APS elementary — what grade do they start grammar?

[Anonymous]

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Probably first grade? They start talking about proper nouns and punctuation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks!

High school kids these days can barely write a proper sentence of longer than 5 words. If you have the means (personally or financially), teach your kids yourself or pay someone else (beginning informally) as early as Kindergarten or first grade. My kids have pretty much not gotten any actual meaningful grammar lessons up to and including high school at various APS schools. One previous high school English class the kids basically didn't read even one entire book from cover to cover. They read select chapters of a handful and watched a bunch (at least once a week) of "thematic" movies and shows that covered whatever theme they were working on. They barely had to write anything. And the teacher constantly made grammar and spelling mistakes that it's hard to blame the old "typo" much like an Hollywood actor can't say their Instagram account was hacked again. Another high school history class, more time was spent on coloring, making ppt slides, and designing fake social media pages than actually writing essays. It's the problem of having general ed classrooms inclusive of illiterate students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks!

High school kids these days can barely write a proper sentence of longer than 5 words. If you have the means (personally or financially), teach your kids yourself or pay someone else (beginning informally) as early as Kindergarten or first grade. My kids have pretty much not gotten any actual meaningful grammar lessons up to and including high school at various APS schools. One previous high school English class the kids basically didn't read even one entire book from cover to cover. They read select chapters of a handful and watched a bunch (at least once a week) of "thematic" movies and shows that covered whatever theme they were working on. They barely had to write anything. And the teacher constantly made grammar and spelling mistakes that it's hard to blame the old "typo" much like an Hollywood actor can't say their Instagram account was hacked again. Another high school history class, more time was spent on coloring, making ppt slides, and designing fake social media pages than actually writing essays. It's the problem of having general ed classrooms inclusive of illiterate students.

This can’t be true

[Anonymous]

Grammar instruction is really spotty across elementaries. I've heard ATS teaches but ours didn't teach grammar, spelling and barely taught reading. Maybe getting better with the new reading and writing instruction but it was nonexistent for my kids so we moved to private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks!

High school kids these days can barely write a proper sentence of longer than 5 words. If you have the means (personally or financially), teach your kids yourself or pay someone else (beginning informally) as early as Kindergarten or first grade. My kids have pretty much not gotten any actual meaningful grammar lessons up to and including high school at various APS schools. One previous high school English class the kids basically didn't read even one entire book from cover to cover. They read select chapters of a handful and watched a bunch (at least once a week) of "thematic" movies and shows that covered whatever theme they were working on. They barely had to write anything. And the teacher constantly made grammar and spelling mistakes that it's hard to blame the old "typo" much like an Hollywood actor can't say their Instagram account was hacked again. Another high school history class, more time was spent on coloring, making ppt slides, and designing fake social media pages than actually writing essays. It's the problem of having general ed classrooms inclusive of illiterate students.

This can’t be true

Which part, the kids or some teachers who are clearly not all there? Ask your kids to show you the Canvas page of a class that required students to actively do some assignments in the Discussion section. It is pretty depressing. Also, when kids do group assignments, see what some of the kids are adding to the writing and analysis. My kids are constantly complaining about this and also about the teachers' ability to teach coherently that I basically called my kids out for being overly dramatic but it was I who felt stupid in the end when they showed me this. Those aren't the only class examples I have: they're just the least likely to be easily identified to out both teachers and schools. These are social science classes that supposedly have a bunch of "gt" students.

So, like I said before. Most teachers have no time to properly teach grammar because they have to babysit kids. So find a way to teach your kids grammar. And also read as many books to your kids as possible and teach them basic arithmetic concepts, which isn't too hard, either. Even EFL parents shouldn't be excused--teach them these things in the native language. While the words may be different, the concepts are the same and most kids at the early primary level are resilient enough to be able to translate into English at some point. Literacy starts at home.

[Anonymous]

Minimal coverage in any year. Agree with other PPs, you want to cover grammar with your DC outside of school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks!

High school kids these days can barely write a proper sentence of longer than 5 words. If you have the means (personally or financially), teach your kids yourself or pay someone else (beginning informally) as early as Kindergarten or first grade. My kids have pretty much not gotten any actual meaningful grammar lessons up to and including high school at various APS schools. One previous high school English class the kids basically didn't read even one entire book from cover to cover. They read select chapters of a handful and watched a bunch (at least once a week) of "thematic" movies and shows that covered whatever theme they were working on. They barely had to write anything. And the teacher constantly made grammar and spelling mistakes that it's hard to blame the old "typo" much like an Hollywood actor can't say their Instagram account was hacked again. Another high school history class, more time was spent on coloring, making ppt slides, and designing fake social media pages than actually writing essays. It's the problem of having general ed classrooms inclusive of illiterate students.

This can’t be true

Which part, the kids or some teachers who are clearly not all there? Ask your kids to show you the Canvas page of a class that required students to actively do some assignments in the Discussion section. It is pretty depressing. Also, when kids do group assignments, see what some of the kids are adding to the writing and analysis. My kids are constantly complaining about this and also about the teachers' ability to teach coherently that I basically called my kids out for being overly dramatic but it was I who felt stupid in the end when they showed me this. Those aren't the only class examples I have: they're just the least likely to be easily identified to out both teachers and schools. These are social science classes that supposedly have a bunch of "gt" students.

So, like I said before. Most teachers have no time to properly teach grammar because they have to babysit kids. So find a way to teach your kids grammar. And also read as many books to your kids as possible and teach them basic arithmetic concepts, which isn't too hard, either. Even EFL parents shouldn't be excused--teach them these things in the native language. While the words may be different, the concepts are the same and most kids at the early primary level are resilient enough to be able to translate into English at some point. Literacy starts at home.

+1 it’s depressing how much we have to supplement these basic skills

[Anonymous]

My kid never received much spelling but I know my kid got heavy grammar lessons 4th grade and he seems to know all the rules now. He also does at least 2 book/research reports a year (He already wrote a 5 paragraph essay in Spanish this year and he is in 7th grade at Gunston).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid never received much spelling but I know my kid got heavy grammar lessons 4th grade and he seems to know all the rules now. He also does at least 2 book/research reports a year (He already wrote a 5 paragraph essay in Spanish this year and he is in 7th grade at Gunston).

Sorry meant to say he got heavy grammar starting in 4th grade and up and a LOT last year in 6th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks!

High school kids these days can barely write a proper sentence of longer than 5 words. If you have the means (personally or financially), teach your kids yourself or pay someone else (beginning informally) as early as Kindergarten or first grade. My kids have pretty much not gotten any actual meaningful grammar lessons up to and including high school at various APS schools. One previous high school English class the kids basically didn't read even one entire book from cover to cover. They read select chapters of a handful and watched a bunch (at least once a week) of "thematic" movies and shows that covered whatever theme they were working on. They barely had to write anything. And the teacher constantly made grammar and spelling mistakes that it's hard to blame the old "typo" much like an Hollywood actor can't say their Instagram account was hacked again. Another high school history class, more time was spent on coloring, making ppt slides, and designing fake social media pages than actually writing essays. It's the problem of having general ed classrooms inclusive of illiterate students.

This can’t be true

It is true, and ditto for not teaching spelling.

[Anonymous]

They don’t. You want them to learn grammar? You have to teach them.

[Anonymous]

If they aren’t learning spelling and grammar, what ARE they learning?!

These are foundational skills! 🤯

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they aren’t learning spelling and grammar, what ARE they learning?!

These are foundational skills! 🤯

The emphasis in education now is "building critical thinking skills, learning how to problem solve, communicate, etc". APS is all in on this. While these are laudable goals, they should be emphasized either after or at least in concert with building content knowledge. How can you problem solve if you have no tools to problem solve with? Unfortunately, they spend insufficient time building kids' foundational content knowledge. The result -- kids need outside supplementation if you want them to have firm foundations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they aren’t learning spelling and grammar, what ARE they learning?!

These are foundational skills! 🤯

The emphasis in education now is "building critical thinking skills, learning how to problem solve, communicate, etc". APS is all in on this. While these are laudable goals, they should be emphasized either after or at least in concert with building content knowledge. How can you problem solve if you have no tools to problem solve with? Unfortunately, they spend insufficient time building kids' foundational content knowledge. The result -- kids need outside supplementation if you want them to have firm foundations.

This seems like a HUGE equity issue. You know some kids aren’t getting supplemental instruction at home.

All kids deserve a good education — and that includes grammar and spelling. WT actual F