2.0 1st grade curriculum: Carbon Dioxide? Yes! Telling time? No!
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
That's exactly what we've been doing. My 2nd grader has gotten pretty good at telling time because we bought an analog clock and make her tell us the time for various things. However, I was volunteering in the winter, and there were only 3 (out of 23 kids) who could confidently read an analog clock. So, it's either not being taught in MCPS, or the kids just aren't getting it. PP is right, that parents can do this stuff at home (and we do), but what about the kids whose parents are choose not to be as involved, or don't have the time to be as involved? If parents are expected to fill in the gaps of the curriculum, then the kids from families with fewer resources are simply not going to do as well. In a county this large, with such a huge budget, we should expect better for ALL kids. |
Anonymous
OMG! I see this too. I don't know that parents realize what their kids are doing. Parents, you all need to spend some time volunteering in your kids' classrooms. Offer to make some copies so you can see all the ridiculous busywork that they do at school. It is very rarely graded. Kids put it in a bin and unless it is labeled with a P/I/N, chances are, it is not going to be even looked at. I started off with the idea that I should NOT be checking DD's homework. I figured I should let the teacher check it. Then, in 1st grade, we rarely got homework back, or if we did, it was much later than when the work was actually being done (so they had already moved on to something else). Not much feedback - just a check if it was done adequately. And, I also realized that our teacher doesn't actually even LOOK AT the homework. She has an aide that does this. Fair enough, when there are 27 kids in the class, I guess. So, now I go over my kid's homework in detail. I figure if they're going to assign it, and I want it to be useful, I need to review it myself. Great for my kid, but how great is it for parents who don't have time to do this? Pretty crappy. I see these kids homework packets, and they just get sent home with a check on the front, and minimal corrections. What's the point of the homework packets if the teacher doesn't even get to see them, and if the kids don't have them returned? |
Anonymous
Also, NP, but am a parent of a sixth grader who stayed ahead of the 2.0 rollout until it hit compacted math in 5th grade last year. The discussion is moot for magnet math. Don't see how a current 4th graders got in under the wire though, they're 2.0 native. |
Anonymous
I'm not the PP, and we're new to MCPS, so I have no idea what things were like pre-2.0. It doesn't really matter much to me how things were done in the past, but I am hugely disappointed by how things are being done now in the early elementary grades. We can't afford private, so we're spending a good amount of time homeschooling. The 10 minutes a day set up for reading and math is just LUDICROUS. I have volunteered extensively in both kids' classrooms, and my older DD is currently in 3rd. It is just a chaotic mess. We've had 'good' teachers and 'not so good' teachers, and it doesn't matter. I don't blame the teachers AT ALL. It's just ridiculous to think that you can teach at 5 different levels in one classroom, with 27 kids in the class. |
Anonymous
I am the original 6th grader in magnet and 4th grade in CM poster. Yes, the the 4th grader did not get in "under the wire." My 6th grader did. But BOTH of my kids have the same CM since the 4th grade and I am thrilled how math is taught. I love how they are taught to understand the concept before knowing the mechanics. E.g. how to multiply and divide fractions, instead of just learning that they multiply to top numbers and multiply the bottom numbers and do the same for division after flipping the second fraction. They do pie charts and area models to "see" how and why it works that way. And I couldn't care less when my 4th grader actually learned how to tell time from an analog clock but he surely knows it. He just spent an afternoon performing some tests on 12 rocks (including submerging them in vinegar to test for the presence of calcium) and reporting the results in a worksheet. I truly am a happy MCPS parent. |
Anonymous
| Telling time in one hour and half hour increments is a Common Core standard for first grade, CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.MD.B.3 "Tell and write time in hours and half-hours using analog and digital clocks." Your child should have been taught this in 1st grade. |
Anonymous
They aren't |
Anonymous
+1,000,000. It is so rushed and crazy but I was told if they tracked classes, the poor students and non-english students would all mainly be in one class and that isn't a positive thing for them? Huh? So instead we are politically correct and match class sizes by gender, race, culture and sprinkle ESOL all around. And then you have 10 minutes of reading a day and 10 minutes of math a day - IF your group gets picked. My daughter is in the highest reading group and gets called only 2-3 times a week. So she gets 30 minutes of direct teacher time A WEEK for reading. |
Anonymous
Maybe think about why it would be a bad thing to put, in first grade, all of the students who are behind, and all of the students who don't speak English, in one class. And "political correctness" has nothing to do with it, unless you include under "political correctness" the idea that all children should get a decent education, even the ones who are behind and the ones who don't speak English. |
Anonymous
If there had been a DCUM when you were in elementary school, and if your mother had volunteered in class when you were in elementary school, and if your mother had been of the opinion that parents know just as much about teaching as teachers, then your mother would have posted similar complaints on DCUM. "OMG OMG OMG! My child is not learning! These people are completely incompetent!" |
Anonymous
I have a seventh-grader in a home school and a fourth-grader in compacted math, and I think that my fourth-grader is getting a better elementary-school math education than my seventh-grader got. And my seventh-grader got a better elementary-school math education than I got, in elementary schools in the US. Well, mostly -- my seventh-grader had gaps from getting accelerated via skipping whole years of math. |
Anonymous
Yow! MCPS out-common-cores Common Core! 
|
Anonymous
| Time is also on MCPS curriculum for the 4th quarter of 1st grade. http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/curriculum/elementary/parent-guide-curriculum2.0-grade1-en.pdf |
Anonymous
|
I'd just like to point out that prior to 2.0 Mcps also had commitment to smaller class sizes in k-2. This is compelely seperate from the implementation of 2.0, which isn't perfect, but really no curriculum is perfect for every child. It is based in solid research and theory so, while parents may not understand it, most educators do.
If you really want to restore mcps to its former glory, start pushing for smaller class size. You've been distracted from that issue by 2.0. Well played Board of Ed! |
Anonymous
|
I actually don't mind the curriculum. At first it was way too easy, but as my child has progressed through compacted math (current 5th grader), it is definitely not easy and I am actually surprised at how challenging it is. It is definitely pushing my daughter- in a good way.
My biggest issue is the absolutely ridiculous report card that doesn't show a thing. I have no idea what my child can and cannot do. Horrible! |