Anonymous
Post 01/19/2025 19:40     Subject: English class should not be art class.
Anonymous wrote:My kid had an assignment to do an interpretive piece of art on racism for her English class. She is not an artist and was really worried that whatever she did was gojng to be more offensive than artistic so I told her I was okay with her just skipping the assignment and taking the zero.

I really wish English teachers would allow a writing alternative to anything that is an art assignment. Some people just don’t have an artistic bone in their body.


Do you really think the grade was going to be on the quality of her art skills? Such fear should not be encouraged. It's ok to do something that you aren't "the best" at; teach your kid some humility and try to do the assignment.
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2025 19:38     Subject: English class should not be art class.
Did you guys never read your kids picture books? Do you not understand the relationship between literature and art and reading comprehension? Brian development improving by using multiple modalities to learn something?
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2025 19:27     Subject: English class should not be art class.
My kid had an assignment to do an interpretive piece of art on racism for her English class. She is not an artist and was really worried that whatever she did was gojng to be more offensive than artistic so I told her I was okay with her just skipping the assignment and taking the zero.

I really wish English teachers would allow a writing alternative to anything that is an art assignment. Some people just don’t have an artistic bone in their body.
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2025 19:15     Subject: English class should not be art class.
Anonymous wrote:My kid goes to a private school that is known as pretty rigorous, and he has had art projects in English class. It is usually one of the options for wrapping up a unit on a novel - you can write a paper or create something that explores some theme in the novel and write an artists statement (essentially a short essay).

If the point of the unit is to read and analyze literature you can do that in other ways that just writing - discussion, essays, long papers, art. I believe English class should always include a heavy writing component, but there is still time for some other methods.

My husband who is now a professional writer told me yesterday that he never wrote in high school. Not a paper, not an essay. It was a rural school in the 80’s, but still I was gobsmacked. Did give me hope that my kid still has time to become a better writer than he currently is in 12th grade.


Thank you, PP.

I teach English. We are responsible for far more than writing instruction. If I’m assessing writing, then I’ll assign paragraphs or essays. If I’m assessing something else, then I may use a different form of assessment.
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2025 19:12     Subject: English class should not be art class.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP what grade is your kid in? I have never heard of this and have a 7th grader. Please tell me it is not HS.


None of my kids have been assigned art projects in English class. My youngest is a senior. This sounds like someone just trying to bash MCPS.


+1. Never seen this happen.


+1 and DH has a ton of family in MCPS not one person I just texted has either

This is a MCPS troll
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2025 19:09     Subject: English class should not be art class.
My kid goes to a private school that is known as pretty rigorous, and he has had art projects in English class. It is usually one of the options for wrapping up a unit on a novel - you can write a paper or create something that explores some theme in the novel and write an artists statement (essentially a short essay).

If the point of the unit is to read and analyze literature you can do that in other ways that just writing - discussion, essays, long papers, art. I believe English class should always include a heavy writing component, but there is still time for some other methods.

My husband who is now a professional writer told me yesterday that he never wrote in high school. Not a paper, not an essay. It was a rural school in the 80’s, but still I was gobsmacked. Did give me hope that my kid still has time to become a better writer than he currently is in 12th grade.
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2025 19:07     Subject: English class should not be art class.
My kids CES class had endless art projects that were essentially book reports.
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2025 19:05     Subject: English class should not be art class.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP what grade is your kid in? I have never heard of this and have a 7th grader. Please tell me it is not HS.


None of my kids have been assigned art projects in English class. My youngest is a senior. This sounds like someone just trying to bash MCPS.


It's been dumbed down since. My oldest is in college and my youngest is just starting high school. I note the differences. Some of them may be due to a different school, since they have not gone to the same high school within MCPS. Usually teachers of the same subject in the same school will work out a common plan for their instruction. But regardless, I've noted a marked difference in English instruction over the years.
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2025 19:02     Subject: English class should not be art class.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP what grade is your kid in? I have never heard of this and have a 7th grader. Please tell me it is not HS.


None of my kids have been assigned art projects in English class. My youngest is a senior. This sounds like someone just trying to bash MCPS.


+1. Never seen this happen.
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2025 19:00     Subject: English class should not be art class.
Anonymous wrote:OP what grade is your kid in? I have never heard of this and have a 7th grader. Please tell me it is not HS.


None of my kids have been assigned art projects in English class. My youngest is a senior. This sounds like someone just trying to bash MCPS.
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2025 19:00     Subject: English class should not be art class.
Anonymous wrote:OP what grade is your kid in? I have never heard of this and have a 7th grader. Please tell me it is not HS.


At the beginning of 9th grade, my kid had a little tissue box to decorate with quotes. Then their first reading assignment was a graphic novel... but they didn't adjust the rubric, so the kids had to answer questions about the text. Except there was hardly any words, it was all just ART. DD loved the artwork of the graphic novel, but was incensed they hadn't tweaked the rubric, because the text analysis perforce had to be different, since *there was hardly any text*.

Grr.

Thank goodness she's a bookworm, like all my other kids, and reads by herself.
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2025 18:52     Subject: English class should not be art class.
OP what grade is your kid in? I have never heard of this and have a 7th grader. Please tell me it is not HS.
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2025 18:41     Subject: English class should not be art class.
But it teaches cReAtiVitY, OP, and enables school to reach the otherwise-different.

Ha. My son with special needs couldn't draw, color in, or use scissors to save his life. All the crafty activities were beyond his reach. He just wanted to analyze and write text. Somehow that happened less often than we thought possible in MCPS K-12! Apart from the English APs, of course. Those were solid.
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2025 18:40     Subject: English class should not be art class.
What grade are you referring to? I don't know of any art projects except showing an understanding of work in creative ways.
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2025 18:36     Subject: English class should not be art class.
Teacher, please stop assigning art projects for English class.

Focus on teaching our kids English.