There are 30 minutes of math instruction, followed by an 80-minute block for lunch and recess. The afternoon schedule calls for 130 minutes of interdisciplinary instruction that helps students to extend, reinforce, and apply learned skills. With the new curriculum, teachers and principals are asked to ensure students' continued progress by using assessments to guide instruction. For example, teachers assess students three times a year on letter recognition, print concepts, word recognition, hearing and recording sounds, and phonemic awareness. They also use a textbook-prepared mathematics assessment that is correlated to state standards.
Teachers keep running records of assessment data for individual students.
This year, the Maryland State Department of Education mandated that kindergarten teachers screen all students for 28 readiness indicators. The teachers were able to use data collected during the first weeks of school to complete the screening forms. The goal of the overall assessment model is to gain data during the school year that can be used to measure progress, make adjustments, and keep both students and teachers focused on identified outcomes. Training the Teachers Such a radical design change requires careful, comprehensive, and ongoing professional development so that kindergarten teachers can strengthen their classroom practices through increased knowledge about effective instructional strategies for young children. Before we implemented the new curriculum, all kindergarten teachers attended one of three five-day summer workshops to learn about the model and its implementation.