Anonymous
Post 10/27/2022 21:23     Subject: Re:Sold a Story - resonance with aps?
Anonymous wrote:Things should be better for your kindergartner. APS is in year 3 of transitioning to structured literacy and has new curriculum this year.

But even in the last 2 years, my DC’s elementary teachers were still using many of the strategies mentioned (cover a word with a post-it and guess, look at the picture and ask what makes sense).It may take time to get everyone rowing in same direction, so you show should ask how your teacher is teaching reading and writing. You should ask principal about this in other grades.



My kid was in Kindergarten in 2019-20 and was taught to sound out CVC words. In remote 1st he was taught Phonemes. Besides a lesson on “reading pictures” that is a lesson on parts of a book - spine, pages, title, author, beginning, end, etc. I don’t recall either child (currently k and 3rd at Ashlawn) doing anything that sounds like 3 cueing.
Anonymous
Post 10/27/2022 21:19     Subject: Sold a Story - resonance with aps?
During remote 1st grade at Ashlawn in 2020-21, my son did daily Heggerty phonics videos. He became a stronger reader during the remote year but his writing was awful.

He’s in 3rd now and loving the new ELA curriculum. His writing is drastically improved along with reading comprehension - but he still struggles with spelling.

We are annoyed at the apparent county- wide decision to limit Lexia use to their current grade level. My kids love Lexia and it seems to help them.
Anonymous
Post 10/27/2022 21:10     Subject: Sold a Story - resonance with aps?
CKLA lessons for 3-5th grade are 90 min. NO WAY can we add a writing curriculum. You have NO idea.
Anonymous
Post 10/27/2022 17:31     Subject: Sold a Story - resonance with aps?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:For those who have listened to the first couple episodes, I am curious if any of the info resonates with your experience in APS? We have a kid in kindergarten and I don’t know much about the aps approach to reading.


Are you teaching your kid to read by working with him/her at home? I am asking honestly because if you are listening to a podcast about reading, I would assume you are. Use a phonics based approach and read bob books at home or even an app like Starfall or hooked on phonics then switch to some harder books. Primary phonics are good, but scholastic makes lots of little phonics readers you can get cheaply. My kids are 11 and 8 and they were easily reading in K because I worked with them at home. If you do this at home, you can worry about APS curriculum if you want, but you will feel less anxiety because your kids will be reading.


Your kids will be reading…. If they don’t have any learning difficulties (& are developmentally ready to read in K— many kids are not). I’ve worked with my kid at home for years, thank goodness, but I still “worry” about the APS reading curriculum because 1) my child has made lots of progress but likely has dyslexia, so he needs all the help he can get (home & school), & 2) I want everyone’s kids to learn to read, not just those with educated parents who have the time & will to help their kids at home.


Oh so sorry OP I thought you were asking for help with a Kindergartener, not a kid you knew had learning difficulties and dyslexia. You may want to ask about services on the Special Education board.
Anonymous
Post 10/27/2022 08:55     Subject: Sold a Story - resonance with aps?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:For those who have listened to the first couple episodes, I am curious if any of the info resonates with your experience in APS? We have a kid in kindergarten and I don’t know much about the aps approach to reading.


Are you teaching your kid to read by working with him/her at home? I am asking honestly because if you are listening to a podcast about reading, I would assume you are. Use a phonics based approach and read bob books at home or even an app like Starfall or hooked on phonics then switch to some harder books. Primary phonics are good, but scholastic makes lots of little phonics readers you can get cheaply. My kids are 11 and 8 and they were easily reading in K because I worked with them at home. If you do this at home, you can worry about APS curriculum if you want, but you will feel less anxiety because your kids will be reading.


Your kids will be reading…. If they don’t have any learning difficulties (& are developmentally ready to read in K— many kids are not). I’ve worked with my kid at home for years, thank goodness, but I still “worry” about the APS reading curriculum because 1) my child has made lots of progress but likely has dyslexia, so he needs all the help he can get (home & school), & 2) I want everyone’s kids to learn to read, not just those with educated parents who have the time & will to help their kids at home.
Anonymous
Post 10/26/2022 20:44     Subject: Sold a Story - resonance with aps?
Anonymous wrote:For those who have listened to the first couple episodes, I am curious if any of the info resonates with your experience in APS? We have a kid in kindergarten and I don’t know much about the aps approach to reading.


Are you teaching your kid to read by working with him/her at home? I am asking honestly because if you are listening to a podcast about reading, I would assume you are. Use a phonics based approach and read bob books at home or even an app like Starfall or hooked on phonics then switch to some harder books. Primary phonics are good, but scholastic makes lots of little phonics readers you can get cheaply. My kids are 11 and 8 and they were easily reading in K because I worked with them at home. If you do this at home, you can worry about APS curriculum if you want, but you will feel less anxiety because your kids will be reading.
Anonymous
Post 10/26/2022 10:29     Subject: Sold a Story - resonance with aps?
As others have said, things should be fine now. When my current 3rd grader was in K, they did Lucy Calkins. By first grade, they were doing Heggerty, etc. Unfortunately, if you teach kids to guess, this is a very hard habit to break.
Anonymous
Post 10/25/2022 21:40     Subject: Sold a Story - resonance with aps?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:1) APS transitioned to structured literacy (Fundations, phonics 95 and Heggerty) (2) APS transitioned to a knowledge rich curriculum (CKLA). Now what we need to work on is improving the writing curriculum. We need to implement The Writing Revolution starting from elementary school (they are beginning to implement it in the upper grades). Write to the board, to the ELA Department, Advisory Council on Teaching and Learning etc. to bring The Writing Revolution to all of APS (k-12). Another thing we need is for elementary schoolers to learn how to type and to actually have keyboards. Right now they use the iPad.


CKLA includes reading and writing. Not sure how you could not do the writing component for another program- it’s integrated together. This is upper elementary, not sure about lower grades.


Yes there is a writing component in CKLA. It is quite weak. The Writing Revolution is not a curriculum per se but a method of teaching writing. It has been implemented in various school districts along with CKLA. APS is considering it for elementary but it’s not a priority. If parents advocate for it though they may push it up.

This article provides an overview: https://www.aft.org/ae/summer2017/hochman-wexler


CKLA….Be careful what you wish for….
Anonymous
Post 10/25/2022 21:13     Subject: Sold a Story - resonance with aps?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:1) APS transitioned to structured literacy (Fundations, phonics 95 and Heggerty) (2) APS transitioned to a knowledge rich curriculum (CKLA). Now what we need to work on is improving the writing curriculum. We need to implement The Writing Revolution starting from elementary school (they are beginning to implement it in the upper grades). Write to the board, to the ELA Department, Advisory Council on Teaching and Learning etc. to bring The Writing Revolution to all of APS (k-12). Another thing we need is for elementary schoolers to learn how to type and to actually have keyboards. Right now they use the iPad.


CKLA includes reading and writing. Not sure how you could not do the writing component for another program- it’s integrated together. This is upper elementary, not sure about lower grades.


Yes there is a writing component in CKLA. It is quite weak. The Writing Revolution is not a curriculum per se but a method of teaching writing. It has been implemented in various school districts along with CKLA. APS is considering it for elementary but it’s not a priority. If parents advocate for it though they may push it up.

This article provides an overview: https://www.aft.org/ae/summer2017/hochman-wexler
Anonymous
Post 10/25/2022 20:58     Subject: Sold a Story - resonance with aps?
Anonymous wrote:1) APS transitioned to structured literacy (Fundations, phonics 95 and Heggerty) (2) APS transitioned to a knowledge rich curriculum (CKLA). Now what we need to work on is improving the writing curriculum. We need to implement The Writing Revolution starting from elementary school (they are beginning to implement it in the upper grades). Write to the board, to the ELA Department, Advisory Council on Teaching and Learning etc. to bring The Writing Revolution to all of APS (k-12). Another thing we need is for elementary schoolers to learn how to type and to actually have keyboards. Right now they use the iPad.


CKLA includes reading and writing. Not sure how you could not do the writing component for another program- it’s integrated together. This is upper elementary, not sure about lower grades.
Anonymous
Post 10/25/2022 20:20     Subject: Re:Sold a Story - resonance with aps?
Anonymous wrote:Things should be better for your kindergartner. APS is in year 3 of transitioning to structured literacy and has new curriculum this year.

But even in the last 2 years, my DC’s elementary teachers were still using many of the strategies mentioned (cover a word with a post-it and guess, look at the picture and ask what makes sense).It may take time to get everyone rowing in same direction, so you show should ask how your teacher is teaching reading and writing. You should ask principal about this in other grades.



Pay attention to what they are doing. If they are still using balanced literacy and whole language write to the ELA department.
Anonymous
Post 10/25/2022 20:19     Subject: Sold a Story - resonance with aps?
1) APS transitioned to structured literacy (Fundations, phonics 95 and Heggerty) (2) APS transitioned to a knowledge rich curriculum (CKLA). Now what we need to work on is improving the writing curriculum. We need to implement The Writing Revolution starting from elementary school (they are beginning to implement it in the upper grades). Write to the board, to the ELA Department, Advisory Council on Teaching and Learning etc. to bring The Writing Revolution to all of APS (k-12). Another thing we need is for elementary schoolers to learn how to type and to actually have keyboards. Right now they use the iPad.
Anonymous
Post 10/25/2022 20:10     Subject: Sold a Story - resonance with aps?
My kid is a first grader and I work in research in best practices of teaching early literacy (pk-3). My kid's teachers did everything right. It was very phonics based with lots of content instruction and support. My kid went from having a dozen sight words at the start of k to being able to read anything phonetically by the beginning of first.
Anonymous
Post 10/25/2022 19:55     Subject: Re:Sold a Story - resonance with aps?
Things should be better for your kindergartner. APS is in year 3 of transitioning to structured literacy and has new curriculum this year.

But even in the last 2 years, my DC’s elementary teachers were still using many of the strategies mentioned (cover a word with a post-it and guess, look at the picture and ask what makes sense).It may take time to get everyone rowing in same direction, so you show should ask how your teacher is teaching reading and writing. You should ask principal about this in other grades.

Anonymous
Post 10/25/2022 18:40     Subject: Sold a Story - resonance with aps?
For those who have listened to the first couple episodes, I am curious if any of the info resonates with your experience in APS? We have a kid in kindergarten and I don’t know much about the aps approach to reading.