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[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]Are students even assigned to read entire books in ES and MS? My neighbor told me her kids have never been expected to read an entire book, only excerpts. WTH? Why?[/quote]
I don’t think your neighbor knows what she’s talking about. In elementary school they may read excerpts, but kids definitely read whole books in middle school language classes.[/quote]

While individual teachers might assign whole books, assigning excerpts from books is a common problem across MCPS in MS and HS. [/quote]

They are now required to teach at least one novel study per quarter in secondary English classes in MCPS.

Our school does 2/quarter -- one whole-class novel and one in book circles that varies by reading level.[/quote]

Oh boy! One novel study! How ever will the kids handle all of that.

By secondary do you mean MS or HS? [/quote]

Both. [/quote]

The fact that they’re only required to teach one book per quarter is utterly pathetic.[/quote]

I don’t see the problem with one anchor text a quarter. So you teach The Odyssey as an anchor text. You throw in related texts, such as Atwood poetry or nonfiction about the ancient city of Troy. Students do related research to find criticism, and then write their own.

Easily enough content for a quarter.[/quote]

that’s not how it was described. it was described as one book per quarter.[/quote]

PP who said one book per quarter minimum. That is the minimum full-length books. It was said in response to someone who said kids read 2 books/year, which should not be happening.

The one book/quarter minimum is indeed the anchor text with other texts added on. [/quote]

We've never had four books a quarter.  Last year, freshman year, it was two books, excerpts and a movie for one quarter, which was absurd.

In MS, it was 1-2 books a year.  [/quote]

Ya’ll should definitely talk to the English department at your schools because it’s been one book per quarter and one major writing assignment per quarter for awhile.  That info comes directly from Central Office.  Further this school year they have re-emphasized this and are limiting the number of book choices available for teachers to choose from just to help ensure it’s grade level or above content.[/quote]

We have kids in MCPS.  What should happen and what happens are two different things.  We had two books freshman year and a video.  The books were simple and lame.  No substance.  We were lucky in MS, we had good teachers who worked heavily on writing, but not reading comp.[/quote]

If teachers aren’t meeting the requirements, then parents need to complain to the school and central
Office. It’s not fair that that has to happen, but it’s the only way to effect change. Central office clearly has no idea what is happening in the classrooms.
[/quote]

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