Language arts new curriculumn for K-6th

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am all for it. While there are a lot of negatives such of lack of choice and teacher autonomy there are many pluses. The main one is that it will equalize the quality of teaching across the county. Your student will get the same reading instruction if they are being taught by a 30 year veteran teacher in a rich area or are be being taught by a teacher trainee or long term sub in a title one, the book literally tells you what to say. Right now there is reading “curriculum” but it is strongly suggested and many schools don’t even use the phonics lessons and use something else and the writing plans are minimal . The new curriculum is all inclusive and had reading comprehension , writing, grammar, and small group instruction.

T

That sounds kind of awful for teachers. But I will admit that my older DC was taught to read with "Good readers look at the pictures" three-cueing, while my younger DC has gotten a decent amount of phonics. And neither of them have a strong grasp of grammar and sentence structure, or have any grasp at all of formal writing. Lucy Calkins has a lot to answer for.

Unless there is an older teacher sneaking those methods in three cueing is unheard of now. Most new teachers wouldn’t even be able to tell you what that is because colleges don’t teach it anymore.

It was only 3 years ago. I know that FCPS has really changed their reading curriculum, for the better. If they change their writing curriculum, I'll be happy. I 'm not sure an entirely scripted all-inclusive reading and writing program is needed - I guess we'll see how it is. What our teachers need more of is autonomy, not more scripts.

100% agree with you. My current 5th grader was taught with the Lucy Calkins method and it took two years of tutoring to get her up to the appropriate reading level (one of those years was online due to Covid), but her writing is still atrocious and she doesn't know any grammar and she can't spell.

+1 with 6th grader. What is the plan to catch these kids up with grammar and spelling? Hopefully, outside help has brought people to read ok. But, grammar and spelling needs brought up. There seems to be several years of students who missed a lot because of no appropriate curriculum, just following the guess the word by looking at the picture method and told to write one Lucy Calkin’s ‘fun’ essay after another with no real writing training.

My 6th grader has had spelling assessments all year as well as grammar.

What kind of grammar lessons does your 6th grader get? Ours doesn’t even know all of the parts of speech yet!

My 6th grader spent all of quarter 1 doing parts of speech. They have alternated between county word study and Vocab of Lit and even with the spelling assessments that come home they are required to identify the part of speech for each word in the sentence. The teacher shared that every K-6 student has a word study curriculum and are supposed to have assessments every 5 lessons. My kid is AAP though at a LL4.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am all for it. While there are a lot of negatives such of lack of choice and teacher autonomy there are many pluses. The main one is that it will equalize the quality of teaching across the county. Your student will get the same reading instruction if they are being taught by a 30 year veteran teacher in a rich area or are be being taught by a teacher trainee or long term sub in a title one, the book literally tells you what to say. Right now there is reading “curriculum” but it is strongly suggested and many schools don’t even use the phonics lessons and use something else and the writing plans are minimal . The new curriculum is all inclusive and had reading comprehension , writing, grammar, and small group instruction.

T

That sounds kind of awful for teachers. But I will admit that my older DC was taught to read with "Good readers look at the pictures" three-cueing, while my younger DC has gotten a decent amount of phonics. And neither of them have a strong grasp of grammar and sentence structure, or have any grasp at all of formal writing. Lucy Calkins has a lot to answer for.

Unless there is an older teacher sneaking those methods in three cueing is unheard of now. Most new teachers wouldn’t even be able to tell you what that is because colleges don’t teach it anymore.

It was only 3 years ago. I know that FCPS has really changed their reading curriculum, for the better. If they change their writing curriculum, I'll be happy. I 'm not sure an entirely scripted all-inclusive reading and writing program is needed - I guess we'll see how it is. What our teachers need more of is autonomy, not more scripts.

100% agree with you. My current 5th grader was taught with the Lucy Calkins method and it took two years of tutoring to get her up to the appropriate reading level (one of those years was online due to Covid), but her writing is still atrocious and she doesn't know any grammar and she can't spell.

+1 with 6th grader. What is the plan to catch these kids up with grammar and spelling? Hopefully, outside help has brought people to read ok. But, grammar and spelling needs brought up. There seems to be several years of students who missed a lot because of no appropriate curriculum, just following the guess the word by looking at the picture method and told to write one Lucy Calkin’s ‘fun’ essay after another with no real writing training.

My 6th grader has had spelling assessments all year as well as grammar.

Because your 6th grader has a good teacher.

The difference in language arts teachers between my kids given the different teachers they have had has been shocking. My 4th grader is constantly teasing my 6th grader with the new words and word stems she's learned from her teacher's intensive use of Caesar's English that my 6th grader doesn't know - and they were both in 4th grade AAP at the same school, they just had different teachers. I imagine spelling and grammar would be the same.

Your fourth grader kind of sounds like a jerk. I’m an AAP teacher and we were told to stop using Caesar’s English in 2019. So your fourth grader’s teacher may still be using it against guidance, but don’t hold that against your sixth grader’s teacher who was doing what they were told to do.

Meh, she's not a jerk.

And at our center they advertised using Caesar's English at the overview night in 2020, so this cannot have been district-wide.

Oh what, as a parent who saw one presentation you must be totally correct. My bad….

DP. My 5th grader is learning Caesar's English this year. I hadn't heard that it had been phased out. I guess our school is just going against guidance.

Teacher here. Caesar’s English is still being used. The county wants everyone to use the county word study and supplement as needed for advanced learners. Our school is still using it too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am all for it. While there are a lot of negatives such of lack of choice and teacher autonomy there are many pluses. The main one is that it will equalize the quality of teaching across the county. Your student will get the same reading instruction if they are being taught by a 30 year veteran teacher in a rich area or are be being taught by a teacher trainee or long term sub in a title one, the book literally tells you what to say. Right now there is reading “curriculum” but it is strongly suggested and many schools don’t even use the phonics lessons and use something else and the writing plans are minimal . The new curriculum is all inclusive and had reading comprehension , writing, grammar, and small group instruction.

T

That sounds kind of awful for teachers. But I will admit that my older DC was taught to read with "Good readers look at the pictures" three-cueing, while my younger DC has gotten a decent amount of phonics. And neither of them have a strong grasp of grammar and sentence structure, or have any grasp at all of formal writing. Lucy Calkins has a lot to answer for.

Unless there is an older teacher sneaking those methods in three cueing is unheard of now. Most new teachers wouldn’t even be able to tell you what that is because colleges don’t teach it anymore.

It was only 3 years ago. I know that FCPS has really changed their reading curriculum, for the better. If they change their writing curriculum, I'll be happy. I 'm not sure an entirely scripted all-inclusive reading and writing program is needed - I guess we'll see how it is. What our teachers need more of is autonomy, not more scripts.

100% agree with you. My current 5th grader was taught with the Lucy Calkins method and it took two years of tutoring to get her up to the appropriate reading level (one of those years was online due to Covid), but her writing is still atrocious and she doesn't know any grammar and she can't spell.

+1 with 6th grader. What is the plan to catch these kids up with grammar and spelling? Hopefully, outside help has brought people to read ok. But, grammar and spelling needs brought up. There seems to be several years of students who missed a lot because of no appropriate curriculum, just following the guess the word by looking at the picture method and told to write one Lucy Calkin’s ‘fun’ essay after another with no real writing training.

My 6th grader has had spelling assessments all year as well as grammar.

Because your 6th grader has a good teacher.

The difference in language arts teachers between my kids given the different teachers they have had has been shocking. My 4th grader is constantly teasing my 6th grader with the new words and word stems she's learned from her teacher's intensive use of Caesar's English that my 6th grader doesn't know - and they were both in 4th grade AAP at the same school, they just had different teachers. I imagine spelling and grammar would be the same.

Your fourth grader kind of sounds like a jerk. I’m an AAP teacher and we were told to stop using Caesar’s English in 2019. So your fourth grader’s teacher may still be using it against guidance, but don’t hold that against your sixth grader’s teacher who was doing what they were told to do.

Why? It’s an excellent program. And for the record, my child used it in 2021-2022.

I teach AAP and it's not true that we were told to stop using it. We were told to stop using WordMasters, but not CE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am all for it. While there are a lot of negatives such of lack of choice and teacher autonomy there are many pluses. The main one is that it will equalize the quality of teaching across the county. Your student will get the same reading instruction if they are being taught by a 30 year veteran teacher in a rich area or are be being taught by a teacher trainee or long term sub in a title one, the book literally tells you what to say. Right now there is reading “curriculum” but it is strongly suggested and many schools don’t even use the phonics lessons and use something else and the writing plans are minimal . The new curriculum is all inclusive and had reading comprehension , writing, grammar, and small group instruction.

T

That sounds kind of awful for teachers. But I will admit that my older DC was taught to read with "Good readers look at the pictures" three-cueing, while my younger DC has gotten a decent amount of phonics. And neither of them have a strong grasp of grammar and sentence structure, or have any grasp at all of formal writing. Lucy Calkins has a lot to answer for.

Unless there is an older teacher sneaking those methods in three cueing is unheard of now. Most new teachers wouldn’t even be able to tell you what that is because colleges don’t teach it anymore.

It was only 3 years ago. I know that FCPS has really changed their reading curriculum, for the better. If they change their writing curriculum, I'll be happy. I 'm not sure an entirely scripted all-inclusive reading and writing program is needed - I guess we'll see how it is. What our teachers need more of is autonomy, not more scripts.

100% agree with you. My current 5th grader was taught with the Lucy Calkins method and it took two years of tutoring to get her up to the appropriate reading level (one of those years was online due to Covid), but her writing is still atrocious and she doesn't know any grammar and she can't spell.

+1 with 6th grader. What is the plan to catch these kids up with grammar and spelling? Hopefully, outside help has brought people to read ok. But, grammar and spelling needs brought up. There seems to be several years of students who missed a lot because of no appropriate curriculum, just following the guess the word by looking at the picture method and told to write one Lucy Calkin’s ‘fun’ essay after another with no real writing training.

My 6th grader has had spelling assessments all year as well as grammar.

Because your 6th grader has a good teacher.

The difference in language arts teachers between my kids given the different teachers they have had has been shocking. My 4th grader is constantly teasing my 6th grader with the new words and word stems she's learned from her teacher's intensive use of Caesar's English that my 6th grader doesn't know - and they were both in 4th grade AAP at the same school, they just had different teachers. I imagine spelling and grammar would be the same.

Your fourth grader kind of sounds like a jerk. I’m an AAP teacher and we were told to stop using Caesar’s English in 2019. So your fourth grader’s teacher may still be using it against guidance, but don’t hold that against your sixth grader’s teacher who was doing what they were told to do.

Why? It’s an excellent program. And for the record, my child used it in 2021-2022.

I teach AAP and it's not true that we were told to stop using it. We were told to stop using WordMasters, but not CE.

I knew the PP who said that was full of it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am all for it. While there are a lot of negatives such of lack of choice and teacher autonomy there are many pluses. The main one is that it will equalize the quality of teaching across the county. Your student will get the same reading instruction if they are being taught by a 30 year veteran teacher in a rich area or are be being taught by a teacher trainee or long term sub in a title one, the book literally tells you what to say. Right now there is reading “curriculum” but it is strongly suggested and many schools don’t even use the phonics lessons and use something else and the writing plans are minimal . The new curriculum is all inclusive and had reading comprehension , writing, grammar, and small group instruction.

T

That sounds kind of awful for teachers. But I will admit that my older DC was taught to read with "Good readers look at the pictures" three-cueing, while my younger DC has gotten a decent amount of phonics. And neither of them have a strong grasp of grammar and sentence structure, or have any grasp at all of formal writing. Lucy Calkins has a lot to answer for.

Unless there is an older teacher sneaking those methods in three cueing is unheard of now. Most new teachers wouldn’t even be able to tell you what that is because colleges don’t teach it anymore.

It was only 3 years ago. I know that FCPS has really changed their reading curriculum, for the better. If they change their writing curriculum, I'll be happy. I 'm not sure an entirely scripted all-inclusive reading and writing program is needed - I guess we'll see how it is. What our teachers need more of is autonomy, not more scripts.

100% agree with you. My current 5th grader was taught with the Lucy Calkins method and it took two years of tutoring to get her up to the appropriate reading level (one of those years was online due to Covid), but her writing is still atrocious and she doesn't know any grammar and she can't spell.

+1 with 6th grader. What is the plan to catch these kids up with grammar and spelling? Hopefully, outside help has brought people to read ok. But, grammar and spelling needs brought up. There seems to be several years of students who missed a lot because of no appropriate curriculum, just following the guess the word by looking at the picture method and told to write one Lucy Calkin’s ‘fun’ essay after another with no real writing training.

My 6th grader has had spelling assessments all year as well as grammar.

Because your 6th grader has a good teacher.

The difference in language arts teachers between my kids given the different teachers they have had has been shocking. My 4th grader is constantly teasing my 6th grader with the new words and word stems she's learned from her teacher's intensive use of Caesar's English that my 6th grader doesn't know - and they were both in 4th grade AAP at the same school, they just had different teachers. I imagine spelling and grammar would be the same.

Your fourth grader kind of sounds like a jerk. I’m an AAP teacher and we were told to stop using Caesar’s English in 2019. So your fourth grader’s teacher may still be using it against guidance, but don’t hold that against your sixth grader’s teacher who was doing what they were told to do.

Boy, oh boy, are you wrong. Caesar’s English is central to the AAP word study. It might help if you looked at your pacing guides, AAP teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the return to a basal going to have kids move away from the awful digital push in schools? Usually LA is heavy on the computers. This basal series may steer us away from computers, which would be amazing!!!

I hope FCPS can abandon Lexia.

I hope not! Used properly, research shows it has a great effect size.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am all for it. While there are a lot of negatives such of lack of choice and teacher autonomy there are many pluses. The main one is that it will equalize the quality of teaching across the county. Your student will get the same reading instruction if they are being taught by a 30 year veteran teacher in a rich area or are be being taught by a teacher trainee or long term sub in a title one, the book literally tells you what to say. Right now there is reading “curriculum” but it is strongly suggested and many schools don’t even use the phonics lessons and use something else and the writing plans are minimal . The new curriculum is all inclusive and had reading comprehension , writing, grammar, and small group instruction.

T

That sounds kind of awful for teachers. But I will admit that my older DC was taught to read with "Good readers look at the pictures" three-cueing, while my younger DC has gotten a decent amount of phonics. And neither of them have a strong grasp of grammar and sentence structure, or have any grasp at all of formal writing. Lucy Calkins has a lot to answer for.

Unless there is an older teacher sneaking those methods in three cueing is unheard of now. Most new teachers wouldn’t even be able to tell you what that is because colleges don’t teach it anymore.

It was only 3 years ago. I know that FCPS has really changed their reading curriculum, for the better. If they change their writing curriculum, I'll be happy. I 'm not sure an entirely scripted all-inclusive reading and writing program is needed - I guess we'll see how it is. What our teachers need more of is autonomy, not more scripts.

100% agree with you. My current 5th grader was taught with the Lucy Calkins method and it took two years of tutoring to get her up to the appropriate reading level (one of those years was online due to Covid), but her writing is still atrocious and she doesn't know any grammar and she can't spell.

+1 with 6th grader. What is the plan to catch these kids up with grammar and spelling? Hopefully, outside help has brought people to read ok. But, grammar and spelling needs brought up. There seems to be several years of students who missed a lot because of no appropriate curriculum, just following the guess the word by looking at the picture method and told to write one Lucy Calkin’s ‘fun’ essay after another with no real writing training.

My 6th grader has had spelling assessments all year as well as grammar.

What kind of grammar lessons does your 6th grader get? Ours doesn’t even know all of the parts of speech yet!

When do children start taking spelling tests? 1st grade? 4th grade? Just curious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am all for it. While there are a lot of negatives such of lack of choice and teacher autonomy there are many pluses. The main one is that it will equalize the quality of teaching across the county. Your student will get the same reading instruction if they are being taught by a 30 year veteran teacher in a rich area or are be being taught by a teacher trainee or long term sub in a title one, the book literally tells you what to say. Right now there is reading “curriculum” but it is strongly suggested and many schools don’t even use the phonics lessons and use something else and the writing plans are minimal . The new curriculum is all inclusive and had reading comprehension , writing, grammar, and small group instruction.

T

That sounds kind of awful for teachers. But I will admit that my older DC was taught to read with "Good readers look at the pictures" three-cueing, while my younger DC has gotten a decent amount of phonics. And neither of them have a strong grasp of grammar and sentence structure, or have any grasp at all of formal writing. Lucy Calkins has a lot to answer for.

Unless there is an older teacher sneaking those methods in three cueing is unheard of now. Most new teachers wouldn’t even be able to tell you what that is because colleges don’t teach it anymore.

It was only 3 years ago. I know that FCPS has really changed their reading curriculum, for the better. If they change their writing curriculum, I'll be happy. I 'm not sure an entirely scripted all-inclusive reading and writing program is needed - I guess we'll see how it is. What our teachers need more of is autonomy, not more scripts.

100% agree with you. My current 5th grader was taught with the Lucy Calkins method and it took two years of tutoring to get her up to the appropriate reading level (one of those years was online due to Covid), but her writing is still atrocious and she doesn't know any grammar and she can't spell.

+1 with 6th grader. What is the plan to catch these kids up with grammar and spelling? Hopefully, outside help has brought people to read ok. But, grammar and spelling needs brought up. There seems to be several years of students who missed a lot because of no appropriate curriculum, just following the guess the word by looking at the picture method and told to write one Lucy Calkin’s ‘fun’ essay after another with no real writing training.

My 6th grader has had spelling assessments all year as well as grammar.

What kind of grammar lessons does your 6th grader get? Ours doesn’t even know all of the parts of speech yet!

When do children start taking spelling tests? 1st grade? 4th grade? Just curious.

ours was 1st grade. We are at a heavy homework elementary school.

[Anonymous]

One of my children has never actually had a spelling test on FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of my children has never actually had a spelling test on FCPS.

The only spelling tests my kids have ever had in FCPS were the DSAs given at the beginning and (at least sometimes) end of the year. Doubt every ES does those, of course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my children has never actually had a spelling test on FCPS.

The only spelling tests my kids have ever had in FCPS were the DSAs given at the beginning and (at least sometimes) end of the year. Doubt every ES does those, of course.

Sincere question-does that concern you as a parent? How are schools tracking of children know how to spell without spelling tests?

[Anonymous]

I hope this new program gives some better consistency across FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my children has never actually had a spelling test on FCPS.

The only spelling tests my kids have ever had in FCPS were the DSAs given at the beginning and (at least sometimes) end of the year. Doubt every ES does those, of course.

Sincere question-does that concern you as a parent? How are schools tracking of children know how to spell without spelling tests?

Yes it concerns me. For years I taught them spelling at home. Now we're switching to private. The language arts curriculum in FCPS wasn't the primary driver of that decision, but it was a negative in the "keep the kids in FCPS" column.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the return to a basal going to have kids move away from the awful digital push in schools? Usually LA is heavy on the computers. This basal series may steer us away from computers, which would be amazing!!!

I hope FCPS can abandon Lexia.

I hope not! Used properly, research shows it has a great effect size.

Agree. My child’s teacher has purchased the program for her children to use at home. (They go to private.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the return to a basal going to have kids move away from the awful digital push in schools? Usually LA is heavy on the computers. This basal series may steer us away from computers, which would be amazing!!!

I hope FCPS can abandon Lexia.

I hope not! Used properly, research shows it has a great effect size.

Does proper use include no grammar instruction beyond it? Does it include kids getting placed in levels that they don't actually understand because they guessed well on the placement test?

Because that's my kids' experience with it. They are just guessing their way through in order to be done. 6th grader cannot wait to start Wordly Wise once finished.