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Curriculum a mile wide and an inch deep: how do you make it deeper?
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Anonymous
| This is a complaint I hear about MCPS all the time, but I need more information on what should be done about it. For example, at the first grade level my daughter is learning addition/subtraction with ones and tens and now carrying the ones, learning to tell time, etc. She seems to be understanding what she's learning. At that early elementary level, how do you know if the curriculum is deep enough, especially with math? I keep hearing they need to explore topics deeper, but I never hear examples of what is meant by that. Any ideas? Thanks! |
Anonymous
| I'm no expert, but I generally worry more about the depth of instruction on social studies and science ... for example, rather than memorizing the countries of Africa and their capital cities, learn about the history, culture, food, geography, animals, traditions and so forth of two or three African countries. It's the difference between those survey classes from freshman year in college and the classes within your major during the later years of college ... |
Anonymous
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That phrase is generally referring to math education. The point is that too many topics are being introduced too early at the cost of the basic concepts. MCPS defends some of their early introduction of topics like graphing and probablity, because the students "need that when they study science in 2nd grade". This takes time away from basics like addition and subtraction.
Overseas, in some places where children perform better on math tests, they teach fewer subjects, but in more depth. No other country has such fat math books, with so many topics like we do. The origin of the fat math book has to do with publishers trying to please each state, that has its own set of sometimes random standards. So the texts just have a little of everything, and the teachers try to get through it all. There is talk of have a more slimmed down national curriculum that we can all agree on. Also, the concept of the spiral curriculum intentionally brushes over topics rather than delving deeply. The expectation is that you come back to it. That seems to frustrate children who need more time or have more questions, including the bright ones. I am a scientist, and I don't remember seeing a graph of any kind before 6th grade or doing probability before college. I sailed trough sciences with no problem. I hope that MCPS will rethink some of their ideas. You can google some articles on this subject. |
Anonymous
| They need to really master the topics and have basic arithmetic facts down in the early grades. |
Anonymous
| Are any of you educators? Just curious. I agree with depth/not breadth--but that does not mean introducing topics in a spiraled fashion is necessarily bad. The jury is out among educators. OP--the best suggestion I can give with math is to support your child's learning of the material introduced in class, and supplement if you can with extra home practice and discussion.... |
Anonymous
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It's all about the almighty test in public schools. You have to cover the topics on the test just enough so they get it but not too much that you can't move on to the next topic. There's no time for depth.
My girlfriend left her MoCo teaching job becasue she hated seeing the kids getting interested in something and wanting so badly as a teacher to delve into it more but knowing that she couldn't afford to get off track for too long. I remember touring lots of schools several years ago when the cicadas were out in force. I was in a school (not public) and the teacher was doing a lesson where the kids were using jar caps (the ones that pop) to illustrate the sound of the cicadas. She made a comment that she could afford to take several days to discuss this once in an educational lifetime thing because she didn't have to worry about losing time covering test materials. That really hit home to me that we are losing depth for the sake of breadth |
Anonymous
This is supposedly why gifted students get frustrated with the breath curricula. |
Anonymous
| What's the math curriculum, OP? |
Anonymous
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law of unintended consequences with NCLB Teachers are fed up with non-stop testing, many just chucking it in early. Even in Grad classes the constant refrain is becoming "will it be on the test" --how students become stenographers! And teachers become crazed. Education has become hazing and harassment. . . .the ecstacy of learning out the window. brickyards awaiting the architect who never comes. . . . . . |
Anonymous
| OP, there is a difference between asking a first grader to add two numbers (3+5=8), and asking them to solve a word problem like, "We have eight apples all together, three of them are on the table, how many are in the box?" That gets them to push the skills one step further. You don't necessarily need to move onto multiplication, even with the talented kids, sine there is more that can be done with addition. |
Anonymous
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other countries do look at less concepts in more depth, but that does not mean that they focus on arithmetic and nothing else in the early grades. in fact, they do not divide the math (and science) in the ways that we do. arithmetic first, then algebra, then geometry. they start teaching the basic concepts of each early and build on them through the grades. the have courses on "sciences".
agree that the fat textbook phenomenon is a US thing...publishers try to include everything that every state includes in their standards so they can market their books to the widest possible audience. a silly outcome of our desperate need for every state to specify it's own standards. most countries have a national set of literacy (in the broad sense) standards that all students need to meet. and that does not mean they test to death...tests in other countries are VERY different from here. they are essay questions, not multiple choice, intended to measure comprehension of concepts not facts. |
Anonymous
| number sense, number sense, number sense. This is what our math curriculum is lacking. So many kids in K-2 have such a shaky foundation in this area. If you can't "understand" what the number 5 represents, there is no way you can manipulate higher numbers. We need to get rid of the drill and kill mentality that is in our public school classrooms. Yes, there is a point where you need to memorize some math facts but our kids need a better foundation in the basics. Really, does a 6 year old need to know what a Venn Diagram is? Time would be better spent going back to the basics. |
Anonymous
We don't have drill and kill in most elementary math classess anymore! Are you crazy?? I wish they WOULD drill math facts more, not less. Math facts ARE The basics! Students need complete accurate recall of basic math facts; and not to count on/count down on their fingers or in their heads for addition and subtraction. I agree venn diagrams and set theory and all should be set aside till later. |