S/O Amplify ELA Curriculum

[Anonymous]

PP how are you feeling about the curriculum now that you have done the training? And what grade do you teach if you don’t mind sharing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP how are you feeling about the curriculum now that you have done the training? And what grade do you teach if you don’t mind sharing?

I believe this will be the fourth or fifth ELA curriculum I've rolled out during my twenty years as a MCPS teacher. This seems a lot better than Benchmark in that the lessons for each day are more focused on the overall objective rather than the salad bowl of outcomes we had to try and meet each day with Benchmark. I like how the formative assessments all lead directly back to the mastery objective and the unit assessments seem more aligned as well.

The trainer said that the first year of implementation will be hard because the suggested pacing/timing of the lessons are tough to adhere to at first. This isn't a surprise as that's always been the case when teaching a new curriculum. She suggested we use timers to keep us on track. I did this the first year we rolled out Eureka and I felt good by about December. I imagine this will be the case with CKLA too. I'm just relieved to be done with Benchmark! I teach 5th grade and so glad we won't be reading about corn for an entire unit again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in curriculum and assessment. EdReports is the place to go for curriculum reviews. Here’s a review of the K-5 curriculum.

https://www.edreports.org/reports/overview/core-knowledge-language-arts-ckla-2015

From Grades 3-5: “Teachers may need to incorporate outside resources to support grammar practice out of context. The materials may need supplements to fully engage students in their foundational skills development.”

I went through and read the detailed grade report of what was “missing”. Specifically things like how to preview vocabulary words. Frankly that’s something I expect grade 3-5 teacher know how to do. If you don’t know to give students the definition, or have them look it up as warm up work or homework or spend 5 mins go round robin using them in a sentence, etc etc then I wouldn’t want you teaching those grade. Teachers are professionals and with that comes an understanding and expectation that some things they know or will figure out.

CKLA is meant to be an on grade level curriculum. Student who are behind need to have a plan devised specifically for them likely alongside the reading specialist/ grade team.

[Anonymous]

But fewer and fewer new teachers are coming from teacher preparation programs. They aren’t trained teachers so don’t assume anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But fewer and fewer new teachers are coming from teacher preparation programs. They aren’t trained teachers so don’t assume anything.

Then that’s an HR and Onboarding issue not a curriculum issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But fewer and fewer new teachers are coming from teacher preparation programs. They aren’t trained teachers so don’t assume anything.

Then that’s an HR and Onboarding issue not a curriculum issue.

But it is a big issue because they're basically hiring people with next to zero preparation. I hope they have a lot of mentors for these new people.

[Anonymous]

Bumping this back up now that school is around the corner. Any other teachers to weigh in on the new curriculum?

[Anonymous]

We haven't even taught it yet. The trainers told us that the first year implementing it will be challenging but that goes with any new curriculum.

[Anonymous]

With this new curriculum, will classes be divided by enrichment levels (similar to how they were with ELA and ELA classes) or will there be no “tracking” at the class level?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With this new curriculum, will classes be divided by enrichment levels (similar to how they were with ELA and ELA classes) or will there be no “tracking” at the class level?

ELC is continuing for this year. After that, it’s anybody’s guess, though perhaps GEC is working on it.

[Anonymous]

3-8th grade ELA teacher here. I’ve been using Amplify and open source CKLA for two years. There are almost no actual books—the readers are abridged (watered-down) versions of the actual books. I wish I had the time to write out all the criticisms I have of this curriculum but the bottom line is it’s soul crushing to watch the light go out of my students’ eyes. I’m old enough to have seen many similar “researched based” bandwagons come and go. I’ve decided to go rogue and give the kids what I know they need and has been proven to be effective and engaging. Much luck to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:3-8th grade ELA teacher here. I’ve been using Amplify and open source CKLA for two years. There are almost no actual books—the readers are abridged (watered-down) versions of the actual books. I wish I had the time to write out all the criticisms I have of this curriculum but the bottom line is it’s soul crushing to watch the light go out of my students’ eyes. I’m old enough to have seen many similar “researched based” bandwagons come and go. I’ve decided to go rogue and give the kids what I know they need and has been proven to be effective and engaging. Much luck to you.

There are trade books and novel studies that go with CKLA. Have you asked your specific school and/or the district why they have purchased those?