New mcps 6th grade course: historical inquiry into global humanities 6?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher reads the Cat in the Hat aloud to the class four days in a row. Here’s the difference in GT vs. non-GT students’ thought processes and actions:

Non-gifted student #1: I’m bored.

Non-gifted student #2: I get it already, Lady!

Non-gifted student #3: If she’s repeating it, it must important. I’m going to see if she is emphasizing the same words each time.

Non-gifted student #4: Zzzzzzzzzzzz

Gifted student #5: Where is the dad? Maybe he’s a government scientist who has experimented on talking animals. That would explain the Cat and the Fish. The Fish looks nothing like the ones I saw last week at the aquarium. I wonder what species it might be. Let’s see... it doesn’t have stripes, so it’s not a...

Gifted student #6: What happens if I change Dr. Suess’s writing style? I’ll rewrite this page as a haiku. And the next as a sijo.


Parents and some untrained teachers confused the attitudes of students 3 and 4 with giftedness. The gifted student has a transformative experience when engaging content repeatedly. Think of a highly gifted young musician who may quickly learn a new composition, but their execution of each gets richer and more textured with each practice. Repetition is an opportunity to dig deeper that even GT kids need.

No, I'm sorry. This is a GT myth. Some GT kids behave as numbers 5 an 6, but not all. I have a gifted kid with an IQ of 150. She was reading complicated adult books in 2nd grade. She would respond as non-GT kids 1,2 and 4, and so would many of her friends. One time a teacher gave her a book to read as extra homework. It was an adult non-fiction book of 300+ pages. DD brought it back the next day. The teacher, patronizingly, asked her if it was too hard. DD said, no she'd finished it. The teacher didn't believe her and quizzed DD, who indeed had finished it and understood it perfectly. From then on, the teacher left her alone to do what she wanted in class. DD spent most of class reading on her iPhone, in areas of interest that she loves. That's fine. She didn't want to listen to a teacher painfully read out loud a story that she finished 6 weeks ago in 15 minutes. It was literally going to make her crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher reads the Cat in the Hat aloud to the class four days in a row. Here’s the difference in GT vs. non-GT students’ thought processes and actions:

Non-gifted student #1: I’m bored.

Non-gifted student #2: I get it already, Lady!

Non-gifted student #3: If she’s repeating it, it must important. I’m going to see if she is emphasizing the same words each time.

Non-gifted student #4: Zzzzzzzzzzzz

Gifted student #5: Where is the dad? Maybe he’s a government scientist who has experimented on talking animals. That would explain the Cat and the Fish. The Fish looks nothing like the ones I saw last week at the aquarium. I wonder what species it might be. Let’s see... it doesn’t have stripes, so it’s not a...

Gifted student #6: What happens if I change Dr. Suess’s writing style? I’ll rewrite this page as a haiku. And the next as a sijo.


Parents and some untrained teachers confused the attitudes of students 3 and 4 with giftedness. The gifted student has a transformative experience when engaging content repeatedly. Think of a highly gifted young musician who may quickly learn a new composition, but their execution of each gets richer and more textured with each practice. Repetition is an opportunity to dig deeper that even GT kids need.

No, I'm sorry. This is a GT myth. Some GT kids behave as numbers 5 an 6, but not all. I have a gifted kid with an IQ of 150. She was reading complicated adult books in 2nd grade. She would respond as non-GT kids 1,2 and 4, and so would many of her friends. One time a teacher gave her a book to read as extra homework. It was an adult non-fiction book of 300+ pages. DD brought it back the next day. The teacher, patronizingly, asked her if it was too hard. DD said, no she'd finished it. The teacher didn't believe her and quizzed DD, who indeed had finished it and understood it perfectly. From then on, the teacher left her alone to do what she wanted in class. DD spent most of class reading on her iPhone, in areas of interest that she loves. That's fine. She didn't want to listen to a teacher painfully read out loud a story that she finished 6 weeks ago in 15 minutes. It was literally going to make her crazy.

So your child shows her giftedness through voracious reading and adult level reading recall and comprehension? What else is she doing besides consuming content made by others?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Re: reading aloud in HS.

I went to a fancy private school with brilliant teachers. My honors English teacher had a PhD and was involved with the Folger Theater. She would read passages to us for a variety of reasons: to demonstrate proper articulation of Shakespeare (which isn't intuitive for all students), to focus attention on a scene we would discuss further, to help everyone understand something important, etc. I doubt the entire class is listening to the teacher read for an entire class. It sounds like that poster's kid is exaggerating. And perhaps the teacher is slowing it down and reading aloud to help students who are struggling...and the pp's kid could be in that boat.

Lastly, I had college professors read aloud, too. It's a positive teaching strategy.

Anyone else think it's really sad that mcps has become such a cookie cutter teach to the test experiment that parents like that pp are proud that their kid can "read fast"? Um, literature isn't meant to be read "fast." Literature should be read at a leisurely pace and prompt reflection. Just because you can read Romeo and Juliet in 90 minutes doesn't mean you should.

I am PP to whom you refer. I'm not exaggerating at all.

Great for you, if your teacher was a Shakesperean actor. Let me assure you, that this teacher was not. Also, I have another child who is dyslexic. Read aloud in class is not an appropriate support for dyslexic DC. Dyslexic DC should be given access to a book on tape read by a real person linked to highlighted text which moves as the live person speaks the lines. MCPS doesn't provide access like this to materials. It should be doing so. So, we pay for it privately through Learning Ally or by buying matched materials through Amazon or Audible. And, if it's for struggling students, other kids who DO understand and have finished should be allowed to amuse themselves in any non-disruptive way, including by reading their own books. Finally, many GT kids can read fast and reflect at the same time.

Read aloud a supporting quote or a prompt, sure. Read aloud for pages and pages... for the entire class? No. Yet, this is what MCPS has sunk to and why I have my doubts about a GT class which has absolutely no specific descriptors the summer before it will be introduced. MCPS does this -- insert high level texts without appropriate supports to a mixed ability group -- and then counts that as "accelerated" because the students have been "exposed" to high level text. It doesn't help the GT learners, who are bored to tears. And, it doesn't help the struggling learners who don't get the appropriate support to engage in the text either. My DD is bored. My dyslexic DD isn't given the appropriate tools to access the book nor is he given the special instruction he needs to be able to write the essay explaining how he understands the text. Let him talk to you for awhile and you'll get that he understands the play, but neither of them have been served by the "GT" curriculum, although MCPS thinks they're doing great......

[Anonymous]

" this is what MCPS has sunk to"
This is what 1 MCPS teacher is doing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: reading aloud in HS.

I went to a fancy private school with brilliant teachers. My honors English teacher had a PhD and was involved with the Folger Theater. She would read passages to us for a variety of reasons: to demonstrate proper articulation of Shakespeare (which isn't intuitive for all students), to focus attention on a scene we would discuss further, to help everyone understand something important, etc. I doubt the entire class is listening to the teacher read for an entire class. It sounds like that poster's kid is exaggerating. And perhaps the teacher is slowing it down and reading aloud to help students who are struggling...and the pp's kid could be in that boat.

Lastly, I had college professors read aloud, too. It's a positive teaching strategy.

Anyone else think it's really sad that mcps has become such a cookie cutter teach to the test experiment that parents like that pp are proud that their kid can "read fast"? Um, literature isn't meant to be read "fast." Literature should be read at a leisurely pace and prompt reflection. Just because you can read Romeo and Juliet in 90 minutes doesn't mean you should.

I am PP to whom you refer. I'm not exaggerating at all.

Great for you, if your teacher was a Shakesperean actor. Let me assure you, that this teacher was not. Also, I have another child who is dyslexic. Read aloud in class is not an appropriate support for dyslexic DC. Dyslexic DC should be given access to a book on tape read by a real person linked to highlighted text which moves as the live person speaks the lines. MCPS doesn't provide access like this to materials. It should be doing so. So, we pay for it privately through Learning Ally or by buying matched materials through Amazon or Audible. And, if it's for struggling students, other kids who DO understand and have finished should be allowed to amuse themselves in any non-disruptive way, including by reading their own books. Finally, many GT kids can read fast and reflect at the same time.

Read aloud a supporting quote or a prompt, sure. Read aloud for pages and pages... for the entire class? No. Yet, this is what MCPS has sunk to and why I have my doubts about a GT class which has absolutely no specific descriptors the summer before it will be introduced. MCPS does this -- insert high level texts without appropriate supports to a mixed ability group -- and then counts that as "accelerated" because the students have been "exposed" to high level text. It doesn't help the GT learners, who are bored to tears. And, it doesn't help the struggling learners who don't get the appropriate support to engage in the text either. My DD is bored. My dyslexic DD isn't given the appropriate tools to access the book nor is he given the special instruction he needs to be able to write the essay explaining how he understands the text. Let him talk to you for awhile and you'll get that he understands the play, but neither of them have been served by the "GT" curriculum, although MCPS thinks they're doing great......

Are your children in CES or Eastern magnet or are you talking about advanced classes at middle schools? You are talking about one teacher. This is not my older child's experience at Eastern magnet or both children at HGC/CES. My youngest will be attending local MS and enrolled in this new class. The class description is similar to the Eastern humanities class description. I agree that the description doesn't convey a lot of info, but neither does the descriptions for the magnet classes. Is your child even enrolled in this class for the fall? Why are you so worked up on something that doesn't seem like it concerns you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:


Parents and some untrained teachers confused the attitudes of students 3 and 4 with giftedness. The gifted student has a transformative experience when engaging content repeatedly. Think of a highly gifted young musician who may quickly learn a new composition, but their execution of each gets richer and more textured with each practice. Repetition is an opportunity to dig deeper that even GT kids need.

Maybe, but being in the same room as the teacher reading the Cat in the Hat aloud to the class four days in a row is not "engaging content repeatedly". It's being in the same room as the teacher reading the Cat in the Hat aloud four days in a row. Does the student engage with this reading? Perhaps. If Daniel Day Lewis were reading it to me, probably I would; if my dreary tenth-grade English teacher were reading it to me, I wouldn't. I'd stare out the window/do my math homework/read a different book under my desk/doodle/write notes to my friends (on the theme of "I'm so bored!")/fall asleep.

Feel free to respond by telling me that obviously I wasn't a gifted student.

[Anonymous]

I'm so sick of parents who complain their "gifted" kids are bored.

I tested off the charts, multiple grades ahead when I was a kid. But I went to catholic school, so I wasn't allowed to be a little jerk in class. Smart kids pay attention regardless of the content because...wait for it...smart kids realize their active participation and good behavior *matter.*

As a lawyer in DC, I am shocked by the precious snowflakes I encounter in the workplace.

-One young associate confessed his mother edited ALL of his papers in HS, college and law school. I'm wondering if she still does (she's a lawyer in another field).

-One professional level staffer (without a JD) complained that our meetings are "too long and boring," and she constantly checks her phone and sometimes closes her eyes (she says it's a disability and she received accommodations for it in school, but hasn't raised it with her supervisor or HR).

-One entry level admin staff constantly whines about the work being too easy and boring for her. Um, hello...you're a secretary. Do your job, or leave.

Trust me, parents. You aren't doing your kids any favors by indulging their alleged GT status and boredom.

Lastly, I know some of these "gifted" kids and their parents. I'm struck by the fact that parents gloss over obvious shortcomings and lash out at teachers. "My kid is reading X grade levels ahead, and is clearly gifted---but struggles with comprehension and testing. It's the teacher's fault!" Um, no...it's your fault for erroneously believing your kid is truly gifted just because he can read words in advanced books. Guess what? Most kids can.

"My kid is gifted, but she refuses to read and doing homework is a battle. It's the teacher's fault!" Um, no. Again: bookworms love to read for pleasure (I did). Your kid doesn't. Your kid is not a bookworm. Accept it, and move on.

"My kid is constantly in trouble in class...and it's the teacher's fault for not challenging him enough because he's gifted and bored!" Um, no...your kid is just misbehaving and you should take steps to address his behavior instead of defending him.

[Anonymous]

11:38 Judge much? What information did you add to this thread about the enriched 6th grade social studies course?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher reads the Cat in the Hat aloud to the class four days in a row. Here’s the difference in GT vs. non-GT students’ thought processes and actions:

Non-gifted student #1: I’m bored.

Non-gifted student #2: I get it already, Lady!

Non-gifted student #3: If she’s repeating it, it must important. I’m going to see if she is emphasizing the same words each time.

Non-gifted student #4: Zzzzzzzzzzzz

Gifted student #5: Where is the dad? Maybe he’s a government scientist who has experimented on talking animals. That would explain the Cat and the Fish. The Fish looks nothing like the ones I saw last week at the aquarium. I wonder what species it might be. Let’s see... it doesn’t have stripes, so it’s not a...

Gifted student #6: What happens if I change Dr. Suess’s writing style? I’ll rewrite this page as a haiku. And the next as a sijo.


Parents and some untrained teachers confused the attitudes of students 3 and 4 with giftedness. The gifted student has a transformative experience when engaging content repeatedly. Think of a highly gifted young musician who may quickly learn a new composition, but their execution of each gets richer and more textured with each practice. Repetition is an opportunity to dig deeper that even GT kids need.

Sounds like all those kids are gifted. Or at least they're unchallenged and unengaged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


Parents and some untrained teachers confused the attitudes of students 3 and 4 with giftedness. The gifted student has a transformative experience when engaging content repeatedly. Think of a highly gifted young musician who may quickly learn a new composition, but their execution of each gets richer and more textured with each practice. Repetition is an opportunity to dig deeper that even GT kids need.

Maybe, but being in the same room as the teacher reading the Cat in the Hat aloud to the class four days in a row is not "engaging content repeatedly". It's being in the same room as the teacher reading the Cat in the Hat aloud four days in a row. Does the student engage with this reading? Perhaps. If Daniel Day Lewis were reading it to me, probably I would; if my dreary tenth-grade English teacher were reading it to me, I wouldn't. I'd stare out the window/do my math homework/read a different book under my desk/doodle/write notes to my friends (on the theme of "I'm so bored!")/fall asleep.

Feel free to respond by telling me that obviously I wasn't a gifted student.

I think you were probably gifted in ES, but went off the rails.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


Parents and some untrained teachers confused the attitudes of students 3 and 4 with giftedness. The gifted student has a transformative experience when engaging content repeatedly. Think of a highly gifted young musician who may quickly learn a new composition, but their execution of each gets richer and more textured with each practice. Repetition is an opportunity to dig deeper that even GT kids need.

Maybe, but being in the same room as the teacher reading the Cat in the Hat aloud to the class four days in a row is not "engaging content repeatedly". It's being in the same room as the teacher reading the Cat in the Hat aloud four days in a row. Does the student engage with this reading? Perhaps. If Daniel Day Lewis were reading it to me, probably I would; if my dreary tenth-grade English teacher were reading it to me, I wouldn't. I'd stare out the window/do my math homework/read a different book under my desk/doodle/write notes to my friends (on the theme of "I'm so bored!")/fall asleep.

Feel free to respond by telling me that obviously I wasn't a gifted student.

I think you were probably gifted in ES, but went off the rails.

A teacher reading the entire assigned reading aloud went off the rails.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm so sick of parents who complain their "gifted" kids are bored.

I tested off the charts, multiple grades ahead when I was a kid. But I went to catholic school, so I wasn't allowed to be a little jerk in class. Smart kids pay attention regardless of the content because...wait for it...smart kids realize their active participation and good behavior *matter.*

As a lawyer in DC, I am shocked by the precious snowflakes I encounter in the workplace.

-One young associate confessed his mother edited ALL of his papers in HS, college and law school. I'm wondering if she still does (she's a lawyer in another field).

-One professional level staffer (without a JD) complained that our meetings are "too long and boring," and she constantly checks her phone and sometimes closes her eyes (she says it's a disability and she received accommodations for it in school, but hasn't raised it with her supervisor or HR).

-One entry level admin staff constantly whines about the work being too easy and boring for her. Um, hello...you're a secretary. Do your job, or leave.

Trust me, parents. You aren't doing your kids any favors by indulging their alleged GT status and boredom.

Lastly, I know some of these "gifted" kids and their parents. I'm struck by the fact that parents gloss over obvious shortcomings and lash out at teachers. "My kid is reading X grade levels ahead, and is clearly gifted---but struggles with comprehension and testing. It's the teacher's fault!" Um, no...it's your fault for erroneously believing your kid is truly gifted just because he can read words in advanced books. Guess what? Most kids can.

"My kid is gifted, but she refuses to read and doing homework is a battle. It's the teacher's fault!" Um, no. Again: bookworms love to read for pleasure (I did). Your kid doesn't. Your kid is not a bookworm. Accept it, and move on.

"My kid is constantly in trouble in class...and it's the teacher's fault for not challenging him enough because he's gifted and bored!" Um, no...your kid is just misbehaving and you should take steps to address his behavior instead of defending him.

This is a classic! Kids who can decode and give dictionary definitions, but when asked for an analysis, they can only restate in different words. Not their fault. I blame the parents and to some extent, elem teachers who are either unqualified to assess giftedness or just trying to get aggressive GT-label seeking parents off their backs. Ultimately very unfair to the mislabeled student, the truly GT kids in the class, and the teachers. Once the GT label has been given, it can not be removed. The kid that was the advanced reader in early elementary, but peaks in third and then evens out to high average or just plain average will retain the GT label his well-meaning elem team applied.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


Parents and some untrained teachers confused the attitudes of students 3 and 4 with giftedness. The gifted student has a transformative experience when engaging content repeatedly. Think of a highly gifted young musician who may quickly learn a new composition, but their execution of each gets richer and more textured with each practice. Repetition is an opportunity to dig deeper that even GT kids need.

Maybe, but being in the same room as the teacher reading the Cat in the Hat aloud to the class four days in a row is not "engaging content repeatedly". It's being in the same room as the teacher reading the Cat in the Hat aloud four days in a row. Does the student engage with this reading? Perhaps. If Daniel Day Lewis were reading it to me, probably I would; if my dreary tenth-grade English teacher were reading it to me, I wouldn't. I'd stare out the window/do my math homework/read a different book under my desk/doodle/write notes to my friends (on the theme of "I'm so bored!")/fall asleep.

Feel free to respond by telling me that obviously I wasn't a gifted student.

I think you were probably gifted in ES, but went off the rails.

A teacher reading the entire assigned reading aloud went off the rails.

You do not seem very gifted now when you are stuck on one teacher and can not stop yourself from applying it universally to every MCPS classroom. Clearly this traumatized you and you should find a professional who can help you move on. For your child’s sake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Intelligent people don’t fall asleep when they are bored. They entertain themselves.

Well, when you're a kid in a classroom, where the teacher is reading aloud a book that is far too simplistic and slow for you, and you are not allowed to be doing anything else or have anything else out on your desk, then you might fall asleep too. The same teacher took away a kid's copy of King Lear, which he was hiding and reading under his desk and chastised him.

I cannot agree with this more!

+1 teens especially will fall asleep in a boring class, no matter how smart/dumb they are, if all they are allowed to do is listen to a teacher droning . WTF a MS teacher reading a book out loud to the class? I would challenge an adult not to fall asleep in such a class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:11:38 Judge much? What information did you add to this thread about the enriched 6th grade social studies course?

Hopefully it was a reality check for parents of ill-behaved kids.