World History class - where are the books??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid in AP world history came home with an enormous textbook.

What textbook?

It is Traditions and Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past.

6th edition; McGraw Hill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have textbooks in our World 2 class, but we don't use them exclusively. Gone are the days of reading 5 pages in class and then answering questions. We use a combination of the textbook, various websites, Edpuzzle, videos, etc. in our classes.

OP here. I'm a teacher too, so I understand the enormous pressure to believe the nonsense "pedagogy" that FCPS pushes down its teachers' throats. But if we allow ourselves to use critical thinking skills, we can see that reading 5 pages on the internet and answering questions is not any better than reading 5 written pages and then answering questions. At the very least, those written pages were coming from reliable, peer-reviewed sources and not some anonymous content creator on the internet. Also, it's a myth that back when we had textbooks all teachers did was read aloud from the book and do fill-in-the-blank. Only the bad teachers did that, and bad teachers are not any better without books than they were with them. Most of us used the book as a resource and did a variety of other activities in class. The use of random internet resources is just a substitution of a lot of cheap, low-quality materials in place of reliable, informative text.

Do you teach with FCPS? If you are, then you know how things are, and you created this post to troll and stir the pot.

I am not currently an FCPS teacher, and have never taught in high school. I don't see how it's a troll post to ask if World History with no textbooks is common for all FCPS high schools. And it's not stirring the pot to point out how poor the county's approach to teaching methology can be. Your accusation of "stirring the pot" just looks like an attempt to discredit legitimate criticisms and observations.

Because anybody who’s been with FCPS for more than a year, knows the answers to your questions, and knows that ideas like yours have been hashed out many times on this forum.

Keep in mind that even if FCPS stopped using textbooks years ago and much discussed on DCUM, many of our children are just now reaching the age where this topic really comes to our attention

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We experienced no textbooks in 9th or 10th grade honors history and bam! huge dense book for APUSH and a teacher who says "read and take notes on a whole chapter before the next class. zero modeling of note-taking or guidance in how to do this. just an expectation that kids who've never had a textbook will know how to do this.

They probably expect that the APUSH kids took AP World where they spend a lot of time on learning note taking.

My kids did not learn this in AP World.

[Anonymous]

There is an additional issue here that nobody is considering. The current 11th grade is the group that missed most of middle school due to COVID. People have a bad opinion of middle school but, quite frankly, this is when kids learn skills like, note taking, prepping for tests, independence, how to ask for help, and many more life and school skills. It's caught up with them in school but the junior year teachers haven't flexed with the fact that the kids they teach now are not at all the same as the kids they taught 5 or 10 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is an additional issue here that nobody is considering. The current 11th grade is the group that missed most of middle school due to COVID. People have a bad opinion of middle school but, quite frankly, this is when kids learn skills like, note taking, prepping for tests, independence, how to ask for help, and many more life and school skills. It's caught up with them in school but the junior year teachers haven't flexed with the fact that the kids they teach now are not at all the same as the kids they taught 5 or 10 years ago.

Honestly, COVID and being virtual probably helped my kid with those skills more than going to middle school did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is an additional issue here that nobody is considering. The current 11th grade is the group that missed most of middle school due to COVID. People have a bad opinion of middle school but, quite frankly, this is when kids learn skills like, note taking, prepping for tests, independence, how to ask for help, and many more life and school skills. It's caught up with them in school but the junior year teachers haven't flexed with the fact that the kids they teach now are not at all the same as the kids they taught 5 or 10 years ago.

Honestly, COVID and being virtual probably helped my kid with those skills more than going to middle school did.

I'm glad it worked so well for your kid. Most kids have lost a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. I'm sorry if this is a dumb question but if there is no textbook what do they test on? If they are all finding information on various websites then what do they study? Are the tests essays or multiple choice? I would be puzzled on how to help my kid prepare.

You shouldn’t be helping your child to prepare for a test. A teen who is in high school should be old enough to figure out how to prepare for tests in his own classes. What will your child do when it’s time for college if you are preparing him/her for every test

This is not correct. Many 9th graders have NO idea HOW to study for an exam. Learning this skill is important, and just like other skills, it is better to teach it and then back off than to let your child figure it out through trial and error.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. I'm sorry if this is a dumb question but if there is no textbook what do they test on? If they are all finding information on various websites then what do they study? Are the tests essays or multiple choice? I would be puzzled on how to help my kid prepare.

You shouldn’t be helping your child to prepare for a test. A teen who is in high school should be old enough to figure out how to prepare for tests in his own classes. What will your child do when it’s time for college if you are preparing him/her for every test

This is not correct. Many 9th graders have NO idea HOW to study for an exam. Learning this skill is important, and just like other skills, it is better to teach it and then back off than to let your child figure it out through trial and error.

That is how people learn, including teenagers. They figure out what works for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid in AP world history came home with an enormous textbook.

What textbook?

AP world and most of the AP classes use textbooks.

AP classes are required by their agreement with the College Board to have a college level textbook available. Test prep and AMSCO books do not satisfy the requirement. If your school does not provide a textbook for an AP class, you can report them to the College Board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. I'm sorry if this is a dumb question but if there is no textbook what do they test on? If they are all finding information on various websites then what do they study? Are the tests essays or multiple choice? I would be puzzled on how to help my kid prepare.

You shouldn’t be helping your child to prepare for a test. A teen who is in high school should be old enough to figure out how to prepare for tests in his own classes. What will your child do when it’s time for college if you are preparing him/her for every test

This is not correct. Many 9th graders have NO idea HOW to study for an exam. Learning this skill is important, and just like other skills, it is better to teach it and then back off than to let your child figure it out through trial and error.

That is how people learn, including teenagers. They figure out what works for them.

By failing tests; great idea!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. I'm sorry if this is a dumb question but if there is no textbook what do they test on? If they are all finding information on various websites then what do they study? Are the tests essays or multiple choice? I would be puzzled on how to help my kid prepare.

You shouldn’t be helping your child to prepare for a test. A teen who is in high school should be old enough to figure out how to prepare for tests in his own classes. What will your child do when it’s time for college if you are preparing him/her for every test

This is not correct. Many 9th graders have NO idea HOW to study for an exam. Learning this skill is important, and just like other skills, it is better to teach it and then back off than to let your child figure it out through trial and error.

Some kids have parents that dont have time to help them, therefore, parents should not help kids with school work or tests. This practice of 'parents helping' perpetuates inequity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. I'm sorry if this is a dumb question but if there is no textbook what do they test on? If they are all finding information on various websites then what do they study? Are the tests essays or multiple choice? I would be puzzled on how to help my kid prepare.

You shouldn’t be helping your child to prepare for a test. A teen who is in high school should be old enough to figure out how to prepare for tests in his own classes. What will your child do when it’s time for college if you are preparing him/her for every test

This is not correct. Many 9th graders have NO idea HOW to study for an exam. Learning this skill is important, and just like other skills, it is better to teach it and then back off than to let your child figure it out through trial and error.

That is how people learn, including teenagers. They figure out what works for them.

By failing tests; great idea!

That is EXACTLY how they learn. We all learn by failing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. I'm sorry if this is a dumb question but if there is no textbook what do they test on? If they are all finding information on various websites then what do they study? Are the tests essays or multiple choice? I would be puzzled on how to help my kid prepare.

You shouldn’t be helping your child to prepare for a test. A teen who is in high school should be old enough to figure out how to prepare for tests in his own classes. What will your child do when it’s time for college if you are preparing him/her for every test

This is not correct. Many 9th graders have NO idea HOW to study for an exam. Learning this skill is important, and just like other skills, it is better to teach it and then back off than to let your child figure it out through trial and error.

Some kids have parents that dont have time to help them, therefore, parents should not help kids with school work or tests. This practice of 'parents helping' perpetuates inequity.

If my child asks to me to review a study guide with them, I will. If other families help their kids (or not), doesn't impact my decision to help mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid in AP world history came home with an enormous textbook.

My kid in AP WH last year had two textbooks. One was the main text of the class and the other more of a reference book. There was a pdf of the second one but you could request a print version if you wanted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid in AP world history came home with an enormous textbook.

What textbook?

AP world and most of the AP classes use textbooks.

AP classes are required by their agreement with the College Board to have a college level textbook available. Test prep and AMSCO books do not satisfy the requirement. If your school does not provide a textbook for an AP class, you can report them to the College Board.

My daughter's AP World class offers an electronic textbook. I bought the paper book off Amazon for 28$.