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

[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.

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.

As a teacher you are posting here during school hours.....

They are bored, so what are you doing to engage them?

[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.

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.

Wow, what's bringing the grades down so much? Is it mostly about not turning in assignments and getting zeros, or are most kids getting bad grades on assignments and quizzes/tests too? If so, is it poor reading comprehension, poor writing, not trying hard on the assignments and getting lower grades than they're capable of, or what? (Again, talking about the average and advanced kids getting bad grades, not the below-level ones. What is the rough breakdown by level in your classes, would you say, for context?)

I don't think my kid is naturally immune from what you're saying, no... just trying to understand what's going on. How do we help make sure our kids are in better shape by the time they get to 9th?

[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.

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.

Wow, what's bringing the grades down so much? Is it mostly about not turning in assignments and getting zeros, or are most kids getting bad grades on assignments and quizzes/tests too? If so, is it poor reading comprehension, poor writing, not trying hard on the assignments and getting lower grades than they're capable of, or what? (Again, talking about the average and advanced kids getting bad grades, not the below-level ones. What is the rough breakdown by level in your classes, would you say, for context?)

I don't think my kid is naturally immune from what you're saying, no... just trying to understand what's going on. How do we help make sure our kids are in better shape by the time they get to 9th?

Its the zeros mainly. These kids have this weird belief that anything not completed in class is not worth doing at all. I dont know if its because we have moved away from homework as a whole but these kids struggle to do anything outside of the classroom and with a ton of help.

[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.

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.

As a teacher you are posting here during school hours.....

They are bored, so what are you doing to engage them?

Its was a typo but I did mention I teach only 4 classes. What do you think I am allowed to be doing when I am not in those classes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

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.

Personally I have volunteered my lunch hours and up to 90 minutes of my time after school to help my students improve these awful scores. I have had one student take advantage of this in 4.5 weeks.

The only thing we might be able to do to help these kids is to finally hold them accountable and send them to summer school for the first time in hopes that its a major wake up moment.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for all that you are doing. Please don’t give up, and please continue to hold all students to high standards. My 6th grader came home miserable yesterday. After two years in the Enriched Literacy Curriculum in 4th and 5th grade, they are now in an “advanced” for all 6th grade English class where yesterday’s lesson focused on sentence structure — specifically, that a sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a punctuation mark.
In addition, all students are being given a word bank of answers when asked to respond to a short reading passage. My child is finding this work disengaging and far below the level of challenge they experienced previously, and they are already feeling bored and frustrated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

As a teacher you are posting here during school hours.....

They are bored, so what are you doing to engage them?

Its was a typo but I did mention I teach only 4 classes. What do you think I am allowed to be doing when I am not in those classes?

Work on grading, curriculum, engaging classes, assuming you are the department head and have that much free time help other teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

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.

Personally I have volunteered my lunch hours and up to 90 minutes of my time after school to help my students improve these awful scores. I have had one student take advantage of this in 4.5 weeks.

The only thing we might be able to do to help these kids is to finally hold them accountable and send them to summer school for the first time in hopes that its a major wake up moment.

Most kids are not comfortable asking for help. You tell them, not ask them and give an incentive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

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.

Personally I have volunteered my lunch hours and up to 90 minutes of my time after school to help my students improve these awful scores. I have had one student take advantage of this in 4.5 weeks.

The only thing we might be able to do to help these kids is to finally hold them accountable and send them to summer school for the first time in hopes that its a major wake up moment.

Most kids are not comfortable asking for help. You tell them, not ask them and give an incentive.

No that’s what parents do(or should). Teachers provide you lessons and the appropriate structure to learn, opportunity, encouragement and occasionally support. It’s up to the student to walk through the door.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for all that you are doing. Please don’t give up, and please continue to hold all students to high standards. My 6th grader came home miserable yesterday. After two years in the Enriched Literacy Curriculum in 4th and 5th grade, they are now in an “advanced” for all 6th grade English class where yesterday’s lesson focused on sentence structure — specifically, that a sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a punctuation mark.
In addition, all students are being given a word bank of answers when asked to respond to a short reading passage. My child is finding this work disengaging and far below the level of challenge they experienced previously, and they are already feeling bored and frustrated.

What school? Those assignments are not coming from
CKLA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

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.

Personally I have volunteered my lunch hours and up to 90 minutes of my time after school to help my students improve these awful scores. I have had one student take advantage of this in 4.5 weeks.

The only thing we might be able to do to help these kids is to finally hold them accountable and send them to summer school for the first time in hopes that its a major wake up moment.

Most kids are not comfortable asking for help. You tell them, not ask them and give an incentive.

No that’s what parents do(or should). Teachers provide you lessons and the appropriate structure to learn, opportunity, encouragement and occasionally support. It’s up to the student to walk through the door.

As a parent we do but not all teachers are approachable or willing or engaging. If you only have four classes and lots of free time there are plenty of thins you can do including teaching more classes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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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

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.

Personally I have volunteered my lunch hours and up to 90 minutes of my time after school to help my students improve these awful scores. I have had one student take advantage of this in 4.5 weeks.

The only thing we might be able to do to help these kids is to finally hold them accountable and send them to summer school for the first time in hopes that its a major wake up moment.

Most kids are not comfortable asking for help. You tell them, not ask them and give an incentive.

No that’s what parents do(or should). Teachers provide you lessons and the appropriate structure to learn, opportunity, encouragement and occasionally support. It’s up to the student to walk through the door.

As a parent we do but not all teachers are approachable or willing or engaging. If you only have four classes and lots of free time there are plenty of thins you can do including teaching more classes

PP you’re responding to. I’m not the teacher but a parent. And while I do believe that there is lots of things that a teacher can do, I’m not going to begrudge a teacher taking a break.

Also some parents do not all. We also have many parents who while they push at times also helicopter and do everything to prevent their kids from experiencing natural consequences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

As a teacher you are posting here during school hours.....

They are bored, so what are you doing to engage them?

Its was a typo but I did mention I teach only 4 classes. What do you think I am allowed to be doing when I am not in those classes?

Work on grading, curriculum, engaging classes, assuming you are the department head and have that much free time help other teachers.

Not a department head. Matter of fact I am a first year teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for all that you are doing. Please don’t give up, and please continue to hold all students to high standards. My 6th grader came home miserable yesterday. After two years in the Enriched Literacy Curriculum in 4th and 5th grade, they are now in an “advanced” for all 6th grade English class where yesterday’s lesson focused on sentence structure — specifically, that a sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a punctuation mark.
In addition, all students are being given a word bank of answers when asked to respond to a short reading passage. My child is finding this work disengaging and far below the level of challenge they experienced previously, and they are already feeling bored and frustrated.

This is 6th grade CKLA unit 1 and J don't see what you're talking about. There is a checklist that reminds them to check for punctuation/etc? And lists of new vocabulary words? But that's not really what you described. https://www.coreknowledge.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/CKLA_G6U1_FlyingLessonAndOtherStories_AB_W1.pdf

[Anonymous]

Thanks for this link. I shared more on the post about middle school English curriculum.