Curriculum 2.0, is it too easy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Today he went home with pairs of numbers for which he had written the signs for "greater than" or "less than". As in 17<53... Homework was breaking down single digits like 7 into 2+5, or 3+4... Gaaah! He could have done this 2 years ago. It's insane.

To clarify, I don't have much of a problem with the curriculum, although it could definitely be way more challenging (I went to school in France and the UK, and experienced much more rigorous content).
I do have a problem with the seemingly purposeful brakes to acceleration and differentiation put in place with 2.0. I talked to the teacher at the beginning of term, knowing this would be problem, but there are limits to what she can do.

This is very interesting to me. So are you saying that it's insane that 1st graders are doing addition, because your child learned addition in preschool? My child is in 1st grade also and it seems age-appropriate to me to be doing addition, subtraction, and word problems. I'm not trying to antagonize, just to assess what others think is age-appropriate.

My child is in Pre-K and doesn't even recognize all her numbers. There is no way she could do the work described above. The work seems appropriate for 1st grade to me. But I guess we'll see as we get there.

I agree that it's age appropriate. I think my child could go faster but it's fine. I have no problem with the 1st grade curriculum and no one was acting out in my child's class. I also observed my 3rd graders class. My 3rd grader has always found math relatively easy but again I thought the math was age appropriate. And the reading in both classes was gear. A lot of that is the teacher. She chose the books and she was the one adding extra information and challenge.

[Anonymous]

It seems like MCPS gets off to a slow start every year. It seems like the homework and the challenge is starting to pick up. I don't think this is the fault of the curriculum. I don't think C2.0 is dumbed down really but it took a while until my kid came home with any challenging assignments.

[Anonymous]

I ordered some math workbooks, and my son takes them to school. Does those exercises after his easy math 2.0 slow moving stuff (1-2 months per topic, come on'!!). Half the class is proficient in 2 weeks but they repeat it all for 6 weeks in order to let whomever 'catch up'.

Oh, and the group work IS just like the "real world" - you have the freeloaders, the ones trying to learn, and the ones actually getting stuff done. But unlike the 'real world', no one gets fired or a poor review.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I ordered some math workbooks, and my son takes them to school. Does those exercises after his easy math 2.0 slow moving stuff (1-2 months per topic, come on'!!). Half the class is proficient in 2 weeks but they repeat it all for 6 weeks in order to let whomever 'catch up'.

Oh, and the group work IS just like the "real world" - you have the freeloaders, the ones trying to learn, and the ones actually getting stuff done. But unlike the 'real world', no one gets fired or a poor review.

That is pathetic.

talk about setting your son up for nerdhood

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Today he went home with pairs of numbers for which he had written the signs for "greater than" or "less than". As in 17<53... Homework was breaking down single digits like 7 into 2+5, or 3+4... Gaaah! He could have done this 2 years ago. It's insane.

To clarify, I don't have much of a problem with the curriculum, although it could definitely be way more challenging (I went to school in France and the UK, and experienced much more rigorous content).
I do have a problem with the seemingly purposeful brakes to acceleration and differentiation put in place with 2.0. I talked to the teacher at the beginning of term, knowing this would be problem, but there are limits to what she can do.

This is very interesting to me. So are you saying that it's insane that 1st graders are doing addition, because your child learned addition in preschool? My child is in 1st grade also and it seems age-appropriate to me to be doing addition, subtraction, and word problems. I'm not trying to antagonize, just to assess what others think is age-appropriate.

My child is in Pre-K and doesn't even recognize all her numbers. There is no way she could do the work described above. The work seems appropriate for 1st grade to me. But I guess we'll see as we get there.

I'm a Pre-K teacher and in my class we do introduce early mathematical concepts including the basic idea of equations. For equations, we use a scale in which both sides need to stay balanced. The numbers have weights so the children see 5 + 2 = 3 + 4. For greater than less than concepts, the scale will tip the larger number side.

Some kids pick up on the ideas quickly, some kids are just introduced the ideas and will repeat them later on in elementary school. For reading, we are introducing the children to basic sight words during circle time. Again, some kids are beginning to read by the end of Pre-K, some kids will pick it up in Kindergarten. There is a wide age range when kids will master these skills (kind of like when kids ride a bike). It is all age appropriate.

At a minimum, before entering Kindergarten kids need to know their upper case and lower case letters, how to write his/her name, colors, numbers up to 20 (we expose them to 100), and basic classroom social skills. Again, this is before Kindergarten so if you child is in Pre-K now, he/she will be working on mastering these skills by June. You will probably see a huge amount of mental growth between now and when he/she attends Kindergarten round up in the spring. Kids who don't attend a preschool program are sometimes at a disadvantage and lacking basic skills because they were not exposed to them and need time in Kindergarten to catch up.

Getting back to 2.0, differentiating is the main problem with 2.0. My son is in 3rd grade. The school has admitted to us that the teachers don't have the entire curriculum for the year because the county is still writing it. It comes to them in bits and pieces. The "enrichment" is often the last piece so it may or may not be ready when my child is on a particular unit. Some of the concepts are again, what I expose preschoolers to in a Pre-K program. I am not buying that my child is learning "deeper" into a concept because once the initial concept is learned, carrying it out to 2 digit, 3 digit, and 4 digit places doesn't negate the fact that he already knows the concept. He still does the assigned work, often without instruction because he doesn't need instruction. His behavior has been an issue this year partly because he runs out of work and is bored at school.

So, for kids that can master the 2.0 concepts without instruction, what is MCPS teaching these children? Like the PP asked, where are the pathways?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Today he went home with pairs of numbers for which he had written the signs for "greater than" or "less than". As in 17<53... Homework was breaking down single digits like 7 into 2+5, or 3+4... Gaaah! He could have done this 2 years ago. It's insane.

To clarify, I don't have much of a problem with the curriculum, although it could definitely be way more challenging (I went to school in France and the UK, and experienced much more rigorous content).
I do have a problem with the seemingly purposeful brakes to acceleration and differentiation put in place with 2.0. I talked to the teacher at the beginning of term, knowing this would be problem, but there are limits to what she can do.

This is very interesting to me. So are you saying that it's insane that 1st graders are doing addition, because your child learned addition in preschool? My child is in 1st grade also and it seems age-appropriate to me to be doing addition, subtraction, and word problems. I'm not trying to antagonize, just to assess what others think is age-appropriate.

My child is in Pre-K and doesn't even recognize all her numbers. There is no way she could do the work described above. The work seems appropriate for 1st grade to me. But I guess we'll see as we get there.

I'm a Pre-K teacher and in my class we do introduce early mathematical concepts including the basic idea of equations. For equations, we use a scale in which both sides need to stay balanced. The numbers have weights so the children see 5 + 2 = 3 + 4. For greater than less than concepts, the scale will tip the larger number side.

Some kids pick up on the ideas quickly, some kids are just introduced the ideas and will repeat them later on in elementary school. For reading, we are introducing the children to basic sight words during circle time. Again, some kids are beginning to read by the end of Pre-K, some kids will pick it up in Kindergarten. There is a wide age range when kids will master these skills (kind of like when kids ride a bike). It is all age appropriate.

At a minimum, before entering Kindergarten kids need to know their upper case and lower case letters, how to write his/her name, colors, numbers up to 20 (we expose them to 100), and basic classroom social skills. Again, this is before Kindergarten so if you child is in Pre-K now, he/she will be working on mastering these skills by June. You will probably see a huge amount of mental growth between now and when he/she attends Kindergarten round up in the spring. Kids who don't attend a preschool program are sometimes at a disadvantage and lacking basic skills because they were not exposed to them and need time in Kindergarten to catch up.

Getting back to 2.0, differentiating is the main problem with 2.0. My son is in 3rd grade. The school has admitted to us that the teachers don't have the entire curriculum for the year because the county is still writing it. It comes to them in bits and pieces. The "enrichment" is often the last piece so it may or may not be ready when my child is on a particular unit. Some of the concepts are again, what I expose preschoolers to in a Pre-K program. I am not buying that my child is learning "deeper" into a concept because once the initial concept is learned, carrying it out to 2 digit, 3 digit, and 4 digit places doesn't negate the fact that he already knows the concept. He still does the assigned work, often without instruction because he doesn't need instruction. His behavior has been an issue this year partly because he runs out of work and is bored at school.

So, for kids that can master the 2.0 concepts without instruction, what is MCPS teaching these children? Like the PP asked, where are the pathways?

The bolded part is completely inaccurate. Not sure why your school would tell you that, but it's not true. I work for MCPS and the entire curriculum is available, and has been since last April, for teachers to view. It's all there. I can see the last week of school right now on the website where the curriculum is housed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I ordered some math workbooks, and my son takes them to school. Does those exercises after his easy math 2.0 slow moving stuff (1-2 months per topic, come on'!!). Half the class is proficient in 2 weeks but they repeat it all for 6 weeks in order to let whomever 'catch up'.

Oh, and the group work IS just like the "real world" - you have the freeloaders, the ones trying to learn, and the ones actually getting stuff done. But unlike the 'real world', no one gets fired or a poor review.

That is pathetic.

talk about setting your son up for nerdhood

Not the PP, but nerdhood? Really? Like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and the other math and science entrepreneurs in this country? Yup, totally pathetic.

[Anonymous]

Our teachers have also told us that the curriculum is still being written and that it comes to the schools in a piecemeal way.

But, back to the real issue: under curriculum 2.0 we basically have a system where children who have mastered the concepts simply sit quietly in a room and wait for their classmates to do the same. Are parents really saying that this is acceptable or a good idea? Only in a bizarro-world would a school system write off the best students in this way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our teachers have also told us that the curriculum is still being written and that it comes to the schools in a piecemeal way.

But, back to the real issue: under curriculum 2.0 we basically have a system where children who have mastered the concepts simply sit quietly in a room and wait for their classmates to do the same. Are parents really saying that this is acceptable or a good idea? Only in a bizarro-world would a school system write off the best students in this way.

I Agree. DD is a 4th grader, so not under 2.0 yet. But ever since K she's been waiting for other kids to catch up. She asked why. The only answer I could offer was to just wait, that it will get better. Under 2.0 - will more kids have to do this? I'll warn you now, it's discouraging to both myself and the kid to have them dislike school so much because its a waste of their time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
I ordered some math workbooks, and my son takes them to school. Does those exercises after his easy math 2.0 slow moving stuff (1-2 months per topic, come on'!!). Half the class is proficient in 2 weeks but they repeat it all for 6 weeks in order to let whomever 'catch up'.

Oh, and the group work IS just like the "real world" - you have the freeloaders, the ones trying to learn, and the ones actually getting stuff done. But unlike the 'real world', no one gets fired or a poor review.

That is pathetic.

talk about setting your son up for nerdhood

Definetly more fun than being set up for a livelihood as a beach bum, I'll say.

[Anonymous]

Interesting article from yesterday's Gazette:


http://www.gazette.net/article/20121010/NEWS/710109621/1022/no-more-honor-roll-for-montgomery-elementary-students&template=gazette

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Today he went home with pairs of numbers for which he had written the signs for "greater than" or "less than". As in 17<53... Homework was breaking down single digits like 7 into 2+5, or 3+4... Gaaah! He could have done this 2 years ago. It's insane.

To clarify, I don't have much of a problem with the curriculum, although it could definitely be way more challenging (I went to school in France and the UK, and experienced much more rigorous content).
I do have a problem with the seemingly purposeful brakes to acceleration and differentiation put in place with 2.0. I talked to the teacher at the beginning of term, knowing this would be problem, but there are limits to what she can do.

This is very interesting to me. So are you saying that it's insane that 1st graders are doing addition, because your child learned addition in preschool? My child is in 1st grade also and it seems age-appropriate to me to be doing addition, subtraction, and word problems. I'm not trying to antagonize, just to assess what others think is age-appropriate.

My child is in Pre-K and doesn't even recognize all her numbers. There is no way she could do the work described above. The work seems appropriate for 1st grade to me. But I guess we'll see as we get there.

I'm a Pre-K teacher and in my class we do introduce early mathematical concepts including the basic idea of equations. For equations, we use a scale in which both sides need to stay balanced. The numbers have weights so the children see 5 + 2 = 3 + 4. For greater than less than concepts, the scale will tip the larger number side.

Some kids pick up on the ideas quickly, some kids are just introduced the ideas and will repeat them later on in elementary school. For reading, we are introducing the children to basic sight words during circle time. Again, some kids are beginning to read by the end of Pre-K, some kids will pick it up in Kindergarten. There is a wide age range when kids will master these skills (kind of like when kids ride a bike). It is all age appropriate.

At a minimum, before entering Kindergarten kids need to know their upper case and lower case letters, how to write his/her name, colors, numbers up to 20 (we expose them to 100), and basic classroom social skills. Again, this is before Kindergarten so if you child is in Pre-K now, he/she will be working on mastering these skills by June. You will probably see a huge amount of mental growth between now and when he/she attends Kindergarten round up in the spring. Kids who don't attend a preschool program are sometimes at a disadvantage and lacking basic skills because they were not exposed to them and need time in Kindergarten to catch up.

Getting back to 2.0, differentiating is the main problem with 2.0. My son is in 3rd grade. The school has admitted to us that the teachers don't have the entire curriculum for the year because the county is still writing it. It comes to them in bits and pieces. The "enrichment" is often the last piece so it may or may not be ready when my child is on a particular unit. Some of the concepts are again, what I expose preschoolers to in a Pre-K program. I am not buying that my child is learning "deeper" into a concept because once the initial concept is learned, carrying it out to 2 digit, 3 digit, and 4 digit places doesn't negate the fact that he already knows the concept. He still does the assigned work, often without instruction because he doesn't need instruction. His behavior has been an issue this year partly because he runs out of work and is bored at school.

So, for kids that can master the 2.0 concepts without instruction, what is MCPS teaching these children? Like the PP asked, where are the pathways?

The bolded part is completely inaccurate. Not sure why your school would tell you that, but it's not true. I work for MCPS and the entire curriculum is available, and has been since last April, for teachers to view. It's all there. I can see the last week of school right now on the website where the curriculum is housed.

Another PP who has been told the 3rd grade curriculum is still being written:

I guess someone in MCPS is failing to make sure all the teachers are properly trained and know where to get the new curriculum including the extensions. Just had a meeting last week with my child's teacher and she was the one that told me she didn't have all the curriculum for this year and the extensions. She can only provide what the county gives her.

If you work at the Carver Center, you may want to visit Beverly Farms Elementary School. Maybe you can show them what website you are on. Maybe their staff needs additional training with the new curriculum.

[Anonymous]

At least your new report cards have ES for exceptional. FCPS stops them at "proficient". I'm all for not having letter grades actually, but it really doesn't help not knowing whether my child has exceeded the proficient level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our teachers have also told us that the curriculum is still being written and that it comes to the schools in a piecemeal way.

But, back to the real issue: under curriculum 2.0 we basically have a system where children who have mastered the concepts simply sit quietly in a room and wait for their classmates to do the same. Are parents really saying that this is acceptable or a good idea? Only in a bizarro-world would a school system write off the best students in this way.

Well said! I know the focus of this thread is Math but I would like to point out that something similar has been happening in the other subjects in our middle schools thanks to the middle school reform initiative. In our MS, half the kids are in advanced classes which means they are not really that 'advanced'. If your child is ready for more challenge, they are out of luck because there is no grouping by ability at all within the classroom. Everyone is given the same work. Science seems to be the biggest problem (so much for emphasizing "STEM") - they don't even offer "advanced" classes. The kids who come from the HGCs are the biggest losers. Instead of nurturing advanced learners, MCPS ignores them and takes them for granted.

[Anonymous]

When upwards of half an entire school is on the honor roll it takes a little bit out of the distinction but this is in keeping with closing the achievment gap.