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Anonymous wrote:We're in DCPS and I don't understand how this is STILL happening in MCPS. We've been pleasantly surprised to see how well DCPS has course corrected regarding reading and our own experience has been phenomenal -- all evidence-based, focus on phonics, no Lucy Caulkins nonsense at all.
We're contemplating a move to MoCo for several reasons, including schools (in a bad HS triangle in DC) and this is giving me pause.
My second grader in MCPS has consistently been taught phonics in school since the beginning, definitely more than my current fourth grader received (I remember sight word books and “look at the pictures for clues” during the zoom school days). I don’t know where the current third graders fall. Was there a change to the MCPS curriculum with more phonics starting with the kids who are now second graders?
RGR was implemented at most schools in the 2022/2023 school year. I also have a second grader and it was a huge shift between kindergarten and 1st grade. In kindergarten they were bringing home lists of sight words to memorize and being taught cueing, which I could tell was not really working for DC. I was relieved when they actually started learning phonics in 1st grade.
So my understanding is that current 3rd graders would have gotten RGR only last year.
MCPS also has implemented Science of Reading across all ES, has Dibels for K-2, and
has an RFP out for a new ES ELA curriculum. There is reading specialist in all ES.
The above said, I’m always amazed that parents don’t think they need to be heavily involved with teaching their kids to read.
There's a new RFP? They actually going to make a selection this time?
IMO parental involvement should be in a supporting role- e.g., trained instructors should introduce the phonics skills and parents help their kids practice at home. For too long terrible methods were being used in the classroom and really hard to try to get your kids to sound out the words when they are being taught at school to look at the picture and guess. Ask me how I know.
Parents should be in the drivers seat when teaching kids the Alphabet, basic numbers, and how to read. Just like they should be in the drivers seat in teaching basic life skills and manners. I’m tired of folks being like it’s really hard to do this or that because of school. Parenting is work. No one has ever said it should be easy.
Do I think that schools should have been using Phonics instruction all along, Yes. But the fact they weren’t in no way stopped me from doing what was needed for my children to read. If folks want to farm out the above responsibilities, fine that’s their prerogative. But IMO that in no way removes the accountability from parents.
This is hilarious. Schools have removed so much from ES to focus on math and reading. But now you're saying it's the parents responsibility to teach thir kids to read? Has this memo been passed on to parents who don't speak English as a first language?
I completely do not rely on ES to teach my child math or reading. They just don't have time anymore. All their efforts go to supporting a small group of students who struggle.
Exactly- only struggling students get a good education anymore. I do think this is a shock to parents who went to school decades ago. My own parents really didn’t have to do anything unless we asked them for help on a project.
Hmmm, my own parents were very involved in my education. But my mom SAH and had time to help us. Now kids are at aftercare or with a sitter until 5 or 6pm and of course they're tired and there is no time to put in the extra work. And on weekends they are overscheduled with sports and activities.
+1. My parents also were involved. Reviewed homework, quizzed me before spelling test, proofread book reports, etc. Neither of them was a SAHP. Guess it depends on what people want to prioritize.
I agree with the over scheduling of kids in sports and activities.
DP- my parents definitely helped me with this sort of stuff too. But I do think the things listed here like quizzing for spelling tests are a bit different than teaching a kid to read.
Unless your kid has a learning disability, which 85% of kids do not, it’s not that hard to teach a kid to read. Particularly now. Watch some Sesame Street, download an app, practice the phonics along with reading every night.
Good god, no more apps. They get enough of that in school.
I do wish the PSA about having to teach your kids at home had been more loudly stated when my kiddo was in kindergarten. I learned to read in school as did my siblings. My parents read to us and had us read to them but did not have to teach us. I had no idea how much the approaches had changed. I bought the schtick for a while that my kid was fine and would pick it up by following balanced literacy. They didn't.
I agree. They should tell parents that they need to be teaching the kids. I followed a phonics program with my kids and they easily got it. They had trouble understanding the school methods even when they knew how to read.
Because the school methods are asinine.
No need to correct spelling. They’ll eventually absorb it elsewhere through our fabulously expensive silver bullet reading curriculum.
Never mind the fact that the content is boring and skews too technical (teach for the test!).
Literature. Good stories. Make it fun and interesting.
Admit that Benchmark was a big failure. Move on quickly and invest in catching up.
It’s shameful for mcps to churn out subpar students. Shameful.
As a parent I’m tired of this line. School is about learning how to learn and attaining certain skills. If they can make it fun, great, but that’s not the primary goal or objective. At school let’s get down to the business of education. If that means it’s technical, fine. It would probably take a lot less time and energy from teachers if they could just focus on what is needed and not all the fluff.
Um…have you seen Benchmark? The stories were not engaging. The corresponding activities/questions were even worse.
We obviously want our kids to be challenged. I am arguing for better tools and more rigorous instruction. Better tools would be more interesting and engaging.
Anyway, I was right about benchmark not being the silver bullet they hoped for.
Of course Benchmark wasn’t a silver bullet- anyone who thought it would be was highly deluded. At the time many were perplexed at the decision to select it.
Decodable books went out of favor for a while because they were “boring.” What a joke.
This is exactly what I’m talking about. Who cares that decodabke books are “boring.” Them being engaging is not the point. If kids need engaging stories have someone read to them or better yet, teach them to read and then they can read engaging stories themself.
This “ it need to be engaging” or let’s work on love of learning” is a crock. Learning to read takes time and effort, it’s work. Love of learning happens because of curious kids exposed to different places, people, things. Imagine all the things they can be exposed to when they can read and do basic math.
We're talking about two different things. Decodable books are a good stepping stone to learning to read much like how kids use balance bikes or training wheels to then learn how to ride a bike.
The issue with me benchmark curriculum is that the kids are just reading these little booklets that are dry and uninteresting and largely cover topics that have been written about in much more engaging ways in actual books. The way it works is that you read the little story from the booklet over and over again for a week and then move on to the next story. I know a lot of teachers are just supplementing or skipping things because it's terrible and they would rather have the kids reading real books.
No we are not talking about two different things. Decodable books help you learn to break apart the words and practice that skill over and over with the same text which helps also helps build reading fluency. I care not if that story is interesting, I care that the kid masters the skill. Bob books are not particularly interesting they are purposeful.
The same with Benchmark. I care not if the little books are interesting. I care about the skill practice and repetition, including the part about kids finding the same phonemes throughout a text so they begin to recognize that other words can be made with the same ones. It’s the focus skill attention. As kids learn to read, they’ll move on to more interesting stories. Further the teacher can read an interesting book aloud to the entire class and let kids go to the library to pick out whatever book that they can take home for reading with family or during quiet time. Heck let the kids listen to audio books.
Using your own example, kids don’t love balance bikes or training wheels. They like being able say or seem like they are doing something that older kids and family are doing. Guess who also doesn’t love training wheels or balance bikes, adults and kids who already know how to ride a bike. Why? Because it slows everything down and makes for a relatively boring ride with limits on where you can go. But we deal with it for a time because we know once the kid learns to ride an actual bike the world opens up. In fact, the entire point of the balance bike is focused attention on the skill most needed to ride a bike which often accelerates progress towards that goal.
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