Getting down to business: The intermediate grades

MIKE JAMES
The Independent

LLOYD April 13, 2008 11:04 am

— This is the fourth of a series of stories tracing the public school path from pre-kindergarten through high school.
The intermediate grades — fourth and fifth — are separated by a hallway from the primary ones at Greysbranch Elementary School.
But when fourth-graders walk down that hall and into their classroom for the first time in the fall, they’re entering a whole new world.
The giant ABC charts and the fluffy bunnies are gone. The walls are still a riot of information, but the colors are more muted and the typography is smaller.
The whole effect is much more businesslike. It’s clear that the children have at least one foot outside the nest here.
It’s a key time in their lives, a transition from dependence to independence, in the words of one expert.
“Even on the board, we start gradually removing the ABCs and other things to lead children toward being more independent thinkers,” said James Sottile, assistant division chair and professor in the Marshall University School of Education.
“It’s a big step. We try to make the transition easy but they definitely have more responsibility,” said Greysbranch principal Jeff Wireman.
Part of the transition is positioning their classrooms separately from the primary grades, he said.
Fourth- and fifth-graders are starting to grow up and develop socially, Wireman said. Schools have to take that into account along with their academic development.
There are three key areas in which children are changing, Sottile said.
--One is cognition. Children are beginning to understand logic, which is vital to problem solving.
--Another is developmental. During these years children want to be involved in activities and take initiative, so parents need to encourage that involvement. Without parent engagement, children will find peer groups for the acceptance they crave. That’s where the specter of drugs and bad behavior enter the picture.
--The third is physical. Genetic physical changes are taking place. Children who are made aware of the changes are in a better position to deal with them, Sottile said.
The introduction of logic and independent thinking is evident in Katie Bechtel’s fifth-grade Greysbranch classroom. In a lesson on using the clockface, Bechtel exhorts the children to explain their answers and points out inconsistencies in their reasoning.
Parental involvement remains vital in the intermediate grades. For one thing, they are the years when some children start disliking school, Sottile said. Parents need to be there to make sure their children remain engaged.
Kids want to be involved in something, so it’s up to parents to guide them into appropriate avenues, keep them industrious and productive. “Kids who are industrious are able to problem-solve,” he said.
Painful though it may be, parents also need to continue helping with homework. The homework may be more difficult, making it harder for parents to come up with answers. But they can help children with research, Sottile said. “You as a parent won’t be able to solve the problem, but you can help them find the answer, which teaches them to solve problems.”
Communication between parents and the school also is a key to children’s success, Wireman said. “The biggest thing in elementary school is communication with parents.”
It can be harder as children assert their independence, he said. “The kids are trying to keep the parents out of the loop.” So parents have to take the initiative to maintain contact.
Schools try to help, of course. Greysbranch arranges parent-teacher conferences, for one.
And it designs after-school programs to keep parents involved. Homework help night is one. Parents and teachers work together with the children. It’s a way parents can assist with subjects they may be shaky in themselves.
While grades four and five are generally considered intermediate, few districts have separate schools for the two grades. In Kentucky there are only Russell-McDowell in the Russell Independent District and Lincoln in Simpson County, according to Kentucky Department of Education spokeswoman Lisa Gross.
MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2652.

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