I’m confused - why are people developing their own curriculum if the school is assigning work?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
How long has your kid been in FCPS? You are just realizing this now? Don't people actually investigate the school district they choose to buy property in? Geography hasn't been taught in schools in ages. Same with grammar (unless you are an ESOL student). My son's Catholic school actually taught these things plus handwriting. He studied all of the regions of the U.S., had to fill in a blank U.S. map as one of the final assessments. I bet 100% of the people on TV who cannot answer basic geography and history questions went to U.S. public schools. Catholic schools excel at teaching students how to write and that is worth every penny IMO. He used to go to public school and apparently spelling and grammar didn't matter at all. He used to get As by handing in garbage. It was embarrassing. |
Anonymous
My oldest child is 10. And I am not from this country - I am from what Trump call a "shit hole country" and the public education there is terrible terrible terrible. Anyone who can scrape some kind of money send their kids to private schools and within them, there is a range of basic to excellent. I went to a middle range one in terms of quality - I received a very good classical education but there was nothing like clubs, labs, emphasizes on STEM and that stuff. So, when I saw what was offered in PS here, I thought "wow, that is wonderful!" It never occurred to me that the basic stuff like grammar, punctuation, geography, etc was not being taught! |
Anonymous
^^^emphasis* |
Anonymous
This is interesting. My kids were in FCPS elementary until this year. They have definitely had to learn regions of the US - fill in a blank map of the U.S., etc. Why do you think that isn't taught? Vocabulary, spelling, grammar - all still taught. |
Anonymous
How old is your child? Ask your youngest what are the 8 parts of speech please, or even what an adjective is. I am guessing your child is about 12 since he/she just left FCPS... I am curious to see if it is a county wide problem or maybe just a school problem. Thanks. |
Anonymous
|
I read on here because I’m fed up with the education system in this country.
I worked as a substitute and aide in a few of the best public school systems in MA. I also student taught in one. The kids could write well and if they couldn’t then usually there was a reason having to do with a special need or OT. They explicitly taught handwriting, parts of speech, grammar, and spelling. I was in various k-3rd classrooms as an aide and student teacher. I was able to see the teachers teaching and they 100% taught that stuff and it showed in the students’ work. I was shocked when I taught in FCPS last year and my kids were so, so brilliant! But it usually didn’t show through their writing. I was super confused and thought it was just the state. I moved because the districts I was in before are highly competitive to get teaching positions in. I tried to teach a lesson on capitalization because my kids weren’t capitalizing “I.” They weren’t capitalizing names of people or states either. A higher up came in and told me to stick to Writer’s Workshop (Lucy Calkins) and the pacing guide. I felt like capitalizing rules should’ve been on the pacing guide in first grade but it seemed like most were never taught what needs an uppercase letter and what doesn’t. So, I tried to teach them... They also sometimes forgot end punctuation. My two best writers took writing classes outside of school. These two students told me they never learned how to write a paragraph in school. I asked them because most of the kids seemed to have zero idea how to write a paragraph. I get that it’s not necessary to always try to write perfectly. For example, when I comment on here I don’t... But I feel like kids should receive explicit instruction in the areas of handwriting, grammar, and spelling. If they don’t, then they end up as adults who really struggle with writing. This could effect education and employment opportunities (college admissions letter, resume, cover letter, written correspondence at work...). I was also specifically told to NOT correct their errors as it would kill their creativity. Most parents told me their kids went through years of school without their mechanical writing errors ever being corrected. They wanted me to do this and a few asked about spelling. I taught a spelling curriculum when I student taught and the kids in those schools I was in LOvED playing the game “sparkle” to practice before spelling tests. However, I wasn’t going to spend money on a spelling curriculum and I don’t think I would’ve been allowed to do that anyway. I kept being told spelling isn’t important anymore because of spellcheck (it doesn’t catch every error...). Lucy Calkins seems to be the demon who started to spread the misinformation that spelling and grammar don’t matter at all. She just wants kids pouring out their souls on paper, even if their teacher struggles to understand what they’ve even written (shouldn’t have this often with 4th graders). In the suburbs of Boston where I spent years in other teachers’ classrooms, I saw younger kids write better and they were still creative. Fast forward to this year and I’m teaching in an “above average” district in MA. Same grade. The writing is SO bad!!! It makes me sad. I’m talking about kids not using any end punctuation. One wrote a whole paragraph with zero end punctuation. It seems like they’ve never had spelling and probably never explicit phonics instruction either. So, I started to wonder why the schools I was in before had such great writers compared to the two schools I’ve been able to teach in. Surely I couldn’t blame Virginia anymore (my apologize!). What I’ve realized is the school I was at last year used Lucy Calkins for reading and writing workshops and so does the school I’m at now!! I started to look into it more and it seems like a pretty popular opinion that her curriculum is utter and pure sh*t. Every school I’ve ever been in was mostly middle/upper middle class or high SES. I have zero ELL students this year. Where I student taught they still did readings from an anthology where each kid took a turn reading a paragraph and then they answered comprehension questions. They used Wordly Wise. They had a spelling curriculum with weekly tests. They did reading groups where each group of students got together to read the same book, discuss it, and the teacher would ask comprehension questions. They were required to write at least three paragraphs because they were third grade. They did dictation. They had handwriting workbooks for cursive. I also tutored in the same area and most kids would come in with spelling homework. It seems like just south of Boston they still teach that stuff. I surely learned all that. I recently found some work from when I was in fourth grade and it was clear that I was taught such things. This post is rambling on and probably not making much sense. Lucy Calkins would be happy to see me express my thoughts and feelings at the expense of the reader being able to comprehend what I’m trying to say though. Ha! But seriously, not every school lets teachers choose what curriculum they use. If you are told to teach 100% Lucy and not correct errors like Lucy encourages enough times, then you just stop because why would you want to be let go for teaching kids writing mechanics? I didn’t want that. I’ve decided I won’t teach after this year though because I can’t stand how the system 100% leaves kids behind. You can be so knowledgeable, but if no one ever teaches you how to actually read or write well, then you may get passed through year after year and end up as an adult with those struggles. It makes me blood BOIL. I’ve talked to admin and coworkers about it though and they just don’t seem to care. They think I complain and need to chill. When I see how many fourth graders don’t understand something as basic as the fact that a sentence starts with a capital letter and needs end punctuation, well it makes me really upset as to why they were never taught that. I don’t blame their former teachers. I blame the admin choosing crappy curriculum and making teachers use it. I’m sure many people on here will think I’m a complaining psycho... I know ten year olds struggling with reading and writing isn’t the end of the world because there’s time to improve before they’re adults .... but the problem is that it seems like they’re passed from grade to grade without ever being taught things that kids in other districts with better curriculum do learn at school. But I’m not allowed to do spelling tests, teach grammar, or circle errors in Lucy Calkins schools unless I do it on the down low apparently since Lucy doesn’t really care about that stuff too much. Most kids need instruction that’s way more explicit to understand such things and Lucy barely brushes on that stuff. And I agree, maybe I’m just really not good at teaching. I try my best to teach what the school wants me to teach though. If you stray from that you can get yourself in trouble. Here’s some interesting articles on Lucy Calkins that I’ve recently read. I’m sure many of you reading this love her, but I just can’t believe schools actually want teachers doing ELA this way honestly. When I compare the writing I’ve seen in schools that use Lucy to schools that don’t, it’s night and day. Kids obviously learn in different ways, but I feel like most need that explicit instruction to truly understand the importance of writing mechanics. Last year my students said they never learned handwriting at school. It doesn’t look like my current students have either. It honestly breaks my heart. Maybe that sounds dramatic, but they’re in fourth grade and many can’t figure out how to write a sentence properly (as in they making sure it starts with a capital letter and had end punctuation). I’m not sure how having them independently read during reading workshop helps me learn much about their comprehension if I haven’t read every book they have. I’ve been told “don’t round robin read!” The school where I student taught and subbed still did that and I don’t think it harmed them at all, but I’m new to education so what do I know? I just feel like where every schools is so different, it’s really failing kids. It makes me sad and angry. I HATE how I’ve been told to teach writing this year and last. It’s nothing like I saw teachers doing when I was in schools before. 
https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2016/04/why-many-college-students-never-learn-how-to-write-sentences/ https://www.greenwichtime.com/opinion/article/Opinion-Greenwich-s-failing-literacy-curriculum-15089194.php https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/56629/how-families-are-pushing-schools-to-teach-reading-skills-more-effectively https://christinecalabrese.com/the-business-of-writing-an-analysis-of-writing-instruction-in-america/?fbclid=IwAR3R2cQOrFERJWw94cHoJv1bYo1KnHVatsA6U57qy32DZaPYQXjnBrFiLOA https://mobile.edweek.org/c.jsp?cid=25920011&item=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.edweek.org%2Fv1%2Fblog%2F83%2Findex.html%3Fuuid%3D80050 On a phone and not even going to try to edit my own writing on this screen before I hit “submit.” Judge as you wish! 
|
Anonymous
| My child attends a Spanish immersion school and can read in English and Spanish. She is in K and the instruction is entirely in Spanish. During reading instruction, they review letters and syllables, which she already mastered. In math, they review numbers to 10. She does basic addition and subtraction equations. In a normal class setting I wouldn't mind he sitting through the basic material in whole group instruction because I assume she would receive small group instruction at her level (not happening in DL). She wants to continue to read and learn so I will support that. |
Anonymous
As a fellow edu-crank, I encourage you to find another district or private school, or look into tutoring. There are still places bucking Calkins, and similar trendy curricula. Here's one more link, on Calkins's reading program, which is even worse than her writing: https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2020/01/27/lucy-calkins-reading-materials-review |
Anonymous
Do your kid won’t do busy work once he gets back to school either? |
Anonymous
You weren’t bamboozled. You just moved into a nice area because you heard it had “good” schools. That’s your fault for not doing your homework. |
Anonymous
| My kids go to a parochial and I've been really happy with the basic principles being taught. There are few extra curriculars. But my kids can read, write a basic essay, and do math. |
Anonymous
New-ish P, but while I knew there were problems, and had planned to supplement, I hadn't realized the extent to which primary education had collapsed. There really are things that hard to get a feel for until your kid is actually in a school, things I wouldn't have even known to ask about. For example -- I was assuming the math curriculum would be terrible and lined up resources to supplement even before the kid started K, but I didn't realize there wouldn't even be a math curriculum beyond edutainment games and bootleg teachers-pay-teachers worksheets. |
Anonymous
| ... because it's bad? because now parents can see how and what their kids are really learning? because there is no substitute for in-person education? because apparently children today don't use textbooks? because zoom PE is BS? because all these blocks of "unstructured learning time" are crap? because the grift is up? because kids arent supposed to sit in front of a screen for hours on end, day after day? |
Anonymous
well, now they're worried that if DL fails now (which it is and will continue to do), then their offspring won't just get into a mediocre college, but that their children might be condemned to a bleak future of virtual distance learning without any in-person experiences. in-person experiences - travel, education, culture, networking, careers - will be reserved for the very wealthy. everyone else might just have to suck it up and take another virtual tour of the museum, or continue DL throughout their secondary educations. the middle class will struggle to keep up and will eventually fall into the lower classes. the rich will always get richer; the middle class is going to bottom out. and the poors? well, who cares about the poors anyway. if you think socio-economic inequality is bad now, just wait and see how much worse it will be in 10-20 years. the kids doing all DL from home with no supplemental materials or one-on-one instruction will fall behind; they will lose three years of instruction in 18 months. they won't be worried about getting into a good college - they will be worried about being able to get into a college, any college - with in-person classes. |
Anonymous
Thanks! But my tolerance for BS is way too low. I’m just over this system. I’m online teaching this year (have to go to the school though). It’s not for my own health and I’d work in person if I could, but this was the opportunity I was presented with. 45% of my class has an IEP or 504. The district I’m in this year allows families to choose hybrid or year long remote. They come from three different schools, so I have SPED teachers pulling kids into their meetings with Go Guardian all day long. And these schools all use different schedules. The kids leave and come back and ask “what are we doing?” Which isn’t their fault, but I’m explaining things over and over all day... and sometimes they come back from working with another teacher late and there’s no point in explaining what they missed so I let them take a 3 minute break (or however much time is left). So far I’ve been told by parents that I give a good balance of screen breaks on on screen work. They’ve called me patient. My admin has observed a few times and I don’t even notice they’re in my meet... but they told me I really have a way with the kids, am patient, and the kids are “just eating you up.” So that seems good... but one parent complained. I’ve had to attend IEP and 504 meetings. This one took up my entire planning and lunch time. The mom was mad because I was subtly trying to remind her that there are a bunch of kids in the class and many on IEPs. Her child’s writing really isn’t bad compared to most of the kids in class. Her child went to another school in a different district last year. I assume that district didn’t use Lucy Calkins. But most of my students have only had Lucy curriculum. I can hardly read their handwriting and some are writing an entire paragraph without using one period... this is fourth grade. So I said something stupid to this mom about how I didn’t feel like her writing was that concerning but maybe it was because my class seems to have a lot of struggling writers. And she didn’t like how I had to interrupt with three minutes of lunch left to say the kids were coming back in three and I had to use the bathroom... like sorry lady but I have a ton of kids on IEPs that seem to mostly be for writing (surprise, surprise in Lucy Calkins times). And I have kids who don’t have an IEP or 504 but seem super needy (ask way too many questions). And some without plans that are worse at writing than her daughter. I get that parent’s focus on just their child for obvious reasons, but in my other meetings they weren’t listing a million things they wanted me to do (not a SPED teacher) for ONE kid in my class of over 20... I was warned that if she feels I’m not accommodating her child then she could “lawyer up.” Like give me a break... the kid seriously seems to be doing fine in my eyes. I get why IEPs exist but a lot of teachers (including myself) think they’re handing out way too easily. Kid on an IEP does something inappropriate? Can’t get them in too much trouble because of that document. Sometimes I feel like parents think the IEP means “the teacher will give my child extra attention and basically parent my child because I don’t want to.” Like I’m sorry but it’s hard for me to remember like 20 accommodations listed for like 45% of my class. I will probably do something “wrong” and piss this woman off again. Her child isn’t the most struggling one in the class like she seemed to believe. I tried another district this year after teaching in FCPS last. I’m not going to try another ever again. The system is broken and in too many ways. If you voice that opinion you’re usually met with angry admin, angry coworkers, and angry parents saying “well just quit!” And who will replace me? Possibly someone who sees nothing wrong with Lucy Calkins in this messed up system. Enjoy! Also, the school I’m at used Envision Math. But their online component expired and they didn’t want to pay a lot to renew it. So they gave us virtual teachers the boxes of old paper materials. We also were not give document cameras (we were all hired as one year only- one per grade). So I can’t play the animated lesson like the book wants. And it would be way easier if the kids could log into Savas (or whatever it’s called now) and do the virtual practice). The way I’ve been trying isn’t working well. Another teacher shared a TPT resource so I tried that yesterday. The resource including a video made by the TPT seller. Slide one was an example. We were rounding on a number line. The example told us that the closest tens to 307 were 290 and 310... eh, what about 300? That’s a ten too lady... and in the video she read 1,250 as “two thousand five hundred.” I pointed the mistakes out to the kids. This is what happens when college doesn’t make us take an instructional design course and most teachers don’t know how to make digital everything... but the school doesn’t give us much to work with so we turn to TPT. The system is F*c*ed!!! I’m mad about it but last year I learned opening my mouth doesn’t matter. No one else really actually seems to care. It’s sad. https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/j2sszi/accommodations_are_getting_completely_out_of_hand/ Thoughts from some teachers on how there’s too many accommodations being handed out. This reminded me that that pissed off mom was saying her daughter needed help organizing and I said something like “well the google classroom is organized how it is. I tell them what to find before we start each subject. For example, if I want them to get their writing notebook and a pencil I show that on the screen with a two minute timer and a picture of it. But I’m not in her home so I’m not really sure how I could help her organize that?” I genuinely didn’t get it. But yeah let’s just pretend all these families that chose yearlong virtual can’t help their kid at all... sure some work, but they all have an adult home. Help her organize after work maybe? I’m literally not present in your home to do that. Sorry! And the kid appears to be able to find everything she needs... I didn’t get it. When my admin told me about this woman complaining I said this whole this has unrealistic expectations. Having a virtual inclusion class with a million kids getting pulled all the time and no document camera and me trying to make materials. And she agreed and said it’s inhumane for some of these parents to choose virtual. The IEPs aren’t for things that make the kid high risk. I have one kid with asthma but he doesn’t have an IEP. The system tells me if there’s a medical alert. But maybe they live with high risk people. I don’t know. But since these kids are still going on weekend getaways and missing a day of school, and the parents are going to work, I have zero clue why they chose virtual at all. But it’s their right. I told my admin she can find someone else if she wants. I really don’t care about that at this point. Nothing about this is realistic. |