Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am really interested in how many books your 6th grader has been assigned to read this year? Mine only had 2 (one on slavery, one on refugees). I assumed there would be at least one per term at a minimum. I know DCPS dumbs down the curriculum but this is ridiculous. FWIW this is a school that regularly is in the top 10 city wide for parc scores.

Hi, 6th grade ELA teacher here. DCPS curriculum has three units, one novel per each. They reduced the number from four to three so that we have the opportunity to read full novels rather than just focal passages. Unfortunately, the number of instructional days lost to required testing in grade six is outrageous and makes pacing/completion of each unit a challenge. It's doable, but takes pretty meticulous planning and organization to make it happen. At my school students are also required to read 1-3 books independently per term depending on the grade level. Most student finish 6th grade reading at least 7 books in total.

If it makes you feel any better. I have one in 57K private and one rising 6th in public. My public kid has read more novels and written more papers than private who is a grade above. They read but for the fun of it. All she has to do is short "reading responses" that look to me like 4th grade level. The school is prestigious and rediculously expensive... and so far, the public education has been very comparable and in many ways, better... and free. I encourage my kids to read for fun and if your kid isn't doing that yet, work on it this summer on library visits.

Yes-BASIS 6th grade English is reading 3 novels but spending lots of time diving deeper into to them as well as other ELA topics and texts. In addition, the kids read a significant amount in their linguistics, physics, chemistry, biology, world history, and pre-algebra classes plus whatever the other electives are (PE plus visual art/music/theater). I don’t see any shortage of reading for my child. In fact, I’m glad that they’re not being pushed to read too much more. My child used to love reading for fun, but there’s just a certain limit. We all hit with reading so much throughout the day. I hope, is that we can do so more fun reading in the summer.

7th Deal: Warriors Don’t Cry, Animal Farm, and two more I think. Underwhelming

“ Maître Corbeau, sur un arbre perché,
Tenait en son bec un fromage.
Maître Renard, par l’odeur alléché,
Lui tint à peu près ce langage :
«Hé ! bonjour, Monsieur du Corbeau.
Que vous êtes joli ! que vous me semblez beau !
Sans mentir, si votre ramage
Se rapporte à votre plumage,
Vous êtes le Phénix des hôtes de ces bois.»”

O basileus of learnleap halls,
Where chalkdust dreams a-dance in sprawls,
Throughever corridors of mindmaze keen,
We BASIS DC, we scene unseen.

Triptrickle trekkers of theorem trail,
Sinesigh, coscoo, in Pascal veil,
Ah, ring-a-bell for the Redbrick keep,
Where syllabusts sow what mem’ries reap.

Eureka! cried young STEM-o’-mine,
In labs of fire and liquid line,
Kombucha’d botany fizzing brains,
Artpop essays in fractal chains.

Quizzico! cried Socratic sprites,
Sprawling out in multiple-choice nights,
Scantron’d fate in #2 grey,
Yet still we danced the Platonic way.

Oh, teach-think twain in tweeded tones,
Res cogitat’ in mobile phones,
Flipped-class flotsam, code of lore,
Kafka in gym, Newton on floor.

Oh hallpass-waltz through Lockelandia,
Wunderkinder in polyglottia,
Drumroll descendeth! The deans convene,
To rubricate fate in rubescent sheen.

Salut the halls where gnarls go neat,
Where minds did warp and never fleet,
And all the grades that ever be
Come waltzing back to BASIS DC.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the 3 books on the BASIS 6th grade curriculum are Hatchet, The Witch of Blackbird Pond and Out of the Dust.

I wish they read more than 3, but at least they are reading complete novels.

My kid read Hatchet last year in 4th grade at a charter. Surprised Basis has it in 6th grade, I thought it was supposed to be advanced.

BASIS students usually finish all of Jane Austin in 4th grade so the school likes to mix it up later.

*fifth grade

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the 3 books on the BASIS 6th grade curriculum are Hatchet, The Witch of Blackbird Pond and Out of the Dust.

I wish they read more than 3, but at least they are reading complete novels.

My kid read Hatchet last year in 4th grade at a charter. Surprised Basis has it in 6th grade, I thought it was supposed to be advanced.

BASIS students usually finish all of Jane Austin in 4th grade so the school likes to mix it up later.

Finnegans Wake, Gravity’s Rainbow, and Infinite Jest.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am really interested in how many books your 6th grader has been assigned to read this year? Mine only had 2 (one on slavery, one on refugees). I assumed there would be at least one per term at a minimum. I know DCPS dumbs down the curriculum but this is ridiculous. FWIW this is a school that regularly is in the top 10 city wide for parc scores.

Hi, 6th grade ELA teacher here. DCPS curriculum has three units, one novel per each. They reduced the number from four to three so that we have the opportunity to read full novels rather than just focal passages. Unfortunately, the number of instructional days lost to required testing in grade six is outrageous and makes pacing/completion of each unit a challenge. It's doable, but takes pretty meticulous planning and organization to make it happen. At my school students are also required to read 1-3 books independently per term depending on the grade level. Most student finish 6th grade reading at least 7 books in total.

What are the 3 novels the students read as a class?

DCPS Grade 6: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry- Mildred Taylor, Tuck Everlasting- Natalie Babbitt Inside Out and Back Again- Thanhha Lai

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the 3 books on the BASIS 6th grade curriculum are Hatchet, The Witch of Blackbird Pond and Out of the Dust.

I wish they read more than 3, but at least they are reading complete novels.

My kid read Hatchet last year in 4th grade at a charter. Surprised Basis has it in 6th grade, I thought it was supposed to be advanced.

Why is this thread becoming "my elementary schooler is more advanced than your middle schooler."

This has the potential to be a very very rational, factual, unemotional thread where people simply list the books on the 6th grade syllabus. Let's do it!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the 3 books on the BASIS 6th grade curriculum are Hatchet, The Witch of Blackbird Pond and Out of the Dust.

I wish they read more than 3, but at least they are reading complete novels.

My kid read Hatchet last year in 4th grade at a charter. Surprised Basis has it in 6th grade, I thought it was supposed to be advanced.

You sound really dumb. Obviously a book can be taught at different grade levels in different ways. Please sit down and be quiet.

Anonymous wrote:the 3 books on the BASIS 6th grade curriculum are Hatchet, The Witch of Blackbird Pond and Out of the Dust.

I wish they read more than 3, but at least they are reading complete novels.

My kid read Hatchet last year in 4th grade at a charter. Surprised Basis has it in 6th grade, I thought it was supposed to be advanced.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 4th grader at a DCPS has read 2 full books in ELA so far plus another for a school extracurricular. If they aren’t reading more than that by 6th grade, I will be very annoyed.

My kids also read more books in elementary school than in middle school (at one of the 3 novel a year schools) -- but English is a much smaller part of the day, and the kids have to learn a lot of history, science, geography so there is plenty of reading outside of "ELA," unlike elementary.

What? My kids do lots of reading outside of ELA in their elementary school, including in writing, science and social studies... but not (typically) of novels. I realize they have more academic periods per day in middle school, but I think the 1 hour/day devoted to ELA / English is roughly the same, no?

My 6th grader was not recommended any full novel/book title to read in their school. But DC reads at home books related to their interest (science, space, etc).
Can people please share the titles of the full novels/books that their six graders are reading in school? Even if the schools are not properly following the curriculum, I am interested in getting those same books/novels for my 6th grader read and catchup now through the summer. Thank you.