Deeper Learning in Kindegarten

In Tricia Joseph’s Great First Eight classroom, kindergarten students are sitting on the carpet, thinking intently about the sentence they will write. Joseph gave the prompt, “I like to go to the…” “Movies,” spoke out one little boy; another said, “Aquarium.” Joseph’s class was busy writing sentences on their whiteboards. Joseph scanned the children on the carpet, coaching them as needed. Pleased with their progress, she announced it was time to clean up. After putting on a Hip Hop alphabet song, Joseph encouraged the children to move their bodies as they put their materials away. She knew they had been sitting for a while and needed to get some energy out before the next activity. When the song ended, everyone returned to the carpet, ready for what was next.

“Eyes on me,” said Joseph. “Eyes on you,” responded the students. Joseph explained today’s “Wonder Co-Labs” for the current unit, “Power in the People.” As each child heard their name, they moved to their first Co-Lab, including Project Connection, where they listened to texts to think about people who have used their power to help others; Digital Games to practice foundational literacy skills; Imagine It, where they got to make believe being heroes in their community; Word Wonders, in which they played reading games; Make Your Mark to practice handwriting; and Meet with the Teacher to have some small group reading and writing time. Each day, children rotate three or four times, giving them lots of variety in their activities.

Some teachers like Joseph, who has been teaching for 19 years, have a calm command of their classroom, with children fully engaged and excited to learn. In too many K-2 classrooms that I have visited in schools serving historically marginalized populations, teachers are overly focused on classroom management and spend much of their time asking children to sit still rather than building community and engaging in joyful learning. Joseph is a testament that it doesn’t have to be that way. When teachers can take time to build relationships and instruct in the ways young children learn best, they are likely to have engaged students and deeper learning. A research-informed, whole-child, comprehensive curriculum goes a long way to supporting teachers and students in achieving that ideal learning experience. Joseph was initially uncertain about a new curriculum but decided to try it. And she is glad she did: Joseph loves Great First Eight, and so do her students.

Great First Eight is a full-day, whole-child, open educational resource (OER) curriculum designed for children from birth to eight years old and for classrooms with a number of children from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds. Developed by a team of content experts and co-led by researchers Nell Duke, Marisha Humphries, and Claire Vallotton, Great First Eight aligns with research and standards, emphasizing play, curiosity, and research-tested approaches to knowledge- and skill-building. Uniquely, it prioritizes children’s natural wonder and aims to empower them for a more just and caring society.

In most kindergarten classrooms, teachers have to shift between seven or so different curricula and resources throughout the day, and few of these effectively meet kindergarteners’ learning needs. On top of that, school districts typically review and adopt a new curriculum for each subject about every five years. In practice, teachers could be learning and implementing a brand new curriculum every year, which can be frustrating and challenging for educators.

What’s more, there is a shortage of curricula and resources tailored to meet the unique needs of K-2 learners. A recent report from School Readiness Consulting found that the traditional K-5 curricula generally do not align with how the science of learning and development says students in K-2 learn best. Curricula tend to be more geared toward students in upper elementary, the grade levels that typically shape state and local education policies. The authors of the report said, “Investment in providing more evidence and practical guidance on how best to implement play-based and whole-child curriculum in the early grades can support alignment across early learning and the early grades, as well as driving improvements in implementation across the K–2 continuum.”

Great First Eight is one curriculum that combines everything young students need to learn and do. It’s “bell-to-bell,” as Duke described it in a presentation before our classroom visit organized by Stand for Children, where Duke serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Early Literacy Success. It’s also a living curriculum, allowing for real-time updates and narrowing the lag between research and curricula, explained Duke. Great First Eight facilitates vertical alignment with its birth-to-8 approach and horizontal alignment with assessments, professional learning, family engagement, and other areas all aligned to the curriculum’s units.

In designing Great First Eight, Duke and collaborators built on their previous work on a curriculum that integrated literacy and social studies via project-based learning called Project PLACE. Project evaluation results showed that children participating in Project Place classrooms learned more in social studies and literacy than their peers whose teachers used the regular district curricula. In many schools, but especially those serving underrepresented families, social studies and science have all but disappeared from the school day. Teachers often lament the lack of time with the growing focus on reading and math skills. Social studies and science learning, however, provide critical background knowledge and opportunities for language development, which are also essential components for learning to read well.

In the 2023-24 school year, a group of schools serving urban communities was selected to implement the Great First Eight kindergarten curriculum, followed by first and second grade in subsequent years. EnCompass Academy in Oakland, California, where Joseph teaches, was one of them. “Having just one curriculum that brings coherence throughout the day was appealing,” explained Romy Trigg-Smith, director of early literacy for the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), during a school visit.

Principal Minh-Trâm Nguyễn was eager to implement it in her school. In 2004, EnCompass Academy was established in OUSD by East Oakland parents and public school educators, including Nguyễn. EnCompass Academy prioritizes high academic achievement and the holistic development of each child. The school’s mission is to create a safe and joyful environment that equips students to become lifelong learners and leaders. Great First Eight and Encompass priorities and values are well aligned, and the curriculum is a great fit so far.

According to Nguyễn and the two implementing teachers, Joseph and first-year teacher Arelis Rivera-Burgos, the Great First Eight implementation is going well. The children love the experiential learning activities; they feel included, secure, and joyful. To illustrate this, Joseph shared that she has a few Arabic students, and in a recent lesson, the class was learning about Arab culture. “These students shined, and I could see how happy and excited they were to be included and share their culture with the class.”

In the Great First Eight curriculum, children participate actively in project-based learning much of the day, which can look and feel like learning through play. For example, students observe collisions in the unit Domino Effects as they investigate ramp height. They investigate what happens when they construct and then let a ball roll down a steep or shallow ramp. After the activities and labs throughout the day, children have opportunities to share and reflect on what they are learning.

To implement Great First Eight well, teachers need time to participate in professional learning, get comfortable, and study lesson plans. School districts will need to invest in the materials for project-based and lab activities, which they can surely do with some of the cost savings from adopting other curricula and supplemental programs. Remember, Great First Eight is an open educational resource, and every unit and accompanying resource, as well as the professional learning modules to support teachers in implementation, can be used at no cost. It’s not the typical curriculum, and that is a good thing.

I felt hopeful as I walked around the kindergarten classrooms at EnCompass, observing students, the kinds of books and materials they had access to, and the kinds of learning they were engaged in. I’m optimistic about the engaging learning Great First Eight brings to schools in urban communities and the academic growth that implementing teachers are seeing so far from students. And I’m hopeful that more schools and districts will take the leap to rethink curriculum and transform learning in pre-K-2.

To hear more from the Great First Eight teachers at EnCompass, check out this video.