Reply to How to help MCPS' lowest performing students?

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "How to help MCPS' lowest performing students?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Grouping by ability and dedicating the entire math and reading block to active instruction rather than forcing the teacher to race through multiple groups while kids mostly “work” independently.

Adjusting the schedules so there is time for actual grammar instruction. It’s critical for a solid foundation.

Investing in the spelling/vocabulary workbooks that private schools use. This is useful busy work in the classroom or independent homework.

Slow down the math. Private high schools start with Algebra 1.

Instead of wasting a special on the Media room, offer Spanish. Foreign language instruction must start in Kindergarten, not middle school.

Essentially model the curriculum on what private schools do. It works. [/quote]

I agree with a lot of this. Especially the math grouping. Small groups are tough and don’t accomplish a lot, especially in classrooms with behavioral issues. Though the Chromebooks are handy for keeping kids quiet during this time.

Re Spanish, I’d love to see this but it would be difficult for three reasons. One, money. The librarian is already on payroll - media special is a teacher break that’s close to free. Two, we can barely find able Spanish teachers for middle and high school schools so hiring would be tough. Three, the kids only get media once a week for a short time so it’s not consistent language instruction. Better than nothing though. But they still need some media center time to check out their books. 
I’m guessing they could do online Spanish lessons - like a twenty minute daily lesson on the Chromebook. That might be worth exploring. [/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