expected to use ability grouping in reading instruction, even at the preschool level. But, I think that there is a gap in the reporting of this study. There may be developmental appropriateness of certain types of praise. When kids are younger than six or so, I think that telling them they are smart may not cause the same inverse relationship to a child's performance. At four and five years old, kids are very dependent on adults for their self image. It is important for parents and teachers to make sure that their students' self image is positive. As kids start to differentiate themselves from their parents at about seven and eight, this dependence decreases. What their friends think becomes more important.

There is an important type of praise left out of the study. The difference between praise and pride.

In my classroom I try to use authentic praise as much as possible. Saying things like, "I like the way Benjamin is sitting" can be a huge help with compliance but it does not necessarily increase a student's positive self image. What I have found that increases students self esteem is when I say, "I'm proud of you." I have found pride to be an extremely powerful feeling for kids, especially for my students who may never have felt pride in themselves. Pride arises out of a feeling of efficacy. A sense of pride is an aspect of praise I would like to see researched. I doubt the same inverse relationships would be found.

Making Connections

I had the amazing opportunity to travel to New Orleans, Louisiana this past week.  I am a part of a small organization called World Beat Connection.  Our mission is to connect with people from other cultures and promote peace and justice through music.  Throughout the week we played a total of 14 gigs, mostly at elementary schools.  What an experience!  From the moment we started playing, I knew this was going to be a life-changing week. 

 

I have done many service projects before, but this one, in particular, helped to reaffirm that our world thrives on making positive and meaningful connections through shared experiences.  So, as I reflect on the week, I know that my classroom will forever be my ongoing life’s mission.  My commitment to educating and supporting four and five year-olds is based on creating a safe and accepting community.  I try my best to teach tolerance, social justice and service to others.  We do this through our everyday classroom expectations, cultural lessons, specific social and behavioral lessons and a wide variety of great literature.                                                                            

This past month we have been talking about friendship.  I created specific lessons to help my students learn the language to use to create good friendships.  I have learned that this strategy is great for english language learners.  But, more importantly, it reminds me that I can't assume my students have seen positive interactions outside of our school day.  This gives everyone a chance to observe, practice and use these skills in real situations.  

     We practiced some of the following:  

        - introducing yourself: "Hi!  My name is ____________.  What is your name?"

        - making conversation/getting to know a friend:  "How are you?  What do you like to play with?"

        - asking a friend to play:  "Will you play _________ with me?"

        - how to tell a friend you do not want to play:  "No thanks.  Thanks for asking!"

                                                      

My students used these skills to work together on an art project.  They had to ask a friend to help them trace their body and then helped each other decorate their life size tracings.  It was great to see and hear some of the cooperation and friendships among my students!

                    

As a pre-k teacher, I have the opportunity to foster positive and meaningful connections among my students and their families.  We share our hopes and dreams and invite families to share their cultural heritage with our class.  It takes effort, flexibility and a genuine interest in people--all people.  This commitment to help our children to be thoughtful and caring people will make our homes, schools, neighborhoods, country and world a better place.    

Welcome, Ruby!

Last week we were thrilled to welcome a new student, Ruby, into our classroom community.  The day before Ruby started school, several of my students had the opportunity to meet her during recess.  Aaliyah showed her around our classroom and Julia told her all about what we do in school.  Ruby's mom emphasized that this was a "big girl school," just like the school that Ruby's six-year-old sister Sonya attended.  Ruby seemed a bit skeptical of everything, but she listened to what people had to say and was excited to play with all of the toys we had in the classroom.    

 

When I told the rest of my students about Ruby later that day, they were fascinated.  Mayala couldn't quite believe it; "You mean she's gonna be in our class?  And she's gonna have a situpon [situpons are the cushions that my students sit on while we are on the carpet]?  Whoa!"  Jose was curious to know whether Ruby would be a boy or a girl.  When I said she was a girl, he replied, "Aww, we need more boys!"  A true fact, given that we only have three boys in our class!  Overall, however, my students were thrilled about the prospect of having a new friend in school.  They excitedly told their families everything they knew about Ruby, and I had several parents come in the next morning asking questions about this new friend. 

 

When Ruby arrived in school the next morning, my students were thrilled.  Even Malik, who often keeps to himself, came bounding up to me yelling, "Ruby is here! Ruby is here!"  Julia took an instant fascination with Ruby.  From the moment we walked to the classroom, she started commenting on everything that Ruby was doing.  "Look, Ruby is walking in line with us!" and "She has a journal, just like me!"  I shared Julia's excitement and prompted her to direct her comments to Ruby by saying things like, "Ruby, we both have journals!"  Ruby was receptive to Julia's comments and frequently replied, "It's because I'm in big girl school now.  I'm not in baby school any more." 

 

Helping Julia see Ruby as a peer, not simply a novelty in our classroom, was a critical step during Ruby's first day.  Throughout the week, Julia was able to show Ruby the routines and procedures of our classroom and include her in conversations and play scenarios.  She has played a tremendous role in helping Ruby get acclimated to school, and will surely be a great buddy to her for the rest of the year.

Besharov and Call: Fact and Fiction

I have taught pre-k for 12 years--a state funded program for 5 years and Head Start for the past 7 years. In that time, I have found many folks who don’t see the benefits of Head Start. If they only spent some time in a classroom they would see its benefits firsthand, but until that happens, we will have to settle for policy debates like this pot shot of Obama’s preschool plans from conservative scholars, Douglas Besharov and Douglas Call in the New York Times.

The problem with an article like this is that it confuses facts and truth. In trying to say that by supporting pre-k, President Obama is supporting a failed enterprise, Besharov and Call twist the facts into a form that looks scary but that is ultimately brittle and falls apart under close scrutiny.

I will address each of Besharov and Call's points. Some of this will be from experience, some research, some from facts.

"After spending six months in Head Start, 4-year-olds on average could identify only two more letters than children from similar backgrounds not in the program; 3-year-olds could identify one and a half more letters."

There is no reference for this claim. It is true that children begin to blossom in language and literacy during the 4 year old year. Teaching students to recognize letters at 3 years old is not necessarily a developmentally appropriate practice, although I have successfully taught 14 out of 17 three year olds to recognize all capital, lower case, and letter sounds in 9 months so that we could begin reading in the 4 year old year. The study in the article was conducted with 4600 students, likely in community based Head Start classrooms. The 6 months could have been over the summer, or from September to February. The federally recognized reading curriculum put into place with the National Reporting System did not call for students to begin learning letter identification until after about 4 months. The real falsehood of the claim is that Head Start students learned to identify "two more letters than children from similar backgrounds not in the program." It does not tell us if these students were in a state funded program, high-quality day care, or staying home with their mother.

The article also mentions the National Reporting System, the accountability tool put into place by the Bush administration to de-fund Head Start. Sadly, (for opponents of Head Start) Head Start classrooms all over the country passed the NRS just fine even though the measure was found to be unreliable as a measurement tool. From personal experience, I know that the assessment asked students to tell the meaning of different vocabulary words in the Fall than it did in the Spring and that teachers never knew what would be on the assessment from one administration session to another including from pre-test to post test.

The implied assumption when you read the above statement about letter acquisition is that these students only learned 2 or 3 letters when they most likely learned 20 - 24 letters and their peers learned 18 - 22 letters. Counting letters aside, the real focus of Head Start is helping families out of poverty. Bickering over numbers of letters will not shed any light on how many families were able to go to work knowing their children were learning how to read, how many parents entered and or completed their GED or how many families were able to receive health services that wouldn't have received them if they weren’t in Head Start. One of the biggest impacts that Head Start has is on families' ability to locate resources to help their families out of poverty.

Head Start is primarily a social service program, not an education program. Even though the direct benefits to the child are great, there are also significant benefits for families and communities.

"From 1997 to 2004, even as Congress gave Head Start enough money to increase enrollment by 22 percent, the number of children in the program increased by only 2 percent."

I am not sure where these numbers came from but Head Start had been flat funded since 2000 until its re-authorization in 2008. This time period also saw the creation and implementation of Early Head Start, a program that supports at-risk pregnant mothers and their young children up to 3 years old. In 2004-2005, there were about 97,000 children in Head Start and 93,000 children in Early Head Start. Head Start almost doubled the number of students they were serving while only increasing costs by 22 percent. Not bad for a social program.

"So many poor families now use other programs that Head Start has, for all practical purposes, run out of poor 4-year-olds to serve. Rather than try to make the program more attractive to families, Head Start advocates persuaded Congress in late 2007 to raise the income eligibility ceiling, from essentially the poverty line to 130 percent of poverty."

According to the National Head Start Association, in 2004-2005 the program served 45 percent of children eligible for Head Start. The increase in the eligibility level is to accommodate for the lessened value of the dollar. Many families within 130% are still poor and needing the comprehensive services Head Start provides.

"Lack of money is not the problem: to keep a child in Head Start full-time, year-round, costs about $22,600, as opposed to an average cost of $9,500 in a day care center."

This is blatantly not true. According to Steven Barnett of the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), Head Start student costs about $8000 dollars a year. In fact, Head Start is often funded with kind donations of local communities. High quality day care is more expensive than $9,500 a year. Day care can cost between $6,000 and $20,000 per year. The difference is that you often get what you pay for in terms of private day care.

Besharov is a scholar associated with the American Enterprise Institute, a neo-conservative think tank that came to prominence during the Bush Administration. Members of the organization have included Newt Gingrich, Paul Wolfowitz,  John Bolton, and Lynne Cheney. Skewing of facts on either side of the pre-k debate is not about helping kids, it is about helping an argument. An article like this really seems to be preaching to a choir that already supports the dominant ideas expressed in it. However, for better or worse, that choir left Washington D.C. on January 20th, 2009.

New Kid in Town

I received notice two weeks ago that a new student, Olivia, would be starting in our class.  I added her name to our “who’s here?” board, our job chart and our name sticks.  All of our students were beginning to wonder…is she ever going to come to school?

 

At circle time we would say, “Hello Olivia, wherever you are!” and several kids had asked what she looks like.  I didn’t quite understand their interest.  We have had new students start before and people had been absent.  In the past, it didn’t really seem to change a lot of our time together. 

 

Today was different.  Olivia and her parents walked into our class just as we were finishing our group time.  The rest of my class was deciding where they were going to work for choice time and only a few students were left on the carpet.  With wide eyes, Tucker pointed and said, “IT’S OLIVIA!”  I felt like we were in a movie and time had stood still.  The mysterious and long anticipated student had arrived and Tucker, especially, was ready to show her the ropes.  He marched right over to her, extended his right hand and clearly stated, “Hello Olivia, my name is Tucker.  It is nice to meet you!”  This is one of the many greetings we have practiced in our circle time.  I was impressed. 

 

I have to preface the rest of this anecdote by mentioning that Tucker is a bundle of energy.  He has a kind heart and an inquisitive nature.  Consequently, sticking to a task or controlling his body doesn’t always come naturally to him!

 

I was amazed as I watched him guide Olivia throughout the rest of our day.  He showed her how to use the play dough and reminded her to put the caps back onto the markers.  He even assured her that mom and dad always come back so, “really, don’t be sad.” 

 

The structure and consistency of our classroom was obvious today.  It is great to have a tangible moment to remind myself that my patience and persistence as a teacher pays off.  Our classroom is a safe space where new and old students feel welcome and our work as a community shows as we extend a warm welcome to our new found friends.  

We Can't Do It Alone

 The Foundation for Child Development recently released a Policy Brief that insists that it is time that we face facts about Pre-K. Pre-K can't fix the entire educational system. The report asserts that there is only so much one initiative can accomplish. The Case for Investing in PreK-3rd Education: Challenging Myths about School Reform supports the funding of pre-k through third initiatives as opposed to Pre-K as a stand alone school reform. Instead of using this as a reason not to fund pre-k, as many "reformers" like to do, the policy brief gives it as the reason America needs to invest in all of the "early childhood" years. The early childhood years, according to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), is the time in a child's life from 3 - 8 years old. This crucial time is when childrens' brains form many of their foundational neural pathways that will serve them for the rest of their lives. From the Policy Brief:

Children's success in school and in life must be built on a foundation of seamless learning during their earliest PreK-3rd school years. 

This can only happen when there is collaboration between grade levels in schools. Many think that bringing pre-k into the schools will only serve to push down the academic standards and rob children of their childhood. This is not necessarily true. There can be accountability and childhood in the same room. Just listen to how Jennifer descibes the academic learning in her classroom and you can tell there her students are learning at high levels. In fact, pre-k practices should be pushed up into the higher grades as a way to more effectively teach all students instead of those that are "ready" for school at age 5 or 6 years.

image from: NEFEC website

Brianna's Buddies

This year I have been fortunate to develop a collaborative teaching partnership with my school's preschool autism teacher, Erin. Two of her students come to my classroom for a portion of the school day and have been doing so since the beginning of the school year. Through our work together, Erin and I have learned a great deal about working with a diverse group of children. Our students are also learning valuable social and academic lessons from one another.  

  

A few weeks ago, we decided that Brianna was ready to start spending more time in my classroom. Her social skills had been improving steadily, and Erin thought that with a little more time to practice, Brianna would be able to make tremendous progress. In addition to spending more time with us, we decided to implement a "buddy skills" program for Brianna and several of my students. This program, which would essentially teach my students how to be a good friend to Brianna and respect her individual needs, would ensure that she always had a friend in our classroom to help her practice basic social skills.  

  

We selected five students from my classroom -- Makiera, Mayala, Suniah, Julia, and Aaliyah -- to be Brianna's buddies. We went through a series of short lessons to teach them how to read social cues from Brianna, respond appropriately and engage her in conversations and play. In child-friendly language, Brianna’s buddies quickly learned how best to “stay, play, and talk” with her.  

 

Last week, Makiera, Mayala, Suniah, Julia, and Aaliyah officially began as Brianna's buddies. The results thus far have been amazing: Brianna's buddies are talking more to Brianna than they ever did before, and Brianna has begun to engage them in conversations. On Thursday, Makiera worked with Brianna to select and purchase food from our dramatic play "grocery store" to bring home to their “babies”.  Together they are practicing the social, cognitive, and language skills that are so fundamental to pre-k! 

Did you see your shadow today?

Groundhog’s Day is one of my favorite holidays.  There isn’t much to it, I suppose, but it has been celebrated at my house for as long as I can remember.  I love celebrating February 2^nd at school.  It is a great study in the changing seasons, shadows and hibernation!

 

Throughout the day, we do a lot of activities.  When the students arrive at school, they answer the question of the day, “Did you see your shadow today?”  We learned from a few families that shadow is “sombra” in Spanish.  During our group time we read a story about a groundhog that can’t get to sleep.  We discussed animals that hibernate.  The story has great predictable text that encourages students to decide whether or not the groundhog should be awake during various months of the year.  We also made groundhog headbands and used them to make shadows on our wall.  With a desk lamp we create the “sun” and our little groundhogs make shadows of various shapes and sizes.  To end our day we learn a song and fingerplay to help us remember what we have learned about groundhogs.  It goes like this:

 

 

                                                            I’m a little groundhog small and round,

                                                            I sleep in a burrow deep in the ground.

                                                            I look to find my shadow on Groundhog’s Day

                                                            To see if Spring is on its way!

 

Try it next year!  It is one of those, “just because” kind of holidays.  Not only is it fun and interesting, it incorporates many early childhood concepts. 

Educate Our Way to a Better Economy

Arne Duncan, the new Secretary of Education, just gave everyone who reads this blog a hint as to where his priorities are in education. On NPR yesterday he said, "We need to educate our way to a better economy." He went on to mention early childhood investments and the "moral imperative" to educate our children better. As I have written before, pre-k has been consistently presented as an effective long term investment in human capital, just the type of economic reforms that the country is looking for now.

According to Dr. Timothy Bartik of the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research (2006), while investments in luring businesses can create large financial gains for a state in the short term these benefits are likely to plateau after several years. However, after an initial short-term increase in jobs by creating preschool classrooms, a time release earnings boom begins to tick when a state invests in voluntary preschool. Bartik also suggested that the return to the state may be less than the return to the nation because 2/3 of state program participants are likely to leave the state in the 12 years that it would take to realize the return on investment. But this benefit to the nation, in terms of higher income and less stress on social services also suggests a stronger federal role in funding preschool initiatives.

While some are more interested in the short term increases of tax cuts I will  put my money on the reliable bet, our children.

Duncan was hesitant to say whether he thought NCLB should be reauthorized or "rebranded" as a new reform. Barack Obama has also talked about a new direction for education. In his inauguration speech he talked about development and innovation.

According to a Chicago Tribune article, at his confirmation hearing in January, Duncan said he and President Obama would improve early childhood education in the United States. "There's nothing more important that we can do to get our children off to a great start in their life." He also said, "quality education is the civil rights issue of our generation." 

Please take the time to visit the Pre-K Now website and find out how to support pre-k in your area. It is a great place to learn how to take part in what is shaping up to be the time when early childhood education will come into its own in America.