Teacher here. Please reach out to the teacher and ask how your daughter is doing in class. Be sure to keep an eye out for any work that has come home. You can also check grades on ParentVue.
I agree with PP about the terribly quality of Benchmark. I started teaching in 2004 and back then we had a curriculum binder for each quarter that MCPS wrote. It was written to address the MD voluntary state curriculum to ensure we hit the MD standards over the course of the year.
Not all of the lessons were great but they were so much more straight forward. They didn't cram a ton of content into each quarter so when our kids struggled with key details or main idea we could spend additional days teaching the skill. Now we race through content. We had the liberty to use different books than the suggested texts. You could be so much more creative when planning and the kids were so much more engaged. I really miss those days.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a tough time with reading at that age and am guessing that your kid is probably referring to the reading comprehensions questions, which can seem abstract and hard to understand.

+1. My child was in third grade in March 2020, so we did all the Benchmark assignments at home during that asynchronous virtual spring time period. The reading comprehension questions are often poorly worded and the answers are not stated directly in the passage. You need to infer much more than I think is reasonable at that age. There is also this whole issue where “main idea” and “theme” have very different definitions in 3rd grade ELA, whereas we kind of use those terms somewhat similarly in real life. I, myself, was a gifted student growing up and my child is, too. We were often stumped and confused with 3rd grade Benchmark ELA.

Agree that Benchmark is a poor curriculum — I heard they are re-bidding the ES ELA this year so let’s hope they get something decent.

You must be joking. It will be benchmark 3.0 which will seem promising but turn out to be more of the same.

To OP, you should reach out to your teacher NOW! I sense you don’t quite understand the class structure and curriculum. Talk to your teacher if you could sit in the classroom and observe for the reading/writing part of the day, either it’s in the morning or the afternoon.

And third grade is how they start to read comprehensively, so there maybe gaps between students who easily can tell the main idea, summarize what they read, providing details to support a claim, vs students who find it hard to put their thoughts in cohesive order.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a tough time with reading at that age and am guessing that your kid is probably referring to the reading comprehensions questions, which can seem abstract and hard to understand.

+1. My child was in third grade in March 2020, so we did all the Benchmark assignments at home during that asynchronous virtual spring time period. The reading comprehension questions are often poorly worded and the answers are not stated directly in the passage. You need to infer much more than I think is reasonable at that age. There is also this whole issue where “main idea” and “theme” have very different definitions in 3rd grade ELA, whereas we kind of use those terms somewhat similarly in real life. I, myself, was a gifted student growing up and my child is, too. We were often stumped and confused with 3rd grade Benchmark ELA.

Agree that Benchmark is a poor curriculum — I heard they are re-bidding the ES ELA this year so let’s hope they get something decent.

Anonymous wrote:I had a tough time with reading at that age and am guessing that your kid is probably referring to the reading comprehensions questions, which can seem abstract and hard to understand.

+1. My child was in third grade in March 2020, so we did all the Benchmark assignments at home during that asynchronous virtual spring time period. The reading comprehension questions are often poorly worded and the answers are not stated directly in the passage. You need to infer much more than I think is reasonable at that age. There is also this whole issue where “main idea” and “theme” have very different definitions in 3rd grade ELA, whereas we kind of use those terms somewhat similarly in real life. I, myself, was a gifted student growing up and my child is, too. We were often stumped and confused with 3rd grade Benchmark ELA.

I had a tough time with reading at that age and am guessing that your kid is probably referring to the reading comprehensions questions, which can seem abstract and hard to understand.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would start by asking your child if the confusion is in a Benchmark assignment or something else. There are enrichment options in the Benchmark Enrichment Guide that are more challenging.

My 3rd grader would have no idea what is and is not a Benchmark assignment.

Mine would - Benchmark is the unit they do for 6 weeks or so using a single packet of org a theme. It is what they do most days. If that is challenging I’d be concerned. If the other enrichment activities are challenging then I would be less concerned — those are above grade level.

Anonymous wrote:My kid mentions that 3rd grade language/reading subject is a bit challenging. I have not seen any homework, and there is no books to be taken home. What might be the challenging part? She did not mention it is difficult, but she said it's challenging enough for her to ask teachers. She said she did not quite understand question. I don't want to wait to ask teacher till parent teacher conference, but I also don't want to make a big deal asking teacher now. I am wondering if she is falling behind on language/reading subject.

Have no fear in communicating with a teacher about anything to do with your child’s education!

I am a third grade Reading teacher. I am a bit confused by your post. Why is she not able to articulate what is challenging? Was it one specific assignment? Was it a test? Was it a story? Is it the entire class? Are you checking her grades through an online portal to see how she is doing? Didn’t progress reports come out? How did she do?

3rd grade is where they start reading to learn. Ask her to read a couple pages and explain to you what happened, read non fiction texts, texts where there is an argument or a description not just plot.

Anonymous wrote:I would start by asking your child if the confusion is in a Benchmark assignment or something else. There are enrichment options in the Benchmark Enrichment Guide that are more challenging.

My 3rd grader would have no idea what is and is not a Benchmark assignment.

Ask the kid what/where the challenge or difficulty exist. Then if concerned send an email to the teacher asking for a brief call.

I would start by asking your child if the confusion is in a Benchmark assignment or something else. There are enrichment options in the Benchmark Enrichment Guide that are more challenging.

My kid mentions that 3rd grade language/reading subject is a bit challenging. I have not seen any homework, and there is no books to be taken home. What might be the challenging part? She did not mention it is difficult, but she said it's challenging enough for her to ask teachers. She said she did not quite understand question. I don't want to wait to ask teacher till parent teacher conference, but I also don't want to make a big deal asking teacher now. I am wondering if she is falling behind on language/reading subject.