Year: 2023

Education support is a role that can suit people who enjoy interacting with children and wish to have a flexible work life. It involves helping students who may have behavioural or learning difficulties.

It requires people who have good organisational skills as well. They keep records of student behaviours and capabilities to assist teachers with their reporting.

Communication Skills

Communication skills are essential for students at any level of education. They help them talk to lecturers about subjects that they find challenging and make it easier for them to connect with their peers. Effective communication skills also allow students to advocate for themselves when their academic needs are not being met.

Teachers should use a variety of methods to encourage students’ communication skills, including encouraging debate in class and promoting teamwork. Using more theoretical communication strategies such as teaching students about the principles of bias and fallacy and encouraging active listening is also beneficial.

Outside of the classroom, students can develop their communication skills by taking up public-facing jobs around campus such as man-ing the telephones or working on a student magazine or radio. They can also join communications-based societies, such as debating or comedy clubs, or writing for a student newspaper or blog. The most important thing is for students to have the confidence and support to express themselves.

Observation Skills

Observation skills help you notice subtle details about people and situations. You can then use these observations to understand people and maneuver challenges or conflicts tactfully. For example, if a colleague seems distracted at work, you can observe their body language to see if they are stressed or having an off day.

Developing observation skills requires practice. Try practicing by taking notes during meetings and other events, and focusing on the detail of what you are seeing and hearing. You can also play memory games and solve puzzles to hone your observation abilities.

Observation can be used as a learning strategy to promote scientific attitudes and learning among students. It can be a way of widening the conceptual understanding by using all the senses (sight, sound, smell, touch and taste) as well as encouraging natural curiosity. Khanam, N. (2002). The use of observation as a learning strategy in the primary science classroom. Unpublished master’s dissertation, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.

Organizational Skills

Organizational skills are the ability to keep track of multiple tasks and responsibilities. These skills are critical in the workplace because they allow employees to work independently and efficiently. They can delegate tasks to team members and complete projects with minimal supervision.

Teaching organizational skills to students can improve their focus and prepare them for the workforce after school. Students who are organized can prioritize their tasks and maintain an orderly workspace. They can also develop their own strategies for meeting deadlines and managing time.

To help students practice their organization skills, encourage them to think about ways they already organize their life. For example, they might have their own systems for organizing music on their playlists or friends’ social media or phone/email contacts. This will allow them to see how they can use their own organizational practices in the classroom and beyond. They might then discuss times when they have implemented these skills to achieve success in class and on job applications.

Interpersonal Skills

Often referred to as soft skills or people skills, interpersonal skills can include listening to verbal and non-verbal messages and emotions, and team-working. They may also include negotiation and influencing skills and emotional intelligence.

Having good interpersonal skills can help you to work well with others, which is essential in many jobs. It can help you to develop strong, productive working relationships and manage difficult situations. You can show off your interpersonal skills in the experience section of your cv/resume and at interviews.

Interpersonal skills can also come into play when dealing with difficult or toxic people, including friends of friends. This is where having great emotional intelligence can be very useful and can help you to see things from their perspective. It can also help you to communicate with them effectively and set boundaries. This is a particularly important interpersonal skill for teachers. They need to be able to make their classes interesting and ensure that every student understands the concept.

School is the place where students learn, but it’s also a place of socialization. It’s where they meet other people and build a community.

Schools can be a safe and nurturing environment when teachers have the knowledge, skills, and empathy to foster positive student relationships. Many schools support students experiencing adversity through counseling, health, and social services.

Origins

As societies grew and communities developed, the need to pass along skills and values from one generation to another prompted people to develop education. Early schools were nothing like the classrooms of today, but they aimed to teach children the basics so they could grow up and contribute to society as adults.

The Romans developed a school system that organized schools into tiers, not unlike the way students progress through today’s schooling. They also figured out that young kids have the ability to learn quickly, and their memory is particularly retentive.

By the 19th century, most countries had established formal school systems, and many made school attendance mandatory. Many of these schools were still one-room schools, where a single teacher taught multiple grades of boys and girls at the same time. Other types of schools include kindergarten and pre-school, vocational or trade schools, secondary school, college, university and seminary. Most of these have specialized programs and courses to meet the needs of the local community.

Purpose

Schools provide a place for children to meet and spend time with peers. This helps them to develop social skills that they can use at work or in other places where they regularly meet people. Schools can also encourage students to become more aware of how much they understand and where their gaps in knowledge lie.

Schools are also used to help students gain specialized knowledge that will improve their chances of employment and social status. This specialized knowledge can be gained through the study of various subjects, such as maths and history. Students who excel at these subjects will be able to take up jobs in the field of education.

However, there are two competing goals for schooling – producing workers and creating citizens. These goals require different strategies to achieve them. One goal requires schools to focus on rote memorization and standardized tests, while the other involves fostering a national identity and values.

Structures

The structures that make up schools may be simple or complicated. Some schools may use a single classroom structure (with one teacher teaching all academic subjects to the students assigned to that class). Others have two teachers and a departmentalized classroom structure. The research conducted by the author of this study found that both of these classroom structures coexisted within the same school district and in different schools. Proponents of each classroom structure claim that their approach leads to superior student achievement. However, a review of the literature revealed that few studies have been conducted that reexamine these classroom structures and student achievement.

Many schools also have an administrative structure that includes administrators and other staff members who work at the school-level. Some school districts have superintendents and other administrators who oversee the entire system of schools. Some school districts are considered Machine Bureaucracies, with centralized power and control in the hands of the superintendent and assistant superintendents.

Types

When it comes to school choices, parents face a daunting amount of options. Getting a handle on what types of schools are available can be like trying to sort threads in a jumbled tapestry. Terms like Montessori, magnet and parochial can send you on a search-tangent just to get some definitions.

Traditional public schools are the first choice of many parents. These are funded by local, state and federal government funds. They must admit all students living within their boundaries, adhere to basic curricular requirements and conform to state-mandated rules regarding governance.

Charter and magnet schools are two relatively new types of publicly-funded institutions. These are started by teachers, parents or community organizations and may be operated as for-profit businesses. They generally focus on a mission that sets them apart from the standard local, traditional public school and have greater flexibility with their curriculum. Some are focused on STEM, the arts or college preparation. Others are boarding schools that require students to live on campus throughout the school year.

Waiting until kindergarten to start formal schooling gives kids more time to play and explore. But it also means they need to learn how to get along with a larger group of peers and follow rules.

They’ll begin to understand the importance of healthy lifestyle habits, such as eating well and getting enough sleep. They’ll also be introduced to the basics of science.

Math

In kindergarten, kids build foundational math skills such as counting, understanding numbers and shapes and beginning addition and subtraction. They will also learn about money and time.

Kindergarten students also develop a grasp of simple probability, like how much more likely it is to get heads than tails in a coin toss. They will also practice patterns and classification, identifying objects that are similar or different based on one attribute, such as color or shape.

Kids will also start learning about place value, which involves comparing the size of groups or objects, such as 10 beans plus 6 beans is equal to 16 beans. They will also work on basic measurements, like length and width. Kids will begin to understand simple graphs as well.

Reading

In kindergarten, children develop early reading skills such as phonological awareness and knowledge of letter sounds and names. This is the foundation for later skills such as decoding and comprehension.

Throughout the year, teachers provide explicit phonics instruction that allows students to practice sounds, syllables, and phonemes in the context of words. They learn to recognize high-frequency words (such as the first word in a sentence and those found on street signs, billboards, and computer screens) that are not spelled out in full but that children often see and read, known as sight words.

By the end of kindergarten, children should be able to recognize and name all 26 letters of the alphabet in both upper- and lowercase, and they should know that each letter makes a different sound. They should also understand the basics of sentence structure and punctuation.

Science

Science in kindergarten nurtures children’s natural curiosity about the world around them and teaches skills for exploration. It’s a good time to introduce young kids to the basic concepts of science, such as sorting objects by color, shape and size.

They’ll also explore the Earth’s natural features, such as mountains, rivers and oceans. They’ll learn about the four seasons and the weather and will be encouraged to ask questions about the environment.

Encourage your kids to ask questions about the world around them and get them involved in simple hands-on experiments with their own everyday objects. It’s a great way to develop critical thinking, problem-solving and scientific inquiry skills. For example, encourage them to observe the way water molecules move or to mix colors of liquids and see how they change.

Social Studies

Social studies, which is also called humanities, teaches kids about the world around them. It helps them appreciate and respect their own customs and traditions, as well as those of other cultures.

In kindergarten, students explore national and local cultures and begin to learn about geography and history. They study their own family’s heritage and values, as well as the American culture they live in, including its enduring values of opportunity, equality and justice.

They also start to develop an understanding of the community in which they live, learning about their role in it and the laws that govern it. They’re taught to respect the diversity of the people who make up that community, preparing them for an increasingly global future. These skills, along with civic engagement and a knowledge of how our government and economy function, will prepare them to become good citizens of the United States and the world.

Language Arts

Kindergarten students discover that words, sounds and symbols all have meaning. They learn that letters represent the sounds they hear in spoken words and that those words can be written to communicate ideas. They build a vocabulary by discussing new words and reading literature, which also teaches them grammar and builds their language skills.

Kindergarten kids learn that rhymes, upper and lowercase letters and their sounds, blending, and sight words lay the foundation for reading readiness. With a comprehensive curriculum from Calvert, they will work with colorful workbooks to practice consonant and vowel sounds, phonograms, and frequently used sight words.

Kindergartners are also introduced to the concepts of identifying numbers and counting objects. They may also learn about the properties of matter, such as the effects of pushing and pulling on an object, and why animals, plants and weather patterns exist.

Many students who are referred for academic concerns or diagnosed with learning disabilities have problems with reading. Reading intervention is one way to address these difficulties.

Educators must consider a range of factors when selecting an intervention program for children who struggle with reading. Ideally, these decisions should stem from systematic data collection that allows for informed decision-making.

Phonological Recoding

Phonological recoding is the ability to segment an unknown word into its constituent sounds, blend those sounds together, and read the word (share, 1995). It is a prerequisite for orthographic learning, because it enables children to apply their knowledge of sound-symbol correspondences to decode words from print.

To address this, we developed and evaluated a web-based intervention delivered via teletherapy, called WordDriver, that targets the phonological recoding component of reading. Participants were five children who, despite previous intervention using a systematic, synthetic phonics approach, still had persistent word recognition impairment.

The primary outcomes were the researcher-developed WordDriver-1 and WordDriver-2 AxNW Lists, which measured change in decoding accuracy over time during the intervention. A standardised assessment of nonword reading was also administered, to examine whether gains in decoding were reflected in performance on this measure. Each list consists of 35 items with 1:1 grapheme-phoneme correspondence that vary in difficulty (two-, three-, four-, and five-letter items). The presentation of these items was adaptive to participant error, with easier items presented following an incorrect response and harder items following a correct response.

Orthographic Processing

Orthographic Processing is the process where students link the sounds of words they already know (the phonemes) with their spellings to become fluent readers. When this has happened, students can instantly recognize a word when it is presented to them. These words are known as sight words and allow for reading to be fast, accurate and fluent.

Typically developing students have to see a word one to four times before it is permanently stored in their memory and becomes an instantly recognizable word, called a sight word. This is a vital part of becoming a skilled reader and research shows that interventions that improve students’ orthographic pattern knowledge lead to increased single word reading speed.

It has been found that students have to use a combination of both phonological and orthographic processes to read. This is because they have to use their phonological decoding skills to break down the word into its sound components and then link these with the spellings of those letters, as well as their meanings.

Word Recognition

Word recognition is the ability to recognize a word and instantly recognize its pronunciation. It is a critical component of reading, and one that requires significant practice to achieve automaticity.

To build strong word recognition skills, children must receive phonics instruction that allows them to decode words and letter-sound correspondences (i.e., understand the alphabetic principle that letters represent the sounds that we say).

In addition to focusing on sound-letter patterns, this type of instruction also helps children learn to look for visual cues in unfamiliar words. For example, the shape of a word can help readers recognize it, as for instance, the word “cat” has three straight lines while the word “dog” has two curved lines. The use of word walls, a limited set of common sight words that are regularly spelled, and reading aloud all provide opportunities for students to practice these strategies. Eye movement monitoring, such as electrooculography (EOG), is helpful in identifying the neural responses that occur during reading.

Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension involves understanding the meaning of written text. It requires students to have a large vocabulary, but it also involves making connections between what they read and what they already know. Comprehension strategies include activating prior knowledge, asking questions during reading and following up with open-ended questions that ask children to think deeply about what they read.

It is easy to mistakenly think that children who can decode words are good readers, but it takes more than decoding to comprehend a text. Students must have strategies for interpreting what they read and understanding the relationship between the author’s purpose, text structure, and genre.

Reciprocal teaching is an approach that has been shown to help delayed readers catch up to and even exceed their peers. It places heavy emphasis on teacher-student interactions in a cognitive apprenticeship fashion. The teacher introduces new strategies and skills such as predicting, questioning, and summarizing, and models them with student partners. As students become proficient, the amount of direct instruction decreases and the responsibilities for learning are transferred to the student.

A child’s brain grows faster in the early years than at any other time. A high-quality education in childhood yields significant short and long-term benefits for children.

They learn in ways that are physical, social, emotional, in language and literacy and in thinking (cognitive) skills. Teachers help them move their bodies, explore materials with their hands, and make up stories.

Socialisation

Socialisation is the process by which children learn to function as members of society. It is a major part of the educational process and is done by parents, teachers, and peers. Socialisation is a process that combines communication and emotion control. Socialisation allows kids to express their feelings and learn how they can positively impact others.

Primary socialisation is the first stage that children go through as they enter school. It is important because it is here that they begin to learn about the culture and society in which they live. Children are exposed to cultural ideas, beliefs and languages through their immediate family members and from other family members within the community.

The next stage of socialisation is peer group based learning, which occurs at school and on the playground or street. This learning is based on the peer group’s perspective and understanding of different topics and issues. Children also learn about their country’s political and economic ideas through this process.

Adaptation

Education is crucial for children’s cognitive and social development. However, too many children in developing countries are unable to access the education they need. This is due to poverty, conflict, natural disasters and other barriers. Children without access to education are deprived of their most valuable asset: the opportunity to transform their lives.

In this resource kids learn about animal adaptations and the theory of evolution by completing a worksheet that asks them to identify characteristics that help living things survive in different habitats (such as fur, feathers or long legs). They also explore how offspring can have slightly different characteristics than their parents because of inherited traits.

A whole child approach to education recognizes the connections between a child’s physical, emotional, social and intellectual development. It prioritizes a child’s access to safe and welcoming learning environments that provide opportunities for enriching experiences that are relevant to their individual needs. It has also proved to be a critical element in combating child labour. Education interventions in both formal and non-formal settings have contributed to the prevention and rehabilitation of child labourers, particularly through educating children on their rights.

Self-confidence

The self-esteem movement swept Western culture over the past 50 years, and many educators still believe that improving kids’ confidence levels will help them perform better in school. However, it’s important to balance this approach with realistic expectations and a genuine commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Children who feel confident are more willing to try new things and take on challenges. They also learn to cope with frustration and expect that adults will be helpful. These skills are essential for developing a positive sense of self-worth and for successfully navigating social challenges, such as sharing and competition.

Throughout their childhood, children gain self-worth through a variety of activities, such as playing with others or helping out at home. They need and want to know that their efforts make a difference in the world around them. This burgeoning sense of self-worth and pride is nurtured by parental attention, by giving them challenges that stretch their abilities and by showing them their progress.

Communication

Communication is a social process that involves sharing information. It is a critical part of children’s education and starts as early as birth. Babies communicate by making sounds and using facial expressions. They can also communicate with picture symbols, music and body movements. Children need to be able to express themselves, and they need to be listened to in order to understand their thoughts and feelings.

Children develop in different ways, but many have a natural timetable for learning speech and language. This allows us to recognize milestones and seek help if they are struggling.

The development of cognitive skills can be influenced by the culture in which a child lives. It is also influenced by the interaction of a child with other people, including teachers and parents. This is particularly important for school-age children. Teachers can encourage a positive self-image and social-emotional competence by providing a supportive, interactive environment. They can help children set goals and solve problems by giving them clear explanations and encouraging them to interact with other students.

Education support officers often work with children who have emotional and behavioural challenges. It’s a challenging role that requires empathy and strong interpersonal skills.

ESPs keep kids healthy, safe and engaged in their learning. It’s hard to imagine schools operating without them. They teach kids, drive buses and prepare meals, maintain classrooms and carry out many other tasks.

Communication skills

Communication skills are a vital part of learning, whether academic or behavioral. They help students interact better with others and build healthy relationships. They also enable them to express themselves clearly and articulate their ideas, which leads to improved academic performance.

Effective communication also involves listening attentively and interpreting the message correctly. This is especially important in team discussions, as it allows everyone to contribute their opinions and reduces the likelihood of miscommunication. It is also necessary to know which form of communication is most appropriate for each situation. For example, some serious conversations are best discussed in person, while others can be conveyed through email or over the phone.

Teachers can also use their communication skills to provide constructive feedback on student work, which helps improve their overall grades. They can also communicate boundaries, rules, and consequences effectively to their students, which helps create a safe and supportive classroom environment. Additionally, teachers can also use their communication skills to establish meaningful connections with students and parents.

Special needs

Special needs children require an alternative approach to education. These children may have severe learning disabilities or physical challenges. They can also have emotional or behavioral issues. The aim of the program is to give these children the tools they need to achieve their educational goals. The school will work toward creating ways for these children to further their own abilities in the classroom and in real-world settings.

Some schools have a specific focus on special needs, such as a resource room or an integrated classroom. These classes cater to students with a range of disabilities, including speech impairment, autism, and learning disabilities. Other schools offer special needs programs in conjunction with mainstream classes.

In addition to academic curriculum, special needs schools often provide non-academic support services. These include developmental and corrective services, parent counseling and training, orientation and mobility, recreational and therapeutic services, and more. This type of support is important for special needs children to develop independence and self-confidence.

Children with emotional and behavioural challenges

Children with emotional and behavioural challenges often have difficulty learning, controlling their feelings and behaviours, and coping with everyday life. These challenges can interfere with the development of healthy relationships, and have a negative impact on health and wellbeing. Children who are suffering from these disorders can exhibit a wide range of symptoms, including distorted thinking, excessive anxiety and bizarre motor acts.

Many countries are making efforts to identify and support children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBDs) in a timely manner. Although responsibilities for SEBD identification and response are generally shared across service sectors, schools are considered suitable settings to do this because of their daily access to children, monitoring options and opportunity to involve professionals with specific expertise.

Education Support is a UK charity that champions good mental health and well-being in the teaching profession. It provides professional and personal support for teachers, lecturers, school leaders and other education staff in further, higher and adult education.

Qualifications

Those looking to become an education support worker should complete the Certificate IV in School Based Education Support (CHC40221). They can also undertake further study to advance their career. Some also join professional associations like the National Council of Education Support Professionals.

Academic support encompasses a wide variety of educational strategies. It may include tutoring sessions, supplemental courses, summer learning experiences, and after-school programs. Education supports can also provide education counselling and suggest teaching techniques to improve educational effectiveness.

Education support programs can also help people with disabilities to find employment. These programs are designed to improve the lives of participants by giving them new skills and a sense of self-worth. These programs can help them get better jobs and become independent. The program also provides a range of other benefits, such as assistance with vocational training and mental health problems.

Schools are places where people come to learn. They can be dedicated to a particular discipline, like the Juilliard school, which is known for teaching dance and acting. They can also be a part of a university or seminary.

In Europe, universities emerged during the 12th century. Academicians were called schoolmen. They began with grammar schools, which selected students based on their ability and aptitude.

They foster the development of young people

Schools are a key component of a healthy community, and they help young people develop the skills they need to succeed in their lives. In addition to providing a safe and supportive learning environment, schools help children build relationships with other people, which is essential to their development. These relationships will influence their future choices and behavior, as well as their life outcomes.

Moreover, attending school helps students become aware of their strengths and weaknesses. They will also learn more about the world around them, and they may find their passion and purpose in life. They will also learn to ask questions about the material they are studying, which will help them become better learners.

Additionally, school provides them with social activities to keep themselves from getting bored at home and causing problems to society like using drugs. Meeting people of their age in a school setting also broadens their perception of the world. They can meet new friends, or even become good acquaintances who will be with them for years to come.

They encourage learning and development

The school system is often seen as the great equalizer for society. By law, public schools cannot discriminate against students based on their academic performance or income level, and they provide the opportunity to learn for all.

Schools also help the community grow by bringing together people with similar interests and concerns. They can even address local issues that affect the neighborhood. In addition, many schools offer summer learning opportunities like film workshops, art camps, and sports activities. These events are often free of charge, and they make the school a hub for community development.

To encourage learning, teachers give regular feedback on student work. This type of frequent, specific feedback is known to improve student performance and motivate them to continue learning. It also helps students become more self-sufficient by encouraging them to evaluate their own progress. This is especially important for young children. It can help them develop a sense of pride and accomplishment over their achievements.

They prepare students for future careers

School is a place where students learn about a wide variety of subjects. It also teaches them important skills that they will use throughout their lives. These skills include time management and how to work in a team. Attending school regularly is essential to a student’s success in life.

The world of work is changing rapidly. According to McKinsey Global, many jobs that exist today will disappear or be replaced by artificial intelligence. Schools can help prepare young people for this future by focusing on soft skills, like communication, and connecting their learning to career pathways.

In addition, they can encourage student involvement in their community by giving them the opportunity to volunteer at local organizations and take part in extracurricular activities. This will teach them how to interact with people outside of the classroom and develop their leadership skills. It will also allow them to see the world in a different way and find solutions to problems.

They make a community stronger

Schools are a central part of the community, offering an important space for social connections and civic engagement. They also play a vital role in addressing local issues that affect their neighborhoods. This multifunctional approach can be a catalyst for change, building stronger communities.

School is a great place for kids to learn skills they need for their future. They can get better jobs and meet people with similar interests. This is particularly important for students from poor families. Schools can also keep kids from getting bored and turning to drugs. They can try out for sport teams or other school groups and learn how to work with others.

Many schools are taking a community-based approach to their work by collaborating with local organizations. This model focuses on partnerships, and provides support for families facing challenges, such as poverty or mental health issues. Schools can also help address the root causes of these challenges, such as gentrification or economic inequality.

Kindergarten is a major step for kids and parents alike. It’s important to know what your children will be learning so you can prepare them at home.

Learning to recognize the alphabet’s letters is a major focus in kindergarten, as is learning each letter’s sound. Kids will also begin to put letters together to form words.

Language

Oral language development is a key focus in kindergarten. This includes listening comprehension and vocabulary building, as well as phonological awareness and phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and distinguish initial sounds in words, and it helps students decode word beginnings and ends. It also enables children to recognize and generate words that rhyme and share spelling patterns (e.g., hat, mat).

Kids in kindergarten will begin to identify sight words. These are high-frequency words that appear frequently in texts but do not follow standard phonics patterns, so they can be difficult for young readers to decode. Teachers may display these words on flashcards or create a classroom word wall to help students learn them quickly and easily.

In addition to learning their sight words, kindergarteners will be introduced to basic number concepts. They will learn to recognize, order, and count objects up to 30. They will also practice adding and subtracting small numbers.

Math

Math is one of the core subjects in kindergarten that lays the foundation for children to build upon as they progress through elementary school. Early math skills help kids develop critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.

The focus in kindergarten is on developing an initial understanding of numbers, basic addition and subtraction, identifying shapes, and creating patterns. Kids also learn about time and calendars.

Counting is taught through the use of concrete props, such as counting objects arranged in lines or arrays. Kindergartners will learn to recognize numbers that come before and after a given number to understand number sequences, which is an important skill they will carry forward into their academic careers.

Kids will also get their first introduction to measurement, learning to compare and classify objects by size, color and other attributes. They will also learn about 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional shapes by drawing, building, constructing and sorting them. And they will start to get the hang of place value, understanding that position makes some numbers bigger than others, such as that 21 is bigger than 12. They’ll even begin to use skip-counting.

Social Studies

The goal of social studies is to help young children understand the world and its systems, such as those governing their families, neighborhoods and schools. The subject also helps students identify and address real world problems to participate in a caring democratic society. Research on early childhood social studies shows that students learn best when the curriculum is engaging and relevant to their lives.

Kindergarten kids are naturally curious about the people and places that surround them. This curiosity can be used to teach them about the culture of other nations and their traditions. For example, kids can learn about different holidays celebrated around the world with pictures and stories. They can also develop spatial thinking by drawing maps of their school and neighborhood.

Many teacher resource guides, activity books and children’s books provide ideas for teaching young children about civics, economics, history and geography. You can also find activities that incorporate the arts and fine motor development skills.

Science

Although science curriculum can vary by state, most kindergarteners learn some of the same basic science concepts. Check your child’s school website or talk with her teacher to find out what the classroom is teaching.

Children’s natural curiosity is a perfect vehicle to introduce them to scientific exploration. Science K nurtures that curiosity by providing daily opportunities to explore the world around them and develop organized, analytical thinking skills.

The McRuffy Science series teaches life science, earth science and physical science, building the foundations of these scientific disciplines that kindergarten students need to understand. Students work with hands-on materials and engage in activities that teach them to observe, record observations, and think and act like scientists.

To help your child build these scientific skills, try doing experiments together at home. For example, fill small containers with different smells to test your child’s sense of smell. Or plant some bean sprouts and watch them grow to learn about the process of life.

Reading intervention is supplemental instruction for students who are behind their peers in developing critical reading skills. This type of instruction is typically part of a school’s RTI (Response to Intervention) or MTSS model.

Build phonological awareness by teaching syllables, sounds and vowels to struggling readers. Teach phonics by pairing fluent readers with less fluent ones to practice the correct sound-symbol correspondence.

Phonics

Phonics instruction helps students learn to recognize and decode letters and their sounds so they can read words and sentences. Research shows that systematic phonics instruction significantly improves reading skills in kindergarten and first grade.

It’s important to remember that phonics instruction is not a standalone program and that it needs to be combined with other types of instruction to support student success. Studies have shown that teaching phonics without incorporating strategies for phonemic awareness, vocabulary, comprehension skills, and fluency can confuse rather than help students.

Picture Card Sort is a great way to begin implementing phonics intervention, allowing students to practice their letter-sound knowledge until they can demonstrate 95% accuracy or higher. When students are ready for a more specialized strategy, try using Letter Sound Bingo 3 or 4 days per week to focus on segmenting and blending consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words with short vowels like cat, cut, cot, set, and sit.

Fluency

Many research studies have found that Repeated Reading (RR) is a highly effective fluency intervention for students with reading difficulties and disabilities. RR is most effective when it includes passage previews and goal setting, and is implemented in conjunction with other interventions that focus on vocabulary and comprehension.

Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading, and is what enables us to make sense of the words we read. Children who struggle with comprehension are often those that are able to decode words, but who cannot understand what they have read. They may skip words or omit them when reading aloud. They might stop reading when they don’t understand the meaning.

Building comprehension skills requires work on phonics, fluency and comprehension strategies. In particular, we must teach students to pull apart and define words that follow traditional patterns, build morphological awareness of prefixes, suffixes, and bases, and practice reading chorally to understand how a word sounds.

Comprehension

Ultimately, children must be able to understand what they read. This is called comprehension and is the big payoff of reading intervention. Strong comprehension can boost learning in all subjects, make reading enjoyable and turn students into lifelong readers.

Reading comprehension is a complex cognitive process that involves the intentional interaction between reader and text to extract meaning. Comprehension requires a range of skills including the ability to link word meanings with the word symbols, the ability to identify important details and logically infer their significance, and the ability to use figurative language (e.g., metaphors and similes).

Reading comprehension can be taught directly to students through direct instruction and practice activities that include reading aloud, partner reading, literature discussions, and individual student writing about their understanding of texts. It is recommended that teachers provide comprehension instruction in addition to teaching phonics, fluency, and vocabulary. Several studies show that interventions that focus on multiple components of reading improve comprehension.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary refers to the set of words a person recognizes when reading or listening. Vocabulary includes both expressive and receptive vocabulary, and is one of the largest contributors to reading comprehension skills.

Research suggests that students who have a wide and varied vocabulary perform better on reading comprehension tests than students with a narrow and limited vocabulary. This is because a broad vocabulary helps readers make sense of unfamiliar words and concepts.

A recent study found that a vocabulary intervention significantly improved text comprehension of texts containing taught words. However, the amount of vocabulary knowledge gained from the intervention did not predict the effect on comprehension. Vocabulary instruction should include methods to teach students how to recognize words in context. This can be done through a variety of vocabulary strategies, including making word lists and utilizing a Find-Learn-Practice-Review strategy like the one in Moby Vocabulary.

Education transforms lives and breaks the cycle of poverty. Yet for hundreds of millions of children, access to quality education is just a dream.

School introduces kids to other kids from different backgrounds and helps them develop their personalities. It also teaches them to respect people from different cultures and get along well with them.

Socialization

Socialization is a major part of children’s education. It teaches them the values, norms and roles of their society. The most important agents of socialization are the family and school, though the media, religion, peer groups and workplaces also play a role.

The socialization process begins at birth, but its full impact on a child’s development may not be felt until the early childhood years. Sociologists recognize that gender, class and ethnicity play a big role in patterns of socialization. Working-class families usually emphasize obedience and conformity, while wealthy parents may encourage the development of judgment and creativity.

When children enter elementary school they are exposed to two sets of socialization agents: teachers and peers. The teacher, for example, has both the ascribed status of “classroom teacher” and the achieved status of “informal peer group leader.” Children’s interaction with their peers creates their own peer culture within school. The interaction also teaches them such skills as teamwork, classroom discipline, time awareness and dealing with bureaucracy.

Self-Esteem

Having a positive sense of self-worth is a powerful factor in kids’ happiness, well-being and success. It helps kids feel confident and capable, even in the face of challenges, so they’re comfortable asking for help when needed.

Kids learn a lot about themselves from their environment, including how they are treated and the messages they hear. Harsh criticism (“You’re so lazy!”), comparing them to others or praising only their results can harm their self-esteem. Instead, focus on the effort rather than the outcome and teach them to love themselves regardless of their wins or losses.

Encourage your children to explore their strengths and interests through play. They will gain a deeper understanding of their own values and build confidence as they complete activities independently. Allow them to give and help when they are ready, and let them know that their efforts are appreciated. This also teaches them that they are not defined by their weaknesses and builds resilience.

Academic Performance

Students’ academic performance is an important issue for all stakeholders. It impacts the student, teachers, parents and the society. Research has revealed that there are several factors that affect student’s academic performance. These factors can be classified as student, teacher and school based. Student factors include regular studying, self-motivation, punctuality and interest in a subject. Teachers’ factors include completion of syllabus and use of Teaching Learning Materials (TLMs). School based factors are availability of text books and modern laboratories.

Parental involvement also positively affects children’s academic performance. Studies have shown that children who have As and Bs in school report that their parents encourage them to do well. This is likely because children of upper and middle class families have better parental support for their education, while poorer children are often parented by single parents who work. The worthwhile long-term endeavours imagined by adult society that children’s education should achieve may conflict with children’s own perceptions of worthy endeavours that fulfil their short-term hedonic wellbeing.

Physical Health

Children are more likely to have a positive body image and learn healthy lifestyle habits early in life, if they regularly participate in physical activity. Taking part in team sports and other group-based activities, such as passing a ball or playing hopscotch, teaches them to work together towards a common goal and expend their energy while doing so.

Currently, physical education is the only opportunity that is guaranteed to reach nearly all school-age children and provide them with vigorous- or moderate-intensity, health-enhancing physical activity. High-quality physical education programs are characterized by instruction by certified teachers, a focus on learning and skill development, age appropriate tasks and activities, and group-based activity of sufficient duration for children to reap health benefits (see Box 5-5).

Recent physical education curriculums have evolved to connect body movement with its consequences and teach children the science of healthful living. Randomized controlled studies indicate that students in schools implementing a science-based fitness curriculum are more active than those attending traditional physical education classes.