Lucy Caulkins was wrong about reading

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This isnt news. Maybe i am late to the party but just wanted to share anyway.
And has now incorporated phonics in its revised curriculum. But its too late for the students who struggled because of her. It’s appalling that our kid’s education is just a money making business and mcps continues to pick sub par curriculums over and over again.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/22/us/reading-teaching-curriculum-phonics.html

Focusing on phonics made me struggle. I think it may be helpful to some but not everyone.

Did you do the Lucy Caulkins? It was pointing at a picture of a cat and saying "cat" and hoping by osmosis the kid would learn to read the word.

Phonics isn't the only thing taught, it's also still figuring out the words. Whereas when Lucy Caulkins was taught, no phonics at all was taught.

Pre-pandemic I recall being at a happy hour for the moms of the kids in my daughter's girl scout troop. Eight of the ten moms were desperate to find a reading tutor because they'd just been informed that their end-of-first-grade daughters were woefully behind in reading. At the time I thought something had to be wrong--there was no way so many smart kids from engaged parents could be that far behind. The next year the Lucy Caulkin's criticism hit the news and it all made sense. One of those kids did turn out to be dyslexic. The rest just hadn't been taught to read and they eventually caught up with the help of very expensive outside reading tutors.

That is interesting. If you listen to the sold a story podcast, it is true that rich affluent public school kids also struggle in reading but because parents get tutors for the children they eventually catch up and learn to read. Those tutors use phonics to teach reading. Students at poorer schools have no resources and there by can’t catch up. You can see this playing out in the reading assessments nation wide and maryland in particular. Its in part due to the shutdown but also because of the terrible reading curriculum.

[Anonymous]

You are correct, and while this is old news, some people remain completely unaware or even resistant to acknowledging the failure of Reading Writing Workshop. So the more it’s talked about, the better.

[Anonymous]

I still can't believe we will have a generation of kids who struggle with reading/writing because of this crap.

WTAF?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This isnt news. Maybe i am late to the party but just wanted to share anyway.
And has now incorporated phonics in its revised curriculum. But its too late for the students who struggled because of her. It’s appalling that our kid’s education is just a money making business and mcps continues to pick sub par curriculums over and over again.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/22/us/reading-teaching-curriculum-phonics.html

Focusing on phonics made me struggle. I think it may be helpful to some but not everyone.

Did you do the Lucy Caulkins? It was pointing at a picture of a cat and saying "cat" and hoping by osmosis the kid would learn to read the word.

Phonics isn't the only thing taught, it's also still figuring out the words. Whereas when Lucy Caulkins was taught, no phonics at all was taught.

Pre-pandemic I recall being at a happy hour for the moms of the kids in my daughter's girl scout troop. Eight of the ten moms were desperate to find a reading tutor because they'd just been informed that their end-of-first-grade daughters were woefully behind in reading. At the time I thought something had to be wrong--there was no way so many smart kids from engaged parents could be that far behind. The next year the Lucy Caulkin's criticism hit the news and it all made sense. One of those kids did turn out to be dyslexic. The rest just hadn't been taught to read and they eventually caught up with the help of very expensive outside reading tutors.

That is interesting. If you listen to the sold a story podcast, it is true that rich affluent public school kids also struggle in reading but because parents get tutors for the children they eventually catch up and learn to read. Those tutors use phonics to teach reading. Students at poorer schools have no resources and there by can’t catch up. You can see this playing out in the reading assessments nation wide and maryland in particular. Its in part due to the shutdown but also because of the terrible reading curriculum.

I completely agree with this. I've started realizing that it's just not the schools job to teach reading, writing or math, particularly in elementary school. Once I realized that and started teaching dd myself after school every day, she sailed through easily. She wasn't getting the osmosis method and likes everything stated explicitly. Things like counting pom pom balls and multiplying pom pom balls wasn't helping her learn math. I think teachers were taught that they need to make school fun, hands on and creative, but I don't think it's how kids learn. Even the writing prompts that were so open ended weren't working for my dd. At home, she did a lot of copying into a notebook, practice writing letters, math, constant reading. It also helped that I let her choose the books she likes for her reading. At school, they only had "role model" books. Role models are great- but they were dry and just not holding her interest. I let her choose the pinkest, sparkliest princess books with stickers in them and she got engrossed. I'm a huge reader and I do like classical literature, but I don't GAF what kind of books my kids want to read.

Please don't think I'm anti- teacher, it's just that there often is NO curriculum, and the methods they follow are just bad. I'm so enraged by the publishing house monopoly on everything. I wish more money went to teachers and not these awful programs schools spend money on.

[Anonymous]

Why was this thread moved from mcps forum?

[Anonymous]

Here's an article with no paywall

https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2020/01/27/lucy-calkins-reading-materials-review

Experts say widely used reading curriculum is failing kids
A first of its kind review finds Lucy Calkins' materials don't align with the science of reading.

"Calkins' Units of Study is the third most widely used set of core materials to teach reading, according to a survey by Education Week. But, as APM Reports has shown, the Units of Study lessons and materials frequently assert an idea about how people read that has been proven wrong by cognitive scientists. The idea, known as three cueing, encourages children to look at pictures and use contextual clues to identify words as they are reading. Scientific research shows that skilled readers do not use cues to read words and that instructing children to use these cues teaches them the habits of struggling readers. ...

Research shows that beginning readers who focus on letter-sound relationships increase activity in the area of the brain best wired for reading and that phonics instruction improves children's reading success.

For students who come from homes where they're exposed to sophisticated oral language and who acquire knowledge from well-educated parents, the lack of explicit instruction in these areas might not be a problem. But other students may be left behind..."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why was this thread moved from mcps forum?

Because it's not specific to MCPS?

[Anonymous]

Not sure about the 2022-2023 school year, but when we looked last year, we discovered that Lucy Calkins, Fountas & Pinnell, and similar Balanced Literacy / Whole Language curricula were being used at Sidwell, Beauvoir, GDS, Potomac, Langley, Congressional, and many other local privates. FCPS, APS, and MCPS were using either those curricula or similar ones which are equally atrocious. This is both for reading and for writing,

See also several different earlier threads in the private school forum about having DC arrive in 3rd or 4th grade with a history of good grades, and parent being suddenly told their DC can’t read at or near grade level.

Very very few local schools use a Phonics-based approach, which works for virtually all kids. One should look into the specifics for any schools which might be interesting for one’s own DC.

It is not a mystery why Johnny and Jane can’t read in most of the US. Sigh….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure about the 2022-2023 school year, but when we looked last year, we discovered that Lucy Calkins, Fountas & Pinnell, and similar Balanced Literacy / Whole Language curricula were being used at Sidwell, Beauvoir, GDS, Potomac, Langley, Congressional, and many other local privates. FCPS, APS, and MCPS were using either those curricula or similar ones which are equally atrocious. This is both for reading and for writing,

See also several different earlier threads in the private school forum about having DC arrive in 3rd or 4th grade with a history of good grades, and parent being suddenly told their DC can’t read at or near grade level.

Very very few local schools use a Phonics-based approach, which works for virtually all kids. One should look into the specifics for any schools which might be interesting for one’s own DC.

It is not a mystery why Johnny and Jane can’t read in most of the US. Sigh….

+1. Its not a mystery yet nothing is done to teach them how to read. 😔

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure about the 2022-2023 school year, but when we looked last year, we discovered that Lucy Calkins, Fountas & Pinnell, and similar Balanced Literacy / Whole Language curricula were being used at Sidwell, Beauvoir, GDS, Potomac, Langley, Congressional, and many other local privates. FCPS, APS, and MCPS were using either those curricula or similar ones which are equally atrocious. This is both for reading and for writing,

See also several different earlier threads in the private school forum about having DC arrive in 3rd or 4th grade with a history of good grades, and parent being suddenly told their DC can’t read at or near grade level.

Very very few local schools use a Phonics-based approach, which works for virtually all kids. One should look into the specifics for any schools which might be interesting for one’s own DC.

It is not a mystery why Johnny and Jane can’t read in most of the US. Sigh….

APS has switched to a phonics curriculum. No more LC.

[Anonymous]

Elementary Teacher here. Didn't even read the article, but always knew that Lucy Calkins' work was uninformed and poorly researched. My son's K teacher followed her and it was a disaster. I remember reading some of her work and wondering how on earth FCPS had adopted anything of such poor quality. But, FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure about the 2022-2023 school year, but when we looked last year, we discovered that Lucy Calkins, Fountas & Pinnell, and similar Balanced Literacy / Whole Language curricula were being used at Sidwell, Beauvoir, GDS, Potomac, Langley, Congressional, and many other local privates. FCPS, APS, and MCPS were using either those curricula or similar ones which are equally atrocious. This is both for reading and for writing,

See also several different earlier threads in the private school forum about having DC arrive in 3rd or 4th grade with a history of good grades, and parent being suddenly told their DC can’t read at or near grade level.

Very very few local schools use a Phonics-based approach, which works for virtually all kids. One should look into the specifics for any schools which might be interesting for one’s own DC.

It is not a mystery why Johnny and Jane can’t read in most of the US. Sigh….

I know this is off-topic, but I just want to point out that the whole "Johnny can't read" expression comes from a falsified report by the department of education, produced merely to defend itself against a plan to eliminate the department.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I still can't believe we will have a generation of kids who struggle with reading/writing because of this crap.

WTAF?!

It's not just because of this. Fiction has been downgraded and devalued across the board since all of us went to school.

The big irony of that is that reading and discussing fiction is what develops empathy, understanding different perspectives, writing and critical thinking. The very things we claim are important.

[Anonymous]

DS is in 1st grade in FCPS. They are using Heggerty curriculum and Lexia online lessons.
They are both based on decoding (phonics is a way to decode words).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still can't believe we will have a generation of kids who struggle with reading/writing because of this crap.

WTAF?!

It's not just because of this. Fiction has been downgraded and devalued across the board since all of us went to school.

The big irony of that is that reading and discussing fiction is what develops empathy, understanding different perspectives, writing and critical thinking. The very things we claim are important.

Also science and history, "content", has been devalued. First children are taught how to read (or not taught how to read) and then later they are given interesting things to learn.

When we were growing up, we learned how to read by reading content. No longer.