Reply to Give me constructive advice on how to help my middle schooler in English

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "Give me constructive advice on how to help my middle schooler in English"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Just send your kid to Catholic school and they’ll teach them. [/quote]

We aren't Christian so that won't work for us.[/quote]

You don’t have to be Catholic to go to Catholic school.[/quote]

I realize but we still cannot do this. For some of the same reasons why I prefer very diverse schools. [/quote]

And your children illiterate, it seems.

PS: Catholic schools are often very diverse[/quote]

Wow. I'd love to see metrics showing how their diversity stack up to public schools in Silver Spring or Germantown. 
[/quote]

Catholic school enrollment often mirrors the demographics of the diocese, so they’re usually quite diverse.

But it seems like you want to prioritize diversity over the quality of your kids’ education.[/quote]

Actually that's not what I said.
I said, I am very pleased with what my kids are learning in math, Humanities and science.
I am happy with their foreign language curriculum.
I am happy with the ECs offered.
I am happy with their friend group.
I am happy that Eid, Diwali and Chinese New Year are off. Kids feeling comfortable in their skin allows them to blossom. 
I am happy with the short commute.
I am happy with the free cost. That's money I can save for their college and post grad education.

I am not happy with the English curriculum. I am not happy with the drug use in the high schools (although I hear this is in privates too)

I cannot forgo all the good for the few (albeit very big) bad aspects.

We are also financially fine. My kids are bright with no learning disabilities. They don't need special help. They are not illiterate (not sure why anyone would think that). Irrespective of whether they were in the crappiest public school or Sidwell Friends, my kids would be just fine because of the privilege of their birth family. Outcomes aren't going to be dramatically different. [/quote]

So then what’s the problem? Seems like if they’ll be just fine then there’s no reason start a whole big thread.

Oh and my kid’s school has Eid, Diwali, and Chinese New Year off too. They also have school celebrations of those holidays, led by families who celebrate those holidays. [/quote]

The problem is specific to the English curriculum. OP is looking to supplement for that and that alone. [/quote]

That’s a pretty big component of one’s education. Along with math, it’s one of the two core subjects.

So OP is basically saying MCPS has failed her kids in a major way.[/quote]

That’s not what OP said at all and the fact you are trying to corrupt it to that is sad.  OP sad that English, specifically in MS is weaker than she would like and she feels it’s affected her kids reading wants ways to supplements.  Other have rightly pointed out that her kids age/interest may have more to do with it and provided ways to supplement. No private school necessary.[/quote]

No. She said her kids’ reading skills have stagnated since elementary school. She said she wants them to be able to understand complex texts. She said, “I’d like for them to think.” Actually read what she wrote. [/quote]

Yes she said that, but no one can tell how she actually knows their skills have stagnated.  All she knows is they don’t want to read as much as or what she would like and she doesn’t believe the curriculum challenging because kids finish the work early.

However, none of that means the kids have stagnated.[/quote]

Op here. The only objective metric I have are test scores. On those, there hasn't been any change. So I suppose the charge of stagnation may not be fair. 
However they used to read books that were challenging for their age group. At some point in the last year, I received their lexile levels - both high (1200+). [b]But their ability and actual reading choices aren't matched at all at the school.[/b] A
Before, it wasn't hard to get them to read. In particular, their ELC curriculum had a book club, where they were reading a new book guided by the teacher every 4 to 6 weeks. And the books were from The William and Mary curriculum. What was even better Is that they'd [b]sometimes have their interest sparked [/b] in a particular author or series, and afterwards they'd read all the books by that author or series on their own. A good English curriculum can inspire that. That just isn't happening in middle school.

I did want to say the Global Humanities class is great. There's a ton of very high level reading of articles, but also fiction/non fiction books that expanded their minds. I am still really impressed at the level of work and effort the kids put into National History Day. Also a good deal of writing in that class so I have the social studies department to thank for teaching the skills traditionally taught by English teachers. Their essays are completely marked up in this class.

Whomever sent the St Albans book list - thanks. Kid1 is reading a book from that list now. [/quote]

At a certain point in English(MS/HS), reading ability and reading choice diverge.  English becomes an academic affair of analysis, viewpoint, compare/contrast to your own life, etc.  While all of this is helpful and can lead to inspiring reads, it doesn’t always and doesn’t necessarily translate to individual choice and interest.

Before it was easier to get your kids to read because they were younger, most parents judge the level of a book based on page count, and most parents accept that the books will be a wide range of fiction.  However, now your kids are  tweens/teens and their interest may or may not be the same.  But you’ve decided they need to step up what they’re reading.   As you pointed out  your kids would read The Selection or Graphic novels, which you deemed “low level”.  But why do you care?  It’s not like they’ve regressed to reading board books. The Selection is a 5 book series which could lead to other choices like Hunger Games or Divergent, which could then lead to larger Dystopian novels including in the “Classics”.  Not to mention it’s a popular series amongst the age group.  Graphic novels cover a range of genres and are very popular with kids right now. Many can be complex.

Further as you noted they are reading quality material in Global studies, and I suspect covering a variety of material in English, even if not in its entirety.  So, it’s not that they’ve stopped reading, it’s that they don’t read as much outside of school and when they do, you don’t deem their choices as good enough.

I’m not sure I see a problem w/the kids.  They seem like normal tweens/teens.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics