middle school english
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Anonymous
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IF your kid is not in a magnet, and in GT/honors, what are they taking ?
Are there any middle schools with actual differentiation in this subject? What is being covered exactly? What are they reading? Just trying to understand how the curriculum differs across the county. |
Anonymous
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There have been other threads out this. Middle school English stinks. Even my middle schooler knows how horrible it is. She gets more writing in her HIGH class.
I’ll preface this with the fact that we are not at a W middle-school, so could be better in Potomac. My kid is in 8th and they rarely read novels. They read The Pact (which is also read and was crap) and they do very little writing. Barely any focus on grammar. It’s a huge waste of time. No differentiation. Everyone is in Honors English. Even the kids who struggle, so it’s a joke. The kids who struggle are required to take an additional support class, but are also still kept in Honors English. |
Anonymous
| Yup, many threads about this. This is why I pulled DS out of MCPS and into private and we’re happy. He reads novels and writes researched essays at least once a month, plus vocabulary tests. MCPS didn’t offer anything remotely like this. And fwiw, like everyone else on DCUM, he was a high achiever, otherwise I probably would have left him in MCPS. |
Anonymous
It's "Advanced English" in middle school. For everyone. No "Honors English" until high school. |
Anonymous
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No ofificiL differentiation but I think teachers have some flexibility in choosing books and assignments. My now 10th grader had a great teacher for 7th and 8th who assigned some really decent novels and really had the kids engage in active discussions and interesting writing assignments.
My younger kid is in 7th and definitely has books he is reading that seem like real books….he’s not crazy about his teacher so I don’t get a good sense of whether there are good class discussions and so forth. I’m not convinced that there isn’t some unofficial conert grouping at least at some schools. |
Anonymous
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Honestly, I think this is a prime opportunity for parent advocacy. It won't help your own personal kids, likely, but it will help the kids coming up behind them.
Go in front of the BOE and talk about how your bright, motivated, magnet-capable kid hasn't read a real book in two years but is stuck reading exerpts. If MCPS is going to move to a magnet for the lottery, parents need to be ready to push hard for home school differentiation. It's time to get organized. |
Anonymous
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FWIW, there was a curriculum implementation update the BOE meeting last week, and the memo included this about StudySync, the middle school English curriculum:
Secondary Literacy: StudySync The StudySync curriculum resources provide modules that include anchor texts, paired readings, and learning activities that completely are aligned to grade-level standards. The first four units address all of the Maryland College and Career Readiness Standards for English Language Arts that are expected for Grades 6–8. Additionally, all units also include Extended Oral Projects and Extended Writing Projects, as well as assessments that are aligned to the units of study. The StudySync curriculum includes instructional resources and assessments that address the language learning needs of English Learners/Emergent Multilingual Learners (ELs/EMLs) at all proficiency levels. MCPS students have access to online and print resources and novels for instructional purposes. Additional instructional resources were developed to support ELs/EMLs at lower proficiency levels in collaboration with the vendor and English Language Development (ELD) teachers at the middle school level. Additionally, OCIP continues to work with StudySync on the addition of diverse texts. https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/CAGLA904C8AC/$file/Curr%20Implement%20Eval%20Review%20220113.pdf |
Anonymous
| DC at TPMS. Never saw him writing a whole essay in two years in English class. They do assign books to read (one book per semester?) and writing prompts. Did a lot of project oriented study in HIGH. NHD project is fun and challenging. DC prefers HIGH class. They used to write short novels and read and perform Shakepeare's in CES, so English was way lame for middle school. |
Anonymous
Maybe someone else speaks bureaucrat, but that seems to be telling us that StudySync is exactly at grade level, and geared to meeting the needs of ELLs. That's great for emerging English learners, and I'm glad they have access to a curriculum that meets their needs. But using a curriculum designed for ELLs, and that relies on "anchor texts and paired readings" rather than BOOKS is really frustrating for kids who need more engagement. |
Anonymous
My 8th grader has been using StudySync all three years, and they've read one or two books each year in addition to the shorter readings that are accessed online. It's nothing fabulous, but there are real books. They just read The Outsiders. And I don't think that it's mainly for ELLs. There are supposed to be ways for the teacher to differentiate for advanced readers. How well that works for them, I don't know. https://www.mheducation.com/prek-12/program/studysync-ela/MKTSP-ROA01M0.html |
Anonymous
It doesn’t work for them. At all. Teachers don’t have the time, the energy or the inclination to differentiate for advanced students. They need to get the other kids up to speed. Advanced learners are not a priority. |
Anonymous
Sorry, that’s correct. I’m the PP who you quoted. It’s Advanced English for all. |
Anonymous
| “Advanced English for All” is an utter failure & a farce. There are many students in my kid’s class who are limited English speakers or who can barely write a coherent sentence. It’s not fair to lump everyone together and it helps no one in the end. MCPS tracks for math. Why are they doing this in English? It’s disastrous |
Anonymous
When our school put everyone in Advanced English classes a couple years ago, we got this letter from the principal: The purpose of this letter is to share an exciting change that is occurring in regards to our English classes. Starting in School Year 20-21, all students will be enrolled in the Advanced English course, collapsing our two-tier course structure into one. After analyzing our school performance data, soliciting student and staff feedback, and working with our leadership and supervisors in Central Office, we believe this move to heterogeneous Advanced English classes will allow all students access to rigorous instruction and better match the progressive levels of student performance we experienced this year. As part of this process, a primary focus of the English Department will be to strengthen our capacity to differentiate instruction in heterogeneous classes using the features of the new StudySync curriculum. We are eager to embark on this journey with our students as they grow as readers, writers and speakers. |
Anonymous
LMAO We got no such letter. But they should have been more truthful. ‘We are eager to embark on this journey to watch our highly motivated and qualified students stagnate in their abysmal English classes.’ |