Remind me what FCPS doesn't use textbooks or worksbooks?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure what your notes about students have to do with textbooks, workbooks, and other curriculum materials.

That was in response to the comment that said no assessing was happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure what your notes about students have to do with textbooks, workbooks, and other curriculum materials.

Another example of someone not understand how classrooms operate.

[Anonymous]

*understanding

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure what your notes about students have to do with textbooks, workbooks, and other curriculum materials.

Another example of someone not understand how classrooms operate.

Reading groups are not the end of school, or at least, they shouldn't be. Science and social studies are only taught every other week, if that. With no textbooks or workbooks, why bother? FCPS has already decided that the subjects are not important, and teachers agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure what your notes about students have to do with textbooks, workbooks, and other curriculum materials.

Another example of someone not understand how classrooms operate.

We understand how they operate. Your knowledge of a student's needs doesn't translate into actually teaching a student those skills unless they are acthally taught and practiced. Without good materials the teacher just often runs out of time and either the student doesn't get the reinforcement or enough practice. Also not every skill is assessed and those that aren't often aren't taught.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure what your notes about students have to do with textbooks, workbooks, and other curriculum materials.

Another example of someone not understand how classrooms operate.

Reading groups are not the end of school, or at least, they shouldn't be.

What does this mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS in 7th Grade FCPS. They have textbooks for science, history and English - 1 copy each left at school and 1 copy brought home at the beginning of the year. He also has a Spanish textbook, but that stays at school. So, some grades and schools do use textbooks.

What school?

Longfellow Middle School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS in 7th Grade FCPS. They have textbooks for science, history and English - 1 copy each left at school and 1 copy brought home at the beginning of the year. He also has a Spanish textbook, but that stays at school. So, some grades and schools do use textbooks.

What school?

Longfellow Middle School

Of course. Only the best for Mclean. No matter that this isn't offered evenly throughout the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
I've brought this up here many many times and keep getting teachers chiming in that a textbook is limiting. Of course it's limiting. It's not meant to be your only resource. It's meant as a starting point. Uggh. Textbooks were never meant to be the only resource to be used in a school. And then there are the teachers who chime in how easy it is to just make up your curriculum daily and how much freedom they have. Language arts is a joke. Language arts at our school consists of kids getting books from the shelves to read to themselves, read to a friend, or reading books online. I understand teachers don't want to be constrained with a textbook, but it is beyond me why they think random unrelated worksheets and open ended projects with no resources to help guide the student is a better curriculum system than a textbook and workbook.


Yep. Couldn't agree more. Teach grammar and *actual* spelling? Don't be ridiculous! I remember having a spelling and grammar workbook in elementary school that I loved. Language arts was my favorite class. Now I see what passes for "English" instruction and it's appalling. The teachers really don't care that students can't spell or construct a proper sentence/paragraph/essay. If we could afford to go private, we would in a heartbeat.


I'm the public school teacher who posted previously. I didn't have the money either but I can manage Catholic school. It's amazing that the essays my kid used to get As on in public school are now Cs in Catholic school. Yes, they actually expect correct grammar and spelling. It's been an uphill battle but now my kid gets that crap work will no longer earn him an A. His first 2 years of Catholic middle school were riddled with Cs on his report card. He is slowly improving but I wouldn't hesitate to move him again. The financial sacrifice is worth it to me.


Have you seen the FCPS writing rubrics for usage and mechanics? That's what we use at the elementary level and they're pretty solid on what's expected for grammar and spelling.


Who cares if there is a rubric for the teacher. That information never gets to the student.


The information does get to the student. There is a Composition and Written Expression rubric for each type of writing plus a Usage and Mechanics rubric. Each has a teacher and student version. At my school we basically use the student version.

At the beginning of a writing unit we read and discuss various examples. These serve as anchor papers and we discuss where each piece falls on the rubric. We also use read aloud books during reading for mentor texts. The students are aware of their rubric throughout the entire writing process. They receive the scored rubric with their final, published piece. The rubrics also come in handy during parent-teacher conferences.


That's great for your kids. Not for the students that have teachers who don't teach writing. Our elementary school does not give out rubrics to students, does not have checklists for writing, and does not get graded on a rubric for most of their writing and often doesn't get graded at all. In fact, often there is no writing assigned. No writing, no need for the rubric I guess. In addition, there is very little direct instruction on grammar and writing. The students aren't given anything to practice on prior to doing their larger assignments.

This. Rubrics are nice, but their purpose is to be able to assess a piece of writing for everything from grammar to usage to spelling to punctuation. Holistically. A rubric is not a teaching tool. It's an assessment tool. In order to learn to write, the process needs to be broken down and taught one skill at a time. Especially in grade school. This is what textbooks and good curriculum does. The textbook doesn't have to be used as practice in its entirety, but it does serve to allow for needed practice and it keeps writing skills organized and referenced so that writing skill weaknesses can be addressed by both the teacher and the parent. They serve as a way to fill in gaps and keep the students on a path to improving. Otherwise the student has photocopied pages floating around in folders or the parent has to look up the skill(s) online somewhere. The textbook provides some kind of organized path for the teacher as well. The "standards" don't provide the curriculum and the rubrics don't provide the curriculum. A textbook does. Whether it's online or paper, it is helpful to have it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've brought this up here many many times and keep getting teachers chiming in that a textbook is limiting. Of course it's limiting. It's not meant to be your only resource. It's meant as a starting point. Uggh. Textbooks were never meant to be the only resource to be used in a school. And then there are the teachers who chime in how easy it is to just make up your curriculum daily and how much freedom they have. Language arts is a joke. Language arts at our school consists of kids getting books from the shelves to read to themselves, read to a friend, or reading books online. I understand teachers don't want to be constrained with a textbook, but it is beyond me why they think random unrelated worksheets and open ended projects with no resources to help guide the student is a better curriculum system than a textbook and workbook.

Yep. Couldn't agree more. Teach grammar and *actual* spelling? Don't be ridiculous! I remember having a spelling and grammar workbook in elementary school that I loved. Language arts was my favorite class. Now I see what passes for "English" instruction and it's appalling. The teachers really don't care that students can't spell or construct a proper sentence/paragraph/essay. If we could afford to go private, we would in a heartbeat.

I'm the public school teacher who posted previously. I didn't have the money either but I can manage Catholic school. It's amazing that the essays my kid used to get As on in public school are now Cs in Catholic school. Yes, they actually expect correct grammar and spelling. It's been an uphill battle but now my kid gets that crap work will no longer earn him an A. His first 2 years of Catholic middle school were riddled with Cs on his report card. He is slowly improving but I wouldn't hesitate to move him again. The financial sacrifice is worth it to me.

Have you seen the FCPS writing rubrics for usage and mechanics? That's what we use at the elementary level and they're pretty solid on what's expected for grammar and spelling.

Hahahahhahahhhhahahhaha
Rubrics don’t mean anything if the teacher doesn’t actually TEACH. My kids’ grammar, spelling, and punctuation are never corrected at school. Instead, I have to do it at home when they get papers and tests back. I might as well just homeschool them, since I pretty much am anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:never send a kid to public middle school.

AAP Centers at Carson, RRMS, Longfellow, etc blow most privates out of the water. I don’t know anyone with an AAP qualified kid in the Western County going private.

BS. I have an AAP student at one of those schools and the program is a joke. AAP, honors, and regular are all pretty much the same thing with different labels. Let’s not kid ourselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've brought this up here many many times and keep getting teachers chiming in that a textbook is limiting. Of course it's limiting. It's not meant to be your only resource. It's meant as a starting point. Uggh. Textbooks were never meant to be the only resource to be used in a school. And then there are the teachers who chime in how easy it is to just make up your curriculum daily and how much freedom they have. Language arts is a joke. Language arts at our school consists of kids getting books from the shelves to read to themselves, read to a friend, or reading books online. I understand teachers don't want to be constrained with a textbook, but it is beyond me why they think random unrelated worksheets and open ended projects with no resources to help guide the student is a better curriculum system than a textbook and workbook.

Yep. Couldn't agree more. Teach grammar and *actual* spelling? Don't be ridiculous! I remember having a spelling and grammar workbook in elementary school that I loved. Language arts was my favorite class. Now I see what passes for "English" instruction and it's appalling. The teachers really don't care that students can't spell or construct a proper sentence/paragraph/essay. If we could afford to go private, we would in a heartbeat.

I'm the public school teacher who posted previously. I didn't have the money either but I can manage Catholic school. It's amazing that the essays my kid used to get As on in public school are now Cs in Catholic school. Yes, they actually expect correct grammar and spelling. It's been an uphill battle but now my kid gets that crap work will no longer earn him an A. His first 2 years of Catholic middle school were riddled with Cs on his report card. He is slowly improving but I wouldn't hesitate to move him again. The financial sacrifice is worth it to me.

Have you seen the FCPS writing rubrics for usage and mechanics? That's what we use at the elementary level and they're pretty solid on what's expected for grammar and spelling.

Who cares if there is a rubric for the teacher. That information never gets to the student.

The information does get to the student. There is a Composition and Written Expression rubric for each type of writing plus a Usage and Mechanics rubric. Each has a teacher and student version. At my school we basically use the student version.

At the beginning of a writing unit we read and discuss various examples. These serve as anchor papers and we discuss where each piece falls on the rubric. We also use read aloud books during reading for mentor texts. The students are aware of their rubric throughout the entire writing process. They receive the scored rubric with their final, published piece. The rubrics also come in handy during parent-teacher conferences.

That's great for your kids. Not for the students that have teachers who don't teach writing. Our elementary school does not give out rubrics to students, does not have checklists for writing, and does not get graded on a rubric for most of their writing and often doesn't get graded at all. In fact, often there is no writing assigned. No writing, no need for the rubric I guess. In addition, there is very little direct instruction on grammar and writing. The students aren't given anything to practice on prior to doing their larger assignments.

+100
This has also been our experience, in both elementary and middle school. It’s only in high school where they expect well-written essays, but the kids don’t know what they’re doing because *they haven’t been taught this information.* I have to say, the FCPS high schools are fantastic; the elementary and middle, not so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve had to scan sections of my kid’s math, science, and French textbooks to my sister to help her FCPS kids. She basically gets home from work most evenings and starts teaching them what they didn’t understand or fully learn that day. All with just worksheets and the iffy online resources. Pathetic.

THIS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure what your notes about students have to do with textbooks, workbooks, and other curriculum materials.

Another example of someone not understand how classrooms operate.

DP. I’m a parent who understands that my kids aren’t being taught correct spelling, grammar, or punctuation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS in 7th Grade FCPS. They have textbooks for science, history and English - 1 copy each left at school and 1 copy brought home at the beginning of the year. He also has a Spanish textbook, but that stays at school. So, some grades and schools do use textbooks.

What school?

Longfellow Middle School

So what good does his Spanish textbook do him when it stays at school? Online textbooks are a joke and often inaccessible if the electricity or internet is out.