Reply to Parents are pulling their children out of Basis FAST!

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I was surprised at the level of English instruction especially in writing.  The 6th grade teacher indicated that they were working on organizing paragraphs. I asked her about when they worked on 3 and 5 paragragh essays or big book projects and it was not on her radar.  Currently, this was my main concern with Basis.  In all fairness, only the privates in DC and MD seem to put an early emphais on teaching writing, even though MoCo does at least introduce the material and because they assign book projects you can control the level of the project.  What is your experience with the writing?[/quote]

So you're saying my 5th grader in DCPS - who has completed a literary critique as well as a persuasive essay this semester, both several pages long and going from draft to publishing - is getting a more advanced education in reading and writing? In all fairness, one needs to recognize that learning to write well isn't a cumulative process. In my professional work, decades after attending 6th grade, I'm still regularly confronted with improving how paragraphs are organized. In fact, if you give that age children an assignment like "go write five pages about horses", you'll essentially teach them to copy from Wikipedia. No matter how neat their writing, no matter how well read they are, it's not a reasonable expectation to accomplish such a task (I know college students who still have a hard time).
PP, I think you're asking the wrong question: You should ask the teacher HOW the learning is accomplished not WHAT is learned. That's what will help you find a good school, one that matches your child's learning habits. Basis isn't for us but it would be unfair to judge it on poorly articulated criteria.[/quote]

I wasn't talking or asking about your child that does not attend Basis.  I was asking parents of 5th graders at Basis what types of assignments they are getting? Who would give a child an assignment saying "go write five pages about horses?"  But if I decide to go to Basis I would like for them to be assigning literary critiques and persuasive essays which are the types of assignments my DC is currently getting who is also in a public school.  Writing is a life-long process that can always use improvement a.k.a. multiple drafts.  Maybe if you went to a few more open houses at the upper tier privates and actually read the essays posted on the bulletin boards (not the typed ones) you would understand what I was talking about.  I am not a private school booster but this seems to be the one area that they try to excel in.  I don't think they are as accelerated as good publics in math.

Do any 5th grade Basis parents have any information to share?  If it is an area that I am going to need to supplement, I would like to know this going in.  In the areas my son is really interested in , they seem strong.  No mean responses please.[/quote]

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