Ready Freddy Kindergarten Team Leader Facilitator’s Guide
Welcome to Kindergarten Transition This guide was created to provide you with the information you will need to help all the children and families in your community have a quality transition into and through kindergarten. What children learn in kindergarten can lay the foundation for their educational career, and a positive transition sets the tone for a child’s school experiences for many years to come.
Why This Work Matters It is important that as a kindergarten team leader you understand why entering kindergarten is a BIG life change for children and families. The transition to school can be especially challenging, both for young children, and their parents. Easing that process can help assure better attendance and higher school achievement and increase parents’ involvement in their children’s education. By connecting with communities and making enrollment easy, accessible, and well publicized schools are able to increase on-time kindergarten enrollment. And when parents enroll their children early or on time, schools are better prepared with enough teachers, classrooms, and resources to receive all incoming kindergartners. Providing parents with the information they need to begin
Research has revealed a positive association between regular kindergarten attendance and 3rd grade test scores.
preparing for kindergarten also increases the chances they are engaged with schools early in their children’s lives. Your goal should be to include parents in all aspects of this work and to prepare the whole family for a successful kindergarten year. Additionally, you can help educate parents about the important role they play in their child’s education, and work with families and communities to make kindergarten a big deal. These efforts should also include working to improve Kindergarten attendance and raise awareness among parents, schools, and communities of the connections between daily attendance and academic achievement. Research has revealed a positive association between regular kindergarten attendance and 3rd grade test scores.
Roles & Responsibilities I. Your role as leader/facilitator. The role of the kindergarten team leader is to facilitate or support all components of k indergarten transition work at your school, including: n
Recruiting team members
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Recruiting other volunteers and staff
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Arranging and c oordinating meetings
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Recording and documenting discussions
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Writing up the plan
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Leading all other aspects of kindergarten work
The team leader’s goal is to ensure that the group’s objectives are met effectively, with clear t hinking, good par ticipation and full buy-in from everyone who is involved. For more information about recruiting kindergarten team members, see our Ready Freddy Outreach Toolkit. Additionally, the leader ensures that outcomes, actions and questions are properly recorded and dealt with effectively and appropriately. Facilitator’s Quick Guide
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II. Productive facilitation; leading, delegating and getting support. As we know, delegation is the key to successful organization, and all good leaders delegate. Sharing responsibilities keeps members interested and enthusiastic about the group. To delegate effectively, choose the right tasks to delegate, identify the right people to delegate to, and delegate in the right way. There’s a lot to this, but you’ll achieve so much more once you’re delegating effectively! Make sure that each team member knows that you want to hear of any problems, and that you are available for any questions or guidance needed as the work progresses. It’s also important to keep in mind the goals and outcomes of your particular team— and how you are helping the group reach them.
III. Improving your work through reflection and evaluation. More and more, schools, institutions, and organizations are asked to provide feedback data and evidence that the practices in which they engage are effective, and are making an impact. For the Ready Freddy kindergarten team, evaluation is a tool used to assess whether the team has met its goals or not. It can help the team determine what went well and what did not go well, and it can also shape the way your team plans and runs events in the future. For more details about collecting information and conducting evaluations, see Appendix I.
Doing the Work I. Getting started. To begin your transition work, first be sure to read the background materials about Ready Freddy, so that you will be better acquainted with the research supporting the importance of kindergarten transition and the impact this work can have on your school/community. (See Ready Freddy Kindergarten Team Handbook) Next, Identify and recruit team members from the school, the community, and parents of students at your school. Then, prepare for and schedule your first meeting, keeping in mind the needs and schedules of all your constituent groups.
II. Hosting successful meetings. Everyone appreciates productive and focused planning meetings. Here are some suggestions for running a successful meeting:
State the purpose of the meeting. Lead greetings and introductions.
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Greet each person.
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Introduce people to each other.
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If time allows, do an icebreaker.
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Have an agenda, with enough copies for everyone. n
At the beginning of the meeting, invite people to add agenda items if needed.
Examples of agendas for each of the different kindergarten team meetings are included in Appendix II.
Be on time. n
Start and end on time.
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Set limits for each agenda.
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If you feel you need more time, ask permission to go over or arrange another meeting.
Be prepared. n
Make phone calls or send e-mails to remind people of the meeting.
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Gather all needed materials.
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Create and print the agenda.
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Ask someone to take notes in advance.
Meet only when necessary.
III. Setting Goals and Assigning Tasks Set specific goals Goals are outcomes that must be accomplished, in order to achieve some larger, overall result. (For example, one team goal might be to enroll 50% of the students in the PreK program in the spring with a larger goal of increasing overall early enrollment by 10%.) Determine what your strategies or activities will be. These are the methods required to achieve the goals.
Set clear objectives Objectives are specific activities that must be accomplished to achieve the goals in the plan. Objectives are usually “milestones” completed along the way when implementing the strategies. (An objective related to the enrollment goal might be to host two ‘parent welcome centers’ at the school in the spring during hours convenient to parents.)
Assign tasks During planning meetings lots of ideas may be presented by participants. However, unless there is group agreement and a specific task assigned to one or more team members, the planning process is incomplete and actions may not happen. Particularly in small groups or organizations, all participants are assigned various tasks in order to implement the plan. Ideally the work of the group should be shared as equally as possible. Additionally, it’s useful to determine what resources are available and who can take responsibility for sharing any costs related to the plan.
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IV. The Kindergarten Team Meeting Schedule Kindergarten teams should meet year-round following the schedule below (with some flexibility): n
September/October: Identify team members.
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November or December: Host first team meeting to plan enrollment event.
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January: Meet to finalize and carry out event publicity and outreach.
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February: Host first enrollment activity (Welcome Center).
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March: Meet to debrief first activity and plan the second.
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April: Carry out marketing and outreach to find children cared for at home, or in community early childhood education, Pre-Kindergarten, or Head Start programs. Host second enrollment activity (Welcome Center). Debrief second activity.
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May: Meet to plan third activity (Kindergarten Tea, special transition event, other).
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May/June: Host event to promote and recruit for summer Kindergarten Club.
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July: Host Kindergarten Club at school.
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July: Meet to plan for Kindergarten Kick-Off event.
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August: Host Kindergarten Kick-Off event (For detailed information see our Kindergarten Kick-Off Toolkit).
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September: Meet to debrief Kindergarten Kick-Off event. Review the team’s goals for the coming school year; identify team members.
V. Expanding Your Kindergarten Activities Along with the schedule of events listed above, there are a number of other activities the school might consider carrying out in order to welcome children and parents to the kindergarten year: n
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The teacher can send a welcoming letter to incoming kindergarteners. The team can present a kindergarten breakfast to celebrate new kindergarten families; include some parent-child activities (such as a game led by the child’s teacher where everyone sits in a circle and children raise their hands to answer questions, or a game in which children play in pairs or in small groups). Children can be encouraged to write a letter or draw a picture to send to the teacher before school starts. Teachers can visit the child and family at home before the first day of school (during the visit teachers could give parents a copy of the Ready Freddy Kindergarten Readiness Calendar). Transition team members may make phone calls or visit families at home to encourage first-day-ofschool attendance. Parents may be invited to parent-teacher organization meetings before school starts to help them feel more involved. Pre-K students can pair up with a “pen pal” from kindergarten, or entire classrooms can pair up. Parents can buy or create a book about the transition to school that they can read with their child, or check out Ready Freddy Goes to School on the Ready Freddy website, readyfreddy.org. Parents can use art projects or dramatic play to help a child, especially a shy child,explore his or her feelings about going to school. A local health clinic can be invited to a community event to offer immunizations for those children who need them. readyfreddy.org
Celebrating and sharing Many schools and districts are doing remarkable, effective kindergarten transition work across the country. It is important as you engage in these activities that you celebrate the hard work of your teams as well as share your experiences with others. Consider bringing a special treat to the first meeting or event as a way to thank your team for a job well done. If the school has a Facebook page, think about posting pictures of your activities and events along with information about how you made them happen. Like minded colleagues are always happy to learn new strategies and tactics. In addition to the ideas listed above, there are many ways schools, parents, and communities can work together to make the kindergarten transition process a successful and positive one for families. We hope that this resource is useful to you, and that you fully embrace the value and significance of this work. By working together, we can make every child’s first entry into formal education one where they feel welcomed, prepared, and supported. If you would like more detailed information or instructions for facilitating a kindergarten transition team, see our full length Kindergarten Transition Facilitator’s Guide. Additional resources are listed in Appendix III Ready Freddy Resource List.
Best of luck in your important work.
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Appendices and Resources Appendix I
Evaluation For our purposes, an evaluation is a tool used to assess whether your team has or has not met its goals. Evaluations help the team see what went well and what did not go well. Evaluations can also shape how the team plans and runs events in the future.
W ays t o e va l uat e yo u r e f f o r t s 1. Numbers a. How many children were enrolled on time? b. How many children had a quality transition? – Number of children that received a letter from their principal. – Number of children that met their teacher. – Number of children that toured the school. c. Ask similar questions to determine whether your team’s goals were met.
2. Ask questions following a transition event about reaching goals, such as: a. What was our goal, and did we reach it? b. Did we achieve intentional relationship-building between parents and teachers, children and peers, children and teachers…?
3. Ask questions following a transition event about process, such as: a. What went really well? b. What would we want to do the same next time? c. What did not go well? d. How can we improve this event for next time? e. Do we want to do this event again? f. Was the cost of the event worth what was accomplished?
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Evaluation can also take the form of direct data collection from parents. Consider using a survey similar to the one below to assess the impact of your programming and events.
Sample Parent Survey Please fill out the brief survey below so we can get your impression of the event and make any improvements for the next time around!
1. Your name ______________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Child’s name _____________________________________________________________________________________ 3. What was the best part of the event for you? _________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. What was the best part of the event for your child?___________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 5. What would have made this event better?___________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 6. Why did you decide to attend today’s event?__________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 7. Any other comments about the event? _______________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________
T hank you f or your input and for at te nding our eve nt! Facilitator’s Quick Guide
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Appendix II
Types of Meetings Type of Meeting
Description
Introductory
1. Focus is to help the team work together 2. Happens once a year (beginning or end of school year) 3. Establish purpose and rules for the team (ground rules) 4. Help them to see each other as valuable assets to the team (How do we fit?) 5. Icebreakers and activities that provide the opportunity for people to see each other in a personal and inviting way 6. Educate about transition (what is it and why) 7. Explain to the group what the goal is at the end and give them the three target points (before, day 1, and beyond). By the end of the kindergarten year, we want to say that we did what, as measured by what…
Action/Planning
1. Focuses on the work 2. Ongoing and will probably be the focus of multiple meetings a. Planning events b. Creating materials c. Developing timelines and actionable item lists for future meetings d. Define the goals of the team and how to measure them
Debriefing
1. Happens as soon as possible after a major action item, event, or goal is accomplished 2. May be less frequent and scheduled only as needed 3. Assessing the work completed a. How many people participated? b. What worked? c. What didn’t work? d. How do we improve?
Evaluation/Assessment
1. May only happen once a year, typically at the end 2. Consider the overall transition effort including quality, impact, number of participants, and goal attainment 3. Compile and reflect on debriefing data.
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Appendix III
Ready Freddy Resource List For more detailed kindergarten transition information see the full length Kindergarten Transition Facilitator’s Guide available from Ready Freddy. Ready Freddy Kindergarten Team Handbook This handbook includes information about the history of Ready Freddy, the program activities, structure of kindergarten teams, and methods used to raise awareness of the importance of kindergarten education. Ready Freddy Goes to School Picture Book In this lighthearted rhyming tale, Freddy the Frog prepares for and attends his first day of kindergarten. Ready Freddy Kindergarten Readiness Calendar This colorful year-long calendar provides loads of information, resources, and fun activities for parents to do with their child as they prepare for the upcoming kindergarten year. Ready Freddy Outreach Toolkit Based on years of community outreach efforts, this guide provides information about how to work collaboratively with schools and community partners to recruit volunteers to sit on teams, to promote events, and to conduct intensive community outreach. Ready Freddy Kindergarten Kick-Off Toolkit This toolkit helps schools, businesses, parents, and educational and community groups organize a one-day festivity that recognizes and celebrate the first day of kindergarten as the beginning of a child’s path to educational success. Ready Freddy Attendance Toolkit This guide provides information about how schools and community groups can work collaboratively to improve school attendance. Ready Freddy Kindergarten Club Curriculum A research-based school readiness curriculum designed to help both children and parents get excited and prepared for the transition to kindergarten. Ready Freddy Family Engagement Toolkit This guide was created to help schools develop strategies for connecting and work with families as active partners in their children’s education.
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Ready Freddy Kindergarten Team Leader Facilitator’s Guide Prepared by the University of Pittsburgh Office of Child Development Service Demonstrations Division Ready Freddy Pathways to Kindergarten Success www.readyfreddy.org 412-383-7372
[email protected] © 2015 University of Pittsburgh Office of Child Development AW/MT 15-010
