class size rule...

[Anonymous]

This is so true. My child got 15 min. PER WEEK of reading instruction in a small group for all of 1st and 2nd grade (perhaps for 3rd grade too, but by then she was on her own anyway). I don't know how people keep calling FCPS so great when a 1st grader gets 15 min. of small group time per week???? That does not qualify as "gold standard" to me. I'd have gladly traded the computer time or music time (even though I like music for kids) for more teacher time. Frustrating that kids who are on track to meet benchmarks are left to their own devices (at age 6) to entertain themselves at school.

Wow. I taught school for years. One year I had 34 and occasionally didn't get each group every day--but really made the effort. Once a week? Just wow.

[Anonymous]

This is so true. My child got 15 min. PER WEEK of reading instruction in a small group for all of 1st and 2nd grade (perhaps for 3rd grade too, but by then she was on her own anyway). I don't know how people keep calling FCPS so great when a 1st grader gets 15 min. of small group time per week???? That does not qualify as "gold standard" to me. I'd have gladly traded the computer time or music time (even though I like music for kids) for more teacher time. Frustrating that kids who are on track to meet benchmarks are left to their own devices (at age 6) to entertain themselves at school.

Teacher here again. Is it possible that your child was so advanced that the teacher could give her independent work and track her progress that way?

[Anonymous]

Not the PP you are responding to, but why should a child solely have independent time regardless of where they are? It's not just about tracking progress.

[Anonymous]

Not the PP you are responding to, but why should a child solely have independent time regardless of where they are? It's not just about tracking progress.

Teacher here. Mostly playing devil's advocate and looking for another explanation. If she was way above the others, you cannot expect the teacher to give her 15 minutes alone every day. Perhaps the teacher was giving her five minutes a day of individual instruction.

[Anonymous]

Also, as long as the teacher was checking and the child was progressing in her reading skills, maybe she was doing more planning and guiding than the mom realizes.

[Anonymous]

What child gets individual reading time beyond kindergarten? I just want the teacher to have my child in a reading group more than once a week. Also, writing is a more individualized thing and can't be taught as well with so many children.

[Anonymous]

If your kid is reading far above the rest, she may not fit in a reading group. I wish my kids had been in reading groups at all. Back when they were in primary grades it was all "whole language".......

[Anonymous]

PP did not say her child was far above the rest. The child was in a small reading group that only met 15 minutes a week.

[Anonymous]

In DC's public school there seem to be an endless number of reading activities that don't involve the teacher. I wonder if it's the same in these title 1 schools. Listen to reading, Read by self, Read with a friend, Draw about reading, etc. When we toured the private school nearby reading time was mainly divided between reading by self and small reading discussion groups almost every day.

[Anonymous]

I taught back in the dark ages.....I always grouped kids and had reading groups with a basal reader. We did lots of other things, too, but that way I listened to each child read every day and knew which skills they were learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This is so true. My child got 15 min. PER WEEK of reading instruction in a small group for all of 1st and 2nd grade (perhaps for 3rd grade too, but by then she was on her own anyway). I don't know how people keep calling FCPS so great when a 1st grader gets 15 min. of small group time per week???? That does not qualify as "gold standard" to me. I'd have gladly traded the computer time or music time (even though I like music for kids) for more teacher time. Frustrating that kids who are on track to meet benchmarks are left to their own devices (at age 6) to entertain themselves at school.

Teacher here again. Is it possible that your child was so advanced that the teacher could give her independent work and track her progress that way?

No, my child was not "advanced" although she is currently ahead in reading (starting 4th grade). At the time she started 1st grade she was a DRA 4 and ended being a DRA 24-28. I went into the classroom once a week for reading class and did individual reading help for the kids that needed the most help (never my own child or the upper end of the class). I am certain that she had reading group with the teacher once a week (on Thursdays) with a few other kids. Of course the teacher taught to the whole group every day. But on Mon., Tues, Wed., and Fri. my child (and others) entertained themselves for 45+min. while the teacher did small groups with other groups. I suspect that the lowest groups met twice a week. The upper group only met once -- and given who else was in her small group, I'm pretty sure she was in the highest reading group.

I have not been impressed with FCPS. It all sounds good on the website, but in practice, it's not impressive.

[Anonymous]

No, my child was not "advanced" although she is currently ahead in reading (starting 4th grade). At the time she started 1st grade she was a DRA 4 and ended being a DRA 24-28. I went into the classroom once a week for reading class and did individual reading help for the kids that needed the most help (never my own child or the upper end of the class). I am certain that she had reading group with the teacher once a week (on Thursdays) with a few other kids. Of course the teacher taught to the whole group every day. But on Mon., Tues, Wed., and Fri. my child (and others) entertained themselves for 45+min. while the teacher did small groups with other groups. I suspect that the lowest groups met twice a week. The upper group only met once -- and given who else was in her small group, I'm pretty sure she was in the highest reading group.

I have not been impressed with FCPS. It all sounds good on the website, but in practice, it's not impressive.

former first grade teacher: I knew things had changed. Maybe this works better, but I think I like the 'good old days".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is so true. My child got 15 min. PER WEEK of reading instruction in a small group for all of 1st and 2nd grade (perhaps for 3rd grade too, but by then she was on her own anyway). I don't know how people keep calling FCPS so great when a 1st grader gets 15 min. of small group time per week???? That does not qualify as "gold standard" to me. I'd have gladly traded the computer time or music time (even though I like music for kids) for more teacher time. Frustrating that kids who are on track to meet benchmarks are left to their own devices (at age 6) to entertain themselves at school.

Teacher here again. Is it possible that your child was so advanced that the teacher could give her independent work and track her progress that way?

No, my child was not "advanced" although she is currently ahead in reading (starting 4th grade). At the time she started 1st grade she was a DRA 4 and ended being a DRA 24-28. I went into the classroom once a week for reading class and did individual reading help for the kids that needed the most help (never my own child or the upper end of the class). I am certain that she had reading group with the teacher once a week (on Thursdays) with a few other kids. Of course the teacher taught to the whole group every day. But on Mon., Tues, Wed., and Fri. my child (and others) entertained themselves for 45+min. while the teacher did small groups with other groups. I suspect that the lowest groups met twice a week. The upper group only met once -- and given who else was in her small group, I'm pretty sure she was in the highest reading group.

I have not been impressed with FCPS. It all sounds good on the website, but in practice, it's not impressive.

Your kid entered first grade exactly where first graders are expected to start and ended the year at the end of second grade benchmark. She moved not one, but two grade levels in a year. I'd say someone was doing something right in that classroom. You may think they were being "entertained" but clearly she was engaged in some thoughtful learning. Moving 2 grade levels in one year does not just happen by osmosis.

[Anonymous]

Child in similar situation to 19:54. Managed to go up about 8 levels during the year with some extra parent help and was one of the kids who made the greatest gains in reading. Sounds like PP had a really great teacher or great student. Unfortunately not all kids are making those gains especially with large class sizes.

[Anonymous]

It wasn't the teaching or any kind of osmosis -- it was me, the parent, painstakingly coaching my child through every. single. syllable. of the books they sent home every week.

Maybe the bottom line is that small group reading instruction isn't particularly valuable. So the 15 min. my kid got each week didn't really matter. It was just depressing to think how much of the school day was frittered away in "stations" and how little teacher interaction there was each week.

To 23:25 -- my belief is that all kids are not making those kinds of gains b/c their parents are not meticulous about pushing/coaxing their children through the leveled reading books each and every night. I believe that most kids could make those gains if they had that kind of home attention. I've gotten to the point that I send my kids to FCPS mainly for the structure and social interaction.... not so much for increasing their abilities in reading and math (I end up doing that at home). For the other subjects (writing, history, science) I think FCPS has done pretty well (except that we do spelling work at home b/c DD is terrible at that and she never learned to hold a pencil correctly -- neither did my son... so maybe not so much credit to FCPS on the grammar part of writing.) I guess in their kinderg. classes (of 30 kids), the teachers didn't have time to teach them to hold a pencil correctly. No fixing that now....