Language arts new curriculumn for K-6th

[Anonymous]

My 9th grader has read one novel. ONE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am all for it. While there are a lot of negatives such of lack of choice and teacher autonomy there are many pluses. The main one is that it will equalize the quality of teaching across the county. Your student will get the same reading instruction if they are being taught by a 30 year veteran teacher in a rich area or are be being taught by a teacher trainee or long term sub in a title one, the book literally tells you what to say. Right now there is reading “curriculum” but it is strongly suggested and many schools don’t even use the phonics lessons and use something else and the writing plans are minimal . The new curriculum is all inclusive and had reading comprehension , writing, grammar, and small group instruction.

Does every student need the same instruction though? I know DRA levels aren't used anymore, but as an example a student reading at DRA 20 won't require the same instruction as a student at a 38. Some might need more focus on accuracy and fluency while others don't. Is there still some room for adapting to the needs of the class?

There will still be small group instruction for these skills and the new curriculum comes with that. In my school it is expected to teach grade level content whole group and then hit specific skills and student needs in small groups.

Have you used the new curriculum? Is it good/reasonably fine?

[Anonymous]

I haven’t but we got to get a glimpse of the curriculum and some information about what is included yesterday and it includes small group and decodables. It seems alright so far, no red flags, but teachers won’t start get fully trained until the summer.

[Anonymous]

There are 1-2 optional novel studies per grade from 2nd-6th. I’m bummed about that because while my grade’s book (Esperanza Rising) is great, I don’t think it’s a good fit for all my kids and I will perish of boredom teaching that ONE BOOK year after year. I am hoping to still sneak in book clubs somehow.

Also, the full time AAP teachers have been told we are supposed to use the basal and supplement with the AAP curriculum. This is a state mandate. How this will work when the basal program takes up every minute of the LA block is undetermined. I’ve got quite a few kids in 5th who read at the 7th or 8th grade level. The first 5th grade unit has vocabulary words like “public” and a review of short vowel sounds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven’t but we got to get a glimpse of the curriculum and some information about what is included yesterday and it includes small group and decodables. It seems alright so far, no red flags, but teachers won’t start get fully trained until the summer.

Or later, during the SY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are 1-2 optional novel studies per grade from 2nd-6th. I’m bummed about that because while my grade’s book (Esperanza Rising) is great, I don’t think it’s a good fit for all my kids and I will perish of boredom teaching that ONE BOOK year after year. I am hoping to still sneak in book clubs somehow.

Also, the full time AAP teachers have been told we are supposed to use the basal and supplement with the AAP curriculum. This is a state mandate. How this will work when the basal program takes up every minute of the LA block is undetermined. I’ve got quite a few kids in 5th who read at the 7th or 8th grade level. The first 5th grade unit has vocabulary words like “public” and a review of short vowel sounds.

If that's true, when will the differentiated small groups happen?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are 1-2 optional novel studies per grade from 2nd-6th. I’m bummed about that because while my grade’s book (Esperanza Rising) is great, I don’t think it’s a good fit for all my kids and I will perish of boredom teaching that ONE BOOK year after year. I am hoping to still sneak in book clubs somehow.

Also, the full time AAP teachers have been told we are supposed to use the basal and supplement with the AAP curriculum. This is a state mandate. How this will work when the basal program takes up every minute of the LA block is undetermined. I’ve got quite a few kids in 5th who read at the 7th or 8th grade level. The first 5th grade unit has vocabulary words like “public” and a review of short vowel sounds.

What is the state mandate? Do you have the specific language? Possibly the basal curriculum could be used in a condensed form when mastery is shown. Or a waiver could be sought for GT education, which is also a state mandate.

[Anonymous]

Every school district in Virginia is now mandated to have a literacy basal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am all for it. While there are a lot of negatives such of lack of choice and teacher autonomy there are many pluses. The main one is that it will equalize the quality of teaching across the county. Your student will get the same reading instruction if they are being taught by a 30 year veteran teacher in a rich area or are be being taught by a teacher trainee or long term sub in a title one, the book literally tells you what to say. Right now there is reading “curriculum” but it is strongly suggested and many schools don’t even use the phonics lessons and use something else and the writing plans are minimal . The new curriculum is all inclusive and had reading comprehension , writing, grammar, and small group instruction.

T

That sounds kind of awful for teachers. But I will admit that my older DC was taught to read with "Good readers look at the pictures" three-cueing, while my younger DC has gotten a decent amount of phonics. And neither of them have a strong grasp of grammar and sentence structure, or have any grasp at all of formal writing. Lucy Calkins has a lot to answer for.

Unless there is an older teacher sneaking those methods in three cueing is unheard of now. Most new teachers wouldn’t even be able to tell you what that is because colleges don’t teach it anymore.

It was only 3 years ago. I know that FCPS has really changed their reading curriculum, for the better. If they change their writing curriculum, I'll be happy. I 'm not sure an entirely scripted all-inclusive reading and writing program is needed - I guess we'll see how it is. What our teachers need more of is autonomy, not more scripts.

Not anymore. The current crop of inexperienced or burned out teachers don’t make good use of autonomy. Those days are over.

Most teachers at my school are happy about it because it cuts way down on planning. The workload has to come down to keep teachers. I would argue that work load is the bigger problem than the pay. If this basal goes successfully, I think a Math curriculum won’t be far behind.

They've had several math curriculums. What was wrong with the previous ones?

There has been no math curriculum for at least the last 8 years. We teachers at each school create EVERYTHING. The county puts together some slides that have ONE MATH PROBLEM for the entire instruction.

We have Origo to supplement. It’s all online for teachers, doesn’t align with what we teach in Virginia, uses terminology unheard of in the US and was complete and utter crap. No one uses it.

We are supposed to get new math slides for the new math standards. The current ones are terrible, nobody uses them, at least not without significant modification.

Oh, I’m sure we’ll get new slide decks. With fancy graphics and pages of POG skills. And one stinking math problem. And a slide with centers names. The kids need to do math, math, and more math. But apparently one problem and talking about it is sufficient for Gatehouse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every school district in Virginia is now mandated to have a literacy basal

The new phonics curriculum was rolled out a couple years ago, in anticipation of this new mandate. I guess it wasn't sufficient?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am all for it. While there are a lot of negatives such of lack of choice and teacher autonomy there are many pluses. The main one is that it will equalize the quality of teaching across the county. Your student will get the same reading instruction if they are being taught by a 30 year veteran teacher in a rich area or are be being taught by a teacher trainee or long term sub in a title one, the book literally tells you what to say. Right now there is reading “curriculum” but it is strongly suggested and many schools don’t even use the phonics lessons and use something else and the writing plans are minimal . The new curriculum is all inclusive and had reading comprehension , writing, grammar, and small group instruction.

T

That sounds kind of awful for teachers. But I will admit that my older DC was taught to read with "Good readers look at the pictures" three-cueing, while my younger DC has gotten a decent amount of phonics. And neither of them have a strong grasp of grammar and sentence structure, or have any grasp at all of formal writing. Lucy Calkins has a lot to answer for.

Unless there is an older teacher sneaking those methods in three cueing is unheard of now. Most new teachers wouldn’t even be able to tell you what that is because colleges don’t teach it anymore.

It was only 3 years ago. I know that FCPS has really changed their reading curriculum, for the better. If they change their writing curriculum, I'll be happy. I 'm not sure an entirely scripted all-inclusive reading and writing program is needed - I guess we'll see how it is. What our teachers need more of is autonomy, not more scripts.

Not anymore. The current crop of inexperienced or burned out teachers don’t make good use of autonomy. Those days are over.

Most teachers at my school are happy about it because it cuts way down on planning. The workload has to come down to keep teachers. I would argue that work load is the bigger problem than the pay. If this basal goes successfully, I think a Math curriculum won’t be far behind.

They've had several math curriculums. What was wrong with the previous ones?

There has been no math curriculum for at least the last 8 years. We teachers at each school create EVERYTHING. The county puts together some slides that have ONE MATH PROBLEM for the entire instruction.

We have Origo to supplement. It’s all online for teachers, doesn’t align with what we teach in Virginia, uses terminology unheard of in the US and was complete and utter crap. No one uses it.

They had Envision for Elementary till about five years ago when they switched to Origo. Both are curriculums. Envision lasted about than 5 years. I remember when it came out and when it ended. I don't get FCPS. I don't understand why these programs keep switching. Meanwhile at the private schools they keep the same one and just switch out slightly each year.

Hmmm … I’ve been with FCPS for 8 years and no Envision. None even in the storage rooms. Never went to any trainings. No old materials in the various drives. Maybe some schools kept them around longer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am all for it. While there are a lot of negatives such of lack of choice and teacher autonomy there are many pluses. The main one is that it will equalize the quality of teaching across the county. Your student will get the same reading instruction if they are being taught by a 30 year veteran teacher in a rich area or are be being taught by a teacher trainee or long term sub in a title one, the book literally tells you what to say. Right now there is reading “curriculum” but it is strongly suggested and many schools don’t even use the phonics lessons and use something else and the writing plans are minimal . The new curriculum is all inclusive and had reading comprehension , writing, grammar, and small group instruction.

T

That sounds kind of awful for teachers. But I will admit that my older DC was taught to read with "Good readers look at the pictures" three-cueing, while my younger DC has gotten a decent amount of phonics. And neither of them have a strong grasp of grammar and sentence structure, or have any grasp at all of formal writing. Lucy Calkins has a lot to answer for.

Unless there is an older teacher sneaking those methods in three cueing is unheard of now. Most new teachers wouldn’t even be able to tell you what that is because colleges don’t teach it anymore.

It was only 3 years ago. I know that FCPS has really changed their reading curriculum, for the better. If they change their writing curriculum, I'll be happy. I 'm not sure an entirely scripted all-inclusive reading and writing program is needed - I guess we'll see how it is. What our teachers need more of is autonomy, not more scripts.

Not anymore. The current crop of inexperienced or burned out teachers don’t make good use of autonomy. Those days are over.

Most teachers at my school are happy about it because it cuts way down on planning. The workload has to come down to keep teachers. I would argue that work load is the bigger problem than the pay. If this basal goes successfully, I think a Math curriculum won’t be far behind.

We’re happy to give it a try, too. There is currently no curriculum. Don’t know when there last was anything. I’ve been here 8 years, and there is nothing. We have UFLI for phonics instruction now and that’s great.

Teachers create absolutely everything themselves in reading and writing. The county puts out some mentor writing from time to time - which is years beyond the capacity of our kids. Beyond that - nothing. It’s thousands of individual teachers creating everything they need to teach.

Technically UFLI is only for intervention. I’m not sure we were allowed to use it as our main phonics program but I was tempted to do so!

I’m happy about the change. What teachers are saying above is true and I’m glad to have a laid out phonics program that we will all do the same.

It’s the phonics program at my school K-2 and intervention for all grades. The progress the kids are making is amazing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every school district in Virginia is now mandated to have a literacy basal

The new phonics curriculum was rolled out a couple years ago, in anticipation of this new mandate. I guess it wasn't sufficient?

There is more to reading than phonics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am all for it. While there are a lot of negatives such of lack of choice and teacher autonomy there are many pluses. The main one is that it will equalize the quality of teaching across the county. Your student will get the same reading instruction if they are being taught by a 30 year veteran teacher in a rich area or are be being taught by a teacher trainee or long term sub in a title one, the book literally tells you what to say. Right now there is reading “curriculum” but it is strongly suggested and many schools don’t even use the phonics lessons and use something else and the writing plans are minimal . The new curriculum is all inclusive and had reading comprehension , writing, grammar, and small group instruction.

T

That sounds kind of awful for teachers. But I will admit that my older DC was taught to read with "Good readers look at the pictures" three-cueing, while my younger DC has gotten a decent amount of phonics. And neither of them have a strong grasp of grammar and sentence structure, or have any grasp at all of formal writing. Lucy Calkins has a lot to answer for.

Unless there is an older teacher sneaking those methods in three cueing is unheard of now. Most new teachers wouldn’t even be able to tell you what that is because colleges don’t teach it anymore.

More and more, new teachers aren't coming from traditional college education programs. Many have zero knowledge of pedagogy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am all for it. While there are a lot of negatives such of lack of choice and teacher autonomy there are many pluses. The main one is that it will equalize the quality of teaching across the county. Your student will get the same reading instruction if they are being taught by a 30 year veteran teacher in a rich area or are be being taught by a teacher trainee or long term sub in a title one, the book literally tells you what to say. Right now there is reading “curriculum” but it is strongly suggested and many schools don’t even use the phonics lessons and use something else and the writing plans are minimal . The new curriculum is all inclusive and had reading comprehension , writing, grammar, and small group instruction.

T

That sounds kind of awful for teachers. But I will admit that my older DC was taught to read with "Good readers look at the pictures" three-cueing, while my younger DC has gotten a decent amount of phonics. And neither of them have a strong grasp of grammar and sentence structure, or have any grasp at all of formal writing. Lucy Calkins has a lot to answer for.

Unless there is an older teacher sneaking those methods in three cueing is unheard of now. Most new teachers wouldn’t even be able to tell you what that is because colleges don’t teach it anymore.

It was only 3 years ago. I know that FCPS has really changed their reading curriculum, for the better. If they change their writing curriculum, I'll be happy. I 'm not sure an entirely scripted all-inclusive reading and writing program is needed - I guess we'll see how it is. What our teachers need more of is autonomy, not more scripts.

Not anymore. The current crop of inexperienced or burned out teachers don’t make good use of autonomy. Those days are over.

Most teachers at my school are happy about it because it cuts way down on planning. The workload has to come down to keep teachers. I would argue that work load is the bigger problem than the pay. If this basal goes successfully, I think a Math curriculum won’t be far behind.

We’re happy to give it a try, too. There is currently no curriculum. Don’t know when there last was anything. I’ve been here 8 years, and there is nothing. We have UFLI for phonics instruction now and that’s great.

Teachers create absolutely everything themselves in reading and writing. The county puts out some mentor writing from time to time - which is years beyond the capacity of our kids. Beyond that - nothing. It’s thousands of individual teachers creating everything they need to teach.

Technically UFLI is only for intervention. I’m not sure we were allowed to use it as our main phonics program but I was tempted to do so!

I’m happy about the change. What teachers are saying above is true and I’m glad to have a laid out phonics program that we will all do the same.

It’s the phonics program at my school K-2 and intervention for all grades. The progress the kids are making is amazing!

That’s great. I wish I had just done it. But this is what others mean- every school is doing something different!