Is teaching reading no longer school’s responsibility?
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Anonymous
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I have been reading some pretty aggressive posts from teachers (or people posing as teachers) about how they can’t meet 100% of student needs. And I generally agree that there is ideally a partnership between home and school for all learning topics.
But multiple threads lately seem to suggest that parents are responsible for primary teaching of reading and handwriting letter formation. When I was in school, the teachers taught both of these skills and we practiced at home. Perhaps the nastiness is more directed at kids with dyslexia, and I know they have never been well-served in public schools, which is horrible (and a violation of federal law). Or maybe I have just read too many threads with the same few posters. What are others seeing in your elementary schools? |
Anonymous
| No handwriting instruction for any kids at our elementary for the last 10+!years. They gave it up in 2008 when my oldest was in 3rd grade. DS never got it. |
Anonymous
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You are spot on, at least in MCPS. Seems teachers are so focused on behavioral issues they can’t/don’t/won’t give the skills we were taught as kids. For the dyslexic kids MCPS is a horror show and always has been...they write them off, pure and simple.
Broadly, I fault the teacher preparation colleges - especially for reading issues we’ve seen recently. (Phonics wins). Also the end of direct instruction. Many teachers call it ‘drill and kill’. Well drill and kill is the way to teach most things for the majority of folks of all backgrounds and socio-economic status. You can tell the county’s talk of and action on equity is hollow when if they really wanted to close the achievement gap they would move to direct instruction model. Huge Federal study from 1970s still holds today. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1072120.pdf |
Anonymous
| There's no mention of handwriting in the common core standards, so it's rarely taught anymore. |
Anonymous
| No but the way reading is taught in elementary is by sight words now when phonics based instruction is best. Too many teachers aren’t teaching reading the right way. When they get to high school where I am, it’s often too late. The reading specialist can help a bit but kids by then are reluctant readers at best or can’t comprehend what they read at worst. A lot of remediation is done at that level to help them take and retake SOLs or Work Keys with a hope of passing. When elementary level goes back to phonics based instruction it will help. I have a lot of kids this year who took the 9th grade Iready diagnostic and are at 3rd, 4th, 5th grade reading level. Middle school, frankly, is useless. I have no earthly idea what they do or learn there because the things kids get to high school with unaddressed floor me. |
Anonymous
| I put my younger DD through private ES because MCPS didn’t teach her older sibling phonics or cursive. I’m a teacher myself, but secondary and honestly, have no idea how to teach either of those. Why would I expect the average parent to be able to? |
Anonymous
You’re a secondary teacher but you think cursive actually matters? Weird |
Anonymous
| Years and years of drilling sight words. |
Anonymous
Handwritten notes promote retention more than typed ones and cursive can be written more swiftly than printing. Cursive writers often print more neatly as well, but the biggest difference is that students who can write in cursive can read it. The majority of my students can’t read cursive. They can’t read feedback from teachers who write in cursive, forcing teachers to print, which (again) takes longer and reduces the amount of feedback some teachers give. Nor can they read primary sources in cursive, so even in my AP courses, I was limited to transcriptions. |
Anonymous
| 1st grade teacher here. We definitely teach reading! What frustrates me is when parents don’t support at home and assume that the learning done during the school day is enough. Some kids really do need extra practice at home. Also, we teach phonics and handwriting through FUNdations. I think 3rd grade teaches cursive with another program (handwriting without tears?) this is DCPS. |
Anonymous
| I have a 2nd grader in mcps and she was reading before K but they certainly teach reading. They are tested and then placed in reading groups based on ability. Given that most kids couldn’t read in K and now they all read I assume the teacher taught them. Same with handwriting, they teach them the correct way to write the letters, then in 1st they learned punctuation, capital letters at the beginning etc. |
Anonymous
| Can you point out all those posts by teachers who say teaching reading is not their job? I haven’t seen a bunch of posts that say that and it’s not my experience with my kids, either. |
Anonymous
They don’t say that. She is cherry picking from a thread where a parent whose child has SN said “it’s the schools job to meet 100% of my kid’s needs” and someone responded no school can meet 100% of a child’s needs. |
Anonymous
Guess she didn’t get taught reading. ;D |
Anonymous
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NP- I think there is a theme of teachers saying things that are basically if whole language doesn’t work for your kid then you need to teach phonics yourselves. The teachers who weren’t trained in more modern teaching methods don’t get that without good systemic phonics instruction that reading skills will fall apart later.
I have a neurotypical kid and a dyslexic kid so I pay attention to that stuff. I was happy to see that DCPS have a solid plan. And my kids weren’t taught proper letter formation at school. Dyslexic child was taught cursive by tutor and in private school. I taught them cursive myself. |