Benchmark, almost one year done. How are people feeling about it?

[Anonymous]

My AAP 6th grader is not a fan, but has a wonderful teacher who is supplementing with book clubs and creative writing.

My 2nd grader doesn’t know any different, and I think for his age it’s better than what his siblings were doing at that age. Having said that, I think it needs to be balanced with some other creative activities. I’m hopeful he will be a better reader/writer as a result (and he reads tons of fiction at home) but I’m concerned he will be bored and totally zone out in the future. Good teachers really make 100% of the difference for any curriculum

[Anonymous]

I think they should be reading chapter books as a class in 3rd grade+. I have good memories of my whole class reading Charlotte’s Web and The Indian In The Cupboard when I was a kid.

3rd grader here and Benchmark seems difficult for this age range. My DS is having trouble with the “theme”-type questions that come up on the assessments. There was an assessment with passages from Little Women and a chart on it asking students to identify which “theme” occurred in either story. That’s a lot for a 3rd grader IMO. One thing that I did appreciate is that his class is doing spelling quizzes in class this year, and I do think my kid’s spelling has improved as a result.

I’ll have a K next school year and I’m hoping it’s good for the younger age range with the greater focus on phonics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think they should be reading chapter books as a class in 3rd grade+. I have good memories of my whole class reading Charlotte’s Web and The Indian In The Cupboard when I was a kid.

3rd grader here and Benchmark seems difficult for this age range. My DS is having trouble with the “theme”-type questions that come up on the assessments. There was an assessment with passages from Little Women and a chart on it asking students to identify which “theme” occurred in either story. That’s a lot for a 3rd grader IMO. One thing that I did appreciate is that his class is doing spelling quizzes in class this year, and I do think my kid’s spelling has improved as a result.

I’ll have a K next school year and I’m hoping it’s good for the younger age range with the greater focus on phonics.

Gee. I grew up when book reports were main characters--hero, villain, etc. Also the crisis and unfoldment. I might have trouble myself with the "theme."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think they should be reading chapter books as a class in 3rd grade+. I have good memories of my whole class reading Charlotte’s Web and The Indian In The Cupboard when I was a kid.

3rd grader here and Benchmark seems difficult for this age range. My DS is having trouble with the “theme”-type questions that come up on the assessments. There was an assessment with passages from Little Women and a chart on it asking students to identify which “theme” occurred in either story. That’s a lot for a 3rd grader IMO. One thing that I did appreciate is that his class is doing spelling quizzes in class this year, and I do think my kid’s spelling has improved as a result.

I’ll have a K next school year and I’m hoping it’s good for the younger age range with the greater focus on phonics.

Gee. I grew up when book reports were main characters--hero, villain, etc. Also the crisis and unfoldment. I might have trouble myself with the "theme."

Yes and he’s doing well with that! He is doing well with reading, sounding out, using context clues for unfamiliar words. “Decoding” has never been a problem for him and like I said, even his spelling is improving now. He can accurately retell a story too and identify the main plot points sequentially. All that stuff. I’m trying to think back to when I was in elementary and I don’t think we did much with “theme” and the “meanings” of a story beyond the plot until maybe … 5th grade? I don’t really remember.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure where parents are getting that their third graders should be reading novels in elementary schools - that's your job as a parent. My kids are literally sitting on the floor reading books this morning because they both woke up early and finished breakfast quickly. Do better, parents!

I have the third grade AAP kid. He has been reading novels this entire time. He has read probably half the JFIC section at the library. But since around Feb the books I get from there collect dust. In other words it's him, not me.

[Anonymous]

My kids both complain that it's hard and admit that it's better.

One said it made the SOL seem easy this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do they use Benchmark in middle school? Please tell me no!

The Virginia State literacy act is for K-8 so something is coming

I'm pretty sure they already use HMH and No Red Ink in middle school. My MS kid has unit tests that are from the county (according to the ELA teacher). They also do a lot of No Red Ink practice activities and essays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do they use Benchmark in middle school? Please tell me no!

The Virginia State literacy act is for K-8 so something is coming

I'm pretty sure they already use HMH and No Red Ink in middle school. My MS kid has unit tests that are from the county (according to the ELA teacher). They also do a lot of No Red Ink practice activities and essays.

I have a high school freshman and that's definitely what they used in honors English 8 last year. I don't recall what happened in 7th. I don't know if it's changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think they should be reading chapter books as a class in 3rd grade+. I have good memories of my whole class reading Charlotte’s Web and The Indian In The Cupboard when I was a kid.

3rd grader here and Benchmark seems difficult for this age range. My DS is having trouble with the “theme”-type questions that come up on the assessments. There was an assessment with passages from Little Women and a chart on it asking students to identify which “theme” occurred in either story. That’s a lot for a 3rd grader IMO. One thing that I did appreciate is that his class is doing spelling quizzes in class this year, and I do think my kid’s spelling has improved as a result.

I’ll have a K next school year and I’m hoping it’s good for the younger age range with the greater focus on phonics.

As the PP kindergarten teacher I think the phonics moves too slow and I wouldn’t say phonics isn’t the biggest focus (although it should be). But I do think the lessons are constructed better than what we’ve had and hopefully they fix the scope and sequence next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids both complain that it's hard and admit that it's better.

One said it made the SOL seem easy this year.

The Benchmark activities are much more aligned to SOL questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do they use Benchmark in middle school? Please tell me no!

The Virginia State literacy act is for K-8 so something is coming

I'm pretty sure they already use HMH and No Red Ink in middle school. My MS kid has unit tests that are from the county (according to the ELA teacher). They also do a lot of No Red Ink practice activities and essays.

But the program has to already have been approved by the state, so is HMH approved by the state?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 5th grade AAP kid went from enjoying reading to telling me language arts is his least favorite part of the day

I don’t know if it’s the age, the teacher, the curriculum, but this year has been really rough.

Same with my AAP third grader. We have been getting a lot of library books over the years and he was reading like crazy until around February. Now, reading is "boring" and "benchmark sucks".

I don't think you can blame this on the ELA curriculum at the school. I think this is the age - you have a third grade boy. Of course he's not interested in reading anymore. Sounds like you need to step up as a parent and take him to the library more, find him more interesting books. My third grading recently started reading Manga, the Fairfax county libraries have huge sections and the librarians are so good at helping kids find the perfect books for their interests. Try it.

Did you even read what the PP wrote? "We have been getting a lot of library books". Your response: "Sounds like you need to step up as a parent and take him to the library more."

Goodness...let's spread some more blame.

There are numerous studies that show reading for pleasure every day helps to increase literacy. When I taught middle school in a former life, we built in 20 minutes of whole school daily SSR for that reason. If it's no longer happening in elementary, that is sad There is absolutely value to it.

Two of my children are in an FCPS elementary school and they both get free reading time. PP was complaining that the children weren't assigned "novels" to read in school. I have kids in 3-9 and none of them ever had assigned novels. They all have had (and continue to have) free reading time in school where they read their library books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No curriculum is perfect, and I would have preferred CKLA. (Which APS and MCPS just chose).

That said, this Benchmark is a huge improvement over the Balanced Literacy/Whole Language crap FCPS that used to use before Benchmark. I also believe it will have better implementation as faculty get more familiar with the new curriculum.

I'm just pleased that we have a real curriculum instead of stuff that teachers pulled together on their own off of Teachers Pay Teachers. If I never see one more Comic Sans worksheet, I'll be very happy!

*I don't think some of the moms here have an understanding of what the previous curriculum was (or wasn't, actually, because it wasn't standardized across grade level teams let alone the entire school system). They should all be grateful for a standardized curriculum - anything is better than what we had before, trust me!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure where parents are getting that their third graders should be reading novels in elementary schools - that's your job as a parent. My kids are literally sitting on the floor reading books this morning because they both woke up early and finished breakfast quickly. Do better, parents!

Reading chapter books in school was part of the balanced literacy, so that’s not returning anytime soon. It should be the parents responsibility to ensure that their students are reading novels.

There’s no time in school to get whole novels read and many students don’t do it on their own, so it should be the parents responsibility.

So classist. Some kids have parents who either can't (illiterate or multiple jobs) or won't read at home.

Kids still get library time and despite what the mommas here say, they still have time in school to read them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 5th grade AAP kid went from enjoying reading to telling me language arts is his least favorite part of the day

I don’t know if it’s the age, the teacher, the curriculum, but this year has been really rough.

+1 my 6th grader who was an advanced reader now absolutely hates reading and LA. She also is worried about how she will do in honors English next year. Her confidence has tanked.

And here's the issue - moms of "advanced kids" are starting to realize that their children were actually very far behind where they should be. Just because your child was getting high comprehension and fluency scores doesn't mean that she was actually an advanced reader and writer, PP. Benchmark is actually digging in to literacy which is something that the previous "curriculum" never did.