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[quote=Anonymous]PP-

I taught in DMV area for a year. The schools were very different from where I had student taught. They did not teach spelling or grammar, did not teach phonics, did not have textbooks, did not allow me to call on students to read out loud as a class or do red pen corrections on drafts as they said it would hurt their feelings.

I am now a substitute back in a very nice school district in MA. Kids have workbooks and textbooks. Teachers get the teacher edition. Parents volunteer to come in and make copies for the teachers, but they don’t even need as many as in DMV area since they have are provided with resources like textbooks and workbooks. They have weekly spelling tests. I’ve been in kindergarten classes where the kids are learning a sentence starts with a capital and has end punctuation, something many of the advanced fourth graders in DMV area did not seem to know (bc the schools did not want teachers teaching how to write explicitly, they just wanted kids to write without being taught how to do so). The kids where I am now do read aloud as a class where teachers call on kids, do pop corn reading, or pull a name from a cup. They do remind kids they can pass and I believe this is because there are always a few students who struggling with reading and may be too anxious to read for the class but I haven’t seen many kids ask to pass. I think it’s good they have that option but even some who see a reading specialist and struggle go for it when it’s their turn. I’ve seen first graders write a paragraph and in 5th they do a five paragraph essay. They have reading anthologies. It’s a lot like when I was a kid in the 90’d and a lot like where I student taught.

When I taught in DMV area I had a lot of admin and fellow teachers almost pick on me for asking about textbooks and spelling tests. I had an admin ask why I wanted to be a teacher if I wanted a set curriculum to follow. It honestly really soured teaching for me. I did some long term subbing back home then worked an office job. The office job paid less than teaching but I’m still not sure I’d want to go back to teaching full time, so I’m just subbing to decide. I really do like the way the district I’m in right now does things. It’s a very wealthy area so I think parents can be a bit demanding, but teachers seem to have a great work life balance and they are paid very well.

I got off topic, but I’ve been in schools that only use Calkins for ELA and usually those kids cannot write. They just don’t know how and many teachers realize Calkins isn’t effective but have people above them telling them that’s the style they need to use to teach ELA and they cannot supplement by adding in things like spelling or dictation. Which reminds me that where I sub now, even the first graders do dictation.

I don’t think the pandemic is the issue for these eighth graders. I honestly bet they’re victims of a school district that used Calkins or something like it for k-5, so they will likely always struggle with writing. They just never learned what a paragraph is or what to capitalize. Never had spelling tests or learned phonics. It’s sadly happened to many kids in this country, but luckily many districts are moving away from it or at least allowing teachers to supplement. [/quote]

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