Benchmark, almost one year done. How are people feeling about it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know if it's benchmark or just my K kids teacher, but my kindergartner has absolutely blown me away with her reading. The ways she sounds out words, last night she sounded out marshmallow and then asked me it the ar was an r controlled vowel. She then went on about all kinds of vowel related rules and idiosyncrasies. She will read words like take and start sounding it out as "tack" and then say oh there's an e that makes the a say it's name so it's take, if it didn't have that e it would be tack.

She still has more practice to do to be more fluent, but I'm blown away by the deeply engrained phonological rules that she is learning. All while seemingly maintaining comprehension too.

I’m a retired teacher, now substitute. The sentence writing and spelling I see kindergartners doing is noticeably better than it was just a year or two ago. It’s greatly improved. I’ve been impressed by the amount of annotating 3rd and 4th graders are willing and able to do when given a passage. I do think creative writing and taking their own work through the writing process has taken a hit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Benchmark is terrible. My students hate it, my colleagues hate it, I hate it. It's poorly written and makes language arts an unpleasant experience. It won't be better next year.

Why can't we get back to having teachers creating lesson plans at tge school level instead of the district pushing down one worthless program after another?

Give them metrics like mandating phonics instruction in the early childhood grades, creative writing in the middle elementary grades, and writing process plus grammer in tge upper grades, then let our talented teachers have at it at a school level, only stepping in and micromanaging low performing schools that are not hitting benchmarks?

I bet achievement would improve everywhere is FCPS did this, including the struggling schools.

This is what they were doing and it was TERRIBLE

When schools did this (like 15+ years ago) FCPS had excellent results.

The difference in quality of the literacy instruction between my oldest who started school in 2005 and my youngest who started school 10 years ago was pretty striking.

If FCPS is going to change to something new, they need to find out what program the Catholic archdiocese schools use, and buy the secular version of that program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Benchmark is terrible. My students hate it, my colleagues hate it, I hate it. It's poorly written and makes language arts an unpleasant experience. It won't be better next year.

Why can't we get back to having teachers creating lesson plans at tge school level instead of the district pushing down one worthless program after another?

Give them metrics like mandating phonics instruction in the early childhood grades, creative writing in the middle elementary grades, and writing process plus grammer in tge upper grades, then let our talented teachers have at it at a school level, only stepping in and micromanaging low performing schools that are not hitting benchmarks?

I bet achievement would improve everywhere is FCPS did this, including the struggling schools.

This is what they were doing and it was TERRIBLE

When schools did this (like 15+ years ago) FCPS had excellent results.

The difference in quality of the literacy instruction between my oldest who started school in 2005 and my youngest who started school 10 years ago was pretty striking.

If FCPS is going to change to something new, they need to find out what program the Catholic archdiocese schools use, and buy the secular version of that program.

It's probably something like ABEKA. I actually used ABEKA to do some spelling work with my first kid and just edited out the religious words. It was pretty good. I'm going to do the same thing with my next kid when she is ready.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our teacher has converted all the benchmark stuff to online stuff. We never see anything on paper returned.

Liar. They are required to use the workbooks.

You’re an effing idiot. Teachers can take the questions from the workbook and type them onto a document that the students can then type on. They can also scan in the readings.

Our school does not do that. They did a presentation on Benchmark at the beginning of the school year and several parents asked about if any of it would be online and they very clearly said that they were required to use the workbooks. So, maybe your school does things differently, but I was relaying what I was told by our school.

Thanks for the name calling, though, how incredibly mature of you.

You started the name calling by calling me a liar. You can’t possible see how the workbook could be used online? Why would you think I’m lying about that? That’s idiotic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My AAP students look zoned out. They hate the dull readings and “discussion questions.” Very short passages and no novels or digging deeply into topics. They participate, but there’s no passion in LA.

Interesting how there are SO MANY AAP teachers posting in this thread. It's hard to know which ones are actual teachers vs. AAP parents pretending to be teachers trying to convince people that Benchmark is bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know if it's benchmark or just my K kids teacher, but my kindergartner has absolutely blown me away with her reading. The ways she sounds out words, last night she sounded out marshmallow and then asked me it the ar was an r controlled vowel. She then went on about all kinds of vowel related rules and idiosyncrasies. She will read words like take and start sounding it out as "tack" and then say oh there's an e that makes the a say it's name so it's take, if it didn't have that e it would be tack.

She still has more practice to do to be more fluent, but I'm blown away by the deeply engrained phonological rules that she is learning. All while seemingly maintaining comprehension too.

I’m a retired teacher, now substitute. The sentence writing and spelling I see kindergartners doing is noticeably better than it was just a year or two ago. It’s greatly improved. I’ve been impressed by the amount of annotating 3rd and 4th graders are willing and able to do when given a passage. I do think creative writing and taking their own work through the writing process has taken a hit.

I would like FCPS to stick with this to see how the current cohort of Kindergarteners are doing when they are in 6th. I think we'll see that their level of literacy is vastly improved compared to my current 6th grader, who wouldn't be able to write an essay if we hadn't hired a tutor last year since the FCPS instruction was so bad and we really wanted her to learn how to write. Benchmark has been good, she's actually writing essays - I particularly like the "point of view" one they did a few months ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our teacher has converted all the benchmark stuff to online stuff. We never see anything on paper returned.

Liar. They are required to use the workbooks.

You’re an effing idiot. Teachers can take the questions from the workbook and type them onto a document that the students can then type on. They can also scan in the readings.

Our school does not do that. They did a presentation on Benchmark at the beginning of the school year and several parents asked about if any of it would be online and they very clearly said that they were required to use the workbooks. So, maybe your school does things differently, but I was relaying what I was told by our school.

Thanks for the name calling, though, how incredibly mature of you.

You started the name calling by calling me a liar. You can’t possible see how the workbook could be used online? Why would you think I’m lying about that? That’s idiotic.

As I explained, our school told us the workbooks were required. I didn't realize that was not an FCPS thing. I'm not going to apologize to you, because you're continuing to call me names. You should talk to your principal about this though instead of whining here and calling people idiots. I like to advocate for my child instead of acting like a child on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our teacher has converted all the benchmark stuff to online stuff. We never see anything on paper returned.

Liar. They are required to use the workbooks.

You’re an effing idiot. Teachers can take the questions from the workbook and type them onto a document that the students can then type on. They can also scan in the readings.

Our school does not do that. They did a presentation on Benchmark at the beginning of the school year and several parents asked about if any of it would be online and they very clearly said that they were required to use the workbooks. So, maybe your school does things differently, but I was relaying what I was told by our school.

Thanks for the name calling, though, how incredibly mature of you.

You started the name calling by calling me a liar. You can’t possible see how the workbook could be used online? Why would you think I’m lying about that? That’s idiotic.

As I explained, our school told us the workbooks were required. I didn't realize that was not an FCPS thing. I'm not going to apologize to you, because you're continuing to call me names. You should talk to your principal about this though instead of whining here and calling people idiots. I like to advocate for my child instead of acting like a child on DCUM.

Funny, when I said what our teacher was doing, you immediately called me a liar without provocation. I had not name called you at that point. You said “they are required to use workbooks,” as if what your school was doing was universally true for all. You then backpedaled and said well that’s what your specific school is doing. I don’t need an apology from you lol. But look to your own behavior and understand you get what you give.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our teacher has converted all the benchmark stuff to online stuff. We never see anything on paper returned.

Liar. They are required to use the workbooks.

You’re an effing idiot. Teachers can take the questions from the workbook and type them onto a document that the students can then type on. They can also scan in the readings.

Our school does not do that. They did a presentation on Benchmark at the beginning of the school year and several parents asked about if any of it would be online and they very clearly said that they were required to use the workbooks. So, maybe your school does things differently, but I was relaying what I was told by our school.

Thanks for the name calling, though, how incredibly mature of you.

You started the name calling by calling me a liar. You can’t possible see how the workbook could be used online? Why would you think I’m lying about that? That’s idiotic.

As I explained, our school told us the workbooks were required. I didn't realize that was not an FCPS thing. I'm not going to apologize to you, because you're continuing to call me names. You should talk to your principal about this though [b]instead of whining here and calling people idiots. I like to advocate for my child instead of acting like a child on DCUM.

There was no whining. I was simply stating how our teacher puts Benchmark online when you jumped in and called me a liar. I suggest you take your own advice. Get off DCUM and stop calling people with different experiences liars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our teacher has converted all the benchmark stuff to online stuff. We never see anything on paper returned.

Every student gets a “workbook” for each unit that you should see. That can’t be done online.

LOL. You’re so naive. Tell me your child never did virtual learning without telling your child never did virtual learning. Almost everything in a consumable workbook can be converted online - how do you think we survived virtual learning?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our teacher has converted all the benchmark stuff to online stuff. We never see anything on paper returned.

Every student gets a “workbook” for each unit that you should see. That can’t be done online.

LOL. You’re so naive. Tell me your child never did virtual learning without telling your child never did virtual learning. Almost everything in a consumable workbook can be converted online - how do you think we survived virtual learning?!

+1, my third graders read the passages in the booklet and then answered about 1/2 the questions online. The teacher created Google Slides with the questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our teacher has converted all the benchmark stuff to online stuff. We never see anything on paper returned.

Liar. They are required to use the workbooks.

You’re an effing idiot. Teachers can take the questions from the workbook and type them onto a document that the students can then type on. They can also scan in the readings.

Our school does not do that. They did a presentation on Benchmark at the beginning of the school year and several parents asked about if any of it would be online and they very clearly said that they were required to use the workbooks. So, maybe your school does things differently, but I was relaying what I was told by our school.

Thanks for the name calling, though, how incredibly mature of you.

You started the name calling by calling me a liar. You can’t possible see how the workbook could be used online? Why would you think I’m lying about that? That’s idiotic.

As I explained, our school told us the workbooks were required. I didn't realize that was not an FCPS thing. I'm not going to apologize to you, because you're continuing to call me names. You should talk to your principal about this though instead of whining here and calling people idiots. I like to advocate for my child instead of acting like a child on DCUM.

Funny, when I said what our teacher was doing, you immediately called me a liar without provocation. I had not name called you at that point. You said “they are required to use workbooks,” as if what your school was doing was universally true for all. You then backpedaled and said well that’s what your specific school is doing. I don’t need an apology from you lol. But look to your own behavior and understand you get what you give.

LADY I WAS EXPLAINING THAT I THOUGHT OUR PRINCIPAL SAID FCPS WAS REQUIRED TO USE THE WORKBOOK. I can't believe that it has taken me three tries to explain to you why I thought you were lying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our teacher has converted all the benchmark stuff to online stuff. We never see anything on paper returned.

Liar. They are required to use the workbooks.

You’re an effing idiot. Teachers can take the questions from the workbook and type them onto a document that the students can then type on. They can also scan in the readings.

Our school does not do that. They did a presentation on Benchmark at the beginning of the school year and several parents asked about if any of it would be online and they very clearly said that they were required to use the workbooks. So, maybe your school does things differently, but I was relaying what I was told by our school.

Thanks for the name calling, though, how incredibly mature of you.

You started the name calling by calling me a liar. You can’t possible see how the workbook could be used online? Why would you think I’m lying about that? That’s idiotic.

As I explained, our school told us the workbooks were required. I didn't realize that was not an FCPS thing. I'm not going to apologize to you, because you're continuing to call me names. You should talk to your principal about this though instead of whining here and calling people idiots. I like to advocate for my child instead of acting like a child on DCUM.

Funny, when I said what our teacher was doing, you immediately called me a liar without provocation. I had not name called you at that point. You said “they are required to use workbooks,” as if what your school was doing was universally true for all. You then backpedaled and said well that’s what your specific school is doing. I don’t need an apology from you lol. But look to your own behavior and understand you get what you give.

LADY I WAS EXPLAINING THAT I THOUGHT OUR PRINCIPAL SAID FCPS WAS REQUIRED TO USE THE WORKBOOK. I can't believe that it has taken me three tries to explain to you why I thought you were lying.

You haven’t explained why you immediately jumped to name calling. Is that just what you do on DCUM? I don’t usually do that unless provoked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our teacher has converted all the benchmark stuff to online stuff. We never see anything on paper returned.

Liar. They are required to use the workbooks.

You’re an effing idiot. Teachers can take the questions from the workbook and type them onto a document that the students can then type on. They can also scan in the readings.

Our school does not do that. They did a presentation on Benchmark at the beginning of the school year and several parents asked about if any of it would be online and they very clearly said that they were required to use the workbooks. So, maybe your school does things differently, but I was relaying what I was told by our school.

Thanks for the name calling, though, how incredibly mature of you.

You started the name calling by calling me a liar. You can’t possible see how the workbook could be used online? Why would you think I’m lying about that? That’s idiotic.

As I explained, our school told us the workbooks were required. I didn't realize that was not an FCPS thing. I'm not going to apologize to you, because you're continuing to call me names. You should talk to your principal about this though instead of whining here and calling people idiots. I like to advocate for my child instead of acting like a child on DCUM.

Funny, when I said what our teacher was doing, you immediately called me a liar without provocation. I had not name called you at that point. You said “they are required to use workbooks,” as if what your school was doing was universally true for all. You then backpedaled and said well that’s what your specific school is doing. I don’t need an apology from you lol. But look to your own behavior and understand you get what you give.

LADY I WAS EXPLAINING THAT I THOUGHT OUR PRINCIPAL SAID FCPS WAS REQUIRED TO USE THE WORKBOOK. I can't believe that it has taken me three tries to explain to you why I thought you were lying.

Calling someone a liar who has a different experience than you might result in that person getting angry and calling you a name. You don’t get that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our teacher has converted all the benchmark stuff to online stuff. We never see anything on paper returned.

Liar. They are required to use the workbooks.

You’re an effing idiot. Teachers can take the questions from the workbook and type them onto a document that the students can then type on. They can also scan in the readings.

Our school does not do that. They did a presentation on Benchmark at the beginning of the school year and several parents asked about if any of it would be online and they very clearly said that they were required to use the workbooks. So, maybe your school does things differently, but I was relaying what I was told by our school.

Thanks for the name calling, though, how incredibly mature of you.

You started the name calling by calling me a liar. You can’t possible see how the workbook could be used online? Why would you think I’m lying about that? That’s idiotic.

As I explained, our school told us the workbooks were required. I didn't realize that was not an FCPS thing. I'm not going to apologize to you, because you're continuing to call me names. You should talk to your principal about this though instead of whining here and calling people idiots. I like to advocate for my child instead of acting like a child on DCUM.

Funny, when I said what our teacher was doing, you immediately called me a liar without provocation. I had not name called you at that point. You said “they are required to use workbooks,” as if what your school was doing was universally true for all. You then backpedaled and said well that’s what your specific school is doing. I don’t need an apology from you lol. But look to your own behavior and understand you get what you give.

LADY I WAS EXPLAINING THAT I THOUGHT OUR PRINCIPAL SAID FCPS WAS REQUIRED TO USE THE WORKBOOK. I can't believe that it has taken me three tries to explain to you why I thought you were lying.

Yes the explanation you gave was sometime after called me a liar and after I called you an idiot in response.