What is happening at your school during FIT/WIN time? Any enrichment?

[Anonymous]

Now that we're almost halfway through the year, can folks share what's been happening at your school during FIT/WIN time? Are kids regrouped or do they stay in their usual classroom? Is there any enrichment happening for kids who could use it, or is it mostly just busywork or computer time? Does it seem consistent across the school or do approaches vary even within the same elementary school? Do you (and your kid) like how they're handling it? etc

I get the sense there is a lot of variation out there .. some things that sound great and others that sound terrible. Would love to hear more about what's going on in different schools!

[Anonymous]

I have absolutely no idea because I hear nothing about this from the school. When I asked the teacher, she said she doesn't teach my kid's WIN period and can't share information. In theory my kid is in the advanced ELA WIN group.

[Anonymous]

we're curious too.

[Anonymous]

Lots of variation. In addition to FIT/WIN time some schools also cohort the ELA classes like they all do for math. That makes a huge difference!

At our school, ELA is not cohorts and my kid’s FIT started off as computer games in HR and then she was pulled into a group with her math teacher to work on writing the answers to the dreaded “explain your thinking” Eureka math problems. However, my kid was supposed to get enriched ELA. When I complained to the school they said she gets that enrichment during ELA but the teacher showed me how she is using CKLA’s enrichment for ALL students.

[Anonymous]

My DD is in 4th now and her school cohorts. They have the same teacher for the whole day and everyone in the class receives compact math and ELA. They are reading whole books and doing discussions. Doing a few fun things like creating musical instruments and are being put in a group to make up inventions that they will present about. Not a ton of writing though. In 2nd and 3rd I never heard anything about what they did in WIN time though I do know it was ELA based. I know some kids were on computers depending on groupings. My child told me she did a mixture of worksheets and some computer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have absolutely no idea because I hear nothing about this from the school. When I asked the teacher, she said she doesn't teach my kid's WIN period and can't share information. In theory my kid is in the advanced ELA WIN group.

It's like 10% of the day and the school won't tell you what's going on?

[Anonymous]

For my kindergartener it's all within their specific class-- they're in small groups and they have different stations they rotate through (some on the computer and some not) while the teacher takes turns working with different groups.

[Anonymous]

I think our school does it pretty well. Entire grade divided into four groups based on what they need to work on for ELA or math. Some of these are challenge/enrichment groups. They then may change classrooms to meet with their FIT group.

For example, son has Ms. Smith but goes to Ms. Brown for ELA FIT and Ms. Jones for math FIT. Another student might have Ms. Smith and stays with her for ELA FIT and math FIT. It all depends on what the school determines the student needs work on.

Teachers switch which level group they are teaching each marking period, so one teacher doesn't get the reputation among students for being the "smart" FIT teacher and one the "dumb" FIT teacher. Kids can move around each marking period too, so if they were working on a specific skill in ELA and mastered it, they can move out of that FIT group and kids still working on that skill stay in it for the next marking period. Four days a week they do ELA, one a day a week they do math.

[Anonymous]

It’s been different every year and changes several times during this year already. My kid is a 5th grader who was in ELC last year and now has the grossly downgraded CKLA accelerated version and we were promised they would do novel studies and some of the best William and Mary content during WIN/FIT but all I have heard is they read one pretty crappy novel so far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s been different every year and changes several times during this year already. My kid is a 5th grader who was in ELC last year and now has the grossly downgraded CKLA accelerated version and we were promised they would do novel studies and some of the best William and Mary content during WIN/FIT but all I have heard is they read one pretty crappy novel so far.

Is your kid in the model where they group the enrichment kids all in one class, or the one where it's spread out? My understanding is that if they are spread out in mixed-level classes, they are required to follow MCPS's WIN/FIT time plan with the William & Mary stuff and the other enrichment, but if they're in the combined/accelerated class (like my kid), there is no requirement to use the MCPS materials and they can just do the grade-level CKLA curriculum (but faster, so there's time to add in one extra grade-level CKLA unit.)

[Anonymous]

What is FIT? My kid's school does WIN and it seems great. Never heard of FIR

[Anonymous]

FIT, sorry

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is FIT? My kid's school does WIN and it seems great. Never heard of FIR

FIT and WIN are just different names for the same thing. Or some schools name it something else, like <School Mascot> Time. Regardless, it's all the same ide... it's a block of about 30 minutes, 4 or 5 days a week, that is used for intervention for kids who are behind and also theoretically supposed to be used for enrichment for kids who are ahead (and something meaningful for kids who are on level.). But a lot of schools and teachers don't do much except for the kids who are behind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have absolutely no idea because I hear nothing about this from the school. When I asked the teacher, she said she doesn't teach my kid's WIN period and can't share information. In theory my kid is in the advanced ELA WIN group.

It's like 10% of the day and the school won't tell you what's going on?

Correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FIT, sorry

Focused Instructional Time. In theory, it ensures that the time has actual instruction, rather than playing video games on computers. The reality is that whether it's called WIN or FIT, it is only as good as the teachers leading it.