Reply to APS Proposing Additional Days Off in 24-25 School Year

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Thanks, Youngkin.

Shittiest governor ever.[/quote]

Umm what is wrong with you? This is training for the literacy act that was bipartisan. Teachers in Virginia need to start teaching in accordance with the science of reading. Since it’s a whole new way of teaching they need this training. Are you against students learning to read?

I agree with the rest of the PPs. Why November 4? They should just have the training right before or after thanksgiving break. Too many breaks aren’t good for learning. [/quote]

Um... science of reading isn't that new. It's been pretty standard for at least 10 years. APS has been incredibly slow to adapt a decent curriculum, but this isn't new and many teachers were trained in the science of reading [/quote]

Foreigner here. Trying to wrap my head around the fact that native English speakers are still figuring out a way to teach reading... People have been reading English for centuries and it's still a mystery how to teach it??!! mind-boggling [/quote]

Foreigner also. I was the one responding to the Youngkin is a shitty governor post (he is in many ways but this is not one of them). They did know how to teach reading but then somehow in the 70s I think new education ideas started taking over and a belief developed that kids don’t need to be taught how to sound out the individual letters. Basically if they read enough times they will start recognizing words. This was called the whole language approach. Many kids are eventually able to figure out the letter sounds using this method but many kids simply memorized the way a word looks without being able to sound it out. Many educators criticized the approach which lead to what is now called the “reading wars.” The result was to keep the whole language approach but have phonics lessons peppered in the middle. This was called “balanced literacy.” Problem with balanced literacy is there was never really a focus on phonics and it wasn’t taught in a systematic way. This created a whole new generation of kids that can barely read. Meanwhile a lot of research was being conducted that showed the importance of systematic phonics instruction. That research came to be called the “science of reading.” Now states and districts are finally paying attention to the science of reading and implementing systemic phonics instruction in schools.

There is more to this story though. Another idea that was popular is that you don’t need to teach kids knowledge because they can just google the information they need. But the problem with that is that it is easier to comprehend something you had background knowledge of, then something you didn’t. Also how can you ask the right questions or search for something if you don’t know what to look for? Kids were entering middle and high school without any background knowledge. So they were doing poorly in their English classes, history, social studies etc and doing poorly on standardized tests. That’s why districts like APS have finally adopted an English curriculum that explicitly teaches background knowledge. Elementary in Arlington is improving fast but some schools are still pushing back. The weak link though is middle school. Hopefully I summarized that accurately!

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