My 9th grader has read one novel. ONE. |
Have you used the new curriculum? Is it good/reasonably fine? |
I haven’t but we got to get a glimpse of the curriculum and some information about what is included yesterday and it includes small group and decodables. It seems alright so far, no red flags, but teachers won’t start get fully trained until the summer. |
There are 1-2 optional novel studies per grade from 2nd-6th. I’m bummed about that because while my grade’s book (Esperanza Rising) is great, I don’t think it’s a good fit for all my kids and I will perish of boredom teaching that ONE BOOK year after year. I am hoping to still sneak in book clubs somehow.
Also, the full time AAP teachers have been told we are supposed to use the basal and supplement with the AAP curriculum. This is a state mandate. How this will work when the basal program takes up every minute of the LA block is undetermined. I’ve got quite a few kids in 5th who read at the 7th or 8th grade level. The first 5th grade unit has vocabulary words like “public” and a review of short vowel sounds. |
Or later, during the SY. |
If that's true, when will the differentiated small groups happen? |
What is the state mandate? Do you have the specific language? Possibly the basal curriculum could be used in a condensed form when mastery is shown. Or a waiver could be sought for GT education, which is also a state mandate. |
Every school district in Virginia is now mandated to have a literacy basal |
Oh, I’m sure we’ll get new slide decks. With fancy graphics and pages of POG skills. And one stinking math problem. And a slide with centers names. The kids need to do math, math, and more math. But apparently one problem and talking about it is sufficient for Gatehouse. |
The new phonics curriculum was rolled out a couple years ago, in anticipation of this new mandate. I guess it wasn't sufficient? |
Hmmm … I’ve been with FCPS for 8 years and no Envision. None even in the storage rooms. Never went to any trainings. No old materials in the various drives. Maybe some schools kept them around longer? |
It’s the phonics program at my school K-2 and intervention for all grades. The progress the kids are making is amazing! |
There is more to reading than phonics. |
More and more, new teachers aren't coming from traditional college education programs. Many have zero knowledge of pedagogy. |
That’s great. I wish I had just done it. But this is what others mean- every school is doing something different! |