Give me constructive advice on how to help my middle schooler in English

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:English is about writing, not reading.

Write letters to friends and family. Write poems and stories. Write a journal or diary. Write explanations of how things work. Write a persuasive essay about raising allowance or getting a new phone. Create a quiz about a book.

That is the most moronic, nonsensical thing I've ever heard. The two go hand in hand. You can't write well without being a voracious reader. And people who read, tend to write at the very least decently.

Stay on task. OP was moping about choice of books.

You don't have to read War and Peace in order to exercise analytical skills.

https://books.google.com/books/about/Understanding_Comics.html?id=tUwqbo48lp4C&printsec=frontcover&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&gboemv=1#v=onepage&q&f=false

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Private school is the only solution to this. I say it as a MCPS teacher. DS was in private for MS. He’s a strong writer compared to his non-CAP classmates.

Private recruiting again. Y'all must be way behind on your quotas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Whomever sent the St Albans book list - thanks. Kid1 is reading a book from that list now.

You’re welcome.

Another idea: There used to be something called Junior Great Books and Great Books by the Great Book Foundation. It’s basically like a book club but the selections are shorter. It comes with questions already assigned. It may be possible to set this up as an after-school activity at school. You can find groups on the webpage and it shows a few MCPL libraries but I don’t know how active they are and whether they do the adult version or the youth version. But again, you don’t have to find a group - you can start a group at school maybe.

[Anonymous]

Here’s the link:

https://www.greatbooks.org/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I loathed middle school English, and I was only interested in reading fantasy novels basically until college. But in college, I ended up drawn to humanities classes, majored in English, and read many classics on my own to challenge myself. I am now a strong writer and still read a mixture of literary fiction, poetry, and fantasy novels.

So I don’t know what to suggest, because although I value reading/writing as an adult, I didn’t as a child. And giving me reading lists would not have worked! My only suggestion is to let your kid read fantasy books but maybe provide them with ones that are better written or have more complex plots—e.g., Ursula Leguin, the mirror visitor series by Christelle Dabos, basically fantasy novels by writers who themselves are also well read. But I wouldn’t give kids a hard time for reading lighter stuff either.

Thanks, this is OP. I actually loved fantasy as a kid too and have tried to encourage Ursula leguin, orson Scott card, Tolkien etc etc. They are not interested in these books. My younger kid is reading all the Rick Riordan series which is fine - it's not particularly challenging but she's enjoying it and picking it over TV so that's good. I can't get my older (8th grader) read beyond the bare minimum (assigned for school).

[Anonymous]

Other than MCPS reading lists, what novels have your kids enjoyed outside of MS English class? Do they still read for fun or are they mostly only reading English class novels in MS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Other than MCPS reading lists, what novels have your kids enjoyed outside of MS English class? Do they still read for fun or are they mostly only reading English class novels in MS?

Child dependent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Other than MCPS reading lists, what novels have your kids enjoyed outside of MS English class? Do they still read for fun or are they mostly only reading English class novels in MS?

My kid loves reading and reads lots of middle-grade novels. She does Book Wars and loves it. She also picks up choices at the library.

[Anonymous]

I haven’t had this experience with my kid’s MS English class. The books I’ve seen as his assigned reading are classics (Call of the Wild, Outsiders, the Giver) or short stories by famous authors (Roald Dahl) and he has a ton of homework where he does a lot of writing. I mean, he’s not reading Tolstoy and yeah a chapter every other night can be slow for advances readers but seems like normal middle school English to me-definitely no Hunger Games assigned.

My kid is in the most advanced global humanities and math classes at his MS, but for him, it’s his English class that’s the hardest for him. I was told he has a teacher who is a hard grader and very passionate about making sure kids write properly.

I suspect there’s quite a bit of heterogeneity in how English is taught at MCPS. I’m sure you’ll be able to supplement well to complement the deficiencies in your kid’s class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven’t had this experience with my kid’s MS English class. The books I’ve seen as his assigned reading are classics (Call of the Wild, Outsiders, the Giver) or short stories by famous authors (Roald Dahl) and he has a ton of homework where he does a lot of writing. I mean, he’s not reading Tolstoy and yeah a chapter every other night can be slow for advances readers but seems like normal middle school English to me-definitely no Hunger Games assigned.

My kid is in the most advanced global humanities and math classes at his MS, but for him, it’s his English class that’s the hardest for him. I was told he has a teacher who is a hard grader and very passionate about making sure kids write properly.

I suspect there’s quite a bit of heterogeneity in how English is taught at MCPS. I’m sure you’ll be able to supplement well to complement the deficiencies in your kid’s class.

What MS does your child attend? This has not been our experience at our MCPS MS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven’t had this experience with my kid’s MS English class. The books I’ve seen as his assigned reading are classics (Call of the Wild, Outsiders, the Giver) or short stories by famous authors (Roald Dahl) and he has a ton of homework where he does a lot of writing. I mean, he’s not reading Tolstoy and yeah a chapter every other night can be slow for advances readers but seems like normal middle school English to me-definitely no Hunger Games assigned.

My kid is in the most advanced global humanities and math classes at his MS, but for him, it’s his English class that’s the hardest for him. I was told he has a teacher who is a hard grader and very passionate about making sure kids write properly.

I suspect there’s quite a bit of heterogeneity in how English is taught at MCPS. I’m sure you’ll be able to supplement well to complement the deficiencies in your kid’s class.

What MS does your child attend? This has not been our experience at our MCPS MS.

We’re at one of the BCC feeder MS. If you look at the Unit 2 list below, that’s pretty much my kid’s experience to date. I don’t see Hunger Games or Lightning Thief type pop fiction books on their curriculum lists so not sure where your kids are going to school such that they are having this experience.


https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/district/curriculum/english/middle/grade7/7.2-guide-for-website.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Other than MCPS reading lists, what novels have your kids enjoyed outside of MS English class? Do they still read for fun or are they mostly only reading English class novels in MS?

My kid loves reading and reads lots of middle-grade novels. She does Book Wars and loves it. She also picks up choices at the library.

What's Book Wars?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Other than MCPS reading lists, what novels have your kids enjoyed outside of MS English class? Do they still read for fun or are they mostly only reading English class novels in MS?

My kid loves reading and reads lots of middle-grade novels. She does Book Wars and loves it. She also picks up choices at the library.

What's Book Wars?

It's an after school club at MCPS middle schools. They read a book every-other-week, meet to discuss, and then at the end of the school year have a Jeopardy-style competition with other MPCS middle schools. It's run by the library, and if your kid loves reading, it's a great experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven’t had this experience with my kid’s MS English class. The books I’ve seen as his assigned reading are classics (Call of the Wild, Outsiders, the Giver) or short stories by famous authors (Roald Dahl) and he has a ton of homework where he does a lot of writing. I mean, he’s not reading Tolstoy and yeah a chapter every other night can be slow for advances readers but seems like normal middle school English to me-definitely no Hunger Games assigned.

My kid is in the most advanced global humanities and math classes at his MS, but for him, it’s his English class that’s the hardest for him. I was told he has a teacher who is a hard grader and very passionate about making sure kids write properly.

I suspect there’s quite a bit of heterogeneity in how English is taught at MCPS. I’m sure you’ll be able to supplement well to complement the deficiencies in your kid’s class.

What MS does your child attend? This has not been our experience at our MCPS MS.

We’re at one of the BCC feeder MS. If you look at the Unit 2 list below, that’s pretty much my kid’s experience to date. I don’t see Hunger Games or Lightning Thief type pop fiction books on their curriculum lists so not sure where your kids are going to school such that they are having this experience.


https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/district/curriculum/english/middle/grade7/7.2-guide-for-website.pdf

That is from 2014. Below is the most up to date for general English grade 7. I haven’t found the problem to necessarily be the choice of text but instead, 1) there’s too few chosen, and 2) the critical analysis and writing work that should accompany.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mTpLXR09ROHtRONJLAjZT3DCpRXjA2ZPlEbWm1HL1Os/edit

[Anonymous]

Can anyone recommend a writing tutor/service to enrich and supplement the MCPS MS English curriculum?