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Whitman Elementary School

Location
Whitman Elementary School
7326 S.E. Flavel St.
Portland, OR 97206

Contact
Cynthia Lewis, Principal
Phone: 503-916-6370
School Profile Page: www.pps.k12.or.us/schools-c/profiles/?id=290

Description

Whitman is a diverse, Title I Schoolwide elementary school in east Portland. The cultural and linguistic diversity in the school is represented by 23 percent English language learners primarily from Latin America, Asia, and the former Soviet Union.

Whitman implemented its first year of full-day kindergarten classes in the 2001-2002 year. According to full-day teachers Pat Hassell and Carol Merriman, this came about for several reasons. There was continuing pressure on Whitman teachers to prepare kindergarten students for reaching the district’s first-grade readiness benchmarks. The teachers realized there wasn’t enough time in a regular half-day schedule to prepare the students adequately. They appealed to the principal for more instructional time. The principal was able to obtain funding for a full-day program through the Title I Schoolwide program. As part of this change, both the reading and mathematics curricula were expanded in the full-day schedule.

The school also wanted to implement full-day kindergarten to narrow the achievement gap between low-income and English language learners and other students. The school was responding to research showing that students from low-income families often do not have the same kind of learning opportunities in their non-school hours that other children have, which puts them at higher risk for not meeting standards.

Pat Hassell and Carol Merriman offer their observations after their first year of full-day implementation:

Observed Outcomes/Benefits of Full-Day Kindergarten:

• More time to work on math every day, not just two days a week
• More time for individual reading activities: teachers can work on sounds and letters one-on-one with children, skills they need to be ready for first grade
• More time to work on large motor skills using games and other developmentally appropriate activities
• More time for developing themes, and working on science and art projects

Says Hassell, "We are not always hurrying now, and I don’t have to make choices about what I can or cannot do because of limited time."

The full-day program creates fewer transitions between school and non-school hours if daycare is replaced by more kindergarten hours. The full-day program also allows children more time to make transitions during the day. "We have time to review with the children at the end of the day and the children have time to wind down before going home," comments Hassell. Adds Merriman, "Full-day also allows more time for teachers to do ’messy or involved’ projects, because we don’t have to spend time cleaning up to make way for the next class."

Because of the additional time, both teachers have observed that their students are better prepared developmentally, socially, and academically for first grade. They also agree that full-day should not be the only option for children, recommending that parents choose a kindergarten option based on their children’s needs.

Tips for Success

• Conduct a needs analysis of your community to see how many parents are interested in this option, how this fits in with district and school goals, and what the funding opportunities will be.
• Conduct research on kindergarten options and visit other full-day kindergarten classes.

Since this was the first year of full-day scheduling, Whitman teachers are still learning and making adjustments. Both teachers believe their classes can benefit from each other’s different learning approaches by switching classrooms during the week. Hassell has an early childhood focus for teaching—he guides the children in exploring their own choices. In his classroom built around work stations, children can investigate worms in one area, and work on arts projects in another. Merriman’s class is more structured. She often has the children in large-group instruction, not always with the whole class, which allows her to pay attention to the needs and levels of the individual child. It is good, they say, for children to have a balance between "quiet, structured time" and "noisier" exploration time. Hassell and Merriman are also considering different emergent literacy instructional approaches to better prepare children for reading in the first grade. One approach would be to spend more time on phonemic awareness and then move on to beginning reading groups.

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