ELC 501

ENGLISH FOR CRITICAL ACADEMIC READING

ARTICLE ANALYSIS:
Kindergartens Ringing the Bell for Play Inside the Classroom

Lecturer

Madam Fazdilah Binti Md Kassim

NAME STUDENT ID
IBRAHIM BIN SETH 2019853488
MUHAMMAD HAKIMIE IZAT BIN ROSLE 2019868092

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Kindergartens Ringing the Bell
for Play Inside the Classroom
By Motoko Rich
June 9, 2015

PASADENA, Md. — Mucking around with sand and water. Playing Candy
Land or Chutes and Ladders. Cooking pretend meals in a child-size kitchen.
Dancing on the rug, building with blocks and painting on easels.

Call it Kindergarten 2.0.

Concerned that kindergarten has become overly academic in recent years,

this suburban school district south of Baltimore is introducing a new
curriculum in the fall for 5-year-olds. Chief among its features is a most old-
fashioned concept: play.

“I feel like we have been driving the car in the wrong direction for a long
time,” said Carolyn Pillow, who has taught kindergarten for 15 years and
attended a training session here on the new curriculum last month. “We
can’t forget about the basics of what these kids need, which is movement
and opportunities to play and explore.”

As American classrooms have focused on raising test scores in math and

reading, an outgrowth of the federal No Child Left Behind law and
interpretations of the new Common Core standards, even the youngest
students have been affected, with more formal lessons and less time in
sandboxes. But these days, states like Vermont, Minnesota and Washington
are again embracing play as a bedrock of kindergarten.

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Like Anne Arundel County here, Washington and Minnesota are beginning
to train teachers around the state on the importance of so-called purposeful
play — when teachers subtly guide children to learning goals through
games, art and general fun. Vermont is rolling out new recommendations
for kindergarten through third grade that underscore the importance of
play. And North Carolina is encouraging teachers to evaluate paintings,
scribbles or block-building sessions, instead of giving quizzes, in assessing
the reading, math and social skills of kindergartners.

But educators in low-income districts say a balance is critical. They warn

that unlike students from affluent families, poorer children may not learn
the basics of reading and math at home and may fall behind if play
dominates so much that academics wither.

“Middle-class parents are doing this anyway, so if we don’t do it for kids

who are not getting it at home, then they are going to start at an even
greater disadvantage,” said Deborah Stipek, the dean of the Graduate
School of Education at Stanford.

Across the country, many schools in recent years have curtailed physical
and art education in favor of longer blocks for reading and math instruction
to help improve test scores. The harder work even began in kindergarten.
Most recently, more than 40 states have adopted the Common Core,
standards for reading and math that in many cases are much more difficult
than previous guidelines. In some school districts, 5-year-olds are doing
what first or even second graders once did, and former kindergarten staples
like dramatic play areas and water or sand tables have vanished from some
classrooms, while worksheets and textbooks have appeared.

A study comparing federal government surveys of kindergarten teachers in

1998 and 2010 by researchers at the University of Virginia found that the
proportion of teachers who said their students had daily art and music

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dropped drastically. Those who reported teaching spelling, the writing of
complete sentences and basic math equations every day jumped.

The changes took place in classrooms with students of all demographic

backgrounds, but the study found that schools with higher proportions of
low-income students, as well as schools with large concentrations of
nonwhite children, were even more likely to cut back on play, art and music
while increasing the use of textbooks.

Experts, though, never really supported the expulsion of playtime.

Using play to develop academic knowledge — as well as social skills — in

young children is the backbone of alternative educational philosophies like
those of Maria Montessori or Reggio Emilia. And many veteran
kindergarten teachers, as well as most academic researchers, say they have
long known that children learn best when they are allowed ample time to go
shopping at a pretend grocery store or figure out how to build bridges with
wooden blocks. Even the Common Core standards state that play is a
“valuable activity.”

But educators point out that children are also capable of absorbing
sophisticated academic concepts.

“People think if you do one thing you can’t do the other,” said Nell Duke, a
professor of education at the University of Michigan. “It really is a false
dichotomy.”

M. Manuela Fonseca, the early-education coordinator for Vermont, said her

state was trying to emphasize the learning value of play in its new
guidelines.

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“Before we had the water table because it was fun and kids liked it,” she
said. “Now we have the water table so kids can explore how water moves
and actually explore scientific ideas.”

Still, teachers like Therese Iwancio, who works at Cecil Elementary School
in Baltimore’s Greenmount neighborhood, where the vast majority of
children come from low-income families, say their students benefit from
explicit academic instruction. She does not have a sand table, play kitchen
or easel in the room.

“I have never had a child say to me, ‘I just want to play,’ ” said Ms. Iwancio,
who has taught for two decades.

On a recent morning, she asked children to read aloud from a simple book.
On the wall hung a schedule for the day, with virtually every minute packed
with goals like “I will learn sight words” or “I will learn to compose and
decompose teen numbers.”

Jayla Stephens, 6, said she liked school because “you get to do a lot of work
and you will get better.”

In neighboring, more affluent Anne Arundel County, 321 kindergarten

teachers last month attended training sessions on the new curriculum.
Required each day: 25 minutes of recess, 20 minutes of movement, 25
minutes in play centers. The district is buying sand or water tables, blocks,
play kitchens, easels and art supplies for every classroom that does not
have them.

Teachers were given tips on how to be more creative in academic lessons,

too, like tossing a ball printed with different numbers to teach math.

“We don’t think that rigor negates fun and play,” said Patricia J. Saynuk, the
coordinator of early-childhood education.

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Traci Burns, who has taught kindergarten for the last five years at
Annapolis Elementary School, said she was looking forward to retrieving
previously banished easels.

“With the Common Core, this has been pushed and pushed and pushed that
kids should be reading, sitting and listening,” she said. “Five-year-olds need
to play and color. They need to go out and sing songs.”

At Hilltop Elementary, a racially and economically diverse school in Glen

Burnie, Melissa Maenner said she had found that teaching kindergartners
too many straightforward academic lessons tended to flop.

“They are 5,” Ms. Maenner said. “Their attention span is about five
minutes.”1

1 https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/10/education/out-of-the-books-in-
kindergarten-and-into-the-sandbox.html
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WRITTEN ANALYSIS

A Critical Analysis of the Given Article

In the article, “Kindergartens Ringing the Bell for Play Inside the Classroom”, the author,
Motoko Rich deals with the issue of whether nowadays kindergarten need to be focus on
academic. The author used inductive reasoning manner in the text because it starts with specific
point and then elaborate it. The author’s argument on this topic is positive as the article is
discussing about the method used in learning according to a certain state. The argument is about
the play to develop academic knowledge as well as social skills in young children as the
backbone of alternative education. The author’s purpose for the article is to convince that playing
is the best way to educate young children. The author’s tone on this article is to inform because
the author talked about both why the country uses purposeful play and textbooks method in
learning process in the kindergartens. The author’s intended audiences to read this article are
mostly on the kindergarten teachers also the teachers in schools.

The author’s elaborate her first reason by saying that most of the state such as
Washington have begun to train teachers around the state on the importance of so-called
purposeful play- when teachers subtly guide children to learning goals through games, art and
general fun. She supports her point by providing an example of other states. Vermont is rolling
out new recommendations for kindergarten through third grade that underscore the importance of
play. And North Carolina is encouraging teachers to evaluate paintings, scribbles or block-
building sessions, instead of giving quizzes, on assessing the reading, math and social skills of
kindergartens. The author tries to inform that many states have realize the importance of so-
called purposeful play in learning method.

However, her second point said that schools have curtailed physical and art education to
help improve test scores. She elaborates this by point by her observation which more than 40
states have adopted the Common Core, standards for reading and math that is many cases are
much more difficult than previous guidelines. In some school districts, 5-year-olds are doing
what first or even second graders once did, and former kindergarten staples like dramatic play
areas and water or sand tables have vanished from some classrooms, while worksheets and

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textbooks have appeared. We can see that the author also made some research about the states
that use books and pens to improve test scores.

Then, she came out with the third point which is using play to develop academic
knowledge - as well as social skills - in young children is the backbone of alternative educational
philosophies. She supports this point by illustrating that many veteran kindergarten teachers, as
well as most academic researchers, say they have long known that children learn best when they
are allowed ample time to go shopping at a pretend grocery store or figure out how to build
bridges with wooden blocks. Even the Common Core standards state that play is a “valuable
activity.”

For the last point, the author mentions teachers like Therese Iwancio, who works at Cecil
Elementary School in Baltimore’s Greenmount neighbourhood, where the vast majority of
children come from low-income families, say their students benefit from explicit academic
instruction. She does not have a sand table, play kitchen or easel in the room. She supported her
point by the opinion of one of the teachers, Ms. Iwancio, who has taught for two decades, said
that, “I have never had a child say to me, ‘I just want to play,’. On a recent morning, she asked
children to read aloud from a simple book. On the wall hung a schedule for the day, with
virtually every minute packed with goals like “I will learn sight words” or “I will learn to
compose and decompose teen numbers.”

As for the conclusion, the author’s argument is inconsistent as she did not stick to only
one side of which learning is good or which one is bad although she put a lot of quotes that
supported the play purposed based learning. The author’s argument is complete as she gives both
the side which country used the play purposed and reading based learning. The author’s
argument is objective because she come with the strong and specific points from reliable
resources to inform the audience. The author’s argument is credible where the argument is so
powerful and convincing with all the facts and researches that are well-supported. The argument
is valid because the author uses logical with strong supports.

(756 words)

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