No longer writing in middle school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sometimes wonder why some kids from immigrant families (parents not fluent in a English) have better writing and reading comprehension skills than kids from here. Immigrant parents can't help them at all.

They put their kids from age 3 or 4 in Kumon reading or other tutoring programs. Kumon reading has a lot of reading comprehension, grammar, vocabulary, and writing.

Actually, they supplement math, not reading.Ask me how I know.

Are you speaking for all immigrants? Signed--parent who had her kid in Kumon and knows there are all types of parents there who put their kids in both English and math instruction. (Although I didn't personally think either were very high quality and unenrolled my kid fairly quickly.)

[Anonymous]

I found that they aren't taught to write until AP Lang. It should be a mandatory class for college-bound MCPS kids.

[Anonymous]

Mine is currently writing a story. Maybe the teacher just hasn’t started this yet. Why don’t you ask the teacher about what the writing assignments are this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For all of DD's subjects, she has not been required to write more than 1-2 sentences for a response. In English so far, she has written 1 paragraph all year.

She is in the "advanced" english class. She's not in the higher level history class- so she may have gotten more writing if she did this.

Straight As in everything...

There is no advanced English class. (The grade level class is called "advanced English" but neither MCPS nor anyone else claims it is actually advanced.)

+1 Sigh that parents think it's advanced, even though every kid takes the same "advanced English" class unless you're in a magnet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 8th grader is writing a lot and barely hanging onto a C. Based on my older kids, it gets even more comprehensive in high school. Consider supplementing with a tutor during 7th or 8th grade.

It can also depend a lot on the teacher. In 7th grade English was my kid's most difficult class (despite being in grade 7 algebra and HIGH which are actual accelerated classes), there were a lot of novels assigned, and they were writing a lot of paragraphs and essays, and they had to fight hard to keep an A. In 8th grade, my kid is coasting-not doing much work at all beyond writing a few sentences and taking some multiple choice tests, and has a 99.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For all of DD's subjects, she has not been required to write more than 1-2 sentences for a response. In English so far, she has written 1 paragraph all year.

She is in the "advanced" english class. She's not in the higher level history class- so she may have gotten more writing if she did this.

Straight As in everything...

Yes I thought this was great until my children got to the standardized testing age and discovered that their scores were under par, despite As throughout English classes. I suggest leaving. You can see from current headlines regarding enrollment, that you will be in good company.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For all of DD's subjects, she has not been required to write more than 1-2 sentences for a response. In English so far, she has written 1 paragraph all year.

She is in the "advanced" english class. She's not in the higher level history class- so she may have gotten more writing if she did this.

Straight As in everything...

Yes I thought this was great until my children got to the standardized testing age and discovered that their scores were under par, despite As throughout English classes. I suggest leaving. You can see from current headlines regarding enrollment, that you will be in good company.

DP I wish I could but cannot afford it. I wish people would stop suggesting this in a public school forum. It’s not helpful.

[Anonymous]

You can download any MS English unit (including workbooks and teacher guides) here: https://www.coreknowledge.org/download-free-curriculum/

Unless MCPS is providing supplementary materials as well? What is this Extended Writing Project thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can download any MS English unit (including workbooks and teacher guides) here: https://www.coreknowledge.org/download-free-curriculum/

Unless MCPS is providing supplementary materials as well? What is this Extended Writing Project thing?

During the Extended Writing Project the students are supposed to go through all the steps and process of writing (brainstorming, outline, rough draft, review, revision, final) to generate a full and comprehensive writing assignment. The length, depth, and research requirement of this should obviously increase as students go up through the grades. They should also be covering the different types of writing(Narrative, Argumentative, Persuasive, Expository) that coincides with the reading theme for the quarter.


Also MCPS is hosting three community meetings next week for parents/guardians to preview instructional materials for the second quarter. The “Refrigerator Curriculum” provides a one-page overview of the main themes and texts students will study each marking period.

Secondary curriculum will be previewed Thursday, Oct. 23, 7-8:30 p.m. at Tilden Middle School, 6300 Tilden Lane, Rockville

Elementary curriculum will be previewed Thursday, Oct. 23, 7-8:30 p.m. at Farmland Elementary School, 7000 Old Gate Road, Rockville

MSDE New Math policy will be previewed Tuesday, Oct. 21, 6:30-8 p.m. at Gaithersburg High School, 101 Education Blvd., Gaithersburg

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For all of DD's subjects, she has not been required to write more than 1-2 sentences for a response. In English so far, she has written 1 paragraph all year.

She is in the "advanced" english class. She's not in the higher level history class- so she may have gotten more writing if she did this.

Straight As in everything...

Even in the standard social studies courses, she should have written full paragraph responses by 6th grade and multi paragraph responses by 7th grade. In 6th and 7th grade, this is the common writing task.

In 6th grade, it is whether Hammurabi’s Code was just.

In 7th grade, it’s Inca modifying their environment.

Ask her teacher why students didn’t do the MP1 CWT. There might be a legitimate reason like it is coming next week. Cutting it close to the edge, but doable. It also could be that students did a different authentic assessment.

[Anonymous]

Tell me more about the MSDE math meeting. Is this about the new integrated math?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no writing in middle school beyond filling in braindead templates for braindead essays where every single sentence is assigned a prescribed format.

The exception is the National History Day essay, which is national and not designed by MCPS. That's a long paper, that the kids are completely unprepared for, due to yearlong lack of instruction and feedback, which the teachers grade by eyeballing and then assigning a random score with no feedback on the essay itself.
And this is only for students who choose not to draw a picture as part of a group project instead.

+1

Had an middle schooler getting this "fill in the blank" template, then showing parents the final product without informing them that it was "fill in the blank" - like MadLibs. This in a cluster widely regarded for high performance.

The "draw a picture" was another kiddo's experience. Thankfully this one is now out of MCPS.

Gutting the current MS Humanities program will seal the deal - perhaps the last bastion of actual writing, research, and citations. Boo MCPS.

+2 The problem is not only lack of required writing but also no meaningful feedback or corrections. In ES, all writing was done at school so I could not help DC.

Now that DC is in MS, I can at least see the writing assignments because they are online. Dismayed to see DC writes like a 3rd grader. So what I have been doing is what my public teachers used to do for me: give DC guidance and corrections for every writing assignment (English and HIGH). I do not understand why I have to do this when—in my time—teachers used to do this. Before my intervention, DC didn’t know how to make citations, work in quotations, the list goes on. On the bright side, DC’s writing is finally rapidly improving.

If your kid is not getting a chance to write or get meaningful corrections (ie, if they are an MCPS ES or MS student), I suggest you add this to your DIY mountain. Help them first with short answers. Then when they get the hang of that, work on essay writing. If no one is a good writer at home, then consider outsourcing—but make sure you agree with the teacher’s approach. You don’t want the teacher to make your kid dread writing.

Unfortunately teachers have huge class sizes these days, so they have to grade 150 or more assignments at a time. Spending even 5 minutes giving feedback on each assignment would be over 12 hours of work for every single assignment..

If we want to fix this, we need to advocate for smaller class sizes, more prep time for teachers outside of class, and/or funding for writing grading assistants (I don't think any middle schools have this, and high schools often have just one person to help with all the English classes in the whole school.)

This.

We had a full day of PD today. I drove home and have been grading since 3:35. I only took a break because I am waiting for Door Dash to bring groceries that I don’t have time to pickup since I have to grade 138 document based question paragraphs this long weekend as well as do the planning cancelled by today’s PD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tell me more about the MSDE math meeting. Is this about the new integrated math?

Yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can download any MS English unit (including workbooks and teacher guides) here: https://www.coreknowledge.org/download-free-curriculum/

Unless MCPS is providing supplementary materials as well? What is this Extended Writing Project thing?

During the Extended Writing Project the students are supposed to go through all the steps and process of writing (brainstorming, outline, rough draft, review, revision, final) to generate a full and comprehensive writing assignment. The length, depth, and research requirement of this should obviously increase as students go up through the grades. They should also be covering the different types of writing(Narrative, Argumentative, Persuasive, Expository) that coincides with the reading theme for the quarter.


Also MCPS is hosting three community meetings next week for parents/guardians to preview instructional materials for the second quarter. The “Refrigerator Curriculum” provides a one-page overview of the main themes and texts students will study each marking period.

Secondary curriculum will be previewed Thursday, Oct. 23, 7-8:30 p.m. at Tilden Middle School, 6300 Tilden Lane, Rockville

Elementary curriculum will be previewed Thursday, Oct. 23, 7-8:30 p.m. at Farmland Elementary School, 7000 Old Gate Road, Rockville

MSDE New Math policy will be previewed Tuesday, Oct. 21, 6:30-8 p.m. at Gaithersburg High School, 101 Education Blvd., Gaithersburg

l

Interesting. Are these Extended Writing Projects designed by MCPS central office? I don't suppose there happens to be a link to something on this that parents can read?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no writing in middle school beyond filling in braindead templates for braindead essays where every single sentence is assigned a prescribed format.

The exception is the National History Day essay, which is national and not designed by MCPS. That's a long paper, that the kids are completely unprepared for, due to yearlong lack of instruction and feedback, which the teachers grade by eyeballing and then assigning a random score with no feedback on the essay itself.
And this is only for students who choose not to draw a picture as part of a group project instead.

+1

Had an middle schooler getting this "fill in the blank" template, then showing parents the final product without informing them that it was "fill in the blank" - like MadLibs. This in a cluster widely regarded for high performance.

The "draw a picture" was another kiddo's experience. Thankfully this one is now out of MCPS.

Gutting the current MS Humanities program will seal the deal - perhaps the last bastion of actual writing, research, and citations. Boo MCPS.

+2 The problem is not only lack of required writing but also no meaningful feedback or corrections. In ES, all writing was done at school so I could not help DC.

Now that DC is in MS, I can at least see the writing assignments because they are online. Dismayed to see DC writes like a 3rd grader. So what I have been doing is what my public teachers used to do for me: give DC guidance and corrections for every writing assignment (English and HIGH). I do not understand why I have to do this when—in my time—teachers used to do this. Before my intervention, DC didn’t know how to make citations, work in quotations, the list goes on. On the bright side, DC’s writing is finally rapidly improving.

If your kid is not getting a chance to write or get meaningful corrections (ie, if they are an MCPS ES or MS student), I suggest you add this to your DIY mountain. Help them first with short answers. Then when they get the hang of that, work on essay writing. If no one is a good writer at home, then consider outsourcing—but make sure you agree with the teacher’s approach. You don’t want the teacher to make your kid dread writing.

Unfortunately teachers have huge class sizes these days, so they have to grade 150 or more assignments at a time. Spending even 5 minutes giving feedback on each assignment would be over 12 hours of work for every single assignment..

If we want to fix this, we need to advocate for smaller class sizes, more prep time for teachers outside of class, and/or funding for writing grading assistants (I don't think any middle schools have this, and high schools often have just one person to help with all the English classes in the whole school.)

This.

We had a full day of PD today. I drove home and have been grading since 3:35. I only took a break because I am waiting for Door Dash to bring groceries that I don’t have time to pickup since I have to grade 138 document based question paragraphs this long weekend as well as do the planning cancelled by today’s PD.

Thank you for your service. I’m advocating for lightening teacher load so you great people can do what you were probably called to do in the first place: help students.