Writing in elementary school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They need a standard curriculum to keep kids off google slides and youtube. Its so easy now for the worst teachers.

I am really concerned about this. There is research showing that people need to write things by hand to truly encode the information. And I would bet that research shows we learn better from interacting with a teacher in person than a YouTube video. Don't we basically have proof of all this given how behind kids are after virtual learning? Yet teachers persist in using this stuff. All of this technology is fine for adult brains that are finished developing and don't need to learn the basics. What are we doing to our children? They don't deserve this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need a standard curriculum to keep kids off google slides and youtube. Its so easy now for the worst teachers.

I am really concerned about this. There is research showing that people need to write things by hand to truly encode the information. And I would bet that research shows we learn better from interacting with a teacher in person than a YouTube video. Don't we basically have proof of all this given how behind kids are after virtual learning? Yet teachers persist in using this stuff. All of this technology is fine for adult brains that are finished developing and don't need to learn the basics. What are we doing to our children? They don't deserve this.

Teacher here- home sick. A good teacher will balance technology use. Tech has a purpose but kids should not be sitting in front of a computer all day. I went back to Pre Covid tech use. I think many teachers are burnt out and are trying to survive the year. Some teachers are doing the bare minimum and others are working their butts off. It would be interesting to see internet usage per school on a given day.

[Anonymous]

I get the internet usage report every week so I know my child is being truthful-the entire day is spent on the laptop

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They need a standard curriculum to keep kids off google slides and youtube. Its so easy now for the worst teachers.

I actually totally disagree. I think the standard curriculum being given to teachers (at least what I've seen at the 2 FCPS ES's my kid has attended) makes things worse. Every class has to do the same thing every week, no matter whether they learned things or not. Because the teacher has to follow the curriculum handed to them. My daughter just had one week of multiplication followed by division this week. We've been working nightly at home on her memorizing the multiplication table because they just didn't have time to do it at school. I trust teachers actually know how to teach and what they're being asked to do by the administration, at least in my opinion, doesn't really lend itself to helping early ES kids actually master the material. Sure, they're introduced to concepts. But are they really mastering it? I just don't know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need a standard curriculum to keep kids off google slides and youtube. Its so easy now for the worst teachers.

I actually totally disagree. I think the standard curriculum being given to teachers (at least what I've seen at the 2 FCPS ES's my kid has attended) makes things worse. Every class has to do the same thing every week, no matter whether they learned things or not. Because the teacher has to follow the curriculum handed to them. My daughter just had one week of multiplication followed by division this week. We've been working nightly at home on her memorizing the multiplication table because they just didn't have time to do it at school. I trust teachers actually know how to teach and what they're being asked to do by the administration, at least in my opinion, doesn't really lend itself to helping early ES kids actually master the material. Sure, they're introduced to concepts. But are they really mastering it? I just don't know.

I'm the PP and want to clarify. I do agree with PPer's belief that we need to keep kids off of Google slides and YouTube instructional videos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I get the internet usage report every week so I know my child is being truthful-the entire day is spent on the laptop

Teacher who posted earlier. This is wrong on every level. I am sorry. Hopefully your child will get a better teacher who uses a healthy amount of tech next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't even understand what they are *doing* at school all day. My 6th grader seems to spend a ton of time "free reading".

So parents need to teach:
memorization of multiplication facts and how to do math the "regular" way
handwriting
cursive
all aspects of grammar
all aspects of writing

What is happening at school all day?

At least in APS I know that they are teaching kids what a caption is, how to find the meaning of words in context, what a table of contents is, and how to find the main idea.

So my kid got to sixth grade iffy on her times tables, but by golly after weeks worth of lessons she knows what a caption is!

Do you know why they drill this topic? It's on state testing. Text features ad nauseum.

[Anonymous]

How do we push for changes? So much time and focus is spent on things like portrait of a graduate but so little focus on the things I send them to school to learn - writing and math! I’ve asked the teacher about things like spelling words and it doesn’t seem like they have much say in it. Who does? The principal? School Board?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, new poster here, my FCPS third-grader does have awful penmanship. That being said, her language arts units are fine. She's learning to decipher and discuss quality poetry. Do I wish her writing skills were stronger? Yes. And I will help with that at home. But the whole point of literature? FCPS is getting that. I'm pretty sure the amazing Catholic schools you are all extolling for their writing programs aren't doing Socratic Seminars exploring poetry by Rumi and Tupac, so calm down. Every school does some things better than others, and it is up to parents what they value most.

Please stop telling other parents to "calm down" when they express concerns about what their kids are being taught. It's extremely condescending. Happy for you that your 3rd grader is doing well in language arts at her school. My 3rd grader isn't doing as well for a variety of reasons, which is why we hired a tutor. But I remain concerned that overall, the ES language arts curriculum in FCPS is leaving a lot of kids behind and unprepared for junior and high school. And I have no confidence that this will change, given the administration's focus on other things.

I’m the PP, and you are right, I shouldn’t tell people to “calm down,” it’s condescending, and I’m sorry. I just get irritated when I hear how “great” the religious schools are in these areas, because I went to one myself and it sucked but always made itself out to be some elite prep school or something. My child’s LA experience has been good this year. But I DO agree with some Of the other posters that the Google slide crap has to go and that the kids are rarely corrected when it comes to mistakes with spelling and grammar, which is extremely problematic. I wish more was done with pen and paper.

[Anonymous]

Lots of good comments on this thread. Our school is not teaching phonics, spelling, grammar, writing, memorizing math facts, etc. this is expected of the parent. The teachers introduce topics from the pacing guide but students are not mastering it. Many topics are not even taught or drummed into their heads, such as how to turn singular words to plural, irregular verbs, parts of speech, penmenship, etc. Some of this is due to the ill performing Lucy Calkin focus, other is bc the teachers are just teaching to the SOL test topics and not for a broad topical mastering. No organized, vetted and well thoughout textbooks are utilized, rather random cobbled together worksheets are pulled off the web per topic in the pacing guide. Students are not allowed time and adequate pen to paper practice until topics are mastered. Topics are not taught in a sequential way. Old Google slides from the pandemic are being utilized. It’s a hodge podge. There are zero textbooks even if your child learns best from reading and referencing sequential material.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do we push for changes? So much time and focus is spent on things like portrait of a graduate but so little focus on the things I send them to school to learn - writing and math! I’ve asked the teacher about things like spelling words and it doesn’t seem like they have much say in it. Who does? The principal? School Board?

Teacher here. Changes need to come from School Board, Gatehouse and State. Teachers agree with parents that a lot if change needs to happen.
Things that should change:
Daily SS/Science Block
Daily Word Study and Grammar Blocks
Cohesive LA/Reading instruction paced out for teachers.
Subject Based AAP offerings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do we push for changes? So much time and focus is spent on things like portrait of a graduate but so little focus on the things I send them to school to learn - writing and math! I’ve asked the teacher about things like spelling words and it doesn’t seem like they have much say in it. Who does? The principal? School Board?

Teacher here. Changes need to come from School Board, Gatehouse and State. Teachers agree with parents that a lot if change needs to happen.
Things that should change:
Daily SS/Science Block
Daily Word Study and Grammar Blocks
Cohesive LA/Reading instruction paced out for teachers.
Subject Based AAP offerings

What changes do you want to the items in bold?

ES Teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do we push for changes? So much time and focus is spent on things like portrait of a graduate but so little focus on the things I send them to school to learn - writing and math! I’ve asked the teacher about things like spelling words and it doesn’t seem like they have much say in it. Who does? The principal? School Board?

Talk to the principal about your concerns and find out who votes on new curriculum. It is so far removed from teachers and admin.

[Anonymous]

As a veteran teacher, I can tell you that it is essential that you put your concerns in writing to the principal and cc the assistant principals. All of the principals I have ever worked for have been very concerned about parent feedback for things like that.

You should also reach out to the language arts elementary instructional team at Gatehiuse, along with your School Board member.

Additionally, you should let your child’s teacher know how you feel about this.

I am horrified by the handwriting I see, and I would have my child be practicing at home.

I was at a school in McLean recently, and saw 5th graders trying to do complicated multiplication on computer screens. I was appalled. They were trying to fill in little boxes with the correct numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do we push for changes? So much time and focus is spent on things like portrait of a graduate but so little focus on the things I send them to school to learn - writing and math! I’ve asked the teacher about things like spelling words and it doesn’t seem like they have much say in it. Who does? The principal? School Board?

Teacher here. Changes need to come from School Board, Gatehouse and State. Teachers agree with parents that a lot if change needs to happen.
Things that should change:
Daily SS/Science Block
Daily Word Study and Grammar Blocks
Cohesive LA/Reading instruction paced out for teachers.
Subject Based AAP offerings

What changes do you want to the items in bold?

ES Teacher

I want a daily separate SS/Science block. Right now we get 40 mins daily shared. It is hard to fit everything in. I would like a daily Word Study/Grammar Block. Some years we have this and others we don’t.