Feedback on Amplify - new ELA curriculum

[Anonymous]

My DC LOVED ELC (Enriched Literacy Curriculum) in 4th, as she was finally challenged after years of Benchmark with the novel studies, small group studies and the teacher was creative and really great in ELC. It was a separate class for advanced learners which really benefitted her. This year in 5th our school changed ELA to Amplify for everyone. There is no longer a pullout class and my DC is struggling with being engaged with the curriculum, pace of the curriculum being too slow and with her inattentive ADHD, has tuned out and grades have suffered. Enrichment doesn't seem to be happening. Have reached out to teacher but haven't gotten anywhere yet other than "it's a new curriculum and takes time." Will of course address at the upcoming parent conferences. DC's MAP scores are high and don't correlate with performance in ELA class at all.

Any similar experiences? Very frustrated. Thanks in advance!

[Anonymous]

ELC is supposed to be happening in all non-immersion schools EXCEPT for the ones doing the Amplify enrichment pilot. Your school likely is participating in the pilot. Have you checked in with your child’s ELA teacher? That is always the place to start. I would alsoreach out to the reading specialist at your school and Kristie Clark, the supervisor in the Office of Accelerated and Enriched Instruction, to request information and a meeting if you are confident that your child’s enrichment needs are not being met. But DON’T do that until you have met with the ELA teacher.

[Anonymous]

Yeah it's been really confusing. My daughter was put into ELC And basically her enrichment is just a little pull out group where they read a whole book and discuss it.

And it's honestly a little sad and depressing. Only the enriched kids get to read full texts.

[Anonymous]

My 4th grader is doing Amplify and getting pulled into a small group for ELC. I've really like the Amplify so far. It is sooo much more challenging/engaging than Benchmark. My generally high performing kid has been challenged with the new curriculum, which is honestly good. Benchmark was awful and now they have a lot of catching up to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah it's been really confusing. My daughter was put into ELC And basically her enrichment is just a little pull out group where they read a whole book and discuss it.

And it's honestly a little sad and depressing. Only the enriched kids get to read full texts.

They read full texts in Amplify CKLA. Here is the 5th grade scope and sequence:

CKLA Grade 5 Units – units available for free download are shown in bold
Unit 1: Personal Narratives
Unit 2: Early American Civilizations
Unit 3: Poetry
Unit 4: House on Mango Street
Unit 5: Adventures of Don Quixote
Unit 6: The Renaissance
Unit 7: The Reformation
Unit 8: A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Quest
Unit 9: Native Americans

https://amplify.com/pdf/uploads/2021/03/CKLA_G5_Scope_and_Sequence.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah it's been really confusing. My daughter was put into ELC And basically her enrichment is just a little pull out group where they read a whole book and discuss it.

And it's honestly a little sad and depressing. Only the enriched kids get to read full texts.

They read full texts in Amplify CKLA. Here is the 5th grade scope and sequence:

CKLA Grade 5 Units – units available for free download are shown in bold
Unit 1: Personal Narratives
Unit 2: Early American Civilizations
Unit 3: Poetry
Unit 4: House on Mango Street
Unit 5: Adventures of Don Quixote
Unit 6: The Renaissance
Unit 7: The Reformation
Unit 8: A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Quest
Unit 9: Native Americans

https://amplify.com/pdf/uploads/2021/03/CKLA_G5_Scope_and_Sequence.pdf

And here is the link to the Midsummer Night's Dream reader so you can see what it looks like -- the regular text with summaries added to help students understand the play. https://5th-bfa.weebly.com/uploads/8/3/3/5/8335767/midsummer_reader.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah it's been really confusing. My daughter was put into ELC And basically her enrichment is just a little pull out group where they read a whole book and discuss it.

And it's honestly a little sad and depressing. Only the enriched kids get to read full texts.

They read full texts in Amplify CKLA. Here is the 5th grade scope and sequence:

CKLA Grade 5 Units – units available for free download are shown in bold
Unit 1: Personal Narratives
Unit 2: Early American Civilizations
Unit 3: Poetry
Unit 4: House on Mango Street
Unit 5: Adventures of Don Quixote
Unit 6: The Renaissance
Unit 7: The Reformation
Unit 8: A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Quest
Unit 9: Native Americans

https://amplify.com/pdf/uploads/2021/03/CKLA_G5_Scope_and_Sequence.pdf

Sorry, took that from the public curriculum, and Amplify is slightly different - no House on Mango St:

Unit 1: Personal Narratives (19 days)
Unit 2: Early American Civilizations (19 days)
Unit 3: Poetry (15 days)
Unit 4: Adventures of Don Quixote (21 days)
Unit 5: The Renaissance (21 days)
Unit 6: The Reformation (14 days)
Unit 7: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (15 days)
Unit 8: Native Americans (19 days)
Unit 9: Chemical Matter (19 days)

[Anonymous]

Flora Singer has enriched kids going to a different classroom everyday like compacted math. Unfortunately my kid’s school, Viers Mill, is keeping everyone in their homerooms for ELA, then, 4 times a week for a half hour enrichched kids are pulled out for “novel studies” while the rest of the kids are literally learning English. Have separate classes for compacted math, so I don’t understand the difference for ELA. I’m really disappointed because the non-enriched kids have behavior issues that affect the whole class

[Anonymous]

There should still be an ELC class. If you feel your DC is missing out on enrichment talk with your teach and the Reading Specialist. You can also bring in the Gifted Education Liaison.

Amplify is an on-level curriculum and was not yet evaluated for use with gifted students. It does include differentiation options for advance learners. If the novel studies are made up of advance reads, with vocabulary, analysis, and associated writing, it could be enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Flora Singer has enriched kids going to a different classroom everyday like compacted math. Unfortunately my kid’s school, Viers Mill, is keeping everyone in their homerooms for ELA, then, 4 times a week for a half hour enrichched kids are pulled out for “novel studies” while the rest of the kids are literally learning English. Have separate classes for compacted math, so I don’t understand the difference for ELA. I’m really disappointed because the non-enriched kids have behavior issues that affect the whole class

I see this misconception all over the Internet. Being gifted doesn't mean kids don't misbehave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There should still be an ELC class. If you feel your DC is missing out on enrichment talk with your teach and the Reading Specialist. You can also bring in the Gifted Education Liaison.

Amplify is an on-level curriculum and was not yet evaluated for use with gifted students. It does include differentiation options for advance learners. If the novel studies are made up of advance reads, with vocabulary, analysis, and associated writing, it could be enough.

See to me the smart thing would have been to do is put the ELC kids in one class but many schools the leadership doesn't want to do that. So then the kids are not getting the enriched literacy curriculum as a full curriculum. It's often just like a little pull-out group and they're getting maybe 20 or 30 minutes if they're lucky

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There should still be an ELC class. If you feel your DC is missing out on enrichment talk with your teach and the Reading Specialist. You can also bring in the Gifted Education Liaison.

Amplify is an on-level curriculum and was not yet evaluated for use with gifted students. It does include differentiation options for advance learners. If the novel studies are made up of advance reads, with vocabulary, analysis, and associated writing, it could be enough.

See to me the smart thing would have been to do is put the ELC kids in one class but many schools the leadership doesn't want to do that. So then the kids are not getting the enriched literacy curriculum as a full curriculum. It's often just like a little pull-out group and they're getting maybe 20 or 30 minutes if they're lucky

Ask the school leadership why the don't want to or didn't create a ELC class. Especially now with the on-level curriculum being more challenging.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Flora Singer has enriched kids going to a different classroom everyday like compacted math. Unfortunately my kid’s school, Viers Mill, is keeping everyone in their homerooms for ELA, then, 4 times a week for a half hour enrichched kids are pulled out for “novel studies” while the rest of the kids are literally learning English. Have separate classes for compacted math, so I don’t understand the difference for ELA. I’m really disappointed because the non-enriched kids have behavior issues that affect the whole class

I see this misconception all over the Internet. Being gifted doesn't mean kids don't misbehave.

First of all, I never labelled anyone as gifted. Second, I’m sharing my child’s experience. The behavior and language of the students not in compacted math or enriched ELA is terrible in the classroom and the playground. Letters home all the time about racial slurs or threats of weapons, kids cursing at other kids at BTSN right in front of their parents without repercussions. I could go on and on. It feels worse this year because the CES students have been pulled out to a different school, so the misbehaving kids are now the majority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ELC is supposed to be happening in all non-immersion schools EXCEPT for the ones doing the Amplify enrichment pilot. Your school likely is participating in the pilot. Have you checked in with your child’s ELA teacher? That is always the place to start. I would alsoreach out to the reading specialist at your school and Kristie Clark, the supervisor in the Office of Accelerated and Enriched Instruction, to request information and a meeting if you are confident that your child’s enrichment needs are not being met. But DON’T do that until you have met with the ELA teacher.

What's the Amplify enrichment pilot? Is there somewhere with more information I can read about it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ELC is supposed to be happening in all non-immersion schools EXCEPT for the ones doing the Amplify enrichment pilot. Your school likely is participating in the pilot. Have you checked in with your child’s ELA teacher? That is always the place to start. I would alsoreach out to the reading specialist at your school and Kristie Clark, the supervisor in the Office of Accelerated and Enriched Instruction, to request information and a meeting if you are confident that your child’s enrichment needs are not being met. But DON’T do that until you have met with the ELA teacher.

What's the Amplify enrichment pilot? Is there somewhere with more information I can read about it?

You can ask your school if they are participating in it. The reading specialist will know. If your school was offering ELC previously and is not this year, then it is part of the pilot.