Former teacher and MCPS parent. I had to teach my third grader to read myself and bought a bunch of phonics books and drilled it into her in kindergarten, first and second because their old curriculum (Benchmark) was total crap. It taught the kids to guess words based on the picture and other garbage strategies to learn to read that are not grounded in evidence. My kid entered K knowing all letters and their sounds and some sight words and learned nothing from the Benchmark curriculum. It was a joke - instead of simple Bob type books to learn to sound out words she would come home with complex stories and paragraphs they expected the kindergarteners to guess read.

Half way through the kindergarten year I took control and got her additional support in school through the reading specialist who uses RGR and did nightly sessions with her that she cried through sometimes, but she is reading very well now. It’s absolutely ridiculous that MCPS ever used the Benchmark literacy curriculum and they screwed a generation of kids whose parents did not have the resources I did to teach their child.

I’m somewhat pleased about CKLA but the texts in 3rd are super dry, old fashioned, and boring. And they don’t read long form texts or books as a group from what I can gather which is also problematic, but at least they are using phonics now.

My observation of my MCPS K student (already 6) is that she is learning phonics, letter blending (not sure if that’s the official term) and sounding things out as part of CKLA. she will now read words on road signs and whatnot after never having noticed that before. There is no homework but I can tell what she’s learning because she comes home and plays school with her brother and mimics the instruction with a lot of detail.

My kid goes to a "top public" and I consider myself basically at 30-50% homeschool. I taught him to read in K, supplemented with math over 1st grade summer, and now have had to add some spelling book work into the mix. He goes to outside math now, since his 2nd grade teacher shared a curriculum link that explained that they are only expected to add within 20 by the end of the year, and "recognize" three digit numbers. At some point we will have to add writing. I assume most other parents have not read the curriculum details, because many are not doing additional math. I am horrified, and I went to a crappy public.

Anonymous wrote:We are in the midwest and our school district has always used a phonics program. My oldest is a voracious reader in 7th, but it took until 1st grade to read a "Biscuit" book, then she took off. Dh or I read to her every night, but we did not do anything else at home.

My 5th grader wanted to catch up to the older - she was about 1 month behind in real time getting to the Biscuit books (i.e., preK). We used Bob books and Endless Reader app with her occasionally because she was so motivated.

Also in the Midwest, in a "coveted" district, in an area where people consistently parrot that "you can't go wrong with any of the schools." We use a blended curriculum. Really, it's just Lucy C. leveled reading garbage with a few cute phonics rules thrown in about Mama E and car crash R. Don't get me started on math.

Anonymous wrote:Listen to the "Sold a Story" podcast. It's horrifying. You definitely need to take on reading instruction at home

+1 agree. Horrifying. Parents need to take this on if schools are not teaching phonics.

MCPS. Current 5th grader was in K when Covid shut things down. We tried the learn to read in 100 lessons book, but it didn’t work for DD. I taught her to read using a series of books called explode the code. She fully credits this for how she learned to read.

Current 3rd grader started explode the code in K. In 1st grade MCPS was using really great reading. We stopped explode the code when it was clear that he was getting what he needed at school.

So far, I like the new MCPS ELA curriculum.

Yes, I expected them to be reading by 5.

We supplemented with leapfrog DVD back then
It worked well for DD

I think at our elementary school they taught our kids to read. We read with them every night and helped them pronounce new words so we were definitely building their skills at home but I think they mainly learned in school.

I volunteer about 4-5 full days a year in the school and from what I see of the word study program they practice sounding out the words which I assume is what built their foundation for reading.

Parent-teacher conferences are coming up. Ask specifically about phonics instruction. In MCPS anyway the reading instruction has finally shifted back to phonics.

We are in the midwest and our school district has always used a phonics program. My oldest is a voracious reader in 7th, but it took until 1st grade to read a "Biscuit" book, then she took off. Dh or I read to her every night, but we did not do anything else at home.

My 5th grader wanted to catch up to the older - she was about 1 month behind in real time getting to the Biscuit books (i.e., preK). We used Bob books and Endless Reader app with her occasionally because she was so motivated.

What school system, OP?

At our MCPS I thought the new-ish reading curriculum is good, it's phonics based. For mine it clicked halfway thru K after multiple attempts at home earlier flopped.

K was all about phonics. Every single kid learned to read by March. Nothing was sent home. All was done in the classroom.
It was very hard to watch as reading writing lasted 1.5 hours without a break, but it worked for all kids in class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listen to the "Sold a Story" podcast. It's horrifying. You definitely need to take on reading instruction at home

+1. And “horrifying” is dead on, not hyperbole.

OP here. Yes, I listened to that but thought our school district had switched to an evidence based curriculum. Yet I am worried when they send home books/worksheets that focus on memorizing sight words/matching whole words instead of sounding out words they are ready to sound out. It feels counterproductive and frustrating for my child.

What curriculum?

I taught all 3 of mine to read. I also focus on knowledge building in the stuff we read at home for comprehension purposes. In addition to Sold a Story look into the work of Natalie Wexler on reading comprehension and writing skills. There's so much more to actually good language arts than phonics, and schools still aren't there yet (except those using CKLA).

So it is CKLA. I did hear there were delays in getting the materials. And they sent home a bunch of.books from the previous curriculum.

I don't think they aren't teaching any phonics at all. I do think my child is learning the sounds associated with letters at school because I can tell she has learned that.

To be fair, kindergarten phonics is very basic. By the time my kids were 5 they were learning what FCPS taught as 2nd grade phonics. If your kid is capable (some are, some aren't, and it has nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with brain development timelines) of being a fluent reader by the end of K they will need phonics from home well beyond what's taught in school.

Didn’t read the replies but IME- yes x3.

In terms of reading, school was mostly for reinforcing what was learned at home. Not true for other subjects, but true for reading. At least for my 3 DC.