The Charlotte Jewish News -May 2007 - Page 17
Preschool Puzzler
By Fern Sanderson
The Preschool Puzzler is a
monthly feature presented by the
Jewish Preschool on Sardis. Fern
Sanderson is the director of
JPOS and a member of the
national, state and local
Associations for Education for
Young Children, the Association
for Supervision and Curriculum
Development and the National
Jewish Early Childhood
Network. She can be reached at
jpsonsardis@earthlink.net.
Q: I want my preschooler to
be prepared for Idndergarten. I
expressed this to her teacher.
She told me that at this stage of
development, focusing on a
strong foundation in social and
emotional skills comes before
learning academics. 1 just
don’t understand this.
A. Let’s think about the kinds
of skills your daughter needs to
be an effective learner. She has to
be able to follow directions and
work well with others.
She has to know how to
stay on a task even
when learning may be
challenging. She needs
to be able to complete a
task, and she needs to
want to learn and
explore.
All of the attitudes and skills
that your daughter needs to be a
good student are the very same
skills and beliefs that make up
her social and emotional self As
she develops, she learns the skills
she needs to work well with oth
ers. When she learns self-regula
tion, she can stick with a learning
activity even if it becomes frus
trating or if she makes mistakes.
The development of initiative is
important to keep the spark of
learning alive and to give her the
belief that she is able to learn and
master new things. Problem
solving :?kills give her the basic
tools she needs to learn how to
decode words, figure out math
problems and discover the
world around her.
These social and emo
tional skills are as neces
sary to the learning tasks
as the tasks themselves.
Once your daughter knows
how to work alongside
others, persists through
challenging tasks, has con
fidence that she can and
will learn and how to go about
tackling problem, she will be
armed and ready to engage in
learning experiences. Before
teaching academics, we need to
make sure she has the social and
emotional skills she needs to
learn content. Social and emo
tional teaching is always the step
preceding more academic teach
ing.
Learning does not take place
in a vacuum. Learning involves
the whole child — physically,
socially, emotionally and cogni
tively. A child must have the pre
requisite social and emotional
skills and attitudes to be a suc
cessful learner.
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Think you know ail
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Charlotte?
K-8 Model Wins Out
By Jessica Sammis
Earlier this year, Educational
Leadership, a monthly publication
of the Association for Supervision
and Curriculum Development
(ASCD), dedicated an entire issue
to the social and academic devel
opment of adolescents. It seems
that “tweens,” ages 10-14, have
been caught in the middle of an
educational debate that has been
going on for decades. One of the
most heated debates that has
recently resurfaced is over the
grade level structure of the school.
On one side are those who
endorse the middle school concept
- a theory that separates grades 6-
8 from the rest of the academic
world and focuses primarily on a
developmentally based curricu
lum of social and academic
growth. Groups such as the
National Middle School
Association (NMSA) are strong
advocates for this style of teaching
for the middle level learner. On
the other side, the K-8 reformers
want to put tweens back into ele
mentary school. They feel that the
elementary environment is more
personal and protected and pro
vides a more intellectual curricu
lum. A coherent curriculum,
strong leadership, result-based
accountability, and sound disci
pline are cornerstones of the K-8
model.
Both sides make compelling
arguments for their style of teach
ing tweens, but recent independ
ent studies in Milwaukee,
Baltimore, and Philadelphia all
show concrete evidence that sup
ports K-8 reform. While each
study used its own measures and
methods of comparison, they all
reported increased academic,.
social, and extracurricular
achievement in students who
attended K-8 schools over those
who attended separate elementary
and middle schools. Two of the
studies continued their observa
tions throughout high school as
well and found that the K-8 stu
dents were accepted at better high
schools and were more academi
cally successful there.
The Barbara and Jerry Levin
Jewish Middle School and the
Charlotte Jewish Day School have
not been ignoring this research.
Over the past two years, the
schools have been considering the
strengths and weaknesses of their
current, separate models.
Ultimately, the benefits of the K-8
model won the battle, and the two
schools decided to proceed with
plans to merge. And finally last
month, after more than two years
, of research and planning, the
boards of the two schools agreed
to the plan.
Of course, there is still a lot to
be accomplished that will take
time. Therefore, the merger will
become official for the 2008-2009
school year. In the meantime, the
schools will continue to act as two
separate institutions, but with the
added benefit of knowing what the
future holds for their merger. It’s
an exciting time for Jewish educa
tion in Charlotte.
Passover at CJP
(Continued from page 16)
“It was hidden in a book, but
we found it,” he said.
Morah Elka and teachers led
each seder, telling the story using
songs, movements and plush toys
to represent each plague. Students
tried matzah and jelly, cream
cheese and jelly, butter and tuna.
They also had horseradish,
References: Beane, J., & Lipka,
R. (2006). “Guess Again: Will
Changing the Grades Save
Middle-Level Education?”
Educational Leadership, 63,
26-30.
If you would like more infor
mation about the Barbara and
Jerry Levin Jewish Middle School
or its merger with the Charlotte
Jewish Day School, please contact
Jessica Sammis at 704-366-4558
orjsammis@cjdschool.org.
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charoset, hard boiled eggs and
other traditional foods.
So with all the activities and
excitement, what was their
favorite part of PassOver?
For four-year-old Nicole
Hoffman in Miss Kim’s class, the
answer was simple.
“Eating.”
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