Is English now “Honors for All” at mcps high schools?

[Anonymous]

My Einstein junior took pre IB English in 9th and 10th and it wasn’t great. You aren’t missing much. The 11th and 12th grade English classes are better though.

[Anonymous]

Curious as to how much writing students are doing in 9th grade. I pulled my kid out of MCPS for HS and she is reading Jane Eyre right now. She is required to do significant analytical essays on chosen subject matter from the book. It's such a very long book. I can't imagine a typical public school kid having the attention span to read it in its entirety. Her private only has one level for English in 9th grade. Not sure about the other grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious as to how much writing students are doing in 9th grade. I pulled my kid out of MCPS for HS and she is reading Jane Eyre right now. She is required to do significant analytical essays on chosen subject matter from the book. It's such a very long book. I can't imagine a typical public school kid having the attention span to read it in its entirety. Her private only has one level for English in 9th grade. Not sure about the other grades.

another private school parent still lurking on public school forum. Private school forum has told public school parents to keep out. Same goes for you.

[Anonymous]

My 9th grader is in (Honors) English now, and they have been recently reading a Sherman Alexie book and are writing a literary analysis essay about it.

[Anonymous]

My DC told me that a teacher told them that years ago, there was such a thing as on level, and Honors English, and that they were two distinct classes.

But one day, the higher ups saw that the on level classes were made up of mostly URM, and the honors classes weren't.

In the name of social equity and engineering, they got rid of on level classes, pushed the URM to honors, then dumbed down the curriculum. This caused more of the higher achieving kids to take AP English.

So "honors" classes in MCPS are a joke. It's more like on level, or maybe even below for some kids.

If you want your kid to get any kind of challenge, have them take AP English when they can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious as to how much writing students are doing in 9th grade. I pulled my kid out of MCPS for HS and she is reading Jane Eyre right now. She is required to do significant analytical essays on chosen subject matter from the book. It's such a very long book. I can't imagine a typical public school kid having the attention span to read it in its entirety. Her private only has one level for English in 9th grade. Not sure about the other grades.

I think my DD 4th grade CES was reading the same book. She wrote an 10 page paper on it which was great for a 10 year old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious as to how much writing students are doing in 9th grade. I pulled my kid out of MCPS for HS and she is reading Jane Eyre right now. She is required to do significant analytical essays on chosen subject matter from the book. It's such a very long book. I can't imagine a typical public school kid having the attention span to read it in its entirety. Her private only has one level for English in 9th grade. Not sure about the other grades.

Big three alum here with two mcps high schoolers. They do very little writing in ninth and tenth and get minimal feedback. IB has writing but again very little feedback or guidance.

The writing instruction is so poor compared compared to what I received. I wish we’d done private for high school but too late now.

I do take issue with your comment about the typical public school student not being able to do it. My kids could do it. The issue is school isn’t providing it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious as to how much writing students are doing in 9th grade. I pulled my kid out of MCPS for HS and she is reading Jane Eyre right now. She is required to do significant analytical essays on chosen subject matter from the book. It's such a very long book. I can't imagine a typical public school kid having the attention span to read it in its entirety. Her private only has one level for English in 9th grade. Not sure about the other grades.

Big three alum here with two mcps high schoolers. They do very little writing in ninth and tenth and get minimal feedback. IB has writing but again very little feedback or guidance.

The writing instruction is so poor compared compared to what I received. I wish we’d done private for high school but too late now.

I do take issue with your comment about the typical public school student not being able to do it. My kids could do it. The issue is school isn’t providing it

My reference to "typical" meant the masses. If you look at reading scores for public school students, you will know what I mean. That is why I used the word typical and not all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious as to how much writing students are doing in 9th grade. I pulled my kid out of MCPS for HS and she is reading Jane Eyre right now. She is required to do significant analytical essays on chosen subject matter from the book. It's such a very long book. I can't imagine a typical public school kid having the attention span to read it in its entirety. Her private only has one level for English in 9th grade. Not sure about the other grades.

Big three alum here with two mcps high schoolers. They do very little writing in ninth and tenth and get minimal feedback. IB has writing but again very little feedback or guidance.

The writing instruction is so poor compared compared to what I received. I wish we’d done private for high school but too late now.

I do take issue with your comment about the typical public school student not being able to do it. My kids could do it. The issue is school isn’t providing it

PP here again. My daughter is not in a big three, but a top private. Her papers have gotten significant feedback from her teacher and she has the opportunity to address the feedback to get an additional grade (not a new grade). The teacher has the luxury of only 15 students in the class, so much easier than a "typical" public school teacher's situation. Very glad we pulled her out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious as to how much writing students are doing in 9th grade. I pulled my kid out of MCPS for HS and she is reading Jane Eyre right now. She is required to do significant analytical essays on chosen subject matter from the book. It's such a very long book. I can't imagine a typical public school kid having the attention span to read it in its entirety. Her private only has one level for English in 9th grade. Not sure about the other grades.

Big three alum here with two mcps high schoolers. They do very little writing in ninth and tenth and get minimal feedback. IB has writing but again very little feedback or guidance.

The writing instruction is so poor compared compared to what I received. I wish we’d done private for high school but too late now.

I do take issue with your comment about the typical public school student not being able to do it. My kids could do it. The issue is school isn’t providing it

My reference to "typical" meant the masses. If you look at reading scores for public school students, you will know what I mean. That is why I used the word typical and not all.

I still disagree with your comment. I think the typical public school kid is capable of having the attention span to read jane eyre. They just aren’t being prepared or expected to do so most of the time.

Although my kids have read some books on par with Jane eyre. They’re just not expected to write about the books in the same way we were, nor do they receive the same amount of feedback when they do write. And I saw your comment about small classes and feedback and I agree.the teachers have too many students to provide that level of feedback. And I’m not sure how many of the MCPS teachers would even be good at providing that level of feedback even if they did have the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious as to how much writing students are doing in 9th grade. I pulled my kid out of MCPS for HS and she is reading Jane Eyre right now. She is required to do significant analytical essays on chosen subject matter from the book. It's such a very long book. I can't imagine a typical public school kid having the attention span to read it in its entirety. Her private only has one level for English in 9th grade. Not sure about the other grades.

Big three alum here with two mcps high schoolers. They do very little writing in ninth and tenth and get minimal feedback. IB has writing but again very little feedback or guidance.

The writing instruction is so poor compared compared to what I received. I wish we’d done private for high school but too late now.

I do take issue with your comment about the typical public school student not being able to do it. My kids could do it. The issue is school isn’t providing it

Same here. My kid loves to write and wants to do more of it. Her teacher suggested she take the creative writing course as an elective next year. I'm not sure if that is an option at other schools but it might be a way to supplement what is lacking in 9th and 10th grade English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious as to how much writing students are doing in 9th grade. I pulled my kid out of MCPS for HS and she is reading Jane Eyre right now. She is required to do significant analytical essays on chosen subject matter from the book. It's such a very long book. I can't imagine a typical public school kid having the attention span to read it in its entirety. Her private only has one level for English in 9th grade. Not sure about the other grades.

Big three alum here with two mcps high schoolers. They do very little writing in ninth and tenth and get minimal feedback. IB has writing but again very little feedback or guidance.

The writing instruction is so poor compared compared to what I received. I wish we’d done private for high school but too late now.

I do take issue with your comment about the typical public school student not being able to do it. My kids could do it. The issue is school isn’t providing it

Same here. My kid loves to write and wants to do more of it. Her teacher suggested she take the creative writing course as an elective next year. I'm not sure if that is an option at other schools but it might be a way to supplement what is lacking in 9th and 10th grade English.

My DC took one of those creative writing classes in 5th grade, I think. DC loves creative writing. I do think that class helped.

It really is a shame that MCPS teachers don't provide much feedback on the writing, however, my other DC is in IB, and their writing has improved drastically. Even DC can see the difference between 9th and now in 12th grade. Whether that's due to teacher feedback or just practice and maturity, I don't really know, but I do know that DC's writing has improved. My younger DC is only in 9th grade so I can't say whether their writing has improved or not. Time will tell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious as to how much writing students are doing in 9th grade. I pulled my kid out of MCPS for HS and she is reading Jane Eyre right now. She is required to do significant analytical essays on chosen subject matter from the book. It's such a very long book. I can't imagine a typical public school kid having the attention span to read it in its entirety. Her private only has one level for English in 9th grade. Not sure about the other grades.

I think my DD 4th grade CES was reading the same book. She wrote an 10 page paper on it which was great for a 10 year old.

My 4th grade CES DS is reading Dogman and did a 10 page finger paint project illustrating scenes from the book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
It's all about self esteem. Also, it's much easier to lower the bar than to get everyone to cross a high bar.

Truth. As a former MCPS teacher, we were officially told the goal is to narrow the academic gap, and that it was not only acceptable but preferred to do that by lowering the bar.

I tended to disagree; Notice I say former MCPS teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC told me that a teacher told them that years ago, there was such a thing as on level, and Honors English, and that they were two distinct classes.

But one day, the higher ups saw that the on level classes were made up of mostly URM, and the honors classes weren't.

In the name of social equity and engineering, they got rid of on level classes, pushed the URM to honors, then dumbed down the curriculum. This caused more of the higher achieving kids to take AP English.

So "honors" classes in MCPS are a joke. It's more like on level, or maybe even below for some kids.

If you want your kid to get any kind of challenge, have them take AP English when they can.

Agree with this.