Dcps new ELA curriculum

[Anonymous]

This is awful. Thank you for flagging just how bad it is, OP.

[Anonymous]

The curriculum sounds lit.

[Anonymous]

I’m a DCPS MS teacher and it’s not just ELA. Social studies and world languages also have no real curriculum. Zero writing instruction. At my school, I’m not even allowed to do any direct instruction. Everything has to be “inquiry.”

Central office won’t listen to teachers, but they might listen to parents if yall complain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a DCPS MS teacher and it’s not just ELA. Social studies and world languages also have no real curriculum. Zero writing instruction. At my school, I’m not even allowed to do any direct instruction. Everything has to be “inquiry.”

Central office won’t listen to teachers, but they might listen to parents if yall complain.

This is so insane. I'm so sorry for DCPS middle school teachers and students.

We did DCPS elementary and loved it but opted out for middle. Parents who are in DCPS middles should be very vocal about this.

[Anonymous]

Not every school is following this. I work at Stuart-Hobson and our ELA curriculum is unchanged, with a writing focus across all content areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not every school is following this. I work at Stuart-Hobson and our ELA curriculum is unchanged, with a writing focus across all content areas.

It's piloted. This will be your curriculum in 2 years.

[Anonymous]

Looks like some deal teachers are trying to get students to read actual books by giving them a list of books, sati ng pick one, read 30 minutes every night at home, and do a one paragraph book report on it. One book each term so we are back to 4-5 books.

But basically this is just making parents enforce independent reading. My reluctant reader won't do this this without a wwIII battle - she will bluff her way through using the graphic novels on the list or reading the blurb and writing from that. She doesn't do ai yet or look up book summaries, but she'll figure that out pretty quick. If it was assigned at school she'd read it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looks like some deal teachers are trying to get students to read actual books by giving them a list of books, sati ng pick one, read 30 minutes every night at home, and do a one paragraph book report on it. One book each term so we are back to 4-5 books.

But basically this is just making parents enforce independent reading. My reluctant reader won't do this this without a wwIII battle - she will bluff her way through using the graphic novels on the list or reading the blurb and writing from that. She doesn't do ai yet or look up book summaries, but she'll figure that out pretty quick. If it was assigned at school she'd read it.

I don’t understand, why would she read the book if it was assigned, instead of using AI or looking up book summaries? It’s not magic. The only way to confirm that kids are actually reading assigned material is to use classroom time for the reading. And classroom time is limited. So that’s a strong argument in favor of the shorter texts used in the new curriculum.

If you want your reluctant kid to actually read books at home you are going to have to be the enforcer. Or I guess you could pay someone else to watch them read. There’s nothing a teacher or curriculum can do about what happens in your home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looks like some deal teachers are trying to get students to read actual books by giving them a list of books, sati ng pick one, read 30 minutes every night at home, and do a one paragraph book report on it. One book each term so we are back to 4-5 books.

But basically this is just making parents enforce independent reading. My reluctant reader won't do this this without a wwIII battle - she will bluff her way through using the graphic novels on the list or reading the blurb and writing from that. She doesn't do ai yet or look up book summaries, but she'll figure that out pretty quick. If it was assigned at school she'd read it.

I don’t understand, why would she read the book if it was assigned, instead of using AI or looking up book summaries? It’s not magic. The only way to confirm that kids are actually reading assigned material is to use classroom time for the reading. And classroom time is limited. So that’s a strong argument in favor of the shorter texts used in the new curriculum.

If you want your reluctant kid to actually read books at home you are going to have to be the enforcer. Or I guess you could pay someone else to watch them read. There’s nothing a teacher or curriculum can do about what happens in your home.

Really? If a teacher assigned it and she knows she has to talk about it the next day, she will do it even though its a non preferred task. Pick a book off the list, read it on your own with no discussion to get you excited about it, write a summary of it and submit ot on line. Teacher /class never talks about the book. That is crap pedegogy or, really, no pedagogy at all.

And they do read at least par of the novels in class. Do I want them reading short stories and little informational texts in class or novels (with sone additional short tects as context or to compare)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not every school is following this. I work at Stuart-Hobson and our ELA curriculum is unchanged, with a writing focus across all content areas.

It's piloted. This will be your curriculum in 2 years.

This.

[Anonymous]

my 8th grader at a DCPS middle is reading 4 novels this year plus more in her "book group" - at Maret last year, where I have many friends with kids, 8th graders read 1 book and wrote 1 essay. All year. So it's not all DCPS and it's not just DCPS.

[Anonymous]

This reaks of laziness. Deal has said CommonLit will provide more teacher resources and we have seen a number of worksheets and assignments that are coming straight from CommonLit. But what is not clear is how the teachers are providing FEEDBACK on the assignments outside of just a number grade. Is CommonLit giving teachers the tools to make students better writers? Why can't DCPS incorporate a booklist into the curriculum? Why does it only entail a monthly book of choice when they could asign the whole class a novel and assignments based on that book? Is this really thatdifficult to do? Could do every other month. Or hell, once a term.

[Anonymous]

I complained to someone in DCPS central office about this, and it was a disappointing conversation. The person I spoke to said the curriculum was chosen to lighten the planning lift for teachers and so that more students could relate to the content. They also said there would be more focus on writing, rather than reading, and they confirmed that there was no consultation of parents during the decision-making process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I complained to someone in DCPS central office about this, and it was a disappointing conversation. The person I spoke to said the curriculum was chosen to lighten the planning lift for teachers and so that more students could relate to the content. They also said there would be more focus on writing, rather than reading, and they confirmed that there was no consultation of parents during the decision-making process.

Exactly- they are more concerned about making it easier to teach rather than giving the students a rigorous and interesting curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I complained to someone in DCPS central office about this, and it was a disappointing conversation. The person I spoke to said the curriculum was chosen to lighten the planning lift for teachers and so that more students could relate to the content. They also said there would be more focus on writing, rather than reading, and they confirmed that there was no consultation of parents during the decision-making process.

They wouldn't need to "lighten the planning lift" for teachers if they kept class numbers to a manageable size and dealt with behavior problems effectively.

Meanwhile, what the heck does it mean to say "so that more students could relate to the content"? Students are shorter these days so they need shorter content?

A big reason for studying well-written novels is to learn how alike people are on the inside, how alike human relationships are, and how alike the human experience is across time, contexts, and cultures.