Why are there no textbooks in FCPS elementary?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because teachers don't want them, only lazy teachers use them. Good teachers don't need them.

I will admit that so far, up until 3rd grade, my kids have had excellent teachers that have done a great job and clearly don't need textbooks. But probably their jobs would be easier with them.

Lazy, incompetent teachers use videos in the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Textbooks are useful as a resource. The fourth grade Virginia Studies textbook is well written and engaging. (though the first edition had problems) Students learn reading skills such as how to use headings and text features, and how to find the main idea in sections.

Not having a math textbook is a terrible idea. Parents want to know what is going on so they can help their kids. Instead, teachers have to come up with a variety of resources and essentially reinvent the wheel.

The math textbook is online, no?

Yes, but we have not used it. The online math textbook in FCPS is new this year and is only to be used as a resource. It's also not very good. I'm a teacher, but I know that many parents would like to have a solid reference to refer to, when it comes to math. They want to be able to help their kids.

Math textbooks are not bad.

DW and I are both elementary teachers. She teaches math and uses it as a resource. She says she uses Discovery and likes it, but understands lower grade teachers don’t care for Origo. Neither one of us says textbooks are bad. No teachers I know think that, but to complain that there “is no textbook” is a false complaint.

Neither one of us assign homework, but if something goes home that a student doesn’t understand and the parent has difficulty with, I think they should stop and let the teacher know.

You don't assign homework at all? What grade do you teach?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a textbook written specifically for Virginia Studies. It is quite good.

Why can't one be written to accommodate the Virginia Standards of Learning?

This a million times. If the board of education wants us to teach a specific curriculum, why the hell don't they contract textbook publishers to create textbooks specific to the curriculum. Instead they just rely on having teachers spend hours of their own time throwing together stuff on their own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is the same. But the reason parents are looking for textbooks is that none of the crappy worksheets that come home come with exemplars so we can know how you’re teaching the kids. My kid asks for help with his math homework, and I start showing him the ways that I know how to do it, and he’s never seen that before

For example, one day the worksheet came home saying “using the circle and stick method, solve this problem”. It was some kind of basic addition, but I didn’t have a clue what they were talking about. Google didn’t help, and I had to crowdsource on FB and one friend in NY had a slight clue what that was. It took us about five minutes to write out all the bits, when knowing the addition single digit pairs and how to carry would have taken 30 seconds. The worksheets should come with sample problems on the, if they’re going to teach these ridiculous methods. It’s not inspired teaching, it’s BS.

I teach third grade. We don’t assign homework, but if we did I would recommend stopping and sending the homework back to school with a note letting the teacher know that your child did not understand how to do the assignment.

Agree. Instead of you helping with the homework, the teacher needs to know your child is struggling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is the same. But the reason parents are looking for textbooks is that none of the crappy worksheets that come home come with exemplars so we can know how you’re teaching the kids. My kid asks for help with his math homework, and I start showing him the ways that I know how to do it, and he’s never seen that before

For example, one day the worksheet came home saying “using the circle and stick method, solve this problem”. It was some kind of basic addition, but I didn’t have a clue what they were talking about. Google didn’t help, and I had to crowdsource on FB and one friend in NY had a slight clue what that was. It took us about five minutes to write out all the bits, when knowing the addition single digit pairs and how to carry would have taken 30 seconds. The worksheets should come with sample problems on the, if they’re going to teach these ridiculous methods. It’s not inspired teaching, it’s BS.

I teach third grade. We don’t assign homework, but if we did I would recommend stopping and sending the homework back to school with a note letting the teacher know that your child did not understand how to do the assignment.

Agree. Instead of you helping with the homework, the teacher needs to know your child is struggling.

Parents don’t want the teacher to know their kids are struggling. They want the teachers to think the kids are smart and able to learn without extra help- even when they are getting extra help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is the same. But the reason parents are looking for textbooks is that none of the crappy worksheets that come home come with exemplars so we can know how you’re teaching the kids. My kid asks for help with his math homework, and I start showing him the ways that I know how to do it, and he’s never seen that before

For example, one day the worksheet came home saying “using the circle and stick method, solve this problem”. It was some kind of basic addition, but I didn’t have a clue what they were talking about. Google didn’t help, and I had to crowdsource on FB and one friend in NY had a slight clue what that was. It took us about five minutes to write out all the bits, when knowing the addition single digit pairs and how to carry would have taken 30 seconds. The worksheets should come with sample problems on the, if they’re going to teach these ridiculous methods. It’s not inspired teaching, it’s BS.

I teach third grade. We don’t assign homework, but if we did I would recommend stopping and sending the homework back to school with a note letting the teacher know that your child did not understand how to do the assignment.

Agree. Instead of you helping with the homework, the teacher needs to know your child is struggling.

Parents don’t want the teacher to know their kids are struggling. They want the teachers to think the kids are smart and able to learn without extra help- even when they are getting extra help.

That’s too bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Textbooks are useful as a resource. The fourth grade Virginia Studies textbook is well written and engaging. (though the first edition had problems) Students learn reading skills such as how to use headings and text features, and how to find the main idea in sections.

Not having a math textbook is a terrible idea. Parents want to know what is going on so they can help their kids. Instead, teachers have to come up with a variety of resources and essentially reinvent the wheel.

The math textbook is online, no?

Yes, but we have not used it. The online math textbook in FCPS is new this year and is only to be used as a resource. It's also not very good. I'm a teacher, but I know that many parents would like to have a solid reference to refer to, when it comes to math. They want to be able to help their kids.

Math textbooks are not bad.

DW and I are both elementary teachers. She teaches math and uses it as a resource. She says she uses Discovery and likes it, but understands lower grade teachers don’t care for Origo. Neither one of us says textbooks are bad. No teachers I know think that, but to complain that there “is no textbook” is a false complaint.

Neither one of us assign homework, but if something goes home that a student doesn’t understand and the parent has difficulty with, I think they should stop and let the teacher know.

You don't assign homework at all? What grade do you teach?

Elementary grades.

There are entire schools with no homework policies. It’s not unusual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been teaching for 26 years and for the most part we have never had textbooks. Many years ago we had hardbound math texts. We have other texts.

Has this been going on for that long? I graduated HS 29 years ago, and I always used textbooks growing up. I don't see what the problem is with them.

That’s high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is so sad to read 3rd grade teachers posting they no longer assign homework. Research has shown assigning math homework is helpful. I used to teach third grade and every day we had a math quiz on whatever times table the student was working on right before lunch. I graded them during lunch and my students got 100 problems on that number for homework. So if the student took on 6's and passed they got 100 problems of multiplying 7. If they didn't pass they got 100 problems of multiplying 6's.

Good Lord that sounds nuts. Why not just keep them in school for another hour? What if they went home and practiced 100 problems incorrectly?

In FCPS grades k-6, homework doesn’t count towards the academic grade.

It was nice of you to work through your lunch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is so sad to read 3rd grade teachers posting they no longer assign homework. Research has shown assigning math homework is helpful. I used to teach third grade and every day we had a math quiz on whatever times table the student was working on right before lunch. I graded them during lunch and my students got 100 problems on that number for homework. So if the student took on 6's and passed they got 100 problems of multiplying 7. If they didn't pass they got 100 problems of multiplying 6's.

When my son was in third grade the teacher had the kids make flashcards and said go online to learn them. I had to dig out the multiplication sheets and made him practice. Pencil and paper practice is really effective in math. I was so disappointed after that year I sent him to parochial school for 4th grade where he has textbooks and everything is graded for accuracy.

Of course parents are always welcome to do more practice at home. I would encourage the use of more authentic applications.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is so sad to read 3rd grade teachers posting they no longer assign homework. Research has shown assigning math homework is helpful. I used to teach third grade and every day we had a math quiz on whatever times table the student was working on right before lunch. I graded them during lunch and my students got 100 problems on that number for homework. So if the student took on 6's and passed they got 100 problems of multiplying 7. If they didn't pass they got 100 problems of multiplying 6's.

When my son was in third grade the teacher had the kids make flashcards and said go online to learn them. I had to dig out the multiplication sheets and made him practice. Pencil and paper practice is really effective in math. I was so disappointed after that year I sent him to parochial school for 4th grade where he has textbooks and everything is graded for accuracy.

It is all funk and junk. VA SOL were based on Core Knowledge and common cultural literacy. No more annual grades K-4 repeats on dinosaurs and rainforest. Solid language arts with phonics, spelling, sentence structure, grammar. Math-specific. Nothing has changed in basic math, long division, fractions, times tables, simple geometry in 100 years.

Big fat coffee table sized books with pictures are cumbersome to cart to and fro but I remember FCPS replacing more concise texts with those things. Money for publishers. FCPS also never had a central book depository so school A might have a pile unused and school B did not have enough. K and first and learning to read and that blends into 1-3 learning to read to learn.

Students need homework and even simple assignments in 4y pre-k so they learn the process and are prepared for more advanced work. FCPS homework drop could be due to the fact that it has had changing demographics. Note that at some schools they have programs for peer tutors-bring in middle schoolers and want a grandparent/retiree sort of thing for after school tutoring, homework help, help teachers with individual and/or small group:
https://www.grandinvolve.org/participating-schools


FCPS has a drift to the bottom - if some don't have family to interact with on the academics outside of school then don't assign it. Think about kindergarten - that gets students with engaged families and the child has had 1/2 to full day pre-school for 1-2 years. Plus enrollment variabilities from hold back/redshirt to send at the earliest. Therefore K is to the lowest. Now FCPS can have K students [or any students] where Spanish is a language to be taught plus English. And older students who are not literate in any language. That mindset was explained to us decades ago. From there it's site based management.
Family engagement: https://www.fcps.edu/resources/family-engagement

Site based management-Principal had osmosis and funk. Principal B replaced A and used materials/methods from another school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is so sad to read 3rd grade teachers posting they no longer assign homework. Research has shown assigning math homework is helpful. I used to teach third grade and every day we had a math quiz on whatever times table the student was working on right before lunch. I graded them during lunch and my students got 100 problems on that number for homework. So if the student took on 6's and passed they got 100 problems of multiplying 7. If they didn't pass they got 100 problems of multiplying 6's.

When my son was in third grade the teacher had the kids make flashcards and said go online to learn them. I had to dig out the multiplication sheets and made him practice. Pencil and paper practice is really effective in math. I was so disappointed after that year I sent him to parochial school for 4th grade where he has textbooks and everything is graded for accuracy.

It is all funk and junk. VA SOL were based on Core Knowledge and common cultural literacy. No more annual grades K-4 repeats on dinosaurs and rainforest. Solid language arts with phonics, spelling, sentence structure, grammar. Math-specific. Nothing has changed in basic math, long division, fractions, times tables, simple geometry in 100 years.

Big fat coffee table sized books with pictures are cumbersome to cart to and fro but I remember FCPS replacing more concise texts with those things. Money for publishers. FCPS also never had a central book depository so school A might have a pile unused and school B did not have enough. K and first and learning to read and that blends into 1-3 learning to read to learn.

Students need homework and even simple assignments in 4y pre-k so they learn the process and are prepared for more advanced work. FCPS homework drop could be due to the fact that it has had changing demographics. Note that at some schools they have programs for peer tutors-bring in middle schoolers and want a grandparent/retiree sort of thing for after school tutoring, homework help, help teachers with individual and/or small group:
https://www.grandinvolve.org/participating-schools


FCPS has a drift to the bottom - if some don't have family to interact with on the academics outside of school then don't assign it. Think about kindergarten - that gets students with engaged families and the child has had 1/2 to full day pre-school for 1-2 years. Plus enrollment variabilities from hold back/redshirt to send at the earliest. Therefore K is to the lowest. Now FCPS can have K students [or any students] where Spanish is a language to be taught plus English. And older students who are not literate in any language. That mindset was explained to us decades ago. From there it's site based management.
Family engagement: https://www.fcps.edu/resources/family-engagement

Site based management-Principal had osmosis and funk. Principal B replaced A and used materials/methods from another school.

I had a very hard time understanding what you are saying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is so sad to read 3rd grade teachers posting they no longer assign homework. Research has shown assigning math homework is helpful. I used to teach third grade and every day we had a math quiz on whatever times table the student was working on right before lunch. I graded them during lunch and my students got 100 problems on that number for homework. So if the student took on 6's and passed they got 100 problems of multiplying 7. If they didn't pass they got 100 problems of multiplying 6's.

When my son was in third grade the teacher had the kids make flashcards and said go online to learn them. I had to dig out the multiplication sheets and made him practice. Pencil and paper practice is really effective in math. I was so disappointed after that year I sent him to parochial school for 4th grade where he has textbooks and everything is graded for accuracy.

It is all funk and junk. VA SOL were based on Core Knowledge and common cultural literacy. No more annual grades K-4 repeats on dinosaurs and rainforest. Solid language arts with phonics, spelling, sentence structure, grammar. Math-specific. Nothing has changed in basic math, long division, fractions, times tables, simple geometry in 100 years.

Big fat coffee table sized books with pictures are cumbersome to cart to and fro but I remember FCPS replacing more concise texts with those things. Money for publishers. FCPS also never had a central book depository so school A might have a pile unused and school B did not have enough. K and first and learning to read and that blends into 1-3 learning to read to learn.

Students need homework and even simple assignments in 4y pre-k so they learn the process and are prepared for more advanced work. FCPS homework drop could be due to the fact that it has had changing demographics. Note that at some schools they have programs for peer tutors-bring in middle schoolers and want a grandparent/retiree sort of thing for after school tutoring, homework help, help teachers with individual and/or small group:
https://www.grandinvolve.org/participating-schools


FCPS has a drift to the bottom - if some don't have family to interact with on the academics outside of school then don't assign it. Think about kindergarten - that gets students with engaged families and the child has had 1/2 to full day pre-school for 1-2 years. Plus enrollment variabilities from hold back/redshirt to send at the earliest. Therefore K is to the lowest. Now FCPS can have K students [or any students] where Spanish is a language to be taught plus English. And older students who are not literate in any language. That mindset was explained to us decades ago. From there it's site based management.
Family engagement: https://www.fcps.edu/resources/family-engagement

Site based management-Principal had osmosis and funk. Principal B replaced A and used materials/methods from another school.

I had a very hard time understanding what you are saying.

+1 not intelligible

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another problem with the no textbook/ nothing gets sent home/ you had to be there for my super engaging lesson is that there is no way for kids with special needs who are getting pulled for services like speech therapy to access that sort of curriculum. And heaven help you if you ask for class notes as an accommodation- many of the teachers apparently don’t have any notes that are appropriate to summarize what was covered in a class.

Even for kids who are not special needs, some do not copy notes properly when the teacher goes through the examples. My DD had to copy such notes that were wrong or misunderstood when she missed a day.

If you try to use a book with your kids, they are absolutely against it. I found it to be a very good resource with many examples. Unless it's online they don't want to know about it. How much has math changed from past years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is so sad to read 3rd grade teachers posting they no longer assign homework. Research has shown assigning math homework is helpful. I used to teach third grade and every day we had a math quiz on whatever times table the student was working on right before lunch. I graded them during lunch and my students got 100 problems on that number for homework. So if the student took on 6's and passed they got 100 problems of multiplying 7. If they didn't pass they got 100 problems of multiplying 6's.

When my son was in third grade the teacher had the kids make flashcards and said go online to learn them. I had to dig out the multiplication sheets and made him practice. Pencil and paper practice is really effective in math. I was so disappointed after that year I sent him to parochial school for 4th grade where he has textbooks and everything is graded for accuracy.

It is all funk and junk. VA SOL were based on Core Knowledge and common cultural literacy. No more annual grades K-4 repeats on dinosaurs and rainforest. Solid language arts with phonics, spelling, sentence structure, grammar. Math-specific. Nothing has changed in basic math, long division, fractions, times tables, simple geometry in 100 years.

Big fat coffee table sized books with pictures are cumbersome to cart to and fro but I remember FCPS replacing more concise texts with those things. Money for publishers. FCPS also never had a central book depository so school A might have a pile unused and school B did not have enough. K and first and learning to read and that blends into 1-3 learning to read to learn.

Students need homework and even simple assignments in 4y pre-k so they learn the process and are prepared for more advanced work. FCPS homework drop could be due to the fact that it has had changing demographics. Note that at some schools they have programs for peer tutors-bring in middle schoolers and want a grandparent/retiree sort of thing for after school tutoring, homework help, help teachers with individual and/or small group:
https://www.grandinvolve.org/participating-schools


FCPS has a drift to the bottom - if some don't have family to interact with on the academics outside of school then don't assign it. Think about kindergarten - that gets students with engaged families and the child has had 1/2 to full day pre-school for 1-2 years. Plus enrollment variabilities from hold back/redshirt to send at the earliest. Therefore K is to the lowest. Now FCPS can have K students [or any students] where Spanish is a language to be taught plus English. And older students who are not literate in any language. That mindset was explained to us decades ago. From there it's site based management.
Family engagement: https://www.fcps.edu/resources/family-engagement

Site based management-Principal had osmosis and funk. Principal B replaced A and used materials/methods from another school.

I had a very hard time understanding what you are saying.

I didn't. I understand the person is saying there is no region wide curriculum in detail and other than a few guiding principles there is mostly chaos citing historic and demographic reasons why this came about.