The “evidence” behind nearly all curricula and approaches are really weak.

There is no evidence for using computers in the classroom. No evidence for most math curricula. No evidence for feeding kids junk at lunch. No evidence for a 15 minute recess. No evidence for watching videos in class. Etc etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You probably learned to read like the rest of us from Sesame Street and the Electric Company - which taught phonics. Or perhaps you are gifted and lucky. It took me a couple of weeks of 1st grade to learn to read and I distinctly remember being taught from worksheets that were phonics based.

We aren't talking about people like you and me though. We are talking about the majority of people in the United States who don't learn as easily. It will be a catastrophe to have a large part of an entire generation who don't read comfortably or fluently.

A huge part of the problem is localized school control. It creates these curriculum companies that make huge profits off of selling very expensive curriculums to many different school districts. Many of these curriculums aren't based in the science of learning - they are based on fads.

It's not that the majority doesn't learn as easily, it's that they simply aren't being taught anything at home. I have a career and taught my son to read during the pandemic. It was not easy but I was lucky my job was somewhat flexible so that I could make up my work time after hours. My son isn't special or gifted--he was simply given the opportunity to learn. That said, it requires time, dedication, values, and knowledge on the part of parents. Many kids don't have access to any of that. But the sad truth is that the kids will then go to school with zero academic skills (and also poor self-regulation) and will struggle to learn, not because they can't but because they are already behind and teachers can only do so much...

But yes, if once they get to school they are met with faddish curricula, all the worse. I am a researcher with expertise on a topic that is currently a fad in the elementary schools, so I know how that goes. I wish they would invest more time in basic academic skills using evidence based approaches and skip the fads.

What is the fad?

It's related to self-regulation. It's not the concept that is a fad but the implementation.

Anonymous wrote:To the original question: Yes, teachers do have autonomy. However, planning lessons takes enormous resources. If you throw out a packaged curriculum, there is no time to write on me from scratch and produce all of the materials. Also, there are pacing and accountability structures built into school and department management. If one classroom covers parts of speech in two weeks, another classroom at the same grade level can’t decide to omit it or to linger on the topic for two months.

Do ask your school if they are supplementing the reading curriculum. Do they have a phonics-based program (not the Units of Study Calkins phonics supplement)? What explicit strategies are they teaching for comprehension? Is there a spelling component to the curriculum? Is that based on lists of random words or on a phonics program with a clear scope and sequence?

Many parents would never think to ask about whether their school is supplementing the reading curriculum--who would think that the schools don't know how to teach children to read by now. If there is no supplementation and the curriculum is low quality, what recourse do parents have (especially those who cannot teach their children themselves or move to a better school)?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You probably learned to read like the rest of us from Sesame Street and the Electric Company - which taught phonics. Or perhaps you are gifted and lucky. It took me a couple of weeks of 1st grade to learn to read and I distinctly remember being taught from worksheets that were phonics based.

We aren't talking about people like you and me though. We are talking about the majority of people in the United States who don't learn as easily. It will be a catastrophe to have a large part of an entire generation who don't read comfortably or fluently.

A huge part of the problem is localized school control. It creates these curriculum companies that make huge profits off of selling very expensive curriculums to many different school districts. Many of these curriculums aren't based in the science of learning - they are based on fads.

It's not that the majority doesn't learn as easily, it's that they simply aren't being taught anything at home. I have a career and taught my son to read during the pandemic. It was not easy but I was lucky my job was somewhat flexible so that I could make up my work time after hours. My son isn't special or gifted--he was simply given the opportunity to learn. That said, it requires time, dedication, values, and knowledge on the part of parents. Many kids don't have access to any of that. But the sad truth is that the kids will then go to school with zero academic skills (and also poor self-regulation) and will struggle to learn, not because they can't but because they are already behind and teachers can only do so much...

But yes, if once they get to school they are met with faddish curricula, all the worse. I am a researcher with expertise on a topic that is currently a fad in the elementary schools, so I know how that goes. I wish they would invest more time in basic academic skills using evidence based approaches and skip the fads.

What is the fad?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every year in elementary school in FCPS, my kids are asked to write (or do a powerpoint) about something they know. No research, no guidance - nothing. My daughter wrote about horses every year for 4 years straight. In 6th grade, she basically recycled the same report she did for 5th and 4th. My other daughter is currently in 3rd grade and it will be her 4th year of doing the same. They are given weeks to work on it. It is the craziest, most useless use of time I can imagine. Could they not even be asked to read a nonfiction book and write on that? Pick a sea animal and write about that? This is that Lucy Calkins dumbing down of education.

6th grade teacher here. There is a whole research unit. Here are the following units for 6th:

Memoir, Literary NF, Journalism, Poetry, Research, Historical Fiction, Persuasive Essay, Choice Unit.

Your child should have 7-8 published pieces including 1 research project.

They wrote those 7 pieces every year and are simply re-using their work and topic from the previous year.

+1 Yes, DC just came home and is writing on the same memoir as last year!

DP. Not sure why y'all are bragging that your DCs are lazy and kinda cheaters. It didn't even occur to my kids to recycle their old topic let alone their old work.

+1

And the PP seems fine with it - doesn’t make her kids change the topics.

I see that but why is the curriculum set up in a way where they can re-use past papers? I get they want to let kids choose and that's good but they could make the kids choose among four memoirs, four topics for research, etc. Why would a child choose to make more work for themselves?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You probably learned to read like the rest of us from Sesame Street and the Electric Company - which taught phonics. Or perhaps you are gifted and lucky. It took me a couple of weeks of 1st grade to learn to read and I distinctly remember being taught from worksheets that were phonics based.

We aren't talking about people like you and me though. We are talking about the majority of people in the United States who don't learn as easily. It will be a catastrophe to have a large part of an entire generation who don't read comfortably or fluently.

A huge part of the problem is localized school control. It creates these curriculum companies that make huge profits off of selling very expensive curriculums to many different school districts. Many of these curriculums aren't based in the science of learning - they are based on fads.

It's not that the majority doesn't learn as easily, it's that they simply aren't being taught anything at home. I have a career and taught my son to read during the pandemic. It was not easy but I was lucky my job was somewhat flexible so that I could make up my work time after hours. My son isn't special or gifted--he was simply given the opportunity to learn. That said, it requires time, dedication, values, and knowledge on the part of parents. Many kids don't have access to any of that. But the sad truth is that the kids will then go to school with zero academic skills (and also poor self-regulation) and will struggle to learn, not because they can't but because they are already behind and teachers can only do so much...

But yes, if once they get to school they are met with faddish curricula, all the worse. I am a researcher with expertise on a topic that is currently a fad in the elementary schools, so I know how that goes. I wish they would invest more time in basic academic skills using evidence based approaches and skip the fads.

People would be surprised to know how little some people do with their kids. Some have no reading material in their homes. No books, papers, nothing. There have been studies showing that seeing their parents read is an incentive to learn to read. My dad was a bookworm. I can remember watching him deep in a book and wishing I could do that. Of course, my parents also read lots of books to me and trips to the library were a weekly event to pick out new books to read. Money was very tight in my house, but the library was free.

And, today, with screens so readily at hand, there is less conversation with kids. When my kids were small, we talked about the signs we saw when we were driving. What does a red light mean? That type of thing. Some people do not do that naturally.

I was taught when crossing a street to always make eye contact with a driver before crossing. I stop at crosswalks, but how many people do you see walking in them that never look up from their phones?

This is parenting. Some kids do not get good parenting. FWIW, all children can learn. Some learn faster than others and I taught many Title I kids who were extremely bright and did have good parents who happened to be extremely poor. Unfortunately, I taught more Title I kids who suffered from poor parenting.

Anonymous wrote:You probably learned to read like the rest of us from Sesame Street and the Electric Company - which taught phonics. Or perhaps you are gifted and lucky. It took me a couple of weeks of 1st grade to learn to read and I distinctly remember being taught from worksheets that were phonics based.

We aren't talking about people like you and me though. We are talking about the majority of people in the United States who don't learn as easily. It will be a catastrophe to have a large part of an entire generation who don't read comfortably or fluently.

A huge part of the problem is localized school control. It creates these curriculum companies that make huge profits off of selling very expensive curriculums to many different school districts. Many of these curriculums aren't based in the science of learning - they are based on fads.

It's not that the majority doesn't learn as easily, it's that they simply aren't being taught anything at home. I have a career and taught my son to read during the pandemic. It was not easy but I was lucky my job was somewhat flexible so that I could make up my work time after hours. My son isn't special or gifted--he was simply given the opportunity to learn. That said, it requires time, dedication, values, and knowledge on the part of parents. Many kids don't have access to any of that. But the sad truth is that the kids will then go to school with zero academic skills (and also poor self-regulation) and will struggle to learn, not because they can't but because they are already behind and teachers can only do so much...

But yes, if once they get to school they are met with faddish curricula, all the worse. I am a researcher with expertise on a topic that is currently a fad in the elementary schools, so I know how that goes. I wish they would invest more time in basic academic skills using evidence based approaches and skip the fads.

To the original question: Yes, teachers do have autonomy. However, planning lessons takes enormous resources. If you throw out a packaged curriculum, there is no time to write on me from scratch and produce all of the materials. Also, there are pacing and accountability structures built into school and department management. If one classroom covers parts of speech in two weeks, another classroom at the same grade level can’t decide to omit it or to linger on the topic for two months.

Do ask your school if they are supplementing the reading curriculum. Do they have a phonics-based program (not the Units of Study Calkins phonics supplement)? What explicit strategies are they teaching for comprehension? Is there a spelling component to the curriculum? Is that based on lists of random words or on a phonics program with a clear scope and sequence?

Anonymous wrote:Columbia will dissolve Lucy Calkin’s reading and writing project:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/08/us/lucy-calkins-teachers-college.html

Who thought a non-phonics based, experimental approach was a good idea to adopt?

And where is the accountability? The people responsible should be fired/ voted out.

Who were they?

I taught for 12 years --I am a senior citizen. I taught first and K

These are fads during the time I taught:

"center" instruction--the idea was that if you set up interesting "centers" in your classroom that the students would learn on their own

"language experience" --Have kids tell you a story--write it down and have them "read" it back

"Sullivan"--"programmed" workbooks--yes, this was phonics based--but it was totally boring. Maybe my school did not have all the appropriate materials, but we had no story books for them to read based on what they were being taught. (The teachers scrambled to find old readers so that the students could have something to read. The administration had burned the old books because they knew the teachers did not like the new program. Yes, they burned the old books.)

There were other "fads" but these are the ones that stand out to me.

The best program?
1.Well designed basal readers that include phonics instruction, sight word instruction, interesting stories that appeal to children; and follow up with comprehension questions. This instruction is done with small groups. (It is a myth that basal readers do not include phonics instruction. Perhaps, because some teachers ignored the teacher manual that comes with the books. Every lesson included phonics when I was teaching.)
2.Additional: solid phonics instruction to whole class.

My fear: that the newest fad is going to emphasize phonics so much that they will leave out comprehension questions and motivation.

That said: phonics is extremely important--but there are some who will struggle with it and other techniques should not be ignored.

The "science of reading" is not new. But, I am glad phonics is being taught now. It certainly was not taught for some time in Fairfax County.

Columbia will dissolve Lucy Calkin’s reading and writing project:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/08/us/lucy-calkins-teachers-college.html

Who thought a non-phonics based, experimental approach was a good idea to adopt?

And where is the accountability? The people responsible should be fired/ voted out.

Who were they?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every year in elementary school in FCPS, my kids are asked to write (or do a powerpoint) about something they know. No research, no guidance - nothing. My daughter wrote about horses every year for 4 years straight. In 6th grade, she basically recycled the same report she did for 5th and 4th. My other daughter is currently in 3rd grade and it will be her 4th year of doing the same. They are given weeks to work on it. It is the craziest, most useless use of time I can imagine. Could they not even be asked to read a nonfiction book and write on that? Pick a sea animal and write about that? This is that Lucy Calkins dumbing down of education.

6th grade teacher here. There is a whole research unit. Here are the following units for 6th:

Memoir, Literary NF, Journalism, Poetry, Research, Historical Fiction, Persuasive Essay, Choice Unit.

Your child should have 7-8 published pieces including 1 research project.

They wrote those 7 pieces every year and are simply re-using their work and topic from the previous year.

+1 Yes, DC just came home and is writing on the same memoir as last year!

DP. Not sure why y'all are bragging that your DCs are lazy and kinda cheaters. It didn't even occur to my kids to recycle their old topic let alone their old work.

+1

And the PP seems fine with it - doesn’t make her kids change the topics.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every year in elementary school in FCPS, my kids are asked to write (or do a powerpoint) about something they know. No research, no guidance - nothing. My daughter wrote about horses every year for 4 years straight. In 6th grade, she basically recycled the same report she did for 5th and 4th. My other daughter is currently in 3rd grade and it will be her 4th year of doing the same. They are given weeks to work on it. It is the craziest, most useless use of time I can imagine. Could they not even be asked to read a nonfiction book and write on that? Pick a sea animal and write about that? This is that Lucy Calkins dumbing down of education.

6th grade teacher here. There is a whole research unit. Here are the following units for 6th:

Memoir, Literary NF, Journalism, Poetry, Research, Historical Fiction, Persuasive Essay, Choice Unit.

Your child should have 7-8 published pieces including 1 research project.

They wrote those 7 pieces every year and are simply re-using their work and topic from the previous year.

+1 Yes, DC just came home and is writing on the same memoir as last year!

DP. Not sure why y'all are bragging that your DCs are lazy and kinda cheaters. It didn't even occur to my kids to recycle their old topic let alone their old work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every year in elementary school in FCPS, my kids are asked to write (or do a powerpoint) about something they know. No research, no guidance - nothing. My daughter wrote about horses every year for 4 years straight. In 6th grade, she basically recycled the same report she did for 5th and 4th. My other daughter is currently in 3rd grade and it will be her 4th year of doing the same. They are given weeks to work on it. It is the craziest, most useless use of time I can imagine. Could they not even be asked to read a nonfiction book and write on that? Pick a sea animal and write about that? This is that Lucy Calkins dumbing down of education.

6th grade teacher here. There is a whole research unit. Here are the following units for 6th:

Memoir, Literary NF, Journalism, Poetry, Research, Historical Fiction, Persuasive Essay, Choice Unit.

Your child should have 7-8 published pieces including 1 research project.

They wrote those 7 pieces every year and are simply re-using their work and topic from the previous year.

+1 Yes, DC just came home and is writing on the same memoir as last year!

You probably learned to read like the rest of us from Sesame Street and the Electric Company - which taught phonics. Or perhaps you are gifted and lucky. It took me a couple of weeks of 1st grade to learn to read and I distinctly remember being taught from worksheets that were phonics based.

We aren't talking about people like you and me though. We are talking about the majority of people in the United States who don't learn as easily. It will be a catastrophe to have a large part of an entire generation who don't read comfortably or fluently.

A huge part of the problem is localized school control. It creates these curriculum companies that make huge profits off of selling very expensive curriculums to many different school districts. Many of these curriculums aren't based in the science of learning - they are based on fads.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS used Lucy Calkins until about 3-4 years ago. My older child was taught how to read using the look at the first letter and guess based on the picture approach. We spent thousands of dollars on tutoring to teach her the proper, backed by science, way of reading. Thank god FCPS switched to Wilson/phonics by the time my younger child started K.

I think it's a mistake to trust the schools to teach children what they need to know. What could illustrate this more than the so-called reading wars and Calkins' influence over curricula in schools for so many years? There's also $ invested in other latest trends in education that will eventually be shown to be a waste of time. Good to lobby for better, but definitely wouldn't wait on them to ensure my child is literate and numerate.

This book came out almost 15 years ago and slams the whole-word approach and reading wars, and highlights that part of the ongoing fall out is resistance of teachers. https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Brain-New-Science-Read/dp/0143118056

You know, when we were kids, schools did teach us what we needed to know. Parents didn't preteach or afterschool teach. It's not absurd to expect schools to teach academics.

Fwiw, I can see the big changes in the past couple years in what my older DC was taught and what my younger DC is being taught. And even in what my older DC is being taught now compared to several years ago.

I learned to read at home.

I learned basic math facts at home.

Everything I ever learned about history was learned at home. Other than AP Government, my social studies education in school was abysmal.

I learned about meteorology at home.

I learned human anatomy and physiology at home.

I learned about British Literature at home.

I'm sure there are many more examples, but this should prove a point that not everything was taught at school even when we were all kids (for me, in the 80s and 90s).