CHeck with your school..at our MS there is very minimal writing in the reading class.

Anonymous wrote:So they actually work on writing in the reading class? That surprises me. My child is an advanced reader but a reluctant writer so maybe the reading class would be beneficial? Boy this is confusing. Why not call it all Language Arts or English?

I think it would be a great choice for a reluctant writer.

I'm not sure why it's so confusing, or why having two classes called English would be less confusing.

So they actually work on writing in the reading class? That surprises me. My child is an advanced reader but a reluctant writer so maybe the reading class would be beneficial? Boy this is confusing. Why not call it all Language Arts or English?

I think there are plenty of kids with solid reading skills in 6th grade reading. I know for my child it was a great experience, even though he could have taken a language if I'd wanted him to. At our middle school, the only options for sixth grade language are the full speed high school course. For my son, that wasn't the right choice. He didn't need the pressure, and I wanted him to have time to relax after school. In addition, he ended up having the same teacher for reading, English, and home room. For a kid transitioning from a small school with 1 fifth grade class (out of state) to an MCPS middle school with 300 sixth graders, having a teacher who knew him well and could watch out for him worked out really well.

For my kid, I noticed that the Reading and English classes were a lot alike. They seemed to alternate who was teaching a long text and who was teaching shorter units of text. So one did myths while the other did a biography, and then they'd switch. I liked this because it meant he wasn't reading and confusing 2 novels simultaneously, and got a good balance of short and long, and fiction and non fiction. The Reading class had more explicit writing assignments. They worked hard on paragraph structure and did lots of short writing assignments, whereas the English class had fewer, longer papers. My child made enormous progress in writing that year.

Most elementary schools have more than 45 minutes of Literacy a day. I think for many kids, keeping this model for one more year makes sense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In our MS, there is only one type of reading class. They focus on different types of reading. There is a unit of the newspaper, myths, ??. There was not much writing. My son qualified for a language but we decided to hold off since language grades go on your high school transcript and we didn't think our 6th grader needed that. I think it was a good choice for us but I can't say it was very challenging for him. The language class however is considerably more work.

You withheld education from your child because you were scared of high school transcripts.

For many the pressure of transition to middle school in 6th grade is enough to deal with -- socially, organizationally, balancing all the different classes, having finals, etc., without the added pressure of grades that will go on your high school transcript.

In general, I'm a big believer in starting foreign language young -- even 6th grade is too early for me. Our oldest child, with strong verbal and language acquisition skills, did start Foreign Language 1 A&B in 6th and did well. But, for our youngest, with weaker language, auditory discrimination and organizational skills, it is unlikely that the same language choice will be appropriate for him.

Perfectly understandable that not all 11 year olds are ready for a high school level course regardless of their reading level.

I didn't withhold education..we decided he should recevie further reading education rather than starting a foreign language. MANY families at our MS make that decision. It is not a race..no regrets.

Anonymous wrote:In our MS, there is only one type of reading class. They focus on different types of reading. There is a unit of the newspaper, myths, ??. There was not much writing. My son qualified for a language but we decided to hold off since language grades go on your high school transcript and we didn't think our 6th grader needed that. I think it was a good choice for us but I can't say it was very challenging for him. The language class however is considerably more work.

You withheld education from your child because you were scared of high school transcripts.

school not schol

The middle schol reading requirement exists because it was shown several years ago that reading non fiction for meaning and content was a weakness for middle schoolers. Too much time reading fiction. Fiction is generally a pleasure read as an adult, whereas almost all occupations require non fiction reading.

11:14 again..at our middle school kids can continue in reading through 8th grade if recommended or preferred. There is no language requirement in MS.

The Reading class is for 6th graders. Some are recommended to take it (as a last year of reading instruction); some not. I had one of each. Starting foreign language in 6th does mean that you end up at quite an advanced level later in high school (in my D's case, by the time she got to AP Spanish Lit, she was about the only student who was not either a native speaker or had lived for years in a country where Spanish is the first language). I also made the decision for her not to take Algebra in 7th grade (she could have gone either way) because of being on the advanced language track -- it turned out to be the right decision for her.

In our MS, there is only one type of reading class. They focus on different types of reading. There is a unit of the newspaper, myths, ??. There was not much writing. My son qualified for a language but we decided to hold off since language grades go on your high school transcript and we didn't think our 6th grader needed that. I think it was a good choice for us but I can't say it was very challenging for him. The language class however is considerably more work.

In our MS, there were two types of reading class - regular and Read 180. Read 180 is for kids who are way below grade level. Regular Reading is for kids who are just at or a little below grade level. Content is different than English class. The focus is reading skills rather than content of the literature. Also English focuses a lot on writing, which Reading did not. In my experience, just about all kids are recommended to foreign language in sixth grade, not reading. My son took Reading 180 and between that and private services, he met benchmark for foreign language by seventh grade.

Or maybe it's just in 6th grade? What do they teach in that class and how is it different from English class in terms of content, work, and homework? And who takes reading class?