2.0 1st grade curriculum: Carbon Dioxide? Yes! Telling time? No!
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Anonymous
Sorry, didn't read completely. Reason given is that texts available aren't CC aligned and this is in reference to HS texts. |
Anonymous
No, that's Erick Lang saying that there aren't any textbooks because there currently aren't any textbooks that are well-aligned to the Common Core standards, and it doesn't make sense to spend a lot of money on textbooks that aren't aligned to the Common Core standards [given that MCPS math instruction is supposed to be aligned to the Common Core standards]. A very different argument from "we can't afford textbooks". |
Anonymous
Anonymous
In fairness, MCPS is correct to not buy a book just because CC is slapped on the cover and they are saying that is essentially what's going on with current batch of books. However CC is not that radically different, to say the old Algebra text should be abandoned because it's not CC when there is no viable alternative is foolish. According to one PP, not all schools have done this but my DCs classes and it has made things more difficult than they should be. |
Anonymous
No, they shouldn't but they can also have them made specifically for them. Sadler has state specific books if you look at the link and MCPS could find a company to tweet a book to make it fit their needs. Common Core is in many states. There are books. I don't get how copying worksheets is any cheaper between the time, machine (which then needs repaired all the time) and paper. We are at a small private who charges us a book fee and only gives us xerox copies. It really annoys me as the copies are hard to read. I did buy some of the books off amazon that they use to make it easier. My child can follow a workbook or textbook much better than the random worksheets. I don't find it that different, but maybe it is in the higher grades. For some things, the presentation works well for my child. I don't care what a school or system uses but pick one and give the kids and parents the tools to follow along and be successful. I am more than happy to buy the books my child needs (assuming the school or system buys for low income/those who cannot afford). |
Anonymous
| I think the textbook hang-up so many people have is because that it wasn't how they learned so they think it is intuitively wrong. People don't like change. Kids today grow up without textbooks and access to computers so they don't know anything else. Objectively look at what your child is learning and see if they are improving. If they are not that is your problem. All the textbooks in the world won't solve that problem. |
Anonymous
This is the most ridiculous thing that I have heard. We are not in the times of the "Little House on the Prairie", where we have a single teacher and kids of all ages and abilities are lumped together! In all countries there are textbooks for each subject and each grade, prescribed for the entire school district. It ensures two things - first of all, everyone gets the same curriculum, resource and education AND secondly, students can always practise or go back to content that they have not understood or need more help with. I am surprised that when people clamour to close the achievement gap, they do not demand that textbooks should be prescribed and made available. Do you think that children who are studying, being enriched and tutored outside of school are doing it without any textbook or material? I use the old algebra books that was being used a few years back. Math has not changed - even if curriculum 2.0 would want us to believe it has. My child is in the Math magnet program and we still use the textbooks. |
Anonymous
+1 Geometry texts have existed for 2000 years, but my child happens to have been born into the first class that doesn't need one...please! I am not complaining because this isn't what I did. I am complaining because I see my DC is having a harder time organizing materials, chasing down definitions, and grasping the big picture than I did, because, no book. I know there's Kahn Academy. Have you used it? It's a guy reading math books with a pencil in his hand. Guess how I learned math, I read a text book while working through the sample problems. If this extra layer motivates some students, fine, but how is it revolutionary, how does it prove books obsolete? Yes, there are also computer generated sample problems, but they really aren't any richer than sample problems in a text (some are inane). Anyway, I'm skeptical, in my experience the thing that most hinders learning math is not picking up a pencil. Playing videos and clicking boxes are just baby steps toward internalizing concepts. If this isn't everyone's learning style, fine, but I'm certain it still works for some percentage of students. |
Anonymous
Little House on the Prairie. Love that and plan on using it! Just wait until that contingent of wireless nutjobs that have taken over the Montgomery County PTA Health and Wellness committee start spewing their nonsense and costing MCPS even more money with their hysteria. We won't even have chromebooks, or the funds to pay books. |
Anonymous
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OP, if you want your child to learn how to tell time without having to wait until the second grade, teach your child yourself...now. If you feel that your child is not getting enough from the current curriculum, then spend some time teaching your child. I'm a parent of a kindergartener, and I do supplement my child's learning because I do not put all the responsibility of tracking my child's academic abilities to the school, I track these myself. Doing so allows me to communicate effectively with my child's teacher about my child's need for extra support in certain areas.
If MCPS indeed took out spelling and cursive writing from their curriculum, then I don't have any problem teaching these to my child myself. I am not a teacher; however, I am willing and able to share my knowledge to my child. |
Anonymous
+1 I volunteer often and see the same thing. It is sad that these struggling kids just give up after watching peers move faster than them. |
Anonymous
My child does better with visuals and learns better reading than hearing/taught. So, for him, a combination is important. We supplement at home. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
+1 Not only do these struggling kids need a tracking class to themselves, but they need a lower ratio than their peers and a support of a full time aide. This needs to start immediately in K. They need written material in multiple languages that these kids can bring home and practice. Not only to help the kids but to help the parents learn what their kids are learning to better help them. By the time the kids are coming to parents for help, some parents have no idea what to do. Trying to get kids to pass their parents education by upper elementary school is tough. By the time they hit middle school there is no one to help them. Heck, I even had to Google mean, median, mode to make sure I remembered which one was which. Most kids getting good grades in MCPS are parent or tutor led and not teacher led. The struggling kids need more help early and quickly. They don't get it in combined classes watching peers excel 1-2 grade levels past them. And many also get pulled out for ESOL and they lose more ground missing material that was taught when they were gone. The system makes no sense. It encourages a huge achievement gap. |
Anonymous
| ^ those are all great things, but people are complaining already about huge class sizes, lack of more magnets, etc... to address those things cost more $. If we want all these great things, we need to increase taxes. |