The following is an excerpt from a letter sent by the principal of Greenwood School to the parents of all incoming kindergarteners We have decided to institute a policy of all day kindergarten instead of half day kindergarten for all students at Greenwood

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The following is an excerpt from a letter sent by the principal of Greenwood School to the parents of all incoming kindergarteners.

"We have decided to institute a policy of all-day kindergarten, instead of half-day kindergarten, for all students at Greenwood School. All-day kindergarten will help all our students achieve at their highest levels. The classes will be 'tracked', so that average students are together, but high-achieving and low-achieving students will be put together in classes. In this way, the high-achieving students will be able to help pull the low-achieving students up to the high-achieving students' level, so that no student falls behind. The all-day kindergarten classes will cover the same material previously covered in the half-day kindergarten classes, but will go at a slower speed to accommodate learning differences. In addition, the students will receive extra instruction in music, art, and physical education. One of the greatest benefits of the plan, however, is that students will be in a structured environment for longer hours, reducing the numbers of hours that otherwise would be wasted at home or in day care."

Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.

The letter sent by the principal of Greenwood School to the parents of all the incoming kindergartens states the decision taken by the school management to institute a policy of all-day kindergarten for all the students. The letter reasons out that all- day kindergarten will help the students achieve at their highest levels, given the increase in the structured school environment, reduction in the speed of the lessons taught and the extra instructions being given out in music, art, and physical education. The letter further claims that the"tracking' of classes will bolster the above taken decision, in aiding to the needs of all the students. However, these arguments rely on a series of unwarranted assumptions, making them unconvincing.

The first thing, the letter states that 'tracking of classes' will help the low- achieving students, as they will be grouped with the high performers. But, there is no mention of how this interaction between the students can take place within the class hours. A clear mentioning of the daily timetable, explaining the structure i.e., the daily class timings, the duration of the extra instructions, breaks and time slots for interaction between the students, will make this idea of class 'tracking' technically sound.

The second thing, as the letter states, covering the same material in the all-day kindergarten classes as previously in the half-day schedule, will surely make the teaching go at a slower speed. However, there is little mention of whether this reduction of speed in teaching will accommodate even the slowest of the slowest learners. Assessing each and every student's learning capability and then chalking out an effective teaching plan will help in the success of this implementation.

The third thing, the letter cites that students will receive extra instructions in art, music and physical education. These instructions will surely help the students to develop their skills and excel in these areas. in order, to make this argument logically convincing a detailed schedule of these extra instructions must be presented. Giving details about the hours allocated to these instructions, the instructors to the students ratio and the field( drawing room, play ground, music room) environment will make this argument robust.

Finally, the letter also mentions that there will be a reduction in the wastage of time by the students by this implementation of full- day schooling. Adding, the statistics of the time spent by the students at home and the time they utilize in studies or the time they simply waste, will lend credibility to this argument.

To sum, the above mentioned assumptions must be warranted with relevant data. Giving a detailed daily plan, assessing all the students learning capability and carrying out a survey on how the time is spent by the students at homes will make these arguments convincing.

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argument 1 -- not OK. It may lower the grades of the high achievers.

argument 2 -- better: They may lose interest if the speed is too slow.

argument 3 -- not OK. They may get tired.

argument 4 -- OK
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Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
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No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
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Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.084 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5