Reading Groups

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of parents wanted a phonics based LA program. I was ecstatic when I heard that they were going to be doing word studies and focusing on spelling and grammar this year. The method that they were using worked for a small group of kids and left a lot of other kids struggling, not just the kids with dyslexia. DS is a smart, capable kid who has not had any corrections to his spelling or grammar in LA for the first 5 years he was in school. That is ridiculous. He knew how to spell the words correctly, we asked him to spell words for us when we saw papers from school, he wasn't doing it because the Teacher didn't correct it and he didn't care. It only started improving when we started making him redo work at home.

At the very least, the way FCPS had been teaching LA was allowing kids to be lazy and that was impacting their writing and reading as they got older. At worst, kids who were slow to read or had LDs struggled for a longer period of time then they needed to. That can cause issues with a kids self esteem and desire to learn.

I have no problem at my 5th grader who is ahead in reading and does well with comprehension and the like (high iReady's and Pass Advanced on the 2 SOLs he has taken, not that either of those are great measures) will be a better reader and writer with what they are doing now. Kids who are ahead in reading will still be in a higher reading group and will still be working on reading comprehension. He reads a lot at home and we discuss what he is reading. He is going to be fine.

What parents don’t understand is that phonics, spelling and grammar work should be combined with comprehension and understanding. Whatever, you are going to get phonics and spelling, but “content-rich” push is coming from companies that are pushing their curriculum. I

Know also that the reason why we don’t have science and social studies is that parents 15 years ago wanted to make sure all kids were reading and doing math, so they lobbied for more reading and math time and science and social studies were cut. Parents get what they ask for eventually, so be careful what you ask for because the education companies and legislature is listening. Because of this public schools will always leave something out for someone. As a previous poster said, “the pendulum has swung” enjoy that you are happy with its direction for the time being.

That is LITERALLY what those of us who are praising the science of reading are saying. It's just that reading comprehension lady can't comprehend this, LOL!!

“Reading comprehension lady”, aka me, has a masters in teaching and actually taught elementary in FCPS for years. I know what balanced literacy looks like. The fact is kids need both phonics and reading comprehension skills. As kids get older, though, the focus needs to be more on comprehension. What I am seeing at my child’s school right now is not balanced. I am seeing a mad rush to catch up on stuff that should have been done in K-2. My child is now way past that and is at ceiling with phonemic awareness. She doesn’t need to know open and closed syllables now. Other kids might, but she is bored. Her scores on nonfiction and fiction sections of standardized tests indicate she may need work on those areas. Not a disability by any means, but she needs to be practicing comprehension and answering questions about texts. I’m not seeing that at all so far. The fact is teachers are now catering to the lowest readers.

You taught elementary in FCPS for years? So you're part of the problem. You "taught" children how to read with "balanced literacy" aka Lucy Calkins. So nope, not seeing you as an expert.

Never used Lucy Calkins. I also didn’t teach kids to read. I taught upper level elementary where we focused on comprehension. We met in reading groups and discussed chapters. We answered comprehension questions. We made predictions and connections and summaries. Those skills are important once the child reaches the upper grades. There is less emphasis on phonics by then because all the kids know how to read already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We no longer use the DRA. We do use the PRF. Reading groups are still a thing, but they will be more focused on phonics and phonemic awareness.

I haven't started small groups yet. The time has been spent assessing (PRFs, iReady, DSA, VGA). I'll start small groups after I finish assessing using the CORE and PASS assessments. The CORE and PASS are given based on how the students do in the phonics and phonemic awareness sections of the iReady.

My kid doesn’t need phonics and phonemic awareness. She needs comprehension now (4th grade).

This is what you parents have been fighting for and now the pendulum has swung - hope you’re happy!

Parents have been fighting for phonics AND a rich knowledge based curriculum. Just wanted to correct this.

Dyslexia parents got ahold of the state legislature and brought in iReady and science of reading. So now suddenly kids will have “comprehension difficulties” starting in 3rd or 4th grade. You will have to form a contingent and go to the state legislature and take control of the schools from they dyslexia parents.

Wow, what??? You sound crazy.

Do I?

Here are some of the lobbying groups for dyslexia VA:

https://www.decodingdyslexiavirginia.org/

https://va.dyslexiaida.org/


Here is the study they wanted:

https://rga.lis.virginia.gov/Published/2011/SD4

And why they changed the assessment to incorporate dyslexia screening:

https://rga.lis.virginia.gov/Published/2019/RD640/PDF

All done by the state legislature which was lobbied by parents who have dyslexic kids.

Why don't you want people who have children with learning disabilities to advocate for their children? I don't understand. We should all advocate for our children.

Right, except when someone said “my child is bored.” A poster came back and said something to the tune of: “I know your child is bored, but my kid has to have this or he will never read. So who cares if your kid is bored.”

I don’t care if people advocate, but I do care when the advocacy affects my child in a negative way. I have a right to advocate that my child who was reading at 4 could move on to other phonics lessons.

I think that the parents who lobbied should know that what is great for their kid may not be great for mine. Also, if more parents feel this way, the dyslexia advocates have a blueprint for how to change instruction in schools: Lobby the legislature. Some one literally called me crazy for suggesting that that is what happened (it is).

What you are not seeing is that the phonics instruction needs to be differentiated particularly in the younger grades. It isn’t right now.

Why can’t parents of kids who are dyslexic hear that the instruction that is a right fit for their kid may not be for mine? Is that really wrong of me to say? I’m advocating too. This is me advocating that FCPS and phonics companies should have a better solution than one size fits all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of parents wanted a phonics based LA program. I was ecstatic when I heard that they were going to be doing word studies and focusing on spelling and grammar this year. The method that they were using worked for a small group of kids and left a lot of other kids struggling, not just the kids with dyslexia. DS is a smart, capable kid who has not had any corrections to his spelling or grammar in LA for the first 5 years he was in school. That is ridiculous. He knew how to spell the words correctly, we asked him to spell words for us when we saw papers from school, he wasn't doing it because the Teacher didn't correct it and he didn't care. It only started improving when we started making him redo work at home.

At the very least, the way FCPS had been teaching LA was allowing kids to be lazy and that was impacting their writing and reading as they got older. At worst, kids who were slow to read or had LDs struggled for a longer period of time then they needed to. That can cause issues with a kids self esteem and desire to learn.

I have no problem at my 5th grader who is ahead in reading and does well with comprehension and the like (high iReady's and Pass Advanced on the 2 SOLs he has taken, not that either of those are great measures) will be a better reader and writer with what they are doing now. Kids who are ahead in reading will still be in a higher reading group and will still be working on reading comprehension. He reads a lot at home and we discuss what he is reading. He is going to be fine.

What parents don’t understand is that phonics, spelling and grammar work should be combined with comprehension and understanding. Whatever, you are going to get phonics and spelling, but “content-rich” push is coming from companies that are pushing their curriculum. I

Know also that the reason why we don’t have science and social studies is that parents 15 years ago wanted to make sure all kids were reading and doing math, so they lobbied for more reading and math time and science and social studies were cut. Parents get what they ask for eventually, so be careful what you ask for because the education companies and legislature is listening. Because of this public schools will always leave something out for someone. As a previous poster said, “the pendulum has swung” enjoy that you are happy with its direction for the time being.

That is LITERALLY what those of us who are praising the science of reading are saying. It's just that reading comprehension lady can't comprehend this, LOL!!

“Reading comprehension lady”, aka me, has a masters in teaching and actually taught elementary in FCPS for years. I know what balanced literacy looks like. The fact is kids need both phonics and reading comprehension skills. As kids get older, though, the focus needs to be more on comprehension. What I am seeing at my child’s school right now is not balanced. I am seeing a mad rush to catch up on stuff that should have been done in K-2. My child is now way past that and is at ceiling with phonemic awareness. She doesn’t need to know open and closed syllables now. Other kids might, but she is bored. Her scores on nonfiction and fiction sections of standardized tests indicate she may need work on those areas. Not a disability by any means, but she needs to be practicing comprehension and answering questions about texts. I’m not seeing that at all so far. The fact is teachers are now catering to the lowest readers.

This is the beginning of October. The school year has barely started.

The fact is, the school year will get more interesting soon, for your DD and for you.

Can you explain why you think phonics work SHOULDN’T be differentiated?

As a teacher, explain how I can teach phonics differentiated? It is 10-15 minutes of each day. I still need to teach all the other parts of language arts. Differentiating reading (in reading groups) is a better use of everyone’s time.

Incorporate phonics into reading group work. You can also have leveled centers. If you are using any OG stuff (word lists, vowel intensive etc) during your reading group lesson, have it available during independent time. Kids who are working on long vowel patterns can have long vowel word lists, kids who are on CVC can have those etc. If you take 3 minutes during the opening of your reading group to work on a skill make it a phonics skill and then off to the book. Kids can follow up at their seats with differentiated phonics work based on the skill you taught in reading group. Make each skill a week or so.

Okay. This might work for lower ES but not upper. We don’t do centers for LA. Phonics needs don’t always match comprehension needs. I think it is easier to teach a word study lesson for 10 mins full class and then do comprehension based reading groups. If you have kids who are still learning to read, then fine a 3 min phonics lesson during small group will work. Again, my 10-15 minutes of word study with my AAP kids is helping their spelling, their knowledge of parts of speech and their reading comprehension.

My understanding is that AAP is itself differentiated by pulling out Advanced Academic students, so no you probably wouldn’t need as much differentiation in your class.
I would agree that this lends itself to primary grades, but that is when phonics is more necessary and also when more differentiation for reading instruction is needed anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of parents wanted a phonics based LA program. I was ecstatic when I heard that they were going to be doing word studies and focusing on spelling and grammar this year. The method that they were using worked for a small group of kids and left a lot of other kids struggling, not just the kids with dyslexia. DS is a smart, capable kid who has not had any corrections to his spelling or grammar in LA for the first 5 years he was in school. That is ridiculous. He knew how to spell the words correctly, we asked him to spell words for us when we saw papers from school, he wasn't doing it because the Teacher didn't correct it and he didn't care. It only started improving when we started making him redo work at home.

At the very least, the way FCPS had been teaching LA was allowing kids to be lazy and that was impacting their writing and reading as they got older. At worst, kids who were slow to read or had LDs struggled for a longer period of time then they needed to. That can cause issues with a kids self esteem and desire to learn.

I have no problem at my 5th grader who is ahead in reading and does well with comprehension and the like (high iReady's and Pass Advanced on the 2 SOLs he has taken, not that either of those are great measures) will be a better reader and writer with what they are doing now. Kids who are ahead in reading will still be in a higher reading group and will still be working on reading comprehension. He reads a lot at home and we discuss what he is reading. He is going to be fine.

What parents don’t understand is that phonics, spelling and grammar work should be combined with comprehension and understanding. Whatever, you are going to get phonics and spelling, but “content-rich” push is coming from companies that are pushing their curriculum. I

Know also that the reason why we don’t have science and social studies is that parents 15 years ago wanted to make sure all kids were reading and doing math, so they lobbied for more reading and math time and science and social studies were cut. Parents get what they ask for eventually, so be careful what you ask for because the education companies and legislature is listening. Because of this public schools will always leave something out for someone. As a previous poster said, “the pendulum has swung” enjoy that you are happy with its direction for the time being.

That is LITERALLY what those of us who are praising the science of reading are saying. It's just that reading comprehension lady can't comprehend this, LOL!!

“Reading comprehension lady”, aka me, has a masters in teaching and actually taught elementary in FCPS for years. I know what balanced literacy looks like. The fact is kids need both phonics and reading comprehension skills. As kids get older, though, the focus needs to be more on comprehension. What I am seeing at my child’s school right now is not balanced. I am seeing a mad rush to catch up on stuff that should have been done in K-2. My child is now way past that and is at ceiling with phonemic awareness. She doesn’t need to know open and closed syllables now. Other kids might, but she is bored. Her scores on nonfiction and fiction sections of standardized tests indicate she may need work on those areas. Not a disability by any means, but she needs to be practicing comprehension and answering questions about texts. I’m not seeing that at all so far. The fact is teachers are now catering to the lowest readers.

This is the beginning of October. The school year has barely started.

The fact is, the school year will get more interesting soon, for your DD and for you.

Can you explain why you think phonics work SHOULDN’T be differentiated?

As a teacher, explain how I can teach phonics differentiated? It is 10-15 minutes of each day. I still need to teach all the other parts of language arts. Differentiating reading (in reading groups) is a better use of everyone’s time.

Incorporate phonics into reading group work. You can also have leveled centers. If you are using any OG stuff (word lists, vowel intensive etc) during your reading group lesson, have it available during independent time. Kids who are working on long vowel patterns can have long vowel word lists, kids who are on CVC can have those etc. If you take 3 minutes during the opening of your reading group to work on a skill make it a phonics skill and then off to the book. Kids can follow up at their seats with differentiated phonics work based on the skill you taught in reading group. Make each skill a week or so.

So under your plan I will see less reading groups because it won’t take 3 minutes - It’ll be closer to 5-7 minutes to each group. This isn’t a win-win situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of parents wanted a phonics based LA program. I was ecstatic when I heard that they were going to be doing word studies and focusing on spelling and grammar this year. The method that they were using worked for a small group of kids and left a lot of other kids struggling, not just the kids with dyslexia. DS is a smart, capable kid who has not had any corrections to his spelling or grammar in LA for the first 5 years he was in school. That is ridiculous. He knew how to spell the words correctly, we asked him to spell words for us when we saw papers from school, he wasn't doing it because the Teacher didn't correct it and he didn't care. It only started improving when we started making him redo work at home.

At the very least, the way FCPS had been teaching LA was allowing kids to be lazy and that was impacting their writing and reading as they got older. At worst, kids who were slow to read or had LDs struggled for a longer period of time then they needed to. That can cause issues with a kids self esteem and desire to learn.

I have no problem at my 5th grader who is ahead in reading and does well with comprehension and the like (high iReady's and Pass Advanced on the 2 SOLs he has taken, not that either of those are great measures) will be a better reader and writer with what they are doing now. Kids who are ahead in reading will still be in a higher reading group and will still be working on reading comprehension. He reads a lot at home and we discuss what he is reading. He is going to be fine.

What parents don’t understand is that phonics, spelling and grammar work should be combined with comprehension and understanding. Whatever, you are going to get phonics and spelling, but “content-rich” push is coming from companies that are pushing their curriculum. I

Know also that the reason why we don’t have science and social studies is that parents 15 years ago wanted to make sure all kids were reading and doing math, so they lobbied for more reading and math time and science and social studies were cut. Parents get what they ask for eventually, so be careful what you ask for because the education companies and legislature is listening. Because of this public schools will always leave something out for someone. As a previous poster said, “the pendulum has swung” enjoy that you are happy with its direction for the time being.

That is LITERALLY what those of us who are praising the science of reading are saying. It's just that reading comprehension lady can't comprehend this, LOL!!

“Reading comprehension lady”, aka me, has a masters in teaching and actually taught elementary in FCPS for years. I know what balanced literacy looks like. The fact is kids need both phonics and reading comprehension skills. As kids get older, though, the focus needs to be more on comprehension. What I am seeing at my child’s school right now is not balanced. I am seeing a mad rush to catch up on stuff that should have been done in K-2. My child is now way past that and is at ceiling with phonemic awareness. She doesn’t need to know open and closed syllables now. Other kids might, but she is bored. Her scores on nonfiction and fiction sections of standardized tests indicate she may need work on those areas. Not a disability by any means, but she needs to be practicing comprehension and answering questions about texts. I’m not seeing that at all so far. The fact is teachers are now catering to the lowest readers.

You taught elementary in FCPS for years? So you're part of the problem. You "taught" children how to read with "balanced literacy" aka Lucy Calkins. So nope, not seeing you as an expert.

1000%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of parents wanted a phonics based LA program. I was ecstatic when I heard that they were going to be doing word studies and focusing on spelling and grammar this year. The method that they were using worked for a small group of kids and left a lot of other kids struggling, not just the kids with dyslexia. DS is a smart, capable kid who has not had any corrections to his spelling or grammar in LA for the first 5 years he was in school. That is ridiculous. He knew how to spell the words correctly, we asked him to spell words for us when we saw papers from school, he wasn't doing it because the Teacher didn't correct it and he didn't care. It only started improving when we started making him redo work at home.

At the very least, the way FCPS had been teaching LA was allowing kids to be lazy and that was impacting their writing and reading as they got older. At worst, kids who were slow to read or had LDs struggled for a longer period of time then they needed to. That can cause issues with a kids self esteem and desire to learn.

I have no problem at my 5th grader who is ahead in reading and does well with comprehension and the like (high iReady's and Pass Advanced on the 2 SOLs he has taken, not that either of those are great measures) will be a better reader and writer with what they are doing now. Kids who are ahead in reading will still be in a higher reading group and will still be working on reading comprehension. He reads a lot at home and we discuss what he is reading. He is going to be fine.

What parents don’t understand is that phonics, spelling and grammar work should be combined with comprehension and understanding. Whatever, you are going to get phonics and spelling, but “content-rich” push is coming from companies that are pushing their curriculum. I

Know also that the reason why we don’t have science and social studies is that parents 15 years ago wanted to make sure all kids were reading and doing math, so they lobbied for more reading and math time and science and social studies were cut. Parents get what they ask for eventually, so be careful what you ask for because the education companies and legislature is listening. Because of this public schools will always leave something out for someone. As a previous poster said, “the pendulum has swung” enjoy that you are happy with its direction for the time being.

That is LITERALLY what those of us who are praising the science of reading are saying. It's just that reading comprehension lady can't comprehend this, LOL!!

“Reading comprehension lady”, aka me, has a masters in teaching and actually taught elementary in FCPS for years. I know what balanced literacy looks like. The fact is kids need both phonics and reading comprehension skills. As kids get older, though, the focus needs to be more on comprehension. What I am seeing at my child’s school right now is not balanced. I am seeing a mad rush to catch up on stuff that should have been done in K-2. My child is now way past that and is at ceiling with phonemic awareness. She doesn’t need to know open and closed syllables now. Other kids might, but she is bored. Her scores on nonfiction and fiction sections of standardized tests indicate she may need work on those areas. Not a disability by any means, but she needs to be practicing comprehension and answering questions about texts. I’m not seeing that at all so far. The fact is teachers are now catering to the lowest readers.

You taught elementary in FCPS for years? So you're part of the problem. You "taught" children how to read with "balanced literacy" aka Lucy Calkins. So nope, not seeing you as an expert.

Never used Lucy Calkins. I also didn’t teach kids to read. I taught upper level elementary where we focused on comprehension. We met in reading groups and discussed chapters. We answered comprehension questions. We made predictions and connections and summaries. Those skills are important once the child reaches the upper grades. There is less emphasis on phonics by then because all the kids know how to read already.

You should stop now, you are proving the PPs point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We no longer use the DRA. We do use the PRF. Reading groups are still a thing, but they will be more focused on phonics and phonemic awareness.

I haven't started small groups yet. The time has been spent assessing (PRFs, iReady, DSA, VGA). I'll start small groups after I finish assessing using the CORE and PASS assessments. The CORE and PASS are given based on how the students do in the phonics and phonemic awareness sections of the iReady.

My kid doesn’t need phonics and phonemic awareness. She needs comprehension now (4th grade).

This is what you parents have been fighting for and now the pendulum has swung - hope you’re happy!

Parents have been fighting for phonics AND a rich knowledge based curriculum. Just wanted to correct this.

Dyslexia parents got ahold of the state legislature and brought in iReady and science of reading. So now suddenly kids will have “comprehension difficulties” starting in 3rd or 4th grade. You will have to form a contingent and go to the state legislature and take control of the schools from they dyslexia parents.

Wow, what??? You sound crazy.

Do I?

Here are some of the lobbying groups for dyslexia VA:

https://www.decodingdyslexiavirginia.org/

https://va.dyslexiaida.org/


Here is the study they wanted:

https://rga.lis.virginia.gov/Published/2011/SD4

And why they changed the assessment to incorporate dyslexia screening:

https://rga.lis.virginia.gov/Published/2019/RD640/PDF

All done by the state legislature which was lobbied by parents who have dyslexic kids.

Why don't you want people who have children with learning disabilities to advocate for their children? I don't understand. We should all advocate for our children.

Right, except when someone said “my child is bored.” A poster came back and said something to the tune of: “I know your child is bored, but my kid has to have this or he will never read. So who cares if your kid is bored.”

I don’t care if people advocate, but I do care when the advocacy affects my child in a negative way. I have a right to advocate that my child who was reading at 4 could move on to other phonics lessons.

I think that the parents who lobbied should know that what is great for their kid may not be great for mine. Also, if more parents feel this way, the dyslexia advocates have a blueprint for how to change instruction in schools: Lobby the legislature. Some one literally called me crazy for suggesting that that is what happened (it is).

What you are not seeing is that the phonics instruction needs to be differentiated particularly in the younger grades. It isn’t right now.

Why can’t parents of kids who are dyslexic hear that the instruction that is a right fit for their kid may not be for mine? Is that really wrong of me to say? I’m advocating too. This is me advocating that FCPS and phonics companies should have a better solution than one size fits all.

DP, FCPS taught to your kid for decades, now they’re teaching to a different group of kids (with different needs). Feel free to get your kid a tutor if you want more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We no longer use the DRA. We do use the PRF. Reading groups are still a thing, but they will be more focused on phonics and phonemic awareness.

I haven't started small groups yet. The time has been spent assessing (PRFs, iReady, DSA, VGA). I'll start small groups after I finish assessing using the CORE and PASS assessments. The CORE and PASS are given based on how the students do in the phonics and phonemic awareness sections of the iReady.

My kid doesn’t need phonics and phonemic awareness. She needs comprehension now (4th grade).

This is what you parents have been fighting for and now the pendulum has swung - hope you’re happy!

Parents have been fighting for phonics AND a rich knowledge based curriculum. Just wanted to correct this.

Dyslexia parents got ahold of the state legislature and brought in iReady and science of reading. So now suddenly kids will have “comprehension difficulties” starting in 3rd or 4th grade. You will have to form a contingent and go to the state legislature and take control of the schools from they dyslexia parents.

Wow, what??? You sound crazy.

Do I?

Here are some of the lobbying groups for dyslexia VA:

https://www.decodingdyslexiavirginia.org/

https://va.dyslexiaida.org/


Here is the study they wanted:

https://rga.lis.virginia.gov/Published/2011/SD4

And why they changed the assessment to incorporate dyslexia screening:

https://rga.lis.virginia.gov/Published/2019/RD640/PDF

All done by the state legislature which was lobbied by parents who have dyslexic kids.

Why don't you want people who have children with learning disabilities to advocate for their children? I don't understand. We should all advocate for our children.

Right, except when someone said “my child is bored.” A poster came back and said something to the tune of: “I know your child is bored, but my kid has to have this or he will never read. So who cares if your kid is bored.”

I don’t care if people advocate, but I do care when the advocacy affects my child in a negative way. I have a right to advocate that my child who was reading at 4 could move on to other phonics lessons.

I think that the parents who lobbied should know that what is great for their kid may not be great for mine. Also, if more parents feel this way, the dyslexia advocates have a blueprint for how to change instruction in schools: Lobby the legislature. Some one literally called me crazy for suggesting that that is what happened (it is).

What you are not seeing is that the phonics instruction needs to be differentiated particularly in the younger grades. It isn’t right now.

Why can’t parents of kids who are dyslexic hear that the instruction that is a right fit for their kid may not be for mine? Is that really wrong of me to say? I’m advocating too. This is me advocating that FCPS and phonics companies should have a better solution than one size fits all.

I’m that poster you are referring to. I didn’t say who cares if your child is bored - I said your child being bored is not equivalent to my child failing, and I stand by that. All kids are bored in school, particularly kids like mine that need to go to school and then go do OG tutoring because they don’t do it enough in school!

But I do care about your child having a good education and I want them to love learning, same as I want for my child. And I have no issue (at all) with differentiation. Have at it! But explicit teaching in reading benefit most children. Not all. Most. And for the past 40 years generation after generation of kids - including me, as I’m also dyslexic - have been systematically disenfranchised of their right to a proper education. The results are terrible - the rates of dyslexia among incarcerated people is sky high, because failing to learn to read is so catastrophic. So yes, while I support you in your effort to prevent your daughter from being bored during the 20 minutes of explicit reading instruction she may get every day, I am concerned that it will come at the cost of going backwards for kids who are already disadvantaged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of parents wanted a phonics based LA program. I was ecstatic when I heard that they were going to be doing word studies and focusing on spelling and grammar this year. The method that they were using worked for a small group of kids and left a lot of other kids struggling, not just the kids with dyslexia. DS is a smart, capable kid who has not had any corrections to his spelling or grammar in LA for the first 5 years he was in school. That is ridiculous. He knew how to spell the words correctly, we asked him to spell words for us when we saw papers from school, he wasn't doing it because the Teacher didn't correct it and he didn't care. It only started improving when we started making him redo work at home.

At the very least, the way FCPS had been teaching LA was allowing kids to be lazy and that was impacting their writing and reading as they got older. At worst, kids who were slow to read or had LDs struggled for a longer period of time then they needed to. That can cause issues with a kids self esteem and desire to learn.

I have no problem at my 5th grader who is ahead in reading and does well with comprehension and the like (high iReady's and Pass Advanced on the 2 SOLs he has taken, not that either of those are great measures) will be a better reader and writer with what they are doing now. Kids who are ahead in reading will still be in a higher reading group and will still be working on reading comprehension. He reads a lot at home and we discuss what he is reading. He is going to be fine.

What parents don’t understand is that phonics, spelling and grammar work should be combined with comprehension and understanding. Whatever, you are going to get phonics and spelling, but “content-rich” push is coming from companies that are pushing their curriculum. I

Know also that the reason why we don’t have science and social studies is that parents 15 years ago wanted to make sure all kids were reading and doing math, so they lobbied for more reading and math time and science and social studies were cut. Parents get what they ask for eventually, so be careful what you ask for because the education companies and legislature is listening. Because of this public schools will always leave something out for someone. As a previous poster said, “the pendulum has swung” enjoy that you are happy with its direction for the time being.

That is LITERALLY what those of us who are praising the science of reading are saying. It's just that reading comprehension lady can't comprehend this, LOL!!

“Reading comprehension lady”, aka me, has a masters in teaching and actually taught elementary in FCPS for years. I know what balanced literacy looks like. The fact is kids need both phonics and reading comprehension skills. As kids get older, though, the focus needs to be more on comprehension. What I am seeing at my child’s school right now is not balanced. I am seeing a mad rush to catch up on stuff that should have been done in K-2. My child is now way past that and is at ceiling with phonemic awareness. She doesn’t need to know open and closed syllables now. Other kids might, but she is bored. Her scores on nonfiction and fiction sections of standardized tests indicate she may need work on those areas. Not a disability by any means, but she needs to be practicing comprehension and answering questions about texts. I’m not seeing that at all so far. The fact is teachers are now catering to the lowest readers.

You taught elementary in FCPS for years? So you're part of the problem. You "taught" children how to read with "balanced literacy" aka Lucy Calkins. So nope, not seeing you as an expert.

Never used Lucy Calkins. I also didn’t teach kids to read. I taught upper level elementary where we focused on comprehension. We met in reading groups and discussed chapters. We answered comprehension questions. We made predictions and connections and summaries. Those skills are important once the child reaches the upper grades. There is less emphasis on phonics by then because all the kids know how to read already.

I have to laugh that people think Lucy Caulkins=balanced literacy It screams I'm not an educator and I don't really know what balanced literacy is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of parents wanted a phonics based LA program. I was ecstatic when I heard that they were going to be doing word studies and focusing on spelling and grammar this year. The method that they were using worked for a small group of kids and left a lot of other kids struggling, not just the kids with dyslexia. DS is a smart, capable kid who has not had any corrections to his spelling or grammar in LA for the first 5 years he was in school. That is ridiculous. He knew how to spell the words correctly, we asked him to spell words for us when we saw papers from school, he wasn't doing it because the Teacher didn't correct it and he didn't care. It only started improving when we started making him redo work at home.

At the very least, the way FCPS had been teaching LA was allowing kids to be lazy and that was impacting their writing and reading as they got older. At worst, kids who were slow to read or had LDs struggled for a longer period of time then they needed to. That can cause issues with a kids self esteem and desire to learn.

I have no problem at my 5th grader who is ahead in reading and does well with comprehension and the like (high iReady's and Pass Advanced on the 2 SOLs he has taken, not that either of those are great measures) will be a better reader and writer with what they are doing now. Kids who are ahead in reading will still be in a higher reading group and will still be working on reading comprehension. He reads a lot at home and we discuss what he is reading. He is going to be fine.

What parents don’t understand is that phonics, spelling and grammar work should be combined with comprehension and understanding. Whatever, you are going to get phonics and spelling, but “content-rich” push is coming from companies that are pushing their curriculum. I

Know also that the reason why we don’t have science and social studies is that parents 15 years ago wanted to make sure all kids were reading and doing math, so they lobbied for more reading and math time and science and social studies were cut. Parents get what they ask for eventually, so be careful what you ask for because the education companies and legislature is listening. Because of this public schools will always leave something out for someone. As a previous poster said, “the pendulum has swung” enjoy that you are happy with its direction for the time being.

That is LITERALLY what those of us who are praising the science of reading are saying. It's just that reading comprehension lady can't comprehend this, LOL!!

“Reading comprehension lady”, aka me, has a masters in teaching and actually taught elementary in FCPS for years. I know what balanced literacy looks like. The fact is kids need both phonics and reading comprehension skills. As kids get older, though, the focus needs to be more on comprehension. What I am seeing at my child’s school right now is not balanced. I am seeing a mad rush to catch up on stuff that should have been done in K-2. My child is now way past that and is at ceiling with phonemic awareness. She doesn’t need to know open and closed syllables now. Other kids might, but she is bored. Her scores on nonfiction and fiction sections of standardized tests indicate she may need work on those areas. Not a disability by any means, but she needs to be practicing comprehension and answering questions about texts. I’m not seeing that at all so far. The fact is teachers are now catering to the lowest readers.

This is the beginning of October. The school year has barely started.

The fact is, the school year will get more interesting soon, for your DD and for you.

Can you explain why you think phonics work SHOULDN’T be differentiated?

As a teacher, explain how I can teach phonics differentiated? It is 10-15 minutes of each day. I still need to teach all the other parts of language arts. Differentiating reading (in reading groups) is a better use of everyone’s time.

Incorporate phonics into reading group work. You can also have leveled centers. If you are using any OG stuff (word lists, vowel intensive etc) during your reading group lesson, have it available during independent time. Kids who are working on long vowel patterns can have long vowel word lists, kids who are on CVC can have those etc. If you take 3 minutes during the opening of your reading group to work on a skill make it a phonics skill and then off to the book. Kids can follow up at their seats with differentiated phonics work based on the skill you taught in reading group. Make each skill a week or so.

Okay. This might work for lower ES but not upper. We don’t do centers for LA. Phonics needs don’t always match comprehension needs. I think it is easier to teach a word study lesson for 10 mins full class and then do comprehension based reading groups. If you have kids who are still learning to read, then fine a 3 min phonics lesson during small group will work. Again, my 10-15 minutes of word study with my AAP kids is helping their spelling, their knowledge of parts of speech and their reading comprehension.

My understanding is that AAP is itself differentiated by pulling out Advanced Academic students, so no you probably wouldn’t need as much differentiation in your class.
I would agree that this lends itself to primary grades, but that is when phonics is more necessary and also when more differentiation for reading instruction is needed anyway.

Yes. But in our Gen Ed 6th grade classes we have kids reading at a K Level to 6th grade level. The issue is differentiating is too difficult with that many needs. We do the best we can but with 28 kids in a class there is only so much we can do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of parents wanted a phonics based LA program. I was ecstatic when I heard that they were going to be doing word studies and focusing on spelling and grammar this year. The method that they were using worked for a small group of kids and left a lot of other kids struggling, not just the kids with dyslexia. DS is a smart, capable kid who has not had any corrections to his spelling or grammar in LA for the first 5 years he was in school. That is ridiculous. He knew how to spell the words correctly, we asked him to spell words for us when we saw papers from school, he wasn't doing it because the Teacher didn't correct it and he didn't care. It only started improving when we started making him redo work at home.

At the very least, the way FCPS had been teaching LA was allowing kids to be lazy and that was impacting their writing and reading as they got older. At worst, kids who were slow to read or had LDs struggled for a longer period of time then they needed to. That can cause issues with a kids self esteem and desire to learn.

I have no problem at my 5th grader who is ahead in reading and does well with comprehension and the like (high iReady's and Pass Advanced on the 2 SOLs he has taken, not that either of those are great measures) will be a better reader and writer with what they are doing now. Kids who are ahead in reading will still be in a higher reading group and will still be working on reading comprehension. He reads a lot at home and we discuss what he is reading. He is going to be fine.

What parents don’t understand is that phonics, spelling and grammar work should be combined with comprehension and understanding. Whatever, you are going to get phonics and spelling, but “content-rich” push is coming from companies that are pushing their curriculum. I

Know also that the reason why we don’t have science and social studies is that parents 15 years ago wanted to make sure all kids were reading and doing math, so they lobbied for more reading and math time and science and social studies were cut. Parents get what they ask for eventually, so be careful what you ask for because the education companies and legislature is listening. Because of this public schools will always leave something out for someone. As a previous poster said, “the pendulum has swung” enjoy that you are happy with its direction for the time being.

That is LITERALLY what those of us who are praising the science of reading are saying. It's just that reading comprehension lady can't comprehend this, LOL!!

“Reading comprehension lady”, aka me, has a masters in teaching and actually taught elementary in FCPS for years. I know what balanced literacy looks like. The fact is kids need both phonics and reading comprehension skills. As kids get older, though, the focus needs to be more on comprehension. What I am seeing at my child’s school right now is not balanced. I am seeing a mad rush to catch up on stuff that should have been done in K-2. My child is now way past that and is at ceiling with phonemic awareness. She doesn’t need to know open and closed syllables now. Other kids might, but she is bored. Her scores on nonfiction and fiction sections of standardized tests indicate she may need work on those areas. Not a disability by any means, but she needs to be practicing comprehension and answering questions about texts. I’m not seeing that at all so far. The fact is teachers are now catering to the lowest readers.

You taught elementary in FCPS for years? So you're part of the problem. You "taught" children how to read with "balanced literacy" aka Lucy Calkins. So nope, not seeing you as an expert.

Never used Lucy Calkins. I also didn’t teach kids to read. I taught upper level elementary where we focused on comprehension. We met in reading groups and discussed chapters. We answered comprehension questions. We made predictions and connections and summaries. Those skills are important once the child reaches the upper grades. There is less emphasis on phonics by then because all the kids know how to read already.

I have to laugh that people think Lucy Caulkins=balanced literacy It screams I'm not an educator and I don't really know what balanced literacy is.

+1 yep. They can keep screaming at each other while us real teachers know exactly what’s up. Lol. Upper grade teachers know the kids need reading groups to discuss books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We no longer use the DRA. We do use the PRF. Reading groups are still a thing, but they will be more focused on phonics and phonemic awareness.

I haven't started small groups yet. The time has been spent assessing (PRFs, iReady, DSA, VGA). I'll start small groups after I finish assessing using the CORE and PASS assessments. The CORE and PASS are given based on how the students do in the phonics and phonemic awareness sections of the iReady.

My kid doesn’t need phonics and phonemic awareness. She needs comprehension now (4th grade).

This is what you parents have been fighting for and now the pendulum has swung - hope you’re happy!

Parents have been fighting for phonics AND a rich knowledge based curriculum. Just wanted to correct this.

Dyslexia parents got ahold of the state legislature and brought in iReady and science of reading. So now suddenly kids will have “comprehension difficulties” starting in 3rd or 4th grade. You will have to form a contingent and go to the state legislature and take control of the schools from they dyslexia parents.

Wow, what??? You sound crazy.

Do I?

Here are some of the lobbying groups for dyslexia VA:

https://www.decodingdyslexiavirginia.org/

https://va.dyslexiaida.org/


Here is the study they wanted:

https://rga.lis.virginia.gov/Published/2011/SD4

And why they changed the assessment to incorporate dyslexia screening:

https://rga.lis.virginia.gov/Published/2019/RD640/PDF

All done by the state legislature which was lobbied by parents who have dyslexic kids.

Why don't you want people who have children with learning disabilities to advocate for their children? I don't understand. We should all advocate for our children.

Right, except when someone said “my child is bored.” A poster came back and said something to the tune of: “I know your child is bored, but my kid has to have this or he will never read. So who cares if your kid is bored.”

I don’t care if people advocate, but I do care when the advocacy affects my child in a negative way. I have a right to advocate that my child who was reading at 4 could move on to other phonics lessons.

I think that the parents who lobbied should know that what is great for their kid may not be great for mine. Also, if more parents feel this way, the dyslexia advocates have a blueprint for how to change instruction in schools: Lobby the legislature. Some one literally called me crazy for suggesting that that is what happened (it is).

What you are not seeing is that the phonics instruction needs to be differentiated particularly in the younger grades. It isn’t right now.

Why can’t parents of kids who are dyslexic hear that the instruction that is a right fit for their kid may not be for mine? Is that really wrong of me to say? I’m advocating too. This is me advocating that FCPS and phonics companies should have a better solution than one size fits all.

I’m that poster you are referring to. I didn’t say who cares if your child is bored - I said your child being bored is not equivalent to my child failing, and I stand by that. All kids are bored in school, particularly kids like mine that need to go to school and then go do OG tutoring because they don’t do it enough in school!

But I do care about your child having a good education and I want them to love learning, same as I want for my child. And I have no issue (at all) with differentiation. Have at it! But explicit teaching in reading benefit most children. Not all. Most. And for the past 40 years generation after generation of kids - including me, as I’m also dyslexic - have been systematically disenfranchised of their right to a proper education. The results are terrible - the rates of dyslexia among incarcerated people is sky high, because failing to learn to read is so catastrophic. So yes, while I support you in your effort to prevent your daughter from being bored during the 20 minutes of explicit reading instruction she may get every day, I am concerned that it will come at the cost of going backwards for kids who are already disadvantaged.

Thank you for saying this. Boredom and not being able to read are not equivalent and those who can't read can't comprehend, period.

To the teacher saying those in higher grades can already read and need to move on, how can that be generally true if barely 50% are on grade level in 1st-3rd? See iReady chart in https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/strategic-plan/strategic-plan-goal-1-student-success/equitable-access-literacy-plan Chart also shows demographic splits, and lack of proper reading instruction is compounding other disadvantages there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of parents wanted a phonics based LA program. I was ecstatic when I heard that they were going to be doing word studies and focusing on spelling and grammar this year. The method that they were using worked for a small group of kids and left a lot of other kids struggling, not just the kids with dyslexia. DS is a smart, capable kid who has not had any corrections to his spelling or grammar in LA for the first 5 years he was in school. That is ridiculous. He knew how to spell the words correctly, we asked him to spell words for us when we saw papers from school, he wasn't doing it because the Teacher didn't correct it and he didn't care. It only started improving when we started making him redo work at home.

At the very least, the way FCPS had been teaching LA was allowing kids to be lazy and that was impacting their writing and reading as they got older. At worst, kids who were slow to read or had LDs struggled for a longer period of time then they needed to. That can cause issues with a kids self esteem and desire to learn.

I have no problem at my 5th grader who is ahead in reading and does well with comprehension and the like (high iReady's and Pass Advanced on the 2 SOLs he has taken, not that either of those are great measures) will be a better reader and writer with what they are doing now. Kids who are ahead in reading will still be in a higher reading group and will still be working on reading comprehension. He reads a lot at home and we discuss what he is reading. He is going to be fine.

What parents don’t understand is that phonics, spelling and grammar work should be combined with comprehension and understanding. Whatever, you are going to get phonics and spelling, but “content-rich” push is coming from companies that are pushing their curriculum. I

Know also that the reason why we don’t have science and social studies is that parents 15 years ago wanted to make sure all kids were reading and doing math, so they lobbied for more reading and math time and science and social studies were cut. Parents get what they ask for eventually, so be careful what you ask for because the education companies and legislature is listening. Because of this public schools will always leave something out for someone. As a previous poster said, “the pendulum has swung” enjoy that you are happy with its direction for the time being.

That is LITERALLY what those of us who are praising the science of reading are saying. It's just that reading comprehension lady can't comprehend this, LOL!!

“Reading comprehension lady”, aka me, has a masters in teaching and actually taught elementary in FCPS for years. I know what balanced literacy looks like. The fact is kids need both phonics and reading comprehension skills. As kids get older, though, the focus needs to be more on comprehension. What I am seeing at my child’s school right now is not balanced. I am seeing a mad rush to catch up on stuff that should have been done in K-2. My child is now way past that and is at ceiling with phonemic awareness. She doesn’t need to know open and closed syllables now. Other kids might, but she is bored. Her scores on nonfiction and fiction sections of standardized tests indicate she may need work on those areas. Not a disability by any means, but she needs to be practicing comprehension and answering questions about texts. I’m not seeing that at all so far. The fact is teachers are now catering to the lowest readers.

You taught elementary in FCPS for years? So you're part of the problem. You "taught" children how to read with "balanced literacy" aka Lucy Calkins. So nope, not seeing you as an expert.

Never used Lucy Calkins. I also didn’t teach kids to read. I taught upper level elementary where we focused on comprehension. We met in reading groups and discussed chapters. We answered comprehension questions. We made predictions and connections and summaries. Those skills are important once the child reaches the upper grades. There is less emphasis on phonics by then because all the kids know how to read already.

I have to laugh that people think Lucy Caulkins=balanced literacy It screams I'm not an educator and I don't really know what balanced literacy is.

+1 yep. They can keep screaming at each other while us real teachers know exactly what’s up. Lol. Upper grade teachers know the kids need reading groups to discuss books.

What is Lucy Calkins, then? Serious question. NY Times says she's a pre-eminent leader of balanced literacy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of parents wanted a phonics based LA program. I was ecstatic when I heard that they were going to be doing word studies and focusing on spelling and grammar this year. The method that they were using worked for a small group of kids and left a lot of other kids struggling, not just the kids with dyslexia. DS is a smart, capable kid who has not had any corrections to his spelling or grammar in LA for the first 5 years he was in school. That is ridiculous. He knew how to spell the words correctly, we asked him to spell words for us when we saw papers from school, he wasn't doing it because the Teacher didn't correct it and he didn't care. It only started improving when we started making him redo work at home.

At the very least, the way FCPS had been teaching LA was allowing kids to be lazy and that was impacting their writing and reading as they got older. At worst, kids who were slow to read or had LDs struggled for a longer period of time then they needed to. That can cause issues with a kids self esteem and desire to learn.

I have no problem at my 5th grader who is ahead in reading and does well with comprehension and the like (high iReady's and Pass Advanced on the 2 SOLs he has taken, not that either of those are great measures) will be a better reader and writer with what they are doing now. Kids who are ahead in reading will still be in a higher reading group and will still be working on reading comprehension. He reads a lot at home and we discuss what he is reading. He is going to be fine.

What parents don’t understand is that phonics, spelling and grammar work should be combined with comprehension and understanding. Whatever, you are going to get phonics and spelling, but “content-rich” push is coming from companies that are pushing their curriculum. I

Know also that the reason why we don’t have science and social studies is that parents 15 years ago wanted to make sure all kids were reading and doing math, so they lobbied for more reading and math time and science and social studies were cut. Parents get what they ask for eventually, so be careful what you ask for because the education companies and legislature is listening. Because of this public schools will always leave something out for someone. As a previous poster said, “the pendulum has swung” enjoy that you are happy with its direction for the time being.

That is LITERALLY what those of us who are praising the science of reading are saying. It's just that reading comprehension lady can't comprehend this, LOL!!

“Reading comprehension lady”, aka me, has a masters in teaching and actually taught elementary in FCPS for years. I know what balanced literacy looks like. The fact is kids need both phonics and reading comprehension skills. As kids get older, though, the focus needs to be more on comprehension. What I am seeing at my child’s school right now is not balanced. I am seeing a mad rush to catch up on stuff that should have been done in K-2. My child is now way past that and is at ceiling with phonemic awareness. She doesn’t need to know open and closed syllables now. Other kids might, but she is bored. Her scores on nonfiction and fiction sections of standardized tests indicate she may need work on those areas. Not a disability by any means, but she needs to be practicing comprehension and answering questions about texts. I’m not seeing that at all so far. The fact is teachers are now catering to the lowest readers.

You taught elementary in FCPS for years? So you're part of the problem. You "taught" children how to read with "balanced literacy" aka Lucy Calkins. So nope, not seeing you as an expert.

Never used Lucy Calkins. I also didn’t teach kids to read. I taught upper level elementary where we focused on comprehension. We met in reading groups and discussed chapters. We answered comprehension questions. We made predictions and connections and summaries. Those skills are important once the child reaches the upper grades. There is less emphasis on phonics by then because all the kids know how to read already.

You should stop now, you are proving the PPs point.

I don’t think the PP has any clue what I am talking about anyway. I’m pretty sure she wasn’t a teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of parents wanted a phonics based LA program. I was ecstatic when I heard that they were going to be doing word studies and focusing on spelling and grammar this year. The method that they were using worked for a small group of kids and left a lot of other kids struggling, not just the kids with dyslexia. DS is a smart, capable kid who has not had any corrections to his spelling or grammar in LA for the first 5 years he was in school. That is ridiculous. He knew how to spell the words correctly, we asked him to spell words for us when we saw papers from school, he wasn't doing it because the Teacher didn't correct it and he didn't care. It only started improving when we started making him redo work at home.

At the very least, the way FCPS had been teaching LA was allowing kids to be lazy and that was impacting their writing and reading as they got older. At worst, kids who were slow to read or had LDs struggled for a longer period of time then they needed to. That can cause issues with a kids self esteem and desire to learn.

I have no problem at my 5th grader who is ahead in reading and does well with comprehension and the like (high iReady's and Pass Advanced on the 2 SOLs he has taken, not that either of those are great measures) will be a better reader and writer with what they are doing now. Kids who are ahead in reading will still be in a higher reading group and will still be working on reading comprehension. He reads a lot at home and we discuss what he is reading. He is going to be fine.

What parents don’t understand is that phonics, spelling and grammar work should be combined with comprehension and understanding. Whatever, you are going to get phonics and spelling, but “content-rich” push is coming from companies that are pushing their curriculum. I

Know also that the reason why we don’t have science and social studies is that parents 15 years ago wanted to make sure all kids were reading and doing math, so they lobbied for more reading and math time and science and social studies were cut. Parents get what they ask for eventually, so be careful what you ask for because the education companies and legislature is listening. Because of this public schools will always leave something out for someone. As a previous poster said, “the pendulum has swung” enjoy that you are happy with its direction for the time being.

That is LITERALLY what those of us who are praising the science of reading are saying. It's just that reading comprehension lady can't comprehend this, LOL!!

“Reading comprehension lady”, aka me, has a masters in teaching and actually taught elementary in FCPS for years. I know what balanced literacy looks like. The fact is kids need both phonics and reading comprehension skills. As kids get older, though, the focus needs to be more on comprehension. What I am seeing at my child’s school right now is not balanced. I am seeing a mad rush to catch up on stuff that should have been done in K-2. My child is now way past that and is at ceiling with phonemic awareness. She doesn’t need to know open and closed syllables now. Other kids might, but she is bored. Her scores on nonfiction and fiction sections of standardized tests indicate she may need work on those areas. Not a disability by any means, but she needs to be practicing comprehension and answering questions about texts. I’m not seeing that at all so far. The fact is teachers are now catering to the lowest readers.

You taught elementary in FCPS for years? So you're part of the problem. You "taught" children how to read with "balanced literacy" aka Lucy Calkins. So nope, not seeing you as an expert.

Never used Lucy Calkins. I also didn’t teach kids to read. I taught upper level elementary where we focused on comprehension. We met in reading groups and discussed chapters. We answered comprehension questions. We made predictions and connections and summaries. Those skills are important once the child reaches the upper grades. There is less emphasis on phonics by then because all the kids know how to read already.

I have to laugh that people think Lucy Caulkins=balanced literacy It screams I'm not an educator and I don't really know what balanced literacy is.

+1 yep. They can keep screaming at each other while us real teachers know exactly what’s up. Lol. Upper grade teachers know the kids need reading groups to discuss books.

What is Lucy Calkins, then? Serious question. NY Times says she's a pre-eminent leader of balanced literacy.

You believe everything the NYT says?!