Did anyone else go to the train wreck meeting at JWMS last night?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:My 2E kid took digital literacy because we were concerned about a foreign language. Kid is off the charts in math/science but struggled with language. Digital literacy was a far better class for writing than the GT/Honors English class. GT English was disorganized and did a pretty poor job modeling effective writing styles and research papers. DL was very good and involved far more longer writing assignments and papers that in the end really made a difference for my kid. It also helped that the kids were writing about more contemporary topics.

What MS?

JW doesn’t have an Honors English class for 6th graders! There is no differentiation. All 6th graders take the same Advanced English class. No regular or Honors options.

So kids that aren’t advanced in English take it? Why call it advance? LOL

They don’t track in middle school? Good God. How pathetic.

Yes. Teachers are expected to differentiate within the class, just as in ES.

Not allowed to track for English or Science.

Most MS do offer a cohort for Math and History (History is a strange choice, IMO).

You would think with so many ESOL kids, they would at least differentiate for English. Do the teachers take reading groups too. I mean there are kids reading beyond high school level and kids that don’t speak any English. What literature do they offer them?

There are no reading groups in middle school English. They either take digital literacy or a foreign language or they have ESOL support. English class once you are done with elementary school is never again about reading groups and centers.

ESOL 1 and 2 usually do not get electives and sometimes don’t get social studies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most kids should be done learning to read by the end of ES right , otherwise they will be in Reading class instead of English i think

Reading and English teach different things. English focuses on literary analysis and writing. Reading is just reading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 2E kid took digital literacy because we were concerned about a foreign language. Kid is off the charts in math/science but struggled with language. Digital literacy was a far better class for writing than the GT/Honors English class. GT English was disorganized and did a pretty poor job modeling effective writing styles and research papers. DL was very good and involved far more longer writing assignments and papers that in the end really made a difference for my kid. It also helped that the kids were writing about more contemporary topics.

What MS?

JW doesn’t have an Honors English class for 6th graders! There is no differentiation. All 6th graders take the same Advanced English class. No regular or Honors options.

So kids that aren’t advanced in English take it? Why call it advance? LOL

They don’t track in middle school? Good God. How pathetic.

Yes. Teachers are expected to differentiate within the class, just as in ES.

Not allowed to track for English or Science.

Most MS do offer a cohort for Math and History (History is a strange choice, IMO).

Not for History. It was said that they are not differentiating them next year even if your child was picked for it in that letter. They will just get extra work and be tested harder.

Yes they do have a separate Global humanities 6 for kids who got the letter

.

And my husband went to someone after one of the sessions and was told the kids who received the HIGH6 letters will be mixed, but get extra work. I mean who knows. My daughter did get the letter, but I am not holding my breath it will be a cohort. A lot of things have drastically changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 2E kid took digital literacy because we were concerned about a foreign language. Kid is off the charts in math/science but struggled with language. Digital literacy was a far better class for writing than the GT/Honors English class. GT English was disorganized and did a pretty poor job modeling effective writing styles and research papers. DL was very good and involved far more longer writing assignments and papers that in the end really made a difference for my kid. It also helped that the kids were writing about more contemporary topics.

What MS?

JW doesn’t have an Honors English class for 6th graders! There is no differentiation. All 6th graders take the same Advanced English class. No regular or Honors options.

So kids that aren’t advanced in English take it? Why call it advance? LOL

They don’t track in middle school? Good God. How pathetic.

Yes. Teachers are expected to differentiate within the class, just as in ES.

Not allowed to track for English or Science.

Most MS do offer a cohort for Math and History (History is a strange choice, IMO).

You would think with so many ESOL kids, they would at least differentiate for English. Do the teachers take reading groups too. I mean there are kids reading beyond high school level and kids that don’t speak any English. What literature do they offer them?

There are no reading groups in middle school English. They either take digital literacy or a foreign language or they have ESOL support. English class once you are done with elementary school is never again about reading groups and centers.

So there is no required reading? No literature assigned? My oldest two goes to private so this is new for us, but their middle school English was a combination of literature (required novels) papers, poetry, essays, grammar, and creative writing. What does public school teach with English? Man, I am getting depressed.

Unfortunately, there is not much to MS English in MCPS. Very little grammar, if any.

My kid gets more detailed writing assignments in HIGH than in non-advanced Advanced English.

But the HIGH kids are mixed this coming year. No cohort.

That truly sucks. HIGH has been my DC’s most engaging class. And DC doesn’t even love history. But it’s challenging and engaging and has a great group of kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 2E kid took digital literacy because we were concerned about a foreign language. Kid is off the charts in math/science but struggled with language. Digital literacy was a far better class for writing than the GT/Honors English class. GT English was disorganized and did a pretty poor job modeling effective writing styles and research papers. DL was very good and involved far more longer writing assignments and papers that in the end really made a difference for my kid. It also helped that the kids were writing about more contemporary topics.

What MS?

JW doesn’t have an Honors English class for 6th graders! There is no differentiation. All 6th graders take the same Advanced English class. No regular or Honors options.

So kids that aren’t advanced in English take it? Why call it advance? LOL

They don’t track in middle school? Good God. How pathetic.

Yes. Teachers are expected to differentiate within the class, just as in ES.

Not allowed to track for English or Science.

Most MS do offer a cohort for Math and History (History is a strange choice, IMO).

You would think with so many ESOL kids, they would at least differentiate for English. Do the teachers take reading groups too. I mean there are kids reading beyond high school level and kids that don’t speak any English. What literature do they offer them?

There are no reading groups in middle school English. They either take digital literacy or a foreign language or they have ESOL support. English class once you are done with elementary school is never again about reading groups and centers.

So there is no required reading? No literature assigned? My oldest two goes to private so this is new for us, but their middle school English was a combination of literature (required novels) papers, poetry, essays, grammar, and creative writing. What does public school teach with English? Man, I am getting depressed.

MCPS is totally different from private school.

MCPS focuses on Equity and closing the Achievement Gap. That is it. They tell you that in all their emails, press releases and at meetings. It is the major concern. MCPS is not interested in making your high performing child perform even better. No reason to focus on those kids, who would perform well despite MCPS.

[Anonymous]

I hated the presentations. What was the point in moving us around like cattle? Why couldn’t they have had it on two nights or one night in RM theater. A slide show and FAQ and open question/answers at the end? Is this how unprepared the school is? This will be my first of 3 going into Julius West and we left underwhelmed and like others, confused. I still didn’t know many answers, but we were forced to send that sheet in the next day. I sent an email to the poster of the night and have yet to hear back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 2E kid took digital literacy because we were concerned about a foreign language. Kid is off the charts in math/science but struggled with language. Digital literacy was a far better class for writing than the GT/Honors English class. GT English was disorganized and did a pretty poor job modeling effective writing styles and research papers. DL was very good and involved far more longer writing assignments and papers that in the end really made a difference for my kid. It also helped that the kids were writing about more contemporary topics.

What MS?

JW doesn’t have an Honors English class for 6th graders! There is no differentiation. All 6th graders take the same Advanced English class. No regular or Honors options.

So kids that aren’t advanced in English take it? Why call it advance? LOL

They don’t track in middle school? Good God. How pathetic.

Yes. Teachers are expected to differentiate within the class, just as in ES.

Not allowed to track for English or Science.

Most MS do offer a cohort for Math and History (History is a strange choice, IMO).

You would think with so many ESOL kids, they would at least differentiate for English. Do the teachers take reading groups too. I mean there are kids reading beyond high school level and kids that don’t speak any English. What literature do they offer them?

There are no reading groups in middle school English. They either take digital literacy or a foreign language or they have ESOL support. English class once you are done with elementary school is never again about reading groups and centers.

So there is no required reading? No literature assigned? My oldest two goes to private so this is new for us, but their middle school English was a combination of literature (required novels) papers, poetry, essays, grammar, and creative writing. What does public school teach with English? Man, I am getting depressed.

Unfortunately, there is not much to MS English in MCPS. Very little grammar, if any.

My kid gets more detailed writing assignments in HIGH than in non-advanced Advanced English.

But the HIGH kids are mixed this coming year. No cohort.

That truly sucks. HIGH has been my DC’s most engaging class. And DC doesn’t even love history. But it’s challenging and engaging and has a great group of kids.

That’s strange, I asked and he clarified they are separate classes, there are 4 classes of HIGH6 for about 120 kids out of 500 kids and that this cohort continue to HIGH7 and 8..
I don’t understand why there are different versions of the information

[Anonymous]

But the HIGH kids are mixed this coming year. No cohort.


That truly sucks. HIGH has been my DC’s most engaging class. And DC doesn’t even love history. But it’s challenging and engaging and has a great group of kids.



That’s strange, I asked and he clarified they are separate classes, there are 4 classes of HIGH6 for about 120 kids out of 500 kids and that this cohort continue to HIGH7 and 8..
I don’t understand why there are different versions of the information

Incoming 6th graders will be in all heterogeneous classes. AIM mixed with IM, HIGH mixed with HIWS, Advanced English mixed with regular English, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 2E kid took digital literacy because we were concerned about a foreign language. Kid is off the charts in math/science but struggled with language. Digital literacy was a far better class for writing than the GT/Honors English class. GT English was disorganized and did a pretty poor job modeling effective writing styles and research papers. DL was very good and involved far more longer writing assignments and papers that in the end really made a difference for my kid. It also helped that the kids were writing about more contemporary topics.

What MS?

JW doesn’t have an Honors English class for 6th graders! There is no differentiation. All 6th graders take the same Advanced English class. No regular or Honors options.

So kids that aren’t advanced in English take it? Why call it advance? LOL

They don’t track in middle school? Good God. How pathetic.

Yes. Teachers are expected to differentiate within the class, just as in ES.

Not allowed to track for English or Science.

Most MS do offer a cohort for Math and History (History is a strange choice, IMO).

You would think with so many ESOL kids, they would at least differentiate for English. Do the teachers take reading groups too. I mean there are kids reading beyond high school level and kids that don’t speak any English. What literature do they offer them?

There are no reading groups in middle school English. They either take digital literacy or a foreign language or they have ESOL support. English class once you are done with elementary school is never again about reading groups and centers.

So there is no required reading? No literature assigned? My oldest two goes to private so this is new for us, but their middle school English was a combination of literature (required novels) papers, poetry, essays, grammar, and creative writing. What does public school teach with English? Man, I am getting depressed.

DP.. of course they are assigned books to read. My 6th grader at JW is currently reading 'Holes' (I think). It's just they don't have groups for reading. When I was in MS we didn't have reading groups either. That stopped in ES as the PP stated.

Holes is a 3-6th grade reading level. What do they advance kids read?

All kids read the same books. The kids who test higher in Language Arts are expected to write at a higher level. But not much feedback for them anyway, so it’s somewhat a waste of a class.

When DC#1 was at JW (now 9th grade), English teachers had students reading at their own lexile levels. DC has a very high lexile reading level and had a hard time finding an age appropriate but challenging book to read. The teacher gave out a list of books per lexile level, and kids had to pick from that list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

But the HIGH kids are mixed this coming year. No cohort.


That truly sucks. HIGH has been my DC’s most engaging class. And DC doesn’t even love history. But it’s challenging and engaging and has a great group of kids.



That’s strange, I asked and he clarified they are separate classes, there are 4 classes of HIGH6 for about 120 kids out of 500 kids and that this cohort continue to HIGH7 and 8..
I don’t understand why there are different versions of the information

Incoming 6th graders will be in all heterogeneous classes. AIM mixed with IM, HIGH mixed with HIWS, Advanced English mixed with regular English, etc.

We were told the same. Pretty pissed off. I was under the impression middle school started tracking to teach all of these kids at their level. I think once again, diversity is more important than education. It needs to look better than actually be better. And all of the kids suffer because of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

But the HIGH kids are mixed this coming year. No cohort.


That truly sucks. HIGH has been my DC’s most engaging class. And DC doesn’t even love history. But it’s challenging and engaging and has a great group of kids.



That’s strange, I asked and he clarified they are separate classes, there are 4 classes of HIGH6 for about 120 kids out of 500 kids and that this cohort continue to HIGH7 and 8..
I don’t understand why there are different versions of the information

Incoming 6th graders will be in all heterogeneous classes. AIM mixed with IM, HIGH mixed with HIWS, Advanced English mixed with regular English, etc.

We were told the same. Pretty pissed off. I was under the impression middle school started tracking to teach all of these kids at their level. I think once again, diversity is more important than education. It needs to look better than actually be better. And all of the kids suffer because of it.

This is the story of MCPS. And, why MCPS has been declining for the past decade. Nobody benefits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

But the HIGH kids are mixed this coming year. No cohort.


That truly sucks. HIGH has been my DC’s most engaging class. And DC doesn’t even love history. But it’s challenging and engaging and has a great group of kids.



That’s strange, I asked and he clarified they are separate classes, there are 4 classes of HIGH6 for about 120 kids out of 500 kids and that this cohort continue to HIGH7 and 8..
I don’t understand why there are different versions of the information

Incoming 6th graders will be in all heterogeneous classes. AIM mixed with IM, HIGH mixed with HIWS, Advanced English mixed with regular English, etc.

We were told the same. Pretty pissed off. I was under the impression middle school started tracking to teach all of these kids at their level. I think once again, diversity is more important than education. It needs to look better than actually be better. And all of the kids suffer because of it.

This is the story of MCPS. And, why MCPS has been declining for the past decade. Nobody benefits.

But not all middle schools are doing this. Actually most don’t. They at least have some cohorts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

But the HIGH kids are mixed this coming year. No cohort.


That truly sucks. HIGH has been my DC’s most engaging class. And DC doesn’t even love history. But it’s challenging and engaging and has a great group of kids.



That’s strange, I asked and he clarified they are separate classes, there are 4 classes of HIGH6 for about 120 kids out of 500 kids and that this cohort continue to HIGH7 and 8..
I don’t understand why there are different versions of the information

Incoming 6th graders will be in all heterogeneous classes. AIM mixed with IM, HIGH mixed with HIWS, Advanced English mixed with regular English, etc.

We were told the same. Pretty pissed off. I was under the impression middle school started tracking to teach all of these kids at their level. I think once again, diversity is more important than education. It needs to look better than actually be better. And all of the kids suffer because of it.

This is the story of MCPS. And, why MCPS has been declining for the past decade. Nobody benefits.

But not all middle schools are doing this. Actually most don’t. They at least have some cohorts.

Many have block schedules too. Principal is doing a terrible job. Just worried about bringing up the rear from the one feeder.

[Anonymous]

Wait, we were told AIM is separate in a cohort, but HIGH will not be a cohort class. It will be mixed. Why is everyone receiving different info? I am pulling my DC from HIGH if it is mixed. It is just extra work compared to the cohort classes in other schools where they actually teach a great class. We were old AIM is in place of IM. There is no more IM. Whatever the heck that means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

But the HIGH kids are mixed this coming year. No cohort.


That truly sucks. HIGH has been my DC’s most engaging class. And DC doesn’t even love history. But it’s challenging and engaging and has a great group of kids.



That’s strange, I asked and he clarified they are separate classes, there are 4 classes of HIGH6 for about 120 kids out of 500 kids and that this cohort continue to HIGH7 and 8..
I don’t understand why there are different versions of the information

Incoming 6th graders will be in all heterogeneous classes. AIM mixed with IM, HIGH mixed with HIWS, Advanced English mixed with regular English, etc.

We were told the same. Pretty pissed off. I was under the impression middle school started tracking to teach all of these kids at their level. I think once again, diversity is more important than education. It needs to look better than actually be better. And all of the kids suffer because of it.

This is the story of MCPS. And, why MCPS has been declining for the past decade. Nobody benefits.

But not all middle schools are doing this. Actually most don’t. They at least have some cohorts.

Which MSs have cohorts? I hear similar complaints from kids all over the county in other middle schools!