Are your middle and high schoolers required to read books?

[Anonymous]

I have a lot of complaints about FCPS but come on - of course kids are still expected to read books. My middle and high schoolers both had long reading lists in their English classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WSHS pyramid (middle school and high school) and my children have definitely read whole books in English class: Fahrenheit 451, To Kill a Mockingbird, Wonder. They also have completed projects in which they independently read books and presented or wrote about them.

Wonder is a book for a 5th grader. Your kid read this in middle or high school? Wow. I would be livid.

[Anonymous]

We are in APS, 8th grader. So far, his assigned book is some graphic novel (ie a comic book) about a girl who is different because her parents weren’t American. It’s absolutely pathetic, and APS’s English/reading program is one reason we are looking at private school for high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is depressing for our society and the future of mankind. We are becoming obese and illiterate people with zero attention span. How are we going to survive?! I’m serious.

This is why all the Walter Ong, Ivan Illich, Marshall McLuhan, and similar fans would point out we have reverted from a literate culture to an oral one. The ancient Greeks did alright with oral culture, even leaving us Homer, but it's going to be different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is depressing for our society and the future of mankind. We are becoming obese and illiterate people with zero attention span. How are we going to survive?! I’m serious.

It’s not difficult to raise kids who love to read but most people are lazy.

[Anonymous]

DD read one whole-class book in 8th grade last year, “Unwind” by Neal Shusterman. She usually likes to read but she hated it. I sympathized because dystopian isn’t my favorite either but I was honestly just glad they read something, anything.

[Anonymous]

7th grade FCPS, NO assigned reading books. Just Lexia and being a book to read in class. It’s bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:7th grade FCPS, NO assigned reading books. Just Lexia and being a book to read in class. It’s bad.

Why is that bad? I'm assuming your child is also reading assigned short stories, poems, and articles?

I have two kids in 7th grade, one in AA and one in a co-taught class.. Both have done Lexia, both have read the same short story and article. The AA class has read a poem that the co-taught class has not, and the co-taught class has read an article that the AA class has not. They both also have to,read a book independently.

There has been lots of writing instruction and practice which is good because both kids got practically zero writing instruction in elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Their experience isn't disappearing in private schools. Every kid I know in private school has summer reading starting in mid ES and continuing through HS. They aren't reading novels in class. They are assigned reading for homework so they come to class prepared to discuss it.

This is a public school forum…

Just a PSA for parents who say they care about their kid’s education. It’s long overdue to leave the even more mediocre public school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:7th grade FCPS, NO assigned reading books. Just Lexia and being a book to read in class. It’s bad.

Agree! There are no assigned books to read. There are barely any passages to read. It seems like a poor English class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:7th grade FCPS, NO assigned reading books. Just Lexia and being a book to read in class. It’s bad.

Why is that bad? I'm assuming your child is also reading assigned short stories, poems, and articles?

I have two kids in 7th grade, one in AA and one in a co-taught class.. Both have done Lexia, both have read the same short story and article. The AA class has read a poem that the co-taught class has not, and the co-taught class has read an article that the AA class has not. They both also have to,read a book independently.

There has been lots of writing instruction and practice which is good because both kids got practically zero writing instruction in elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:7th grade FCPS, NO assigned reading books. Just Lexia and being a book to read in class. It’s bad.

Why is that bad? I'm assuming your child is also reading assigned short stories, poems, and articles?

I have two kids in 7th grade, one in AA and one in a co-taught class.. Both have done Lexia, both have read the same short story and article. The AA class has read a poem that the co-taught class has not, and the co-taught class has read an article that the AA class has not. They both also have to,read a book independently.

There has been lots of writing instruction and practice which is good because both kids got practically zero writing instruction in elementary school.

It’s awful because you can count on one hand the few passages that they have read in the past 7 weeks. There is no emphasis on reading a novel. There is no grammar, again! There are no Greek roots or Latin prefixes anymore (they at least had them in elementary). There are no more weekly passages for comprehension. There are no more questions assigned after reading their novels(because there are no novels assigned). There are no sets of vocabulary words coming home. They have never learned the parts of speech or sentence diagramming. It’s just not rigorous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:7th grade FCPS, NO assigned reading books. Just Lexia and being a book to read in class. It’s bad.

Why is that bad? I'm assuming your child is also reading assigned short stories, poems, and articles?

I have two kids in 7th grade, one in AA and one in a co-taught class.. Both have done Lexia, both have read the same short story and article. The AA class has read a poem that the co-taught class has not, and the co-taught class has read an article that the AA class has not. They both also have to,read a book independently.

There has been lots of writing instruction and practice which is good because both kids got practically zero writing instruction in elementary school.

It’s awful because you can count on one hand the few passages that they have read in the past 7 weeks. There is no emphasis on reading a novel. There is no grammar, again! There are no Greek roots or Latin prefixes anymore (they at least had them in elementary). There are no more weekly passages for comprehension. There are no more questions assigned after reading their novels(because there are no novels assigned). There are no sets of vocabulary words coming home. They have never learned the parts of speech or sentence diagramming. It’s just not rigorous.

Weekly passages for comprehension? Sets of vocabulary words? Both of those are not at all aligned with best practices. Children do not learn vocabulary through lists of isolated words.

There absolutely should be grammar instruction. So far, they should've had a minimum of four grammar topics covererd.

There should be instruction in breaking down words into recognizable parts (roots, prefixes, and suffixes), but not just random lists of roots and affixes.

[Anonymous]

My middle schooler didn't read a single novel. They had a graphic novel to read. One.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:7th grade FCPS, NO assigned reading books. Just Lexia and being a book to read in class. It’s bad.

Why is that bad? I'm assuming your child is also reading assigned short stories, poems, and articles?

I have two kids in 7th grade, one in AA and one in a co-taught class.. Both have done Lexia, both have read the same short story and article. The AA class has read a poem that the co-taught class has not, and the co-taught class has read an article that the AA class has not. They both also have to,read a book independently.

There has been lots of writing instruction and practice which is good because both kids got practically zero writing instruction in elementary school.

It’s awful because you can count on one hand the few passages that they have read in the past 7 weeks. There is no emphasis on reading a novel. There is no grammar, again! There are no Greek roots or Latin prefixes anymore (they at least had them in elementary). There are no more weekly passages for comprehension. There are no more questions assigned after reading their novels(because there are no novels assigned). There are no sets of vocabulary words coming home. They have never learned the parts of speech or sentence diagramming. It’s just not rigorous.

Weekly passages for comprehension? Sets of vocabulary words? Both of those are not at all aligned with best practices. Children do not learn vocabulary through lists of isolated words.

There absolutely should be grammar instruction. So far, they should've had a minimum of four grammar topics covererd.

There should be instruction in breaking down words into recognizable parts (roots, prefixes, and suffixes), but not just random lists of roots and affixes.

As we learned in the Units of Study/Lucy Calkins era, "best practices" are meaningless.