Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn’t read 8 pages but I’m guessing DMV k and no phonics means MCPS

Some of the absolute dumbest in the county are deciding on the curricula there.

My advice? Really focus on district that chooses smart curricula. Keep open mind. It may surprise you.

Frederick County for instance is the only public school system that sends teachers to Neuroteach seminars at St Andrews in Potomac.

https://neuroteach.us/

Frederick county only school that pays for ASDEC - explicit phonics instruction - for its teachers.

No other DMV county has this innovative math curriculum:

https://illustrativemathematics.org/illustrative-mathematics-9-12-math-wins-silver-stevie-award-in-2021-american-business-awards/

Businesses are the only lobby that can influence any change to public schools - that’s why this is big deal.

So you may be surprised about the ‘quality’ of your DMV public school system.

A better system may be in a place just outside.

They do now but didn't until a couple years ago. I agree about the bizarre curricula decisions. It's no wonder the achievement gap is so big because the parents who could were desperately trying to make up for the deficienies at home or with tutors. Kids who did not have those advantages suffered the most from the poor ELA curicullum.

What do you mean "until a couple of years ago"? They were still using Benchmark until the current school year when they implemented CKLA. Benchmark is so bad that their assessment system is literally the same thing as flipping a coin. Like, it is a system that MCPS paid a ton for that makes teachers spend 30 minutes assessing each child, yet, the results would be equally accurate if the teacher flipped a coin for each child and it would take a lot less time.

Anonymous wrote:Didn’t read 8 pages but I’m guessing DMV k and no phonics means MCPS

Some of the absolute dumbest in the county are deciding on the curricula there.

My advice? Really focus on district that chooses smart curricula. Keep open mind. It may surprise you.

Frederick County for instance is the only public school system that sends teachers to Neuroteach seminars at St Andrews in Potomac.

https://neuroteach.us/

Frederick county only school that pays for ASDEC - explicit phonics instruction - for its teachers.

No other DMV county has this innovative math curriculum:

https://illustrativemathematics.org/illustrative-mathematics-9-12-math-wins-silver-stevie-award-in-2021-american-business-awards/

Businesses are the only lobby that can influence any change to public schools - that’s why this is big deal.

So you may be surprised about the ‘quality’ of your DMV public school system.

A better system may be in a place just outside.

They do now but didn't until a couple years ago. I agree about the bizarre curricula decisions. It's no wonder the achievement gap is so big because the parents who could were desperately trying to make up for the deficienies at home or with tutors. Kids who did not have those advantages suffered the most from the poor ELA curicullum.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think supporting your kids in learning to read, and developing a love of reading, is a parent's job. I don't think that means you have to use a formal curriculum before or during K. Reading with your kids and practicing sounding words out will get most kids there eventually. It's important to make reading enjoyable.

Unfortunately, many schools use curricula proven unsound, so yes, many parents do have to teach their children to read.

This. My experience with my older DC sounds very similar to OP's experience- lots of sight words in kindergarten, very little phonics, but when I'd express concern to his teacher about his progress she kept saying he was fine and it just takes kids longer to catch on. I regret waiting so long to take action (I am not a native English speaker and did not grow up in the US so that probably factored into my ignorance)- at that point he was frustrated, lacked confidence, and was less receptive to doing lessons with me at home. But I got some All About Reading materials based on the recommendation of another parent and it helped. In second grade our school did introduce a phonics program and that helped too- kind of late for him but a positive step in the right direction. It was slow going and for a long time reading was a chore for him. But by 3rd grade he actually enjoyed reading!

Younger DC is now in kindergarten (at a different school) and it is night and day. I don't need to "teach" at home because they are getting structured literacy in school; parents are expected to and provided resources to "support" their students rather than figure it out on their own. We get a newsletter outlining the phonics skills they are working on, occasional video examples of how they teach the sounds and blending, and they bring home word cards to practice. We still use the AAR decodable readers for practice but I have not had to crack the lessons books at all.

Anonymous wrote:OP, schools do teach kids how to read. You may not see it directly, or understand it but they do. It is a slow process to learn to read. You said yourself that she reads bob books. They have picture clues. That is not reading. Phonics is where it is at. Children can and should read without pictures. Maybe sit down and ask the teacher how she teaches the students to read and ask for resources. Also, not every kid reads in kindergarten. Does she have the letter sounds down? Diagraphs? Syllables? To answer your questions, parents should supplement at home, with reading, as they should also do with every other subject.

I guess we'll agree to disagree.

First, after I posted this our child's teacher recommended the Bob books. So not everyone agrees Bob books are "not reading". I can tell when my child is just guessing because she doesn't say the right words.

Second, our school is sending home materials that explicitly encourage children to guess using pictures. They are from the curriculum our district was using last year. When this is happening, you really can't blame a parent for wondering how much the schools are teaching children to read versus teaching children to guess. I do think our child's teacher is teaching phonics now, but I was worried based on this and the worksheets that were getting sent home.

Third, as a parent I think it is a good thing to let your child learn how to manage their school work independently. This was something my parents did and it was very good for us. I think parents can get a little too involved sometimes. But obviously, given the travesty of balanced literacy, parents have been forced to take on the job that schools are supposed to be doing.

Bob Books are great because they are well-designed phonetic readers. Early readers always should read out loud with a literate adult listening to help -- and correct any mistakes between exact words on the page and what child spoke.

The stick figures in the Bob Books are far from sufficient to guess exactly what words are printed. So they are not problematic for an early reader.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:About 30% of kids will learn to read no matter if they were taught properly. Studies are mostly consistent about this.

Its the other 70% - a clear majority - that do need explicit instruction using proper methods - Science of Reading.

Yes that's why we had only 30% literacy rate before Science of Reading was invented.

Right?

Right?

The study just says explicit and systematic instruction not a specific curriculum.

No. Multiple studies (science of reading has multiple independent studies, not just one) say multiple elements are needed in any viable curriculum and that Phonics needs to be front and center.

Mere systematic instruction is not sufficient - Calkins crap was systematic but it did not work.

Anonymous wrote:Assume the child needs to know their letters first? Or do any of these at-home lessons incorporate learning letters?

Jolly Phonics, used in our Annapolis area private, starts with the letter symbols and the sounds each letter makes. That is step 1. That curriculum, by the way, is available online at least from homeschool supply places. It teaches single letter Phonics then two-letter combinations and then three-letter combinations. It then goes to a set of Phonetic readers - which also will add common sight words incrementally.

When teaching letters, do not teach their official names at first. Instead, teach them that "D" is "duh", so they learn the phonetic sound. Initially, both C and K should be taught as "kuh". The sss sound of C comes later on. For vowels, initially teach the short vowel sound. The long vowel sounds come later.

Assume the child needs to know their letters first? Or do any of these at-home lessons incorporate learning letters?

OP, schools do teach kids how to read. You may not see it directly, or understand it but they do. It is a slow process to learn to read. You said yourself that she reads bob books. They have picture clues. That is not reading. Phonics is where it is at. Children can and should read without pictures. Maybe sit down and ask the teacher how she teaches the students to read and ask for resources. Also, not every kid reads in kindergarten. Does she have the letter sounds down? Diagraphs? Syllables? To answer your questions, parents should supplement at home, with reading, as they should also do with every other subject.

Anonymous wrote:Ummm...yes, you're the parent, it's your job to teach your kids stuff they need to live a god life. One of those things is how to read. I taught my kids how to read at preschool age. I also taught them math and supplement stuff they teach in school. The school is not responsible for my kid. Parents are.
I also teach them science and psychology and other random stuff and activities of daily living. I teach them how to manage stress, values, religion. Yes, they go to public school and spouse and I both have busy professional careers.

OP here.

Why the snark?

I was raised by immigrant parents. My dad is highly educated but worked long hours. My mom is college educated but didn't speak English very well at the time, and did not have the confidence to read to me in English. They did not teach me to read in English or in my native language. My school teachers taught me to read in English.

I'm obviously working with my child as I mentioned in my OP. But I do think schools should teach kids how to read because many have parents like mine who are not equipped to do this.

Ummm...yes, you're the parent, it's your job to teach your kids stuff they need to live a god life. One of those things is how to read. I taught my kids how to read at preschool age. I also taught them math and supplement stuff they teach in school. The school is not responsible for my kid. Parents are.
I also teach them science and psychology and other random stuff and activities of daily living. I teach them how to manage stress, values, religion. Yes, they go to public school and spouse and I both have busy professional careers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cmon, OP. Is this a question? Yes, parents are supposed to teach their kids to read.

DP here.
Why are you so self righteous? Sorry that not all of us have experience raising kids. How would we know unless someone tells us or we learn the hard way?

Fair point. Now we're telling you: teach your kids to read as soon as you can. Don't wait for the schools, and if anybody tries to tell you what is "developmentally appropriate" tell them to f right off.

Same for math.

Didn’t read 8 pages but I’m guessing DMV k and no phonics means MCPS

Some of the absolute dumbest in the county are deciding on the curricula there.

My advice? Really focus on district that chooses smart curricula. Keep open mind. It may surprise you.

Frederick County for instance is the only public school system that sends teachers to Neuroteach seminars at St Andrews in Potomac.

https://neuroteach.us/

Frederick county only school that pays for ASDEC - explicit phonics instruction - for its teachers.

No other DMV county has this innovative math curriculum:

https://illustrativemathematics.org/illustrative-mathematics-9-12-math-wins-silver-stevie-award-in-2021-american-business-awards/

Businesses are the only lobby that can influence any change to public schools - that’s why this is big deal.

So you may be surprised about the ‘quality’ of your DMV public school system.

A better system may be in a place just outside.

DS is in K at a school that does teach reading with phonics. I’m impressed by his progress and it does seem to work well, at least in his case.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:About 30% of kids will learn to read no matter if they were taught properly. Studies are mostly consistent about this.

Its the other 70% - a clear majority - that do need explicit instruction using proper methods - Science of Reading.

It’s easy to learn how to read. It’s not as easy for students to comprehend what they’re reading.

This is not universally true.

The other poster had the correct statistics. 70% of students need explicit phonics instruction to learn to read.

My daughter is dyslexic. She has zero problem with comprehension. It’s the mechanics of reading that are challenging for her.

Explicit phonics instruction is not difficult generally. It’s only difficult for like 30% of kids.