Reading, ‘Riting, Rigor Pay Off for Class

Twenty kindergartners today will plant their bottoms for the last time on the Room 2 rug at Third Street Elementary. Or not.

Today is the last day of school, and these children intend to whoop it up with their teacher, JoAnn Galileo, at a “Blast Off to Summer” party and barbecue. They will be celebrating a school year that by most accounts has been challenging and edifying.

Many of these tykes have cleared their first educational hurdle, mastering enough letter-sound combinations that they can read and write simple sentences with relative ease.

Embracing California’s rigorous new content standards, Galileo has presented a demanding curriculum over the course of 180 days. To bolster the classroom learning, the teacher, like an increasing number of her counterparts, has assigned a weekly homework packet.

Recent lessons on weather, plants, insects, farming and oceans would have been unthinkable in the kindergartens of a generation ago, when youngsters devoted themselves to playing with blocks, eating snacks, learning to get along and resting.

To assess how much life has changed for Golden State kindergartners, The Times has followed Galileo’s class since the opening days of school in September.

Through the year, she has coped with a wide divergence of social and academic readiness in her young charges. Some children arrived last fall not knowing how to hold a crayon or a pencil properly. Many could not tie their shoes.

A few found it tough to listen to and follow directions. One or two still wander the room rather than work on assigned tasks.

To parents and pupils alike, Galileo has preached the need for young children to take responsibility for their own work and to always do their best. She has admonished many parents to let their children tackle homework by themselves rather than rely on Mom or Dad for help.

“I don’t assign anything that we haven’t already worked on in class,” she has reminded them. “The children should be able to handle it.”

Indeed, some parents have been startled at how far their children have come.

“The year exceeded my expectations, and I’m really picky,” said Nan Radulovic, mother of 6-year-old Abry Elmassian. “I’m one of those parents who did look at private schools but decided on Third Street.”

By all appearances, it was good for Abry to land at the high-performing Hancock Park school. She thrived in the challenging environment and now, Radulovic said, “feels very competent and skilled.” Abry is excited about reading and writing at home too.

For her part, Radulovic, a frequent classroom volunteer, welcomed Galileo’s supportive attitude and constant accessibility.

Jenny Lee said her daughter Pearl found the going rough at first but adapted well. Pearl is now reading and composing compound sentences. Like many other parents, Lee expressed amazement at how much ground the class covered.

Galileo’s teaching didn’t stop with the pupils, Lee found. A weekly volunteer in the classroom, Lee often solicited Galileo’s advice on how to handle her spirited daughter. The teacher, a mother of two grown daughters, provided tips on managing anger and other advice.

Pearl, meanwhile, seems “really ready for first grade,” her mother said.

So does Stephanie Cho, who can now identify big words such as “because” and “beautiful.” A weekly assignment to clip, read and report on a newspaper story often caused the family headaches, “but through it all, we’ve both learned a lot,” said her mother, Susan Cho.

Cho has an interesting perspective, given that her son, Andy, was in Galileo’s class a mere two years ago. At the end of kindergarten, Galileo urged Cho to work with him on simple three-letter words over the summer. He wasn’t reading at all, Cho recalled.

“As a mother who has had both kids in Mrs. Galileo’s class, I can say her curriculum has really changed,” Cho said.

Today’s party will mean a poignant farewell for Valeria Cortes, who was honored last week by classmates as pupil of the week. Valeria’s mother, Adriana Arce, has decided to move to Las Vegas so her parents can help rear Valeria and her younger sister. For Valeria, that means saying goodbye to a classmate who had become her best friend.

The class has held many surprises even for a pro like Galileo. The disparate and strong personalities have not meshed well, although many children have formed close bonds in clusters of twos or threes. As a group they have been more interested in the arts, particularly music, than in academics. One shy loner who has struggled with academics turned out to be a gifted actress, capable of emoting on stage.

“When I go day by day,” Galileo said, “I feel they haven’t made the progress of other classes [I’ve had], but when I compare their work with work from the first of the year, I see it.”

A case in point is one boy who arrived scrawling chicken scratches and now prints legibly--and reads a bit to boot.

Galileo, who has taught for more than three decades, is enough of a veteran to realize that she can’t expect all children to perform at a high level, no matter how hard she and they try.

Some are still struggling with phonics, she said, “and that’s OK.”

As the days dwindled and the summer break loomed, a few children persisted in misbehaving. One recent morning, Galileo found it necessary to mediate an ongoing feud between two girls. It was a reminder of how many hats a teacher must wear: referee, coach, therapist, drill instructor, cheerleader.

Today Galileo will have a parting gift for her pupils: several activity packets to help parents keep up the learning habit. Like the children, Mrs. G looks forward to a break from the 8:05-to-11:20-a.m. kindergarten routine.

“At this time of year,” she said, “the teachers feel like the students: a little raggedy around the edges.”