Fairfax County 1st grade curriculum

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It's a legit question, although I will say my son is a minority and has fairly dark skin . One has to wonder.. if there are kids who are behind does that slow down the rest of the class? heck that is the reason that half my neighborhood sends their kids to private school and why everyone on here talks about "the good pyramid" and "bad" schools.

OP, I say this as a former first grade teacher and parent of two college graduates.

I gave almost no homework other than "to read" every night when I was teaching school. Kids who are in school all day need to play when they go home. Period.

My own kids had almost no homework in first grade other than "to read". One was an outstanding student--the other was a good student. Both succeeded in high school and college.

As for drawing on the back of the paper, that is not an unusual option for a child to do when he finished his work. When I taught, I gave the kids several options to do when they finished their work--ranging from reading a book, doing another worksheet, drawing on the back of the paper, etc. When the teacher gives a group assignment, all the kids are not likely to do the paper in the same time frame. There is VALUE in this: learning to work quietly; being respectful of others who are not finished yet; entertaining themselves; etc. Also, the teacher is probably working with small groups during this time and wants the kids to be considerate of her time with other children.

Now, if your son is doing hours of "drawing on the back" that is a problem. Likely, it is only five or ten minutes. That is not unreasonable.

Sounds to me like your son is doing just fine. And, remember, hours of homework is not necessarily a good thing. At least, that is my opinion. Ten minutes of homework used to be the benchmark for first grade. I think that is about right.

Thank you for taking the time to respond. This is very helpful. I really have no idea what I should expect out of a first grader.

i am not necessarily looking for more homework. I was more curious about what I should expect them to be working on at this point in the school year. Sounds like what the are doing is pretty typical.

[Anonymous]

My kid's math at school and math homework over the last two or three weeks at least has involved adding simple numbers up to and including 10. We are in Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid's math at school and math homework over the last two or three weeks at least has involved adding simple numbers up to and including 10. We are in Arlington.

ok so I guess that what my son is working on is typical at this stage of 1st grade. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

1st grade seems easy to us too and we are not at a title 1 school. The teacher wants them to be able to count to 100 by the end of the year. Currently, homework is simple adding using dice images with a suggestion of 10 minutes of reading every evening.

[Anonymous]

There should be no homework.

[Anonymous]

My kids also attended a Title I ES, and they were ahead in reading. The big concern you should have is that even in 1st grade, the teachers are focusing on bringing up the bottom and not on working with kids at the top. It is likely that your child's reading group is very rarely getting time with the teacher, and they're spending a lot more time working independently. It is also likely that your child is being handed a ton of overly easy busywork to keep him occupied while the teacher works with the kids who are below grade level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids also attended a Title I ES, and they were ahead in reading. The big concern you should have is that even in 1st grade, the teachers are focusing on bringing up the bottom and not on working with kids at the top. It is likely that your child's reading group is very rarely getting time with the teacher, and they're spending a lot more time working independently. It is also likely that your child is being handed a ton of overly easy busywork to keep him occupied while the teacher works with the kids who are below grade level.

I taught in a Title I ES and now have a 1st grader attending a non-Title I school. PP is spot on here. Adding single digit numbers is totally appropriate and in the 1st Quarter pacing guide. I wouldn’t worry at all about the HW situation. What you should be asking questions about is how much time your child is getting in a reading group in relation to the rest of the class. Title I schools usually have more math and reading pullout supports for struggling students, but not all teachers are great at providing small groups for students at/above grade level in any school, but especially a Title I where the needs tend to be greater. They also sometimes don’t get as in depth with social studies/science curriculum when there is a large population of ESOL students…science vocabulary is hard when you don’t speak English.

[Anonymous]

We had friends at a Title 1 school and the homework that went home was meant to help the parents who had not completed school learn the material with their kids. The hope was that some of the kids would do the homework and benefit from the repetition but there did not seem to be an expectation that many kids would do the work.

My friends moved after first grade because they realized that their daughter was not going to get a great education at that school. Their daughter is a great kid but not in LIV at her new school, solidly in the good student but not great student who is doing fine camp. K and 1st were not easy for her because they were K and 1st but because her peers were just learning what her parents had taught her at home and what she had been exposed to at pre-school.

There is a reason why middle class parents at Title 1 schools work hard to get their kids into AAP and move them to the Center school. It is not because they dislike the kids at the school but because they realize that their slightly above average kid is getting no attention at their school and things are not going to improve.

[Anonymous]

OP, kindergarten in FCPS is too hard, it's the 1st grade curriculum. Then 1st grade is the first grade curriculum m. Then 2nd grade is catching everyone up so they're ready for 3rd grade and it's a repeat of the 1st grade curriculum.

In 3rd grade, "real" school starts to start and then 4th grade is real school.

[Anonymous]

Your child is gifted.

Is that what you wanted to hear?
Done.

[Anonymous]

The curriculum is posted on the county website. The math for first grade is pretty easy, if you have a kid who is reasonably capable and attended preschool and first grade. Look on the FCPS website under instruction and then hit math and the grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There should be no homework.

Your opinion.

[Anonymous]

Our DC was tremendously bored, because county-wide the academic focus is on bringing up the bottom, not teaching all the students. We left for private, but we were told repeatedly to do whatever it took to get DC into AAP. The mantra we heard over and over from many people was that in FCPS, "AAP is the standard track and GenEd is the slow track".