Amplify/CKLA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is cursive part of CLKA?

Not sure but if you want to teach your kid, I highly recommend the Cursive Logic program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is cursive part of CLKA?

My understanding is thar there are cursive materials provided but it's optional whether teachers/schools actually use them...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The spelling program in grades 3-5 isn't good at all because it's under the impression that every student is on grade-level. RGR would still be a good supplement in grades 3-5 for struggling readers.

RGR is still available as an intervention.

We were basically told as a staff that only a very small handful of students would be getting intervention because there isn't enough time in the schedule because ckla is so time consuming. It takes 2 hours a day to complete the entire curriculum if you're doing it correctly. My daughter's 4th grade ELA teacher admitted that the kids are getting 15 minutes of social studies because she doesn't have time to do anything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My first grader came home the first or second week and told me about the story of the day. It was about a girl milking cows to earn money. I asked why she wanted to earn the money. Apparently it was so she could buy a beautiful dress that would make the other girls jealous and get a boy’s attention.
I didn’t want to email the teacher to confirm as it seems like small potatoes the first month of school. But I will definitely find a way to ask about it at some point this year.

Same impression, the works selected were insanely stupid. I don’t like this curriculum, and I have a 3rd grader.

Kindergarten was doing nursery rhymes and fables first grade was doing folk tales and fables. Second grade was doing tall tales and then I think 3rd through 5th grade it's personal narratives.

My 4th grader was extremely excited by the reading material because the benchmark material has always been so dry and boring. She read a short stories by Beverly cleary and Peg Kehret and Esmeralda Santiago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The take home 2nd grade handout wants the parent to discuss early Asian civilizations and Buddhism and Hinduism. ?? Sure, after I spend 45 minutes reviewing the spelling list and doing a 2 sided Eureka math worksheet every night.

" So what are you guys learning about in school honey?"

"Can you tell me more about that?"

Not that hard

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My first grader came home the first or second week and told me about the story of the day. It was about a girl milking cows to earn money. I asked why she wanted to earn the money. Apparently it was so she could buy a beautiful dress that would make the other girls jealous and get a boy’s attention.
I didn’t want to email the teacher to confirm as it seems like small potatoes the first month of school. But I will definitely find a way to ask about it at some point this year.

Same impression, the works selected were insanely stupid. I don’t like this curriculum, and I have a 3rd grader.

Kindergarten was doing nursery rhymes and fables first grade was doing folk tales and fables. Second grade was doing tall tales and then I think 3rd through 5th grade it's personal narratives.

My 4th grader was extremely excited by the reading material because the benchmark material has always been so dry and boring. She read a short stories by Beverly cleary and Peg Kehret and Esmeralda Santiago.

3rd grade started with a unit of "Classic Stories." They read abridged versions of The Wind in the Willows, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The second unit was about animal classifications (like what makes a mammal a mammal). The printout of future units I saw at BTSN mostly showed either science or social studies units after that; I know there's a unit on Ancient Rome, because my kid was excited for that, and then one on early America and one on the human body I think?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The spelling program in grades 3-5 isn't good at all because it's under the impression that every student is on grade-level. RGR would still be a good supplement in grades 3-5 for struggling readers.

RGR is still available as an intervention.

We were basically told as a staff that only a very small handful of students would be getting intervention because there isn't enough time in the schedule because ckla is so time consuming. It takes 2 hours a day to complete the entire curriculum if you're doing it correctly. My daughter's 4th grade ELA teacher admitted that the kids are getting 15 minutes of social studies because she doesn't have time to do anything else.

CKLA requires 2 hours for K-2 and 90 minutes for 3-5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My first grader came home the first or second week and told me about the story of the day. It was about a girl milking cows to earn money. I asked why she wanted to earn the money. Apparently it was so she could buy a beautiful dress that would make the other girls jealous and get a boy’s attention.
I didn’t want to email the teacher to confirm as it seems like small potatoes the first month of school. But I will definitely find a way to ask about it at some point this year.

Same impression, the works selected were insanely stupid. I don’t like this curriculum, and I have a 3rd grader.

Kindergarten was doing nursery rhymes and fables first grade was doing folk tales and fables. Second grade was doing tall tales and then I think 3rd through 5th grade it's personal narratives.

My 4th grader was extremely excited by the reading material because the benchmark material has always been so dry and boring. She read a short stories by Beverly cleary and Peg Kehret and Esmeralda Santiago.

The whole point of Core Knowledge is that as kids get older, their lack of familiarity with cultural background knowledge stymies their reading comprehension. You may find the fables and folk tales to be "insanely stupid," but they are chosen because references to them appear in many other stories, and it helps to understand the allusion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The take home 2nd grade handout wants the parent to discuss early Asian civilizations and Buddhism and Hinduism. ?? Sure, after I spend 45 minutes reviewing the spelling list and doing a 2 sided Eureka math worksheet every night.

" So what are you guys learning about in school honey?"

"Can you tell me more about that?"

Not that hard

The answer is I don't know

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The spelling program in grades 3-5 isn't good at all because it's under the impression that every student is on grade-level. RGR would still be a good supplement in grades 3-5 for struggling readers.

RGR is still available as an intervention.

We were basically told as a staff that only a very small handful of students would be getting intervention because there isn't enough time in the schedule because ckla is so time consuming. It takes 2 hours a day to complete the entire curriculum if you're doing it correctly. My daughter's 4th grade ELA teacher admitted that the kids are getting 15 minutes of social studies because she doesn't have time to do anything else.

As a school leader, this is what drives me nuts about MCPS. Each curriculum office chooses a number of minutes per day/week that a subject must be taught. It's presented each year at a meeting in the spring when we begin developing schedules for the next year. All of the building leaders in the room add up the recommended times for each subject area and repeatedly tell central office that there literally aren't enough minutes in our current school day to teach the subjects with the times given. No curriculum office wants to back down from their recommendations as each feels their subject is the most important. Inevitably, we go back to our own schools and prioritize reading and math while doing our best to fit in SS and science. We also have FIT time at our school so students get targeted, small group instruction that isn't offered within the CKLA or Eureka blocks. If we didn't provide targeted small group instruction, our data would be worse. It's a lose-lose with all these competing demands. In all honesty, lunch/recess needs to go back to sixty minutes and we should extend the day by about thirty minutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The spelling program in grades 3-5 isn't good at all because it's under the impression that every student is on grade-level. RGR would still be a good supplement in grades 3-5 for struggling readers.

RGR is still available as an intervention.

We were basically told as a staff that only a very small handful of students would be getting intervention because there isn't enough time in the schedule because ckla is so time consuming. It takes 2 hours a day to complete the entire curriculum if you're doing it correctly. My daughter's 4th grade ELA teacher admitted that the kids are getting 15 minutes of social studies because she doesn't have time to do anything else.

This is also because mcps has cut intervention hours at many schools. Students who could use small group pull out intervention during the WIN/FIT block can’t because there are only so many hours in a day the intervention teachers can pull students.

Please remember when voting in November to pick the candidates who care about funding schools appropriately

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The spelling program in grades 3-5 isn't good at all because it's under the impression that every student is on grade-level. RGR would still be a good supplement in grades 3-5 for struggling readers.

RGR is still available as an intervention.

We were basically told as a staff that only a very small handful of students would be getting intervention because there isn't enough time in the schedule because ckla is so time consuming. It takes 2 hours a day to complete the entire curriculum if you're doing it correctly. My daughter's 4th grade ELA teacher admitted that the kids are getting 15 minutes of social studies because she doesn't have time to do anything else.

This is also because mcps has cut intervention hours at many schools. Students who could use small group pull out intervention during the WIN/FIT block can’t because there are only so many hours in a day the intervention teachers can pull students.

Please remember when voting in November to pick the candidates who care about funding schools appropriately

Which means what? MCPS loves to waste funding on pie in the sky purchases that waste millions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The spelling program in grades 3-5 isn't good at all because it's under the impression that every student is on grade-level. RGR would still be a good supplement in grades 3-5 for struggling readers.

RGR is still available as an intervention.

We were basically told as a staff that only a very small handful of students would be getting intervention because there isn't enough time in the schedule because ckla is so time consuming. It takes 2 hours a day to complete the entire curriculum if you're doing it correctly. My daughter's 4th grade ELA teacher admitted that the kids are getting 15 minutes of social studies because she doesn't have time to do anything else.

As a school leader, this is what drives me nuts about MCPS. Each curriculum office chooses a number of minutes per day/week that a subject must be taught. It's presented each year at a meeting in the spring when we begin developing schedules for the next year. All of the building leaders in the room add up the recommended times for each subject area and repeatedly tell central office that there literally aren't enough minutes in our current school day to teach the subjects with the times given. No curriculum office wants to back down from their recommendations as each feels their subject is the most important. Inevitably, we go back to our own schools and prioritize reading and math while doing our best to fit in SS and science. We also have FIT time at our school so students get targeted, small group instruction that isn't offered within the CKLA or Eureka blocks. If we didn't provide targeted small group instruction, our data would be worse. It's a lose-lose with all these competing demands. In all honesty, lunch/recess needs to go back to sixty minutes and we should extend the day by about thirty minutes.

Yes each of these departments are siloed and not coordinating with each other. my kid is supposed to be getting ELA enrichment but that hasn't happened yet because the grade level hasn't been able to coordinate intervention groups yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter's 4th grade ELA teacher admitted that the kids are getting 15 minutes of social studies because she doesn't have time to do anything else.

The CKLA curriculum includes some non-fiction reading material which is on the topic of history/social studies. So not to worry, some of that other material is/will get picked up integrated in the CKLA reading material.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is cursive part of CLKA?

Not sure but if you want to teach your kid, I highly recommend the Cursive Logic program.

I prefer to spend that time teaching them how to type correctly, but I guess you could go in the other direction and maybe take calligraphy lessons.