Anonymous
Post 01/18/2016 13:20     Subject: When does APS elementary get intense?
Anonymous wrote:I don't know. If my kid has to learn more stupid facts about Mali l'm going to go crazy. Aps definitely likes repetitive learning. I think learning deeply in a few subjects is preferable over the sol hodge podge. But if you do public school that's what you get. Most ppl like this race to nowhere.


Examples? And just Mali, or a mix of African countries?
Anonymous
Post 01/17/2016 20:59     Subject: When does APS elementary get intense?
I don't know. If my kid has to learn more stupid facts about Mali l'm going to go crazy. Aps definitely likes repetitive learning. I think learning deeply in a few subjects is preferable over the sol hodge podge. But if you do public school that's what you get. Most ppl like this race to nowhere.
Anonymous
Post 01/17/2016 09:46     Subject: When does APS elementary get intense?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My son is in 5th grade. I wouldn't call anything that he has encountered so far "intense," but the Virginia studies bs in 4th grade was over the top. An entire year of history dedicated to Virginia, with a weekly packet to complete and daily study requirements, all leading up to a much-hyped SOL finale.


I grew up in a state in the midwest and we had this too. Nothing like an entire year on the history of your state. And this was back in the early 80s so it's not exactly like there were lots of units about civilizations other than white Europeans who eventually explored and settled there. At least Virginia has a much deeper history to study.


What is the weekly packet and daily study about? Our school didn't have this.


They got a mini newspaper every week covering va history (tailored to SOLs). A packet came home with it. They had a week to go over each newspaper and answer the packet questions; there was a 5 minute study requirement per night.


Do you know what the newspaper was called?


Every fourth grade kid in Virginia gets it--it's not an APS thing. I wish the state invested that much in other curricula.... Also, it covers geography, geology--not just history
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2016 22:41     Subject: Re:When does APS elementary get intense?
I feel like third grade has its moments. On average the homework is OK. But there are days where I feel like there is a lot (study guides). And if it falls on a night where we had an appointment or an activity, it can be stressful. But, it is not that way every night.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2016 11:33     Subject: When does APS elementary get intense?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My son is in 5th grade. I wouldn't call anything that he has encountered so far "intense," but the Virginia studies bs in 4th grade was over the top. An entire year of history dedicated to Virginia, with a weekly packet to complete and daily study requirements, all leading up to a much-hyped SOL finale.


I grew up in a state in the midwest and we had this too. Nothing like an entire year on the history of your state. And this was back in the early 80s so it's not exactly like there were lots of units about civilizations other than white Europeans who eventually explored and settled there. At least Virginia has a much deeper history to study.


This is true, and the only reason we didn't lodge a formal complaint at the state level. At least some of it is important enough to actually fall into the US history category.

It seems crazy to dedicate the same amount of time to va studies and ancient civilizations (5th grade). I think it gives kids a warped perspective of what's important historically.


I disagree. First, ancient history was covered in 3rd grade and also in 5th grade and probably will be in middle school and high school as well. Also, many studies say local context is so important for kids to understand their world. Nova outside had a great lecture on this where the speaker talked about Gaia theory and how through local context children are able to understand their world better and tie areas of study together. Children need to feel they can make a difference in their own community before they can make a difference in the world. It's what most of the social studies curriculum is framed around. First understanding your own life and area of the world and then branching off to understanding the greater world and our history. Also, Virginia history is longer than most states. There is plenty to study and most of it is not repeated in another grade level.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2016 11:24     Subject: When does APS elementary get intense?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My son is in 5th grade. I wouldn't call anything that he has encountered so far "intense," but the Virginia studies bs in 4th grade was over the top. An entire year of history dedicated to Virginia, with a weekly packet to complete and daily study requirements, all leading up to a much-hyped SOL finale.


I grew up in a state in the midwest and we had this too. Nothing like an entire year on the history of your state. And this was back in the early 80s so it's not exactly like there were lots of units about civilizations other than white Europeans who eventually explored and settled there. At least Virginia has a much deeper history to study.


What is the weekly packet and daily study about? Our school didn't have this.


They got a mini newspaper every week covering va history (tailored to SOLs). A packet came home with it. They had a week to go over each newspaper and answer the packet questions; there was a 5 minute study requirement per night.


Do you know what the newspaper was called?
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2016 10:44     Subject: When does APS elementary get intense?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My son is in 5th grade. I wouldn't call anything that he has encountered so far "intense," but the Virginia studies bs in 4th grade was over the top. An entire year of history dedicated to Virginia, with a weekly packet to complete and daily study requirements, all leading up to a much-hyped SOL finale.


I grew up in a state in the midwest and we had this too. Nothing like an entire year on the history of your state. And this was back in the early 80s so it's not exactly like there were lots of units about civilizations other than white Europeans who eventually explored and settled there. At least Virginia has a much deeper history to study.


What is the weekly packet and daily study about? Our school didn't have this.


They got a mini newspaper every week covering va history (tailored to SOLs). A packet came home with it. They had a week to go over each newspaper and answer the packet questions; there was a 5 minute study requirement per night.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2016 10:40     Subject: When does APS elementary get intense?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My son is in 5th grade. I wouldn't call anything that he has encountered so far "intense," but the Virginia studies bs in 4th grade was over the top. An entire year of history dedicated to Virginia, with a weekly packet to complete and daily study requirements, all leading up to a much-hyped SOL finale.


I grew up in a state in the midwest and we had this too. Nothing like an entire year on the history of your state. And this was back in the early 80s so it's not exactly like there were lots of units about civilizations other than white Europeans who eventually explored and settled there. At least Virginia has a much deeper history to study.


This is true, and the only reason we didn't lodge a formal complaint at the state level. At least some of it is important enough to actually fall into the US history category.

It seems crazy to dedicate the same amount of time to va studies and ancient civilizations (5th grade). I think it gives kids a warped perspective of what's important historically.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2016 10:39     Subject: When does APS elementary get intense?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My son is in 5th grade. I wouldn't call anything that he has encountered so far "intense," but the Virginia studies bs in 4th grade was over the top. An entire year of history dedicated to Virginia, with a weekly packet to complete and daily study requirements, all leading up to a much-hyped SOL finale.


I grew up in a state in the midwest and we had this too. Nothing like an entire year on the history of your state. And this was back in the early 80s so it's not exactly like there were lots of units about civilizations other than white Europeans who eventually explored and settled there. At least Virginia has a much deeper history to study.


What is the weekly packet and daily study about? Our school didn't have this.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2016 10:15     Subject: When does APS elementary get intense?
Anonymous wrote:My son is in 5th grade. I wouldn't call anything that he has encountered so far "intense," but the Virginia studies bs in 4th grade was over the top. An entire year of history dedicated to Virginia, with a weekly packet to complete and daily study requirements, all leading up to a much-hyped SOL finale.


I grew up in a state in the midwest and we had this too. Nothing like an entire year on the history of your state. And this was back in the early 80s so it's not exactly like there were lots of units about civilizations other than white Europeans who eventually explored and settled there. At least Virginia has a much deeper history to study.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2016 10:01     Subject: When does APS elementary get intense?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Agree re: Third grade. That is also when the report cards start issuing actual grades.


Concur. It gets more rigorous then, although I don't know if I'd use the word "intense."

Fourth grade is a challenging year academically for many kids.


Third grade is when they start getting letter grades, which you can care about or not, and when SOLs start, which is going to jack up the school days with test prep even if you opt out of the actual tests.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2016 10:00     Subject: When does APS elementary get intense?
My son is in 5th grade. I wouldn't call anything that he has encountered so far "intense," but the Virginia studies bs in 4th grade was over the top. An entire year of history dedicated to Virginia, with a weekly packet to complete and daily study requirements, all leading up to a much-hyped SOL finale.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2016 09:48     Subject: When does APS elementary get intense?
I hate that they give letter grades in 3rd grade. My DS came home with a test with a low letter and flipped out because he thought his report card was going to be bad. In the end, his report card was fine, but it was completely unnecessary stress for an 8 year old. At least they don't use "F".
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2016 09:10     Subject: When does APS elementary get intense?
Anonymous wrote:Agree re: Third grade. That is also when the report cards start issuing actual grades.


Concur. It gets more rigorous then, although I don't know if I'd use the word "intense."

Fourth grade is a challenging year academically for many kids.
Anonymous
Post 01/12/2016 12:57     Subject: Re:When does APS elementary get intense?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Third grade. First grade is about solidifying what they started in kindergarten so that kids are entering second at roughly the same level regardless of their pre-K prep, second grade starts to encourage more self-organization and stuff in the kids, and then third is becomes significantly more rigorous and the kids are expected to be more independent.


What does that mean? "Ok, you kids here just hang out for another year or two while your classmates catch up"? APS says they scaffold the curriculum to meet kids where they are, do they stop doing that for the highest performers?


Hope, that's not what I mean at all. My oldest is in fifth at an APS elementary (one of the neighborhood schools in North Arlington frequently touted as one of the best, but I'm not saying which for privacy; also not specifying that to brag or suggest I buy into it, but to make clear that it's not a school that's dealing with a lot of issues related to to low SES, language barriers, etc., that complicate early education), my middle is in 3rd, my youngest is in 1st). All of my kids have gotten differentiated education to meet them where they are (e.g., reading groups, pull-outs for math enrichment, etc.) throughout the years. My first grader isn't being held back in reading just because he came into kindergarten reading while others are still learning in first, he's being given books that are appropriate to his level, but what he's expected to do with them will be different in third. Right now it's read a book in class, talk with the teacher and his reading group about what happened and what he liked about it. Last year in K he did one "big" project that was a very simple book report (truly, just answer a few spoon-fed questions, totally maybe five sentences plus a picture he drew), and was something all the kids did, regardless of reading level. In third grade, they will do a lot more independent reading without as many comprehension checks from the teacher, and will be expected to, for instance, do a more involved book report with a deeper analysis than they did in kindergarten. But again, the kids were able to choose their own books appropriate to their reading level.


Accidentally hit send too soon. What I was trying to get at with my original post is that, going back to the reading illustration as an example, K and first are really about making sure that, barring specifically circumstances, all kids can read, and have a certain baseline ability to think about what they're reading; if your kid can already do that, they can read higher level books, but won't be given a fundamentally different book report project from their peers. In second grade, it won't necessarily get more rigorous in terms of having meaningfully more difficult or complex assignments (by which I mean book reports and other things they do to demonstrate and reinforce comprehension) to do in these areas, but the teachers will start teaching them more how to thing about these projects and organize them on their own without being given as much structure as the kindergarten book report had. Then in third, the speed at which they will be expected to pick up new material increases, the complexity of their assignments to demonstrate comprehension increases, and they will be expected to manage it on their own without as much teacher or parent guidance.