Remind me what FCPS doesn't use textbooks or worksbooks?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've brought this up here many many times and keep getting teachers chiming in that a textbook is limiting. Of course it's limiting. It's not meant to be your only resource. It's meant as a starting point. Uggh. Textbooks were never meant to be the only resource to be used in a school. And then there are the teachers who chime in how easy it is to just make up your curriculum daily and how much freedom they have. Language arts is a joke. Language arts at our school consists of kids getting books from the shelves to read to themselves, read to a friend, or reading books online. I understand teachers don't want to be constrained with a textbook, but it is beyond me why they think random unrelated worksheets and open ended projects with no resources to help guide the student is a better curriculum system than a textbook and workbook.

Yep. Couldn't agree more. Teach grammar and *actual* spelling? Don't be ridiculous! I remember having a spelling and grammar workbook in elementary school that I loved. Language arts was my favorite class. Now I see what passes for "English" instruction and it's appalling. The teachers really don't care that students can't spell or construct a proper sentence/paragraph/essay. If we could afford to go private, we would in a heartbeat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Textbooks don't have to be brought home. They can just be used in school.

Are you kidding? Has your kid never needed to refer to his/her textbook while doing homework? Mine needs hers every single night, particularly to review how to do math problems or work on French grammar and vocabulary. Kids absolutely need textbooks at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've brought this up here many many times and keep getting teachers chiming in that a textbook is limiting. Of course it's limiting. It's not meant to be your only resource. It's meant as a starting point. Uggh. Textbooks were never meant to be the only resource to be used in a school. And then there are the teachers who chime in how easy it is to just make up your curriculum daily and how much freedom they have. Language arts is a joke. Language arts at our school consists of kids getting books from the shelves to read to themselves, read to a friend, or reading books online. I understand teachers don't want to be constrained with a textbook, but it is beyond me why they think random unrelated worksheets and open ended projects with no resources to help guide the student is a better curriculum system than a textbook and workbook.

Yep. Couldn't agree more. Teach grammar and *actual* spelling? Don't be ridiculous! I remember having a spelling and grammar workbook in elementary school that I loved. Language arts was my favorite class. Now I see what passes for "English" instruction and it's appalling. The teachers really don't care that students can't spell or construct a proper sentence/paragraph/essay. If we could afford to go private, we would in a heartbeat.

I'm the public school teacher who posted previously. I didn't have the money either but I can manage Catholic school. It's amazing that the essays my kid used to get As on in public school are now Cs in Catholic school. Yes, they actually expect correct grammar and spelling. It's been an uphill battle but now my kid gets that crap work will no longer earn him an A. His first 2 years of Catholic middle school were riddled with Cs on his report card. He is slowly improving but I wouldn't hesitate to move him again. The financial sacrifice is worth it to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've brought this up here many many times and keep getting teachers chiming in that a textbook is limiting. Of course it's limiting. It's not meant to be your only resource. It's meant as a starting point. Uggh. Textbooks were never meant to be the only resource to be used in a school. And then there are the teachers who chime in how easy it is to just make up your curriculum daily and how much freedom they have. Language arts is a joke. Language arts at our school consists of kids getting books from the shelves to read to themselves, read to a friend, or reading books online. I understand teachers don't want to be constrained with a textbook, but it is beyond me why they think random unrelated worksheets and open ended projects with no resources to help guide the student is a better curriculum system than a textbook and workbook.

Yep. Couldn't agree more. Teach grammar and *actual* spelling? Don't be ridiculous! I remember having a spelling and grammar workbook in elementary school that I loved. Language arts was my favorite class. Now I see what passes for "English" instruction and it's appalling. The teachers really don't care that students can't spell or construct a proper sentence/paragraph/essay. If we could afford to go private, we would in a heartbeat.

I'm the public school teacher who posted previously. I didn't have the money either but I can manage Catholic school. It's amazing that the essays my kid used to get As on in public school are now Cs in Catholic school. Yes, they actually expect correct grammar and spelling. It's been an uphill battle but now my kid gets that crap work will no longer earn him an A. His first 2 years of Catholic middle school were riddled with Cs on his report card. He is slowly improving but I wouldn't hesitate to move him again. The financial sacrifice is worth it to me.

Have you seen the FCPS writing rubrics for usage and mechanics? That's what we use at the elementary level and they're pretty solid on what's expected for grammar and spelling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've brought this up here many many times and keep getting teachers chiming in that a textbook is limiting. Of course it's limiting. It's not meant to be your only resource. It's meant as a starting point. Uggh. Textbooks were never meant to be the only resource to be used in a school. And then there are the teachers who chime in how easy it is to just make up your curriculum daily and how much freedom they have. Language arts is a joke. Language arts at our school consists of kids getting books from the shelves to read to themselves, read to a friend, or reading books online. I understand teachers don't want to be constrained with a textbook, but it is beyond me why they think random unrelated worksheets and open ended projects with no resources to help guide the student is a better curriculum system than a textbook and workbook.

Yep. Couldn't agree more. Teach grammar and *actual* spelling? Don't be ridiculous! I remember having a spelling and grammar workbook in elementary school that I loved. Language arts was my favorite class. Now I see what passes for "English" instruction and it's appalling. The teachers really don't care that students can't spell or construct a proper sentence/paragraph/essay. If we could afford to go private, we would in a heartbeat.

I'm the public school teacher who posted previously. I didn't have the money either but I can manage Catholic school. It's amazing that the essays my kid used to get As on in public school are now Cs in Catholic school. Yes, they actually expect correct grammar and spelling. It's been an uphill battle but now my kid gets that crap work will no longer earn him an A. His first 2 years of Catholic middle school were riddled with Cs on his report card. He is slowly improving but I wouldn't hesitate to move him again. The financial sacrifice is worth it to me.

Have you seen the FCPS writing rubrics for usage and mechanics? That's what we use at the elementary level and they're pretty solid on what's expected for grammar and spelling.

NP. Could you link to it? I'd like to see it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've brought this up here many many times and keep getting teachers chiming in that a textbook is limiting. Of course it's limiting. It's not meant to be your only resource. It's meant as a starting point. Uggh. Textbooks were never meant to be the only resource to be used in a school. And then there are the teachers who chime in how easy it is to just make up your curriculum daily and how much freedom they have. Language arts is a joke. Language arts at our school consists of kids getting books from the shelves to read to themselves, read to a friend, or reading books online. I understand teachers don't want to be constrained with a textbook, but it is beyond me why they think random unrelated worksheets and open ended projects with no resources to help guide the student is a better curriculum system than a textbook and workbook.

Yep. Couldn't agree more. Teach grammar and *actual* spelling? Don't be ridiculous! I remember having a spelling and grammar workbook in elementary school that I loved. Language arts was my favorite class. Now I see what passes for "English" instruction and it's appalling. The teachers really don't care that students can't spell or construct a proper sentence/paragraph/essay. If we could afford to go private, we would in a heartbeat.

I'm the public school teacher who posted previously. I didn't have the money either but I can manage Catholic school. It's amazing that the essays my kid used to get As on in public school are now Cs in Catholic school. Yes, they actually expect correct grammar and spelling. It's been an uphill battle but now my kid gets that crap work will no longer earn him an A. His first 2 years of Catholic middle school were riddled with Cs on his report card. He is slowly improving but I wouldn't hesitate to move him again. The financial sacrifice is worth it to me.

Have you seen the FCPS writing rubrics for usage and mechanics? That's what we use at the elementary level and they're pretty solid on what's expected for grammar and spelling.

That's nice except my son's school did not explicitly teach grammar or spelling. One year he has a substitute for part of the year. She was a retired teacher. She did spelling words and tests. That was the only time spelling was actually taught and tested. I asked about grammar and was told it was taught within lessons. I then asked for an example and she said they did mini lessons on nouns and adjectives. That was it for the entire year. Not acceptable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've brought this up here many many times and keep getting teachers chiming in that a textbook is limiting. Of course it's limiting. It's not meant to be your only resource. It's meant as a starting point. Uggh. Textbooks were never meant to be the only resource to be used in a school. And then there are the teachers who chime in how easy it is to just make up your curriculum daily and how much freedom they have. Language arts is a joke. Language arts at our school consists of kids getting books from the shelves to read to themselves, read to a friend, or reading books online. I understand teachers don't want to be constrained with a textbook, but it is beyond me why they think random unrelated worksheets and open ended projects with no resources to help guide the student is a better curriculum system than a textbook and workbook.

Yep. Couldn't agree more. Teach grammar and *actual* spelling? Don't be ridiculous! I remember having a spelling and grammar workbook in elementary school that I loved. Language arts was my favorite class. Now I see what passes for "English" instruction and it's appalling. The teachers really don't care that students can't spell or construct a proper sentence/paragraph/essay. If we could afford to go private, we would in a heartbeat.

I'm the public school teacher who posted previously. I didn't have the money either but I can manage Catholic school. It's amazing that the essays my kid used to get As on in public school are now Cs in Catholic school. Yes, they actually expect correct grammar and spelling. It's been an uphill battle but now my kid gets that crap work will no longer earn him an A. His first 2 years of Catholic middle school were riddled with Cs on his report card. He is slowly improving but I wouldn't hesitate to move him again. The financial sacrifice is worth it to me.

We had the same experience, only my child is now attending a non-religious private school. The difference between the private school and FCPS is like night and day. The students get a grammar book and a vocabulary workbook every year. His writing ability as well as his overall grades have improved tremendously, and proper reference tools were an important part of that. Some FCPS parents I spoke with were surprised that private school students had to buy textbooks. Well, I was buying textbooks to supplement FCPS classes anyway, so that was not an issue for me.

[Anonymous]

never send a kid to public middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've brought this up here many many times and keep getting teachers chiming in that a textbook is limiting. Of course it's limiting. It's not meant to be your only resource. It's meant as a starting point. Uggh. Textbooks were never meant to be the only resource to be used in a school. And then there are the teachers who chime in how easy it is to just make up your curriculum daily and how much freedom they have. Language arts is a joke. Language arts at our school consists of kids getting books from the shelves to read to themselves, read to a friend, or reading books online. I understand teachers don't want to be constrained with a textbook, but it is beyond me why they think random unrelated worksheets and open ended projects with no resources to help guide the student is a better curriculum system than a textbook and workbook.

Yep. Couldn't agree more. Teach grammar and *actual* spelling? Don't be ridiculous! I remember having a spelling and grammar workbook in elementary school that I loved. Language arts was my favorite class. Now I see what passes for "English" instruction and it's appalling. The teachers really don't care that students can't spell or construct a proper sentence/paragraph/essay. If we could afford to go private, we would in a heartbeat.

I'm the public school teacher who posted previously. I didn't have the money either but I can manage Catholic school. It's amazing that the essays my kid used to get As on in public school are now Cs in Catholic school. Yes, they actually expect correct grammar and spelling. It's been an uphill battle but now my kid gets that crap work will no longer earn him an A. His first 2 years of Catholic middle school were riddled with Cs on his report card. He is slowly improving but I wouldn't hesitate to move him again. The financial sacrifice is worth it to me.

Have you seen the FCPS writing rubrics for usage and mechanics? That's what we use at the elementary level and they're pretty solid on what's expected for grammar and spelling.

Who cares if there is a rubric for the teacher. That information never gets to the student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Textbooks don't have to be brought home. They can just be used in school.

Are you kidding? Has your kid never needed to refer to his/her textbook while doing homework? Mine needs hers every single night, particularly to review how to do math problems or work on French grammar and vocabulary. Kids absolutely need textbooks at home.

They can use an online version.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:never send a kid to public middle school.

AAP Centers at Carson, RRMS, Longfellow, etc blow most privates out of the water. I don’t know anyone with an AAP qualified kid in the Western County going private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've brought this up here many many times and keep getting teachers chiming in that a textbook is limiting. Of course it's limiting. It's not meant to be your only resource. It's meant as a starting point. Uggh. Textbooks were never meant to be the only resource to be used in a school. And then there are the teachers who chime in how easy it is to just make up your curriculum daily and how much freedom they have. Language arts is a joke. Language arts at our school consists of kids getting books from the shelves to read to themselves, read to a friend, or reading books online. I understand teachers don't want to be constrained with a textbook, but it is beyond me why they think random unrelated worksheets and open ended projects with no resources to help guide the student is a better curriculum system than a textbook and workbook.

Yep. Couldn't agree more. Teach grammar and *actual* spelling? Don't be ridiculous! I remember having a spelling and grammar workbook in elementary school that I loved. Language arts was my favorite class. Now I see what passes for "English" instruction and it's appalling. The teachers really don't care that students can't spell or construct a proper sentence/paragraph/essay. If we could afford to go private, we would in a heartbeat.

I'm the public school teacher who posted previously. I didn't have the money either but I can manage Catholic school. It's amazing that the essays my kid used to get As on in public school are now Cs in Catholic school. Yes, they actually expect correct grammar and spelling. It's been an uphill battle but now my kid gets that crap work will no longer earn him an A. His first 2 years of Catholic middle school were riddled with Cs on his report card. He is slowly improving but I wouldn't hesitate to move him again. The financial sacrifice is worth it to me.

Have you seen the FCPS writing rubrics for usage and mechanics? That's what we use at the elementary level and they're pretty solid on what's expected for grammar and spelling.

Who cares if there is a rubric for the teacher. That information never gets to the student.

The information does get to the student. There is a Composition and Written Expression rubric for each type of writing plus a Usage and Mechanics rubric. Each has a teacher and student version. At my school we basically use the student version.

At the beginning of a writing unit we read and discuss various examples. These serve as anchor papers and we discuss where each piece falls on the rubric. We also use read aloud books during reading for mentor texts. The students are aware of their rubric throughout the entire writing process. They receive the scored rubric with their final, published piece. The rubrics also come in handy during parent-teacher conferences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've brought this up here many many times and keep getting teachers chiming in that a textbook is limiting. Of course it's limiting. It's not meant to be your only resource. It's meant as a starting point. Uggh. Textbooks were never meant to be the only resource to be used in a school. And then there are the teachers who chime in how easy it is to just make up your curriculum daily and how much freedom they have. Language arts is a joke. Language arts at our school consists of kids getting books from the shelves to read to themselves, read to a friend, or reading books online. I understand teachers don't want to be constrained with a textbook, but it is beyond me why they think random unrelated worksheets and open ended projects with no resources to help guide the student is a better curriculum system than a textbook and workbook.

Yep. Couldn't agree more. Teach grammar and *actual* spelling? Don't be ridiculous! I remember having a spelling and grammar workbook in elementary school that I loved. Language arts was my favorite class. Now I see what passes for "English" instruction and it's appalling. The teachers really don't care that students can't spell or construct a proper sentence/paragraph/essay. If we could afford to go private, we would in a heartbeat.

I'm the public school teacher who posted previously. I didn't have the money either but I can manage Catholic school. It's amazing that the essays my kid used to get As on in public school are now Cs in Catholic school. Yes, they actually expect correct grammar and spelling. It's been an uphill battle but now my kid gets that crap work will no longer earn him an A. His first 2 years of Catholic middle school were riddled with Cs on his report card. He is slowly improving but I wouldn't hesitate to move him again. The financial sacrifice is worth it to me.

Have you seen the FCPS writing rubrics for usage and mechanics? That's what we use at the elementary level and they're pretty solid on what's expected for grammar and spelling.

NP. Could you link to it? I'd like to see it.

I don't know if there is a link that would work, but I can paste some of the text. For example, this is what equates to a "3" on the third grade writing rubric:

Usage and Mechanics:
• I spelled all everyday words correctly.
• I spelled all homophones correctly.
• When I misspelled words, I used my knowledge of word patterns (-ough) and spelling generalizations (Use –ous as the suffix when the word is an adjective—dangerous. Use -us as the suffix when the word is a noun--bonus.) to help me.
• Most other words are spelled correctly.

Capitalization:
• Most of my capitalization, including words in the title of my selection, is correct.

Punctuation:
All of my ending punctuation, apostrophes in contractions, quotation marks (in dialogue and quotes), singular possessives, and plural possessives are used correctly. (The cat’s toy means one cat has a toy. The cats’ toy means two or more cats have the same toy.)
• I punctuated using commas in a series correctly (Johnny like to play football, go to the movies, and sleep in late on weekends.), commas in dates correctly, and other commas correctly.

Usage:
• I used most of the following correctly:
? subject-verb agreements
? noun-pronoun agreements
? adverbs
? past and present tense verbs
? I in the subject of sentences
? a, an, and the
? prepositional phrases

Sentence Structure:
• I used a variety of complete simple, compound, and complex sentences.
• I sometimes made my sentences stronger by including phrases and clauses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've brought this up here many many times and keep getting teachers chiming in that a textbook is limiting. Of course it's limiting. It's not meant to be your only resource. It's meant as a starting point. Uggh. Textbooks were never meant to be the only resource to be used in a school. And then there are the teachers who chime in how easy it is to just make up your curriculum daily and how much freedom they have. Language arts is a joke. Language arts at our school consists of kids getting books from the shelves to read to themselves, read to a friend, or reading books online. I understand teachers don't want to be constrained with a textbook, but it is beyond me why they think random unrelated worksheets and open ended projects with no resources to help guide the student is a better curriculum system than a textbook and workbook.

Yep. Couldn't agree more. Teach grammar and *actual* spelling? Don't be ridiculous! I remember having a spelling and grammar workbook in elementary school that I loved. Language arts was my favorite class. Now I see what passes for "English" instruction and it's appalling. The teachers really don't care that students can't spell or construct a proper sentence/paragraph/essay. If we could afford to go private, we would in a heartbeat.

I'm the public school teacher who posted previously. I didn't have the money either but I can manage Catholic school. It's amazing that the essays my kid used to get As on in public school are now Cs in Catholic school. Yes, they actually expect correct grammar and spelling. It's been an uphill battle but now my kid gets that crap work will no longer earn him an A. His first 2 years of Catholic middle school were riddled with Cs on his report card. He is slowly improving but I wouldn't hesitate to move him again. The financial sacrifice is worth it to me.

Have you seen the FCPS writing rubrics for usage and mechanics? That's what we use at the elementary level and they're pretty solid on what's expected for grammar and spelling.

Who cares if there is a rubric for the teacher. That information never gets to the student.

The information does get to the student. There is a Composition and Written Expression rubric for each type of writing plus a Usage and Mechanics rubric. Each has a teacher and student version. At my school we basically use the student version.

At the beginning of a writing unit we read and discuss various examples. These serve as anchor papers and we discuss where each piece falls on the rubric. We also use read aloud books during reading for mentor texts. The students are aware of their rubric throughout the entire writing process. They receive the scored rubric with their final, published piece. The rubrics also come in handy during parent-teacher conferences.

That's great for your kids. Not for the students that have teachers who don't teach writing. Our elementary school does not give out rubrics to students, does not have checklists for writing, and does not get graded on a rubric for most of their writing and often doesn't get graded at all. In fact, often there is no writing assigned. No writing, no need for the rubric I guess. In addition, there is very little direct instruction on grammar and writing. The students aren't given anything to practice on prior to doing their larger assignments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've brought this up here many many times and keep getting teachers chiming in that a textbook is limiting. Of course it's limiting. It's not meant to be your only resource. It's meant as a starting point. Uggh. Textbooks were never meant to be the only resource to be used in a school. And then there are the teachers who chime in how easy it is to just make up your curriculum daily and how much freedom they have. Language arts is a joke. Language arts at our school consists of kids getting books from the shelves to read to themselves, read to a friend, or reading books online. I understand teachers don't want to be constrained with a textbook, but it is beyond me why they think random unrelated worksheets and open ended projects with no resources to help guide the student is a better curriculum system than a textbook and workbook.

Yep. Couldn't agree more. Teach grammar and *actual* spelling? Don't be ridiculous! I remember having a spelling and grammar workbook in elementary school that I loved. Language arts was my favorite class. Now I see what passes for "English" instruction and it's appalling. The teachers really don't care that students can't spell or construct a proper sentence/paragraph/essay. If we could afford to go private, we would in a heartbeat.

I'm the public school teacher who posted previously. I didn't have the money either but I can manage Catholic school. It's amazing that the essays my kid used to get As on in public school are now Cs in Catholic school. Yes, they actually expect correct grammar and spelling. It's been an uphill battle but now my kid gets that crap work will no longer earn him an A. His first 2 years of Catholic middle school were riddled with Cs on his report card. He is slowly improving but I wouldn't hesitate to move him again. The financial sacrifice is worth it to me.

Have you seen the FCPS writing rubrics for usage and mechanics? That's what we use at the elementary level and they're pretty solid on what's expected for grammar and spelling.

Who cares if there is a rubric for the teacher. That information never gets to the student.

The information does get to the student. There is a Composition and Written Expression rubric for each type of writing plus a Usage and Mechanics rubric. Each has a teacher and student version. At my school we basically use the student version.

At the beginning of a writing unit we read and discuss various examples. These serve as anchor papers and we discuss where each piece falls on the rubric. We also use read aloud books during reading for mentor texts. The students are aware of their rubric throughout the entire writing process. They receive the scored rubric with their final, published piece. The rubrics also come in handy during parent-teacher conferences.

That's great for your kids. Not for the students that have teachers who don't teach writing. Our elementary school does not give out rubrics to students, does not have checklists for writing, and does not get graded on a rubric for most of their writing and often doesn't get graded at all. In fact, often there is no writing assigned. No writing, no need for the rubric I guess. In addition, there is very little direct instruction on grammar and writing. The students aren't given anything to practice on prior to doing their larger assignments.

Well this thread is about FCPS as a whole and my example shows you can't blanket statement the whole district based on your experience alone.

There are standards for writing. We do have a Pacing Guide and district expectations for writing. If your elementary is dropping the ball I'm sorry about that but I don't know what else to say.