Anonymous wrote:They do need better options for students' electives. Student can choose between music, art or computer. And for the other elective, either Language or Digital Literacy.

At our middle, kids can take two of any elective now. So you might take computer and chorus. Or art and orchestra. Wasn’t allowed when my current 12th grader went through but now it is.

In my experience it is a course where they learn how to write plays. Act them out and record and then learn how to edit the video. If a kid is a creative type and likes group projects it works well. Otherwise not so much.

Anonymous wrote:DL is a filler class for non-college-bound students.

Or students not taking a FL. It’s comments like these that make folks hate MCPS parents (or at least DCUM)

They do need better options for students' electives. Student can choose between music, art or computer. And for the other elective, either Language or Digital Literacy.

Anonymous wrote:DL is a filler class for non-college-bound students.

Exactly!

DL is a filler class for non-college-bound students.

Is she a struggling student? If not, definitely skip it and take world language. If she is, be sure to explore further what her needs are and decide whether digital literacy will help address them or not. Our school basically quit that course.

Thanks all. Yes, will reach out to the teacher also. I guess if it's an elective, then we can just elect the language course.

Anonymous wrote:Take the language! You can't get that middle-school brain biology back as you age. What they learn and memorize now has a much better chance of staying with them. Languages open up worlds and cultures, train the mind, pose challenges like nothing else, build relationships, and enhance employability down the line. If DC is even slightly interested, don't miss this chance!

Signed,

College language professor

+1. Should really start in 4th or 5th since most students are not in an immersion program.

Take the language! You can't get that middle-school brain biology back as you age. What they learn and memorize now has a much better chance of staying with them. Languages open up worlds and cultures, train the mind, pose challenges like nothing else, build relationships, and enhance employability down the line. If DC is even slightly interested, don't miss this chance!

Signed,

College language professor

What is digital literacy? Do they teach typing skills?

Do not take DL unless the school can show you the curriculum and exactly what will be covered. It is a boring class if you don’t have a teacher who is going to put in some work to actually make it relevant for digital technology. It’s was a todo waste of time for my DC and the teacher was terrible. They only seemingly worthwhile part of the class was Wordly Wise 3000 and even that wasn’t used to it’s fully extent.

Your kid does not have to take Dig Lit. Ask the teacher why they recommend it for your DD. Typically if not DigLit, it is a WorldLang. In addition, one more elective such as music, art or computer

Digital literacy is not required but some schools force it because it makes their school rating go up. Same with WL. Kids hate the class because it’s another English class that isn’t tracked so all kinds of behavior issues and it’s boring.

Why is your kid not taking a music class next year? They will get a Fine Arts and Computational Thinking credit, which is new for next year. This will do the same thing to boost the school’s MSDE report card and likely to be much more interesting for your kid.

The teachers recommended for dd going to 6th grade to take digital literacy. Does anyone what this is and if it’s required? Dd was looking forward to starting foreign language in 6th grade, but there seems to be no space for it with the digital literacy.