Textbooks

[Anonymous]

The Social Studies book is an online text. Makes sense so it can be updated easily, accessed from anywhere, and not lost. There are assignments directly in the online text as well as videos and review activities. It’s not a great conspiracy, just how the publisher is working now- especially after Covid. I enjoy the videos- especially of the 20th century.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've long been convinced someone in FCPS is getting kick back from the marble notebook manufacturer. Those things are utterly useless.

The marble notebooks could be useful if kids were taught to take actual notes in class. And, if they were taught how to outline what they read in a textbook! But, no, the marble notebooks are slathered with glue and then a hapless homeschool worksheet is folded in half sideways and planted in the glue. If the DC is lucky, the glue won’t ooze out and glue the pages of the notebook together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Social Studies book is an online text. Makes sense so it can be updated easily, accessed from anywhere, and not lost. There are assignments directly in the online text as well as videos and review activities. It’s not a great conspiracy, just how the publisher is working now- especially after Covid. I enjoy the videos- especially of the 20th century.

The studies showed that students of all ages, from elementary school to college, tend to absorb more when they’re reading on paper than on screens, particularly when it comes to nonfiction material. “Sometimes you should print it out, especially if it’s long,” said Clinton.

Clinton now tells her students to order the book if they prefer reading paper. “It’s enough of a benefit that it’s worth the paper and ink and the cost of the book,” she said.

The benefit for reading on paper was rather small, after averaging the studies together, Clinton said. But 29 of the 33 laboratory studies found that readers learned more from text on paper.

Clinton’s analysis, published earlier in 2019, is now at least the third study to synthesize reputable research on reading comprehension in the digital age and find that paper is better. It was preceded by a 2017 review by scholars at the University of Maryland and a 2018 meta-analysis by scholars in Spain and Israel. The international analysis arrived at nearly the same numerical conclusion as Clinton’s study. Paper beat screens by more than a fifth of a standard deviation. (Scholars argue over how to interpret these statistical units. For controlled laboratory studies like these, it’s a small advantage.)

https://hechingerreport.org/evidence-increases-for-reading-on-paper-instead-of-screens/

For kids who may prefer digital there's perhaps not a big enough effect to paper to force it, but since there is a statistically significant effect schools should default to paper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've long been convinced someone in FCPS is getting kick back from the marble notebook manufacturer. Those things are utterly useless.

The marble notebooks could be useful if kids were taught to take actual notes in class. And, if they were taught how to outline what they read in a textbook! But, no, the marble notebooks are slathered with glue and then a hapless homeschool worksheet is folded in half sideways and planted in the glue. If the DC is lucky, the glue won’t ooze out and glue the pages of the notebook together.

Oh come now, most homeschool curricula provide textbooks, workbooks, teachers guides (many with scripts) and lots of novels for about $400-$700/year/kid. Don't malign them by comparing those marble notebooks with Teachers Pay Teachers worksheets slapped into them in haphazard order.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've long been convinced someone in FCPS is getting kick back from the marble notebook manufacturer. Those things are utterly useless.

The marble notebooks could be useful if kids were taught to take actual notes in class. And, if they were taught how to outline what they read in a textbook! But, no, the marble notebooks are slathered with glue and then a hapless homeschool worksheet is folded in half sideways and planted in the glue. If the DC is lucky, the glue won’t ooze out and glue the pages of the notebook together.

Oh come now, most homeschool curricula provide textbooks, workbooks, teachers guides (many with scripts) and lots of novels for about $400-$700/year/kid. Don't malign them by comparing those marble notebooks with Teachers Pay Teachers worksheets slapped into them in haphazard order.

Top 1 FCPS elementary school: Haycock Elementary, Per Pupil Expenditures: $8,629

Bottom 1 FCPS elementary school: Woodley Hills Elementary, Per Pupil Expenditures: $13,633

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've long been convinced someone in FCPS is getting kick back from the marble notebook manufacturer. Those things are utterly useless.

The marble notebooks could be useful if kids were taught to take actual notes in class. And, if they were taught how to outline what they read in a textbook! But, no, the marble notebooks are slathered with glue and then a hapless homeschool worksheet is folded in half sideways and planted in the glue. If the DC is lucky, the glue won’t ooze out and glue the pages of the notebook together.

Oh come now, most homeschool curricula provide textbooks, workbooks, teachers guides (many with scripts) and lots of novels for about $400-$700/year/kid. Don't malign them by comparing those marble notebooks with Teachers Pay Teachers worksheets slapped into them in haphazard order.

Top 1 FCPS elementary school: Haycock Elementary, Per Pupil Expenditures: $8,629

Bottom 1 FCPS elementary school: Woodley Hills Elementary, Per Pupil Expenditures: $13,633

Where is this coming from?

[Anonymous]

Top 1 FCPS elementary school: Haycock Elementary, Per Pupil Expenditures: $8,629

Bottom 1 FCPS elementary school: Woodley Hills Elementary, Per Pupil Expenditures: $13,633


Where is this coming from?

Yep. More money is spent on lower performing and Title 1 schools than "top" schools. Makes me so mad.

[Anonymous]

I don’t understand what the kids are supposed to use to reference if they don’t have a textbook. How to do a math problem, you reference the textbook, right?

Do college kids have textbooks still?

I agree. I think it would be such a benefit to reference or *gasp* go back through the unit and do the examples in a textbook.

The college textbooks are mostly digital now - you still "rent" them for X period of time, or pay a little more and buy/download it, or buy the actual hard copy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Top 1 FCPS elementary school: Haycock Elementary, Per Pupil Expenditures: $8,629

Bottom 1 FCPS elementary school: Woodley Hills Elementary, Per Pupil Expenditures: $13,633


Where is this coming from?

Yep. More money is spent on lower performing and Title 1 schools than "top" schools. Makes me so mad.

The title 1 school may need more free lunch etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the posters saying text books are too expensive, do you think all the online sites are for free? FCPS has pays $$$$$ each year (feel free to request FOIA) and separately for all the online sites- clever, Lexia, ST Math and the list goes on… this is not about saving $.

And for the we can’t have nice things, so then explain if kids cannot handle having a book, why is FCPS allowing computers?

And you think those sites are more expensive than text books? No they are not.

Yes I do. You can pull the costs from FCPS. And for fun, look up Lexia’s financials- over $200 million a year…. No Red Ink, $26 million. Do you think these companies donate? Not to mention FCPS pays the consultants to identify the software they are going to use (but that would be a wash as they would pay them to find books too). Comes down to if a textbook or not person. Like whether a dog or cat person, won’t be able to convince the other anyway so will leave you all to it.

" More than 86% of the budget goes toward instruction, and the average cost per student is $19,795." https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps
I support replacing the so called EdTech with textbooks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Top 1 FCPS elementary school: Haycock Elementary, Per Pupil Expenditures: $8,629

Bottom 1 FCPS elementary school: Woodley Hills Elementary, Per Pupil Expenditures: $13,633

Where is this coming from?

Yep. More money is spent on lower performing and Title 1 schools than "top" schools. Makes me so mad.

You could move and go to one of those school, although I do t think you’ll like it.

[Anonymous]

This is very disappointing to hear as I don’t see a future for my son in with executive function issues. I don’t see how he is going to be able to learn to study in high school to prepare for a future college experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is very disappointing to hear as I don’t see a future for my son in with executive function issues. I don’t see how he is going to be able to learn to study in high school to prepare for a future college experience.

Are you serious? A textbook is not the solution to curing EF issues.

[Anonymous]

Colleague moved kids to a no-name private which uses printed textbooks and also the workbooks which align with the text. She says they are so much happier - both the kids (who find it easier to learn) and the parents. She said when they toured privates they looked at the school’s actual pracice and picked one which was observed to actually use both. They do have a “computer class”, which includes typing instruction, in elementary once a week for 45 minutes. Otherwise, school uses no iPads, Chromebooks, laptops, or other electronics to teach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is very disappointing to hear as I don’t see a future for my son in with executive function issues. I don’t see how he is going to be able to learn to study in high school to prepare for a future college experience.

Are you serious? A textbook is not the solution to curing EF issues.

Textbooks do help keeping school children on track.
Yesterday, my 1st grader DC's teacher emailed me that DC played around on laptop at reading. The teacher use myON for reading.

A groundbreaking study shows kids learn better on paper, not screens. Now what?
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/jan/17/kids-reading-better-paper-vs-screen

Will you learn better from reading on screen or on paper?
https://www.snexplores.org/article/learn-comprehension-reading-digital-screen-paper#:~:text=Comprehension%2C%20they%20found%2C%20was%20better,She%20studies%20how%20we%20learn.

Middle-schoolers’ reading and processing depth in response to digital and print media: An N400 study
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.30.553693v1