Honors English 9A, MP1: What is your child reading?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach 9th grade honors english at a HS. Half my classes are reading The Magic Fish. The other half All American Boys

Is this just because there are too few copies of the book for every student to get the same one?

It may be due to English Learners in their class. If you are just learning English, the Magic Fish would be appropriate. All American Boy isn't honors reading level. Consider that this teacher has to divide their time between two student cohorts in one class.

Do tell - what makes AAB not an honors reading level book? Because it's contemporary and focuses on police brutality against African Americans? Seems pretty finger on the pulse of the nation to me. But I'd love to hear your opinion, PP. Do tell.

DP. Its lexile is 770HL -- high interest book for struggling readers who are below grade level. The 9th grade fall median Lexile level is 1195L. It's not even at grade level -- let alone at honors.

To me, it sounds like AAB would be a good pick for on level. For honors, combine it with something more challenging on a related theme — Beloved, invisible Man, even something like a day in the life of Ivan denisovich (which I read on 9th grade in the 80s) if you want to take about misuse of government power. There’s just so, so much missed opportunity with this supposedly honors curriculum. This is the perfect age to read all sorts of stuff — once you are in college and have a full time job it’s so much harder, especially if you haven’t developed the habit. It’s just such a shame.

We supplement AAB with plenty of other texts, including, but not limited to: Harrison Bergeron, non-fiction articles on police brutality, Brent Staples' essay "Just Walk on By: Black Men in Public Space", and Clint Smith's poem "Playground Elegy."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach 9th grade honors english at a HS. Half my classes are reading The Magic Fish. The other half All American Boys

Is this just because there are too few copies of the book for every student to get the same one?

It may be due to English Learners in their class. If you are just learning English, the Magic Fish would be appropriate. All American Boy isn't honors reading level. Consider that this teacher has to divide their time between two student cohorts in one class.

Do tell - what makes AAB not an honors reading level book? Because it's contemporary and focuses on police brutality against African Americans? Seems pretty finger on the pulse of the nation to me. But I'd love to hear your opinion, PP. Do tell.

DP. Its lexile is 770HL -- high interest book for struggling readers who are below grade level. The 9th grade fall median Lexile level is 1195L. It's not even at grade level -- let alone at honors.

To me, it sounds like AAB would be a good pick for on level. For honors, combine it with something more challenging on a related theme — Beloved, invisible Man, even something like a day in the life of Ivan denisovich (which I read on 9th grade in the 80s) if you want to take about misuse of government power. There’s just so, so much missed opportunity with this supposedly honors curriculum. This is the perfect age to read all sorts of stuff — once you are in college and have a full time job it’s so much harder, especially if you haven’t developed the habit. It’s just such a shame.

Social Studies class is great place to investigate government issues using easily accessible simplistic writing, to enable social studies learning in student with weak literacy. And MCPS does this

English class needs to focus on language development composition, skills, and literatary criticism and creation skills.

Yeah. We do that. The writing assignment for All American Boys asks them to write a story from the point of view of another character in the book, so we spend a lot of time talking about style and writer intention/reader impact. I think y'all get on here and complain just for the sake of complaining. And there's this term - hang with me now - called interdisciplinary studies. It's the idea that being able to read critically and write analytically is as important in non-ELA classes as is learning about history in an ELA class!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All American Boys
But they will also be reading Of Mice and Men

Of Mice & Men is a choice in MP2. And it's super short. Why couldn't they read both of these in MP1?

Totally agree. My HS English class in 1986 probably read twice as many books. I remember we read Great Expectations, catcher in the rye, Frankenstein, a Shakespeare play, the Iliad, and I’m sure there were a couple more I’m forgetting now (maybe Huck Finn?) And I went to public school in a random state so I feel like it’s achievable for McPS.

Sorry to those of you who don't know this, but...these kids DO NOT READ! The vast majority of them, including your precious IB Magnet students, are not doing the reading. They are overwhelmed and/or do not have the stamina to read books the way you think they can.

I teach 9th grade right now. I've also taught AP Lang in the past. Their reading stamina, as previously stated, is in the garbage and has been for some time. I struggle to get them to retain information when we read books together, in class, using an audio book. It takes insane amounts of contextualization to get them to understand any text, so I've come to learn if it's going to to be challenging for them, it better be interesting too.

This year, we will do All American Boys (in Q1 - mind you, we have had significantly fewer instructional days this quarter because of various interruptions and non-instructional days), MARCH Book 3 in Quarter 2, Flowers for Algernon in Quarter 2, A Raisin in the Sun in Quarter 3, The Poet X in Quarter 4, and probably a literature circle book somewhere in there.

For anyone complaining that their kid isn't reading enough or isn't reading any "classics" - get a library card! No one is stopping you! As a matter of fact, it would be great if you and your kid read those "classics" together, and then they can have a discussion with you about the differences between those "classics" and the books they're reading in class

Can you explain what you mean by "no reading stamina"? Like, how much should they be able to read? My 9 year old reads for 30 minutes or so in a row voluntarily most days, is that not enough? How do you build reading stamina and how much of it do they need by high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All American Boys
But they will also be reading Of Mice and Men

Of Mice & Men is a choice in MP2. And it's super short. Why couldn't they read both of these in MP1?

Totally agree. My HS English class in 1986 probably read twice as many books. I remember we read Great Expectations, catcher in the rye, Frankenstein, a Shakespeare play, the Iliad, and I’m sure there were a couple more I’m forgetting now (maybe Huck Finn?) And I went to public school in a random state so I feel like it’s achievable for McPS.

Sorry to those of you who don't know this, but...these kids DO NOT READ! The vast majority of them, including your precious IB Magnet students, are not doing the reading. They are overwhelmed and/or do not have the stamina to read books the way you think they can.

I teach 9th grade right now. I've also taught AP Lang in the past. Their reading stamina, as previously stated, is in the garbage and has been for some time. I struggle to get them to retain information when we read books together, in class, using an audio book. It takes insane amounts of contextualization to get them to understand any text, so I've come to learn if it's going to to be challenging for them, it better be interesting too.

This year, we will do All American Boys (in Q1 - mind you, we have had significantly fewer instructional days this quarter because of various interruptions and non-instructional days), MARCH Book 3 in Quarter 2, Flowers for Algernon in Quarter 2, A Raisin in the Sun in Quarter 3, The Poet X in Quarter 4, and probably a literature circle book somewhere in there.

For anyone complaining that their kid isn't reading enough or isn't reading any "classics" - get a library card! No one is stopping you! As a matter of fact, it would be great if you and your kid read those "classics" together, and then they can have a discussion with you about the differences between those "classics" and the books they're reading in class

Can you explain what you mean by "no reading stamina"? Like, how much should they be able to read? My 9 year old reads for 30 minutes or so in a row voluntarily most days, is that not enough? How do you build reading stamina and how much of it do they need by high school?

My 9th graders are struggling to read 5 pages in a 45 minute class period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All American Boys
But they will also be reading Of Mice and Men

Of Mice & Men is a choice in MP2. And it's super short. Why couldn't they read both of these in MP1?

Totally agree. My HS English class in 1986 probably read twice as many books. I remember we read Great Expectations, catcher in the rye, Frankenstein, a Shakespeare play, the Iliad, and I’m sure there were a couple more I’m forgetting now (maybe Huck Finn?) And I went to public school in a random state so I feel like it’s achievable for McPS.

Sorry to those of you who don't know this, but...these kids DO NOT READ! The vast majority of them, including your precious IB Magnet students, are not doing the reading. They are overwhelmed and/or do not have the stamina to read books the way you think they can.

I teach 9th grade right now. I've also taught AP Lang in the past. Their reading stamina, as previously stated, is in the garbage and has been for some time. I struggle to get them to retain information when we read books together, in class, using an audio book. It takes insane amounts of contextualization to get them to understand any text, so I've come to learn if it's going to to be challenging for them, it better be interesting too.

This year, we will do All American Boys (in Q1 - mind you, we have had significantly fewer instructional days this quarter because of various interruptions and non-instructional days), MARCH Book 3 in Quarter 2, Flowers for Algernon in Quarter 2, A Raisin in the Sun in Quarter 3, The Poet X in Quarter 4, and probably a literature circle book somewhere in there.

For anyone complaining that their kid isn't reading enough or isn't reading any "classics" - get a library card! No one is stopping you! As a matter of fact, it would be great if you and your kid read those "classics" together, and then they can have a discussion with you about the differences between those "classics" and the books they're reading in class

Can you explain what you mean by "no reading stamina"? Like, how much should they be able to read? My 9 year old reads for 30 minutes or so in a row voluntarily most days, is that not enough? How do you build reading stamina and how much of it do they need by high school?

My 9th graders are struggling to read 5 pages in a 45 minute class period.

Then they certainly shouldn’t be in Honors English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All American Boys
But they will also be reading Of Mice and Men

Of Mice & Men is a choice in MP2. And it's super short. Why couldn't they read both of these in MP1?

Totally agree. My HS English class in 1986 probably read twice as many books. I remember we read Great Expectations, catcher in the rye, Frankenstein, a Shakespeare play, the Iliad, and I’m sure there were a couple more I’m forgetting now (maybe Huck Finn?) And I went to public school in a random state so I feel like it’s achievable for McPS.

Sorry to those of you who don't know this, but...these kids DO NOT READ! The vast majority of them, including your precious IB Magnet students, are not doing the reading. They are overwhelmed and/or do not have the stamina to read books the way you think they can.

I teach 9th grade right now. I've also taught AP Lang in the past. Their reading stamina, as previously stated, is in the garbage and has been for some time. I struggle to get them to retain information when we read books together, in class, using an audio book. It takes insane amounts of contextualization to get them to understand any text, so I've come to learn if it's going to to be challenging for them, it better be interesting too.

This year, we will do All American Boys (in Q1 - mind you, we have had significantly fewer instructional days this quarter because of various interruptions and non-instructional days), MARCH Book 3 in Quarter 2, Flowers for Algernon in Quarter 2, A Raisin in the Sun in Quarter 3, The Poet X in Quarter 4, and probably a literature circle book somewhere in there.

For anyone complaining that their kid isn't reading enough or isn't reading any "classics" - get a library card! No one is stopping you! As a matter of fact, it would be great if you and your kid read those "classics" together, and then they can have a discussion with you about the differences between those "classics" and the books they're reading in class

Can you explain what you mean by "no reading stamina"? Like, how much should they be able to read? My 9 year old reads for 30 minutes or so in a row voluntarily most days, is that not enough? How do you build reading stamina and how much of it do they need by high school?

My 9th graders are struggling to read 5 pages in a 45 minute class period.

Then they certainly shouldn’t be in Honors English.

It’s most if not all of them. They have TikTok brain. They live their lives in life 5 intervals and you can see the physical signs of withdrawls from stimulation such as videos and music. They are all extremely fidgety, on edge, and ask what the time is every 3-4 minutes.

[Anonymous]

* 5 minute intervals

Left out a word while on my phone

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All American Boys
But they will also be reading Of Mice and Men

Of Mice & Men is a choice in MP2. And it's super short. Why couldn't they read both of these in MP1?

Totally agree. My HS English class in 1986 probably read twice as many books. I remember we read Great Expectations, catcher in the rye, Frankenstein, a Shakespeare play, the Iliad, and I’m sure there were a couple more I’m forgetting now (maybe Huck Finn?) And I went to public school in a random state so I feel like it’s achievable for McPS.

Sorry to those of you who don't know this, but...these kids DO NOT READ! The vast majority of them, including your precious IB Magnet students, are not doing the reading. They are overwhelmed and/or do not have the stamina to read books the way you think they can.

I teach 9th grade right now. I've also taught AP Lang in the past. Their reading stamina, as previously stated, is in the garbage and has been for some time. I struggle to get them to retain information when we read books together, in class, using an audio book. It takes insane amounts of contextualization to get them to understand any text, so I've come to learn if it's going to to be challenging for them, it better be interesting too.

This year, we will do All American Boys (in Q1 - mind you, we have had significantly fewer instructional days this quarter because of various interruptions and non-instructional days), MARCH Book 3 in Quarter 2, Flowers for Algernon in Quarter 2, A Raisin in the Sun in Quarter 3, The Poet X in Quarter 4, and probably a literature circle book somewhere in there.

For anyone complaining that their kid isn't reading enough or isn't reading any "classics" - get a library card! No one is stopping you! As a matter of fact, it would be great if you and your kid read those "classics" together, and then they can have a discussion with you about the differences between those "classics" and the books they're reading in class

Can you explain what you mean by "no reading stamina"? Like, how much should they be able to read? My 9 year old reads for 30 minutes or so in a row voluntarily most days, is that not enough? How do you build reading stamina and how much of it do they need by high school?

My 9th graders are struggling to read 5 pages in a 45 minute class period.

Then they certainly shouldn’t be in Honors English.

It’s most if not all of them. They have TikTok brain. They live their lives in life 5 intervals and you can see the physical signs of withdrawls from stimulation such as videos and music. They are all extremely fidgety, on edge, and ask what the time is every 3-4 minutes.

Then put them in regular English and have a section of honors English for those who are ready for at least grade-level content. If they can't do the work, then you need to fail them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All American Boys
But they will also be reading Of Mice and Men

Of Mice & Men is a choice in MP2. And it's super short. Why couldn't they read both of these in MP1?

Totally agree. My HS English class in 1986 probably read twice as many books. I remember we read Great Expectations, catcher in the rye, Frankenstein, a Shakespeare play, the Iliad, and I’m sure there were a couple more I’m forgetting now (maybe Huck Finn?) And I went to public school in a random state so I feel like it’s achievable for McPS.

Sorry to those of you who don't know this, but...these kids DO NOT READ! The vast majority of them, including your precious IB Magnet students, are not doing the reading. They are overwhelmed and/or do not have the stamina to read books the way you think they can.

I teach 9th grade right now. I've also taught AP Lang in the past. Their reading stamina, as previously stated, is in the garbage and has been for some time. I struggle to get them to retain information when we read books together, in class, using an audio book. It takes insane amounts of contextualization to get them to understand any text, so I've come to learn if it's going to to be challenging for them, it better be interesting too.

This year, we will do All American Boys (in Q1 - mind you, we have had significantly fewer instructional days this quarter because of various interruptions and non-instructional days), MARCH Book 3 in Quarter 2, Flowers for Algernon in Quarter 2, A Raisin in the Sun in Quarter 3, The Poet X in Quarter 4, and probably a literature circle book somewhere in there.

For anyone complaining that their kid isn't reading enough or isn't reading any "classics" - get a library card! No one is stopping you! As a matter of fact, it would be great if you and your kid read those "classics" together, and then they can have a discussion with you about the differences between those "classics" and the books they're reading in class

Can you explain what you mean by "no reading stamina"? Like, how much should they be able to read? My 9 year old reads for 30 minutes or so in a row voluntarily most days, is that not enough? How do you build reading stamina and how much of it do they need by high school?

My 9th graders are struggling to read 5 pages in a 45 minute class period.

Then they certainly shouldn’t be in Honors English.

It’s most if not all of them. They have TikTok brain. They live their lives in life 5 intervals and you can see the physical signs of withdrawls from stimulation such as videos and music. They are all extremely fidgety, on edge, and ask what the time is every 3-4 minutes.

Then put them in regular English and have a section of honors English for those who are ready for at least grade-level content. If they can't do the work, then you need to fail them.

Don't worry. They are failing. The average grade for my 120 students is like a 48% right now

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach 9th grade honors english at a HS. Half my classes are reading The Magic Fish. The other half All American Boys

Is this just because there are too few copies of the book for every student to get the same one?

It may be due to English Learners in their class. If you are just learning English, the Magic Fish would be appropriate. All American Boy isn't honors reading level. Consider that this teacher has to divide their time between two student cohorts in one class.

Do tell - what makes AAB not an honors reading level book? Because it's contemporary and focuses on police brutality against African Americans? Seems pretty finger on the pulse of the nation to me. But I'd love to hear your opinion, PP. Do tell.

DP. Its lexile is 770HL -- high interest book for struggling readers who are below grade level. The 9th grade fall median Lexile level is 1195L. It's not even at grade level -- let alone at honors.

To me, it sounds like AAB would be a good pick for on level. For honors, combine it with something more challenging on a related theme — Beloved, invisible Man, even something like a day in the life of Ivan denisovich (which I read on 9th grade in the 80s) if you want to take about misuse of government power. There’s just so, so much missed opportunity with this supposedly honors curriculum. This is the perfect age to read all sorts of stuff — once you are in college and have a full time job it’s so much harder, especially if you haven’t developed the habit. It’s just such a shame.

Social Studies class is great place to investigate government issues using easily accessible simplistic writing, to enable social studies learning in student with weak literacy. And MCPS does this

English class needs to focus on language development composition, skills, and literatary criticism and creation skills.

Hopefully they will also teach them some statistical reasoning somewhere because adults in this country seem to have fundamental misunderstandings about police brutality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All American Boys
But they will also be reading Of Mice and Men

Of Mice & Men is a choice in MP2. And it's super short. Why couldn't they read both of these in MP1?

Totally agree. My HS English class in 1986 probably read twice as many books. I remember we read Great Expectations, catcher in the rye, Frankenstein, a Shakespeare play, the Iliad, and I’m sure there were a couple more I’m forgetting now (maybe Huck Finn?) And I went to public school in a random state so I feel like it’s achievable for McPS.

Sorry to those of you who don't know this, but...these kids DO NOT READ! The vast majority of them, including your precious IB Magnet students, are not doing the reading. They are overwhelmed and/or do not have the stamina to read books the way you think they can.

I teach 9th grade right now. I've also taught AP Lang in the past. Their reading stamina, as previously stated, is in the garbage and has been for some time. I struggle to get them to retain information when we read books together, in class, using an audio book. It takes insane amounts of contextualization to get them to understand any text, so I've come to learn if it's going to to be challenging for them, it better be interesting too.

This year, we will do All American Boys (in Q1 - mind you, we have had significantly fewer instructional days this quarter because of various interruptions and non-instructional days), MARCH Book 3 in Quarter 2, Flowers for Algernon in Quarter 2, A Raisin in the Sun in Quarter 3, The Poet X in Quarter 4, and probably a literature circle book somewhere in there.

For anyone complaining that their kid isn't reading enough or isn't reading any "classics" - get a library card! No one is stopping you! As a matter of fact, it would be great if you and your kid read those "classics" together, and then they can have a discussion with you about the differences between those "classics" and the books they're reading in class

Can you explain what you mean by "no reading stamina"? Like, how much should they be able to read? My 9 year old reads for 30 minutes or so in a row voluntarily most days, is that not enough? How do you build reading stamina and how much of it do they need by high school?

My 9th graders are struggling to read 5 pages in a 45 minute class period.

Then they certainly shouldn’t be in Honors English.

It’s most if not all of them. They have TikTok brain. They live their lives in life 5 intervals and you can see the physical signs of withdrawls from stimulation such as videos and music. They are all extremely fidgety, on edge, and ask what the time is every 3-4 minutes.

Then most if not all of them should not be in Honors English. My kids have never seen a TikTok video.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All American Boys
But they will also be reading Of Mice and Men

Of Mice & Men is a choice in MP2. And it's super short. Why couldn't they read both of these in MP1?

Totally agree. My HS English class in 1986 probably read twice as many books. I remember we read Great Expectations, catcher in the rye, Frankenstein, a Shakespeare play, the Iliad, and I’m sure there were a couple more I’m forgetting now (maybe Huck Finn?) And I went to public school in a random state so I feel like it’s achievable for McPS.

Sorry to those of you who don't know this, but...these kids DO NOT READ! The vast majority of them, including your precious IB Magnet students, are not doing the reading. They are overwhelmed and/or do not have the stamina to read books the way you think they can.

I teach 9th grade right now. I've also taught AP Lang in the past. Their reading stamina, as previously stated, is in the garbage and has been for some time. I struggle to get them to retain information when we read books together, in class, using an audio book. It takes insane amounts of contextualization to get them to understand any text, so I've come to learn if it's going to to be challenging for them, it better be interesting too.

This year, we will do All American Boys (in Q1 - mind you, we have had significantly fewer instructional days this quarter because of various interruptions and non-instructional days), MARCH Book 3 in Quarter 2, Flowers for Algernon in Quarter 2, A Raisin in the Sun in Quarter 3, The Poet X in Quarter 4, and probably a literature circle book somewhere in there.

For anyone complaining that their kid isn't reading enough or isn't reading any "classics" - get a library card! No one is stopping you! As a matter of fact, it would be great if you and your kid read those "classics" together, and then they can have a discussion with you about the differences between those "classics" and the books they're reading in class

Can you explain what you mean by "no reading stamina"? Like, how much should they be able to read? My 9 year old reads for 30 minutes or so in a row voluntarily most days, is that not enough? How do you build reading stamina and how much of it do they need by high school?

Reading stamina is just literacy. When the reading is too hard, the reader gets worn out. Your child who reads voluntarily will be bored in English class all through school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All American Boys
But they will also be reading Of Mice and Men

Of Mice & Men is a choice in MP2. And it's super short. Why couldn't they read both of these in MP1?

Totally agree. My HS English class in 1986 probably read twice as many books. I remember we read Great Expectations, catcher in the rye, Frankenstein, a Shakespeare play, the Iliad, and I’m sure there were a couple more I’m forgetting now (maybe Huck Finn?) And I went to public school in a random state so I feel like it’s achievable for McPS.

Sorry to those of you who don't know this, but...these kids DO NOT READ! The vast majority of them, including your precious IB Magnet students, are not doing the reading. They are overwhelmed and/or do not have the stamina to read books the way you think they can.

I teach 9th grade right now. I've also taught AP Lang in the past. Their reading stamina, as previously stated, is in the garbage and has been for some time. I struggle to get them to retain information when we read books together, in class, using an audio book. It takes insane amounts of contextualization to get them to understand any text, so I've come to learn if it's going to to be challenging for them, it better be interesting too.

This year, we will do All American Boys (in Q1 - mind you, we have had significantly fewer instructional days this quarter because of various interruptions and non-instructional days), MARCH Book 3 in Quarter 2, Flowers for Algernon in Quarter 2, A Raisin in the Sun in Quarter 3, The Poet X in Quarter 4, and probably a literature circle book somewhere in there.

For anyone complaining that their kid isn't reading enough or isn't reading any "classics" - get a library card! No one is stopping you! As a matter of fact, it would be great if you and your kid read those "classics" together, and then they can have a discussion with you about the differences between those "classics" and the books they're reading in class

Can you explain what you mean by "no reading stamina"? Like, how much should they be able to read? My 9 year old reads for 30 minutes or so in a row voluntarily most days, is that not enough? How do you build reading stamina and how much of it do they need by high school?

My 9th graders are struggling to read 5 pages in a 45 minute class period.

Seriously? Even the top 5-10% of kids? Most of my kid's friends can do that easily in 4th grade, including many who didn't qualify for literacy enrichment, so like 70th-80th percentile MAP-R scores at best (we're at a medium-FARMS school.) I can totally believe that the below-average kids struggle with that, but you're saying the average and advanced kids do too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All American Boys
But they will also be reading Of Mice and Men

Of Mice & Men is a choice in MP2. And it's super short. Why couldn't they read both of these in MP1?

Totally agree. My HS English class in 1986 probably read twice as many books. I remember we read Great Expectations, catcher in the rye, Frankenstein, a Shakespeare play, the Iliad, and I’m sure there were a couple more I’m forgetting now (maybe Huck Finn?) And I went to public school in a random state so I feel like it’s achievable for McPS.

Sorry to those of you who don't know this, but...these kids DO NOT READ! The vast majority of them, including your precious IB Magnet students, are not doing the reading. They are overwhelmed and/or do not have the stamina to read books the way you think they can.

I teach 9th grade right now. I've also taught AP Lang in the past. Their reading stamina, as previously stated, is in the garbage and has been for some time. I struggle to get them to retain information when we read books together, in class, using an audio book. It takes insane amounts of contextualization to get them to understand any text, so I've come to learn if it's going to to be challenging for them, it better be interesting too.

This year, we will do All American Boys (in Q1 - mind you, we have had significantly fewer instructional days this quarter because of various interruptions and non-instructional days), MARCH Book 3 in Quarter 2, Flowers for Algernon in Quarter 2, A Raisin in the Sun in Quarter 3, The Poet X in Quarter 4, and probably a literature circle book somewhere in there.

For anyone complaining that their kid isn't reading enough or isn't reading any "classics" - get a library card! No one is stopping you! As a matter of fact, it would be great if you and your kid read those "classics" together, and then they can have a discussion with you about the differences between those "classics" and the books they're reading in class

Can you explain what you mean by "no reading stamina"? Like, how much should they be able to read? My 9 year old reads for 30 minutes or so in a row voluntarily most days, is that not enough? How do you build reading stamina and how much of it do they need by high school?

My 9th graders are struggling to read 5 pages in a 45 minute class period.

Seriously? Even the top 5-10% of kids? Most of my kid's friends can do that easily in 4th grade, including many who didn't qualify for literacy enrichment, so like 70th-80th percentile MAP-R scores at best (we're at a medium-FARMS school.) I can totally believe that the below-average kids struggle with that, but you're saying the average and advanced kids do too?

With the average and advanced kids its not an achievement gap issue but rather an attention span issue. They have difficulty staying focused for longer than 10 minutes at most. They are getting up and walking around, talking across the room, asking to leave, begging to use phones and chromebooks inappropriately. Like I said in a previous post, I have 120 total students across 40 classes and the average grade right now is a 48%. This isnt just the special ed kids having struggles.

I am sure lack of challenge and boredom is a significant contributor to this but it is a deeper issue that kids these days are dealing with.

And yes i understand this forum is made up of only the best 5% of parents in the county and it’s impossible to even think that your kids could ever be distracted in a classroom.

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Anonymous wrote:All American Boys
But they will also be reading Of Mice and Men

Of Mice & Men is a choice in MP2. And it's super short. Why couldn't they read both of these in MP1?

Totally agree. My HS English class in 1986 probably read twice as many books. I remember we read Great Expectations, catcher in the rye, Frankenstein, a Shakespeare play, the Iliad, and I’m sure there were a couple more I’m forgetting now (maybe Huck Finn?) And I went to public school in a random state so I feel like it’s achievable for McPS.

Sorry to those of you who don't know this, but...these kids DO NOT READ! The vast majority of them, including your precious IB Magnet students, are not doing the reading. They are overwhelmed and/or do not have the stamina to read books the way you think they can.

I teach 9th grade right now. I've also taught AP Lang in the past. Their reading stamina, as previously stated, is in the garbage and has been for some time. I struggle to get them to retain information when we read books together, in class, using an audio book. It takes insane amounts of contextualization to get them to understand any text, so I've come to learn if it's going to to be challenging for them, it better be interesting too.

This year, we will do All American Boys (in Q1 - mind you, we have had significantly fewer instructional days this quarter because of various interruptions and non-instructional days), MARCH Book 3 in Quarter 2, Flowers for Algernon in Quarter 2, A Raisin in the Sun in Quarter 3, The Poet X in Quarter 4, and probably a literature circle book somewhere in there.

For anyone complaining that their kid isn't reading enough or isn't reading any "classics" - get a library card! No one is stopping you! As a matter of fact, it would be great if you and your kid read those "classics" together, and then they can have a discussion with you about the differences between those "classics" and the books they're reading in class

Can you explain what you mean by "no reading stamina"? Like, how much should they be able to read? My 9 year old reads for 30 minutes or so in a row voluntarily most days, is that not enough? How do you build reading stamina and how much of it do they need by high school?

My 9th graders are struggling to read 5 pages in a 45 minute class period.

Then they certainly shouldn’t be in Honors English.

It’s most if not all of them. They have TikTok brain. They live their lives in life 5 intervals and you can see the physical signs of withdrawls from stimulation such as videos and music. They are all extremely fidgety, on edge, and ask what the time is every 3-4 minutes.

Then put them in regular English and have a section of honors English for those who are ready for at least grade-level content. If they can't do the work, then you need to fail them.

Don't worry. They are failing. The average grade for my 120 students is like a 48% right now

So, what is the school doing to support them? These kids were failed at the ES and MS levels and now at the HS level.