Vertical Alignment Made Simple: Homeschooling Multiple Grades Together

Homeschooling is the future of education. I’m here to help guide you through this process by empowering families to reclaim those precious moments with their littles, while instilling family values, nurturing your child’s passions and providing them with enriching experiences.

When you have a kindergartner, first-grader, and third-grader all under one roof, it can feel very overwhelming especially if you’re new to homeschooling.

How do you meet the standards for each child?

How do you fit it all into one day without losing your sanity?

Don’t worry– you’re not alone, and it’s absolutely possible to manage this with some thoughtful planning.

The strength of education lies in the fact that standards are based on a continuum. Throughout the school year you will find traditional classroom teachers spending time in meetings examining both the grade level below and the one ahead. As teachers we have to understand the skills students bring with them, and where we’re guiding them next. With this approach in mind, you can create a cohesive learning environment for all your children, no matter their grade level. We call this vertical alignment.

Let’s take a closer look at how this works, from the Tennessee State Standards–
Cornerstone: Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

4.RL.KID.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem and explain how it is conveyed through details in the text; summarize the text.

3.RL.KID.2 Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.

2.RL.KID.2 Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.

1.RL.KID.2 Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.

K.RL.KID.2 With prompting and support, orally retell familiar stories, including key details.

When teaching multiple children at different grade levels, vertical alignment in educational standards can be a lifesaver. 

Take, for example, a single story that you read to both your kindergartener and your second grader. Though they are listening to the same text, the way they interact with and respond to the story will vary according to their grade level, this is why doing a little heavy lifting in vertical alignment with the grade levels you have at home will save you time and reduce stress, while also providing an enriching experience for your little ones.

Let’s look at the standards:

Kindergarten: With prompting and support, your kindergartner’s goal is to retell familiar stories and include key details. They might need more hands-on guidance, but they’ll practice developing those early literacy skills by recalling parts of the story.

Second Grade: Meanwhile, your second grader is working on a similar standard but is expected to recount stories more independently and determine the central message, lesson, or moral of the story.

The key here is that your second grader is going a step further than your kindergartner by analyzing the story's meaning, but both are engaging with the same material. Your kindergartner is focused on the foundation—retelling and remembering details—while your second grader is developing the critical thinking required to uncover deeper themes and messages. This allows you to read the same text to both children, holding them to different standards based on their developmental needs, without needing separate lesson plans.

How Vertical Alignment Works for Lesson Planning: Vertical alignment helps you design lessons that enrich each child’s learning experience, even if they’re operating at different levels. For example:

• Kindergarten: You could read the story and then ask your kindergartner to retell it, using prompts such as "What happened first?" and "What was the main problem?"

• Second Grade: After reading, you could challenge your second grader to recount the story in more detail and identify its central message or moral. You might ask, "What was the lesson the characters learned?"

In both cases, you’re working with the same material, but what your kiddos get out of it will be different. This kind of learning is actually super beneficial for both your kindergartner and your second grader. Your kindergartner is starting to pick up on the lessons or morals in the story, which is great practice and will really pay off later. Meanwhile, your second grader, who’s digging into the central message, gets to share their insights with their little sibling, which not only helps the younger one but also reinforces the lesson for themselves. It’s a win-win!

Until Next Time,

Morgan Watkins M.Ed.

Founder, Watkins Education Consulting

Unlocking Reading Success: The Power of Access, Consistency, and Repetition.

As educators and parents, we share a common goal: to guide our young learners toward proficiency and fluency in reading. In this journey, three foundational principles stand out as essential keys to unlocking reading success: access, consistency, and repetition.

Access: Kids Need A Toolbox

Access to learning materials is the cornerstone of early literacy development. In a classroom setting, this might mean having anchor charts and reference tools readily available for students to engage with. How can we ensure our children have the necessary access to support their reading journey?

In the homeschool environment, providing access takes on a different form. While we can’t plaster our walls with anchor charts, we can equip our young readers with personalized notebooks. A journal, a phonics/spelling journal, and a notebook for vocabulary and skills can serve as invaluable resources. These notebooks become personalized reference libraries, empowering children to make connections and access information independently.

For example, a phonics/spelling notebook can contain spelling patterns and a “kid dictionary.” When confronted with a word like “bake”, a child can refer to their phonics journal to explore different spelling options for the ‘long a’ sound. Through repeated reference and practice, children internalize these skills, becoming more confident and independent in their reading and writing practice.

Consistency: Intention With Our Practice

Consistency is the foundation of building strong reading skills. In the early stages of reading (K-3), it is crucial to maintain uniformity between the tools used for both reading and writing. For example, if you take a look at our OG cards online, you'll notice that the blending drill cards, the alphabet chart, and the word wall letters all use the exact same pictures. This consistency means that when we are reading, we use the same signals or pictures that students reference in writing.This alignment facilitates seamless transition between activities and reinforces learning in a meaningful way.

As educators and homeschooling parents, we must resist the temptation to choose novelty over consistency. While the cute designs on 'Teachers Pay Teachers' might catch our eye, it’s the consistent use of proven tools that fosters those ‘ah-ha’ moments of understanding. Whether it’s blending drill cards, alphabet charts, or word wall letters, maintaining consistency in our materials enhances learning outcomes and nurtures reading success!

Repetition: Practice Makes Perfect

Repetition is the engine that drives learning forward. Just as a musician perfects their craft through hours of practices, young readers sharpen their skills through repeated exposure and engagement. Research underscores the importance of repetition in learning, with varying levels recommended based on individual proficiency levels.

According to educational psychologist Dr. Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues, mastery learning theory suggests that for a typical students, 4-14 repetitions may suffice to solidify learning, while struggling learners might benefit from 14-30 repetitions (Bloom, 1968). Furthermore, individuals with dyslexia, a specific learning disability that impacts reading fluency, may require even more repetitions, ranging from 40-200 repetitions (Shaywitz, 1998).

By integrating daily writing exercises, spelling practice, visual drills, and blending activities into our routines, we provide the necessary repetition for skill mastery.

So what do we do now?

In the pursuit of reading success, access, consistency, and repetition emerge as guiding principles. By embracing these pillars in our teaching and homeschooling practices, we lay a solid foundation for our children’s literacy development.

Are you ready to embark on this transformative journey with your young reader? Explore our curated resource below, designed to support access, consistency, and repetition in reading and writing. Together, let’s empower our children to unlock the doors to literacy and embrace a lifelong love of learning.

Until Next Time,

Morgan Watkins M.Ed.

Founder, Watkins Education Consulting

References:

• Bloom, B.S. (1968). Learning for mastery. Evaluation comment, 1(2), 1-6.

• Shaywitz, S.E. (1998). Dyslexia. New England Journal of Medicine, 338(5), 307-312.