Reply to Why are there no textbooks in FCPS elementary?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It is so sad to read 3rd grade teachers posting they no longer assign homework. Research has shown assigning math homework is helpful. I used to teach third grade and every day we had a math quiz on whatever times table the student was working on right before lunch. I graded them during lunch and my students got 100 problems on that number for homework. So if the student took on 6's and passed they got 100 problems of multiplying 7. If they didn't pass they got 100 problems of multiplying 6's.

When my son was in third grade the teacher had the kids make flashcards and said go online to learn them. I had to dig out the multiplication sheets and made him practice. Pencil and paper practice is really effective in math. I was so disappointed after that year I sent him to parochial school for 4th grade where he has textbooks and everything is graded for accuracy. [/quote]

It is all funk and junk.  VA SOL were based on Core Knowledge and common cultural literacy.  No more annual grades K-4 repeats on dinosaurs and rainforest.  Solid language arts with phonics, spelling, sentence structure, grammar.  Math-specific.  Nothing has changed in basic math, long division, fractions, times tables, simple geometry in 100 years.

Big fat coffee table sized books with pictures are cumbersome to cart to and fro but I remember FCPS replacing more concise texts with those things. Money for publishers.  FCPS also never had a central book depository so school A might have a pile unused and school B did not have enough. K and first and learning to read and that blends into 1-3 learning to read to learn.

Students need homework and even simple assignments in 4y pre-k so they learn the process and are prepared for more advanced work.  FCPS homework drop could be due to the fact that it has had changing demographics. Note that at some schools they have programs for peer tutors-bring in middle schoolers and want a grandparent/retiree  sort of thing for after school tutoring, homework help, help teachers with individual and/or small group:
https://www.grandinvolve.org/participating-schools

FCPS has a drift to the bottom - if some don't have family to interact with on the academics outside of school then don't assign it. Think about kindergarten - that gets students with engaged families and the child has had 1/2 to full day pre-school for 1-2 years.  Plus enrollment variabilities from hold back/redshirt to send at the earliest.  Therefore K is to the lowest.  Now FCPS can have K students [or any students] where Spanish is a language to be taught plus English.  And older students who are not literate in any language.  That mindset was explained to us decades ago.  From there it's site based management.  
Family engagement: https://www.fcps.edu/resources/family-engagement

Site based management-Principal had osmosis and funk. Principal B replaced A and used materials/methods from another school.

[/quote]

I had a very hard time understanding what you are saying.[/quote]
+1 not intelligible [/quote]

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