Reply to APS Lucy Calkins- how does this happen?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You probably learned to read like the rest of us from Sesame Street and the Electric Company - which taught phonics. Or perhaps you are gifted and lucky. It took me a couple of weeks of 1st grade to learn to read and I distinctly remember being taught from worksheets that were phonics based.

We aren't talking about people like you and me though. We are talking about the majority of people in the United States who don't learn as easily. It will be a catastrophe to have a large part of an entire generation who don't read comfortably or fluently.

A huge part of the problem is localized school control. It creates these curriculum companies that make huge profits off of selling very expensive curriculums to many different school districts. Many of these curriculums aren't based in the science of learning - they are based on fads. [/quote]

It's not that the majority doesn't learn as easily, it's that they simply aren't being taught anything at home. I have a career and taught my son to read during the pandemic. It was not easy but I was lucky my job was somewhat flexible so that I could make up my work time after hours. My son isn't special or gifted--he was simply given the opportunity to learn. That said, it requires time, dedication, values, and knowledge on the part of parents.  Many kids don't have access to any of that. But the sad truth is that the kids will then go to school with zero academic skills (and also poor self-regulation) and will struggle to learn, not because they can't but because they are already behind and teachers can only do so much...

But yes, if once they get to school they are met with faddish curricula, all the worse. [b]I am a researcher with expertise on a topic that is currently a fad in the elementary schools[/b], so I know how that goes. I wish they would invest more time in basic academic skills using evidence based approaches and skip the fads.[/quote]

What is the fad? [/quote]

It's related to self-regulation. It's not the concept that is a fad but the implementation.[/quote]

If you would rather not give more specifics I understand, but if you are willing to go into more detail I'd love to hear more. [/quote]

It's both part of SEL and separate. Self-regulation and executive functions. It's not the concepts themselves but how they are discussed and ideas for how to intervene. Basically SR/EFs have been thought to be more trainable with quick interventions/accommodations, but it's much more complex than it seems and evidence is weak. The most extreme example is the use of EF apps. There are no quick fixes. A lot of kids show poor self-regulation/ and "EFs" because they lack a wide variety of skills and knowledge that need to be taught/emphasized/practiced in order to stick. Of course, there are also children who have actual brain-based deficits, which is something else entirely but gets confounded in discussions of SR/EF skills.

I know there are many schools out there with some form of SR/EF curricula, but not sure about FCPS (my child isn't in FCPS yet). I'd be curious to know how much time/$ is spent on anything SR/EF related in FCPS and what the results have been. I'm of the mind that you can skip all the SR/EF talk and just teach kids the specific knowledge/skills you want them to know.  [/quote]

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