Reply to APS Lucy Calkins- how does this happen?

Forum Index » VA Public Schools other than FCPS

Reply to "APS Lucy Calkins- how does this happen? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It's not just phonics. All kids benefit from a content-rich ELA curriculum. Read The Knowledge Gap or any article by Natalie Wexler.[/quote]

This is why actual teachers are saying this is more complex than it looks. ALL kids will do better when they have relevant background knowledge to activate and apply to the text. Experiences, common knowledge, etc. So the curriculum has to reflect all kids cultural backgrounds appropriately which is why it needs to be diverse but of course this is another reason kids growing up in poverty tend not to do well: they lack books and exposure to these experiences and common knowledge ideas that give them that background knowledge which is a huge activator of understanding and attaching meaning to a text. Students in poverty also tend to be Black or Hispanic, and they are also least represented in a curriculum, reading or otherwise. They then don’t see themselves in the books and disengage and become harder to get back on track. Many teachers are white; they lack a true understanding of how to teach students who aren’t white and pinpoint Black and Hispanic students as behavior problems or having special needs. They get less reading instruction. It is really, REALLY multiplayers and is not as simple as “Lucy sucks and all teachers who use it suck.” You could change reading curriculum and it wouldn’t matter if you didn’t address the other stuff too.[/quote]

Natalie Wexler addresses this in her book which you clearly haven’t read. There are two components to reading comprehension: (a) decoding which is phonics and (b) knowledge. You need both for reading comprehension. Schools need to have a knowledge based curriculum to address gaps in background knowledge.  Curriculums such as Wit and Wisdom and Core Knowledge focus on developing background knowledge. You need a curriculum to address background knowledge. Otherwise kids may be learning about let’s say the solar system every year because their first grade teacher decided to teach it, then their second grade teacher, then third etc. So by the end of elementary school they would have had 4 years where they learned about the solar system but let’s say zero years learning about ancient Egypt. [/quote]
I literally said all that and more on the last page and in this comment. I am an actual literacy teacher, not someone who just read a Wexler book.  [/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