No Textbooks in Elementary School; All of FCPS, or Just Schools Near Me?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Textbooks are an outdated practice that are expensive, inflexible, and disliked by students. Schools across the country have stopped using them.

Public schools across the country have stopped using them and justify this by talking about the "expense" of purchasing them. Instead they are spending that money on Chromebooks which have full internet access because everyone knows children have the self-control to focus on the math problems they are supposed to be doing on the screen instead of Youtube videos.
In the meantime Catholic schools are still using textbooks and we can all see the terrible results they are getting in educating children of all socioeconomic backgrounds.

Are catholic schools doing any better than FCPS? Do you have any data to back up your assertion?

Why can’t you look things up on your own? Here’s the data:

https://www.educationnext.org/catholic-schools-are-a-rare-bright-spot-in-nations-report-card-2022-data/

I don't see any mention of FCPS there

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh fun. Another thread about the outdated practice of using textbooks. You don't need textbooks to learn. They rarely match the actual curriculum being taught and are a waste of money. You must also have been really disappointed when encyclopedias went the way of the dodo bird.

Maybe you as an adult don't really need textbooks to learn, but young children definitely do. Most kids cannot learn well from a screen, especially when combined with the noise and distractions from other kids at school. Furthermore, the quality of the current programs leaves much to be desired, when compared with a good book.

As for the OP, yes, everything that you've feared is true. Books are almost completely phased out of schools, kids are more easily distracted and have behavior issues, which leads to admins phasing out more books in favor of tech ed computer programs, which creates more screen addiction, and this cycle feeds back on itself endlessly. Your best bet is to pick and purchase some high quality books for your kids and have them work on them at home under your guidance. It's the hard path because you have to be much more involved than usual, but unfortunately it is what it is, if you care about their education. In today's dumbed down K-12 educational system, this is likely the best outcome if you want your kids to be curious, motivated, and not completely addicted to screens.

No, they don’t. Sorry.

DP. Yes, they do. Sorry. Sitting and mindlessly staring at a screen is doing nothing for your kids, but you do you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh fun. Another thread about the outdated practice of using textbooks. You don't need textbooks to learn. They rarely match the actual curriculum being taught and are a waste of money. You must also have been really disappointed when encyclopedias went the way of the dodo bird.

Oh fun. The usual charming troll is back to tell the rest of us what our kids do and don't need. Newsflash: my kids don't need some idiotic online "textbook" that freezes and glitches and is subject to the whims of our internet actually working. Textbooks are a crucial part of learning WELL.

Sorry. It’s not 1990 anymore. Textbooks aren’t coming back in public schools. Try Catholic.

That's exactly what we plan to do - along with plenty of other families.

[Anonymous]

OP here. So apparently, things have changed drastically.

However, one of my biggest concerns was how the online reading articles didn't seem to match up to the review questions my kid was assigned.

Are the online articles and questions standardized across FCPS at each grade level, or is each teacher expected to pull together their own resources?
In other words, does this mean a good teacher may put more effort into selecting articles and crafting or finding associated review questions, while a crap teacher at the same school (or a different FCPS school) can get away with just slapping some disjointed mess together and assigning it?

In this new (to me) everything online paradigm, where does the oversight and accountability for providing a cogent lesson occur? At the FCPS level? Regional level? The school's grade team? Just the individual teacher?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So apparently, things have changed drastically.

However, one of my biggest concerns was how the online reading articles didn't seem to match up to the review questions my kid was assigned.

Are the online articles and questions standardized across FCPS at each grade level, or is each teacher expected to pull together their own resources?
In other words, does this mean a good teacher may put more effort into selecting articles and crafting or finding associated review questions, while a crap teacher at the same school (or a different FCPS school) can get away with just slapping some disjointed mess together and assigning it?

In this new (to me) everything online paradigm, where does the oversight and accountability for providing a cogent lesson occur? At the FCPS level? Regional level? The school's grade team? Just the individual teacher?

What program is she using for these articles and questions?

[Anonymous]

As a teacher, I would love to have textbooks to use with my students. Textbooks are costly and curriculum changes. I get that. It would be to the benefit it the students, families, and teachers to have access to them. I’d rather money go towards textbooks than the countless PD days we have in our calendar.

[Anonymous]

When I was first hired at fcps about 25 years ago, I was so confused that there were no textbooks. I asked for some and got a “bless your heart.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So my kids in 2nd, 4th and 5th grades don't really have textbooks. Actually, I think the 4th grader has a social studies book, but that's it. Mostly, they're given articles to read online. Their teachers sometimes give them questions to answer based upon the articles online, but I've noticed that often, the assigned questions ask things that aren't answered in the assigned articles. It seems rather lazy to me, and I'm concerned there's something lost by not having textbooks to present an organized lesson containing questions closely assigned to the reading, and with successive lessons clearly building on prior instruction.
I graduated HS back in 1998, so it's been a while, but I remember having several textbooks from elementary through high school, often making book covers out of paper trashbags, ets.

At the risk of sounding like a total luddite:
Is having everything online an FCPS-wide thing?
Is this something that's happening at the middle and high school levels too?
Is this the new normal everywhere?

Yes, it’s normal and good and you sound like a total luddite

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I was first hired at fcps about 25 years ago, I was so confused that there were no textbooks. I asked for some and got a “bless your heart.”

All of the screen time is negatively impacting our students—their behavior, work effort, and attention. It’s maddening!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So apparently, things have changed drastically.

However, one of my biggest concerns was how the online reading articles didn't seem to match up to the review questions my kid was assigned.

Are the online articles and questions standardized across FCPS at each grade level, or is each teacher expected to pull together their own resources?
In other words, does this mean a good teacher may put more effort into selecting articles and crafting or finding associated review questions, while a crap teacher at the same school (or a different FCPS school) can get away with just slapping some disjointed mess together and assigning it?

In this new (to me) everything online paradigm, where does the oversight and accountability for providing a cogent lesson occur? At the FCPS level? Regional level? The school's grade team? Just the individual teacher?

What program is she using for these articles and questions?

No PP, but I’m guessing Newsela

[Anonymous]

The students are sneaky around going on YouTube during LA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh fun. Another thread about the outdated practice of using textbooks. You don't need textbooks to learn. They rarely match the actual curriculum being taught and are a waste of money. You must also have been really disappointed when encyclopedias went the way of the dodo bird.

Oh fun. The usual charming troll is back to tell the rest of us what our kids do and don't need. Newsflash: my kids don't need some idiotic online "textbook" that freezes and glitches and is subject to the whims of our internet actually working. Textbooks are a crucial part of learning WELL.

Sorry. It’s not 1990 anymore. Textbooks aren’t coming back in public schools. Try Catholic.

What data do you have to support textbooks being antiquated? Do you believe students learn best with Lexia, MyOn and random things found on TPT?

[Anonymous]

I’m a teacher and I would love to have math workbooks for the students that match the curriculum (VA SOLs.) Our math slides are a mess, and there are so many quick checks and tasks and games embedded in the pacing guide. It would be amazing for each student to have a physical workbook to write in! Consumables are expensive so I doubt it will happen, but it’s also expensive for me to make 60 copies a day and look on TPT for supplementary supports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh fun. Another thread about the outdated practice of using textbooks. You don't need textbooks to learn. They rarely match the actual curriculum being taught and are a waste of money. You must also have been really disappointed when encyclopedias went the way of the dodo bird.

Oh fun. The usual charming troll is back to tell the rest of us what our kids do and don't need. Newsflash: my kids don't need some idiotic online "textbook" that freezes and glitches and is subject to the whims of our internet actually working. Textbooks are a crucial part of learning WELL.

Sorry. It’s not 1990 anymore. Textbooks aren’t coming back in public schools. Try Catholic.

That's exactly what we plan to do - along with plenty of other families.

We went to an open house at our local k-8 Catholic school. We really liked it and wanted to apply. Since we are not Catholics, our kids are likely not to get in. Apparently there is a lengthy waitlist. We were told precovid we would not of had an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So apparently, things have changed drastically.

However, one of my biggest concerns was how the online reading articles didn't seem to match up to the review questions my kid was assigned.

Are the online articles and questions standardized across FCPS at each grade level, or is each teacher expected to pull together their own resources?
In other words, does this mean a good teacher may put more effort into selecting articles and crafting or finding associated review questions, while a crap teacher at the same school (or a different FCPS school) can get away with just slapping some disjointed mess together and assigning it?

In this new (to me) everything online paradigm, where does the oversight and accountability for providing a cogent lesson occur? At the FCPS level? Regional level? The school's grade team? Just the individual teacher?

What program is she using for these articles and questions?

No PP, but I’m guessing Newsela

Maybe ReadWorks.
Finding materials takes a lot of time. I’m all over the place. I just recently found out Lexia has passages I can use for instruction.