Anonymous
12/01/2025 14:17
Subject: Middle school english curriculum
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:How was quarter one with the new English curriculum at your kid's middle schools?
My 8th grader liked it a lot more than Study Sybc, especially the Frederick Douglass book. The teacher also added novel studies.
What novel studies do they have in 8th?
There are 5 options each MP. Students are required to do at least 1 but can do more if they want. For MP1, the options were:
Out of the Dust
Chinese Cinderella
March Book Two
Ten Days in a Mad House
Chasing Lincoln’s Killer
This MP, I don't have a list of all the options, but my kid is reading Refugee.
Anonymous
12/01/2025 12:41
Subject: Middle school english curriculum
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:How was quarter one with the new English curriculum at your kid's middle schools?
My 8th grader liked it a lot more than Study Sybc, especially the Frederick Douglass book. The teacher also added novel studies.
What novel studies do they have in 8th?
Anonymous
12/01/2025 09:40
Subject: Middle school english curriculum
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Why can't middle schools teach or read Macbeth?
Maybe they're trying to teach them to read contemporary English before expecting them to read Shakespeare. Not sure that a dumbed down version is worth it. Or are you addressing the AP Lang posts?
my kid's teacher did a Midsummer night's dream in 7th grade....but there was some sort of Shakespeare translated into modern English alongside the play text that they were also given. there is some diversity in how teachers teach.
Anonymous
11/28/2025 22:44
Subject: Middle school english curriculum
Anonymous wrote:How was quarter one with the new English curriculum at your kid's middle schools?
Did CKLA in 5th and now in 6th-curriculum not that challenging but they are reading excerpts of novels like How to be an Inventor by Temple Grandin which is good. Next unit is abridged Iliad and Odyssey which my kid is excited about as she likes Greek mythology.
Anonymous
11/28/2025 14:45
Subject: Middle school english curriculum
Anonymous wrote:Why can't middle schools teach or read Macbeth?
Maybe they're trying to teach them to read contemporary English before expecting them to read Shakespeare. Not sure that a dumbed down version is worth it. Or are you addressing the AP Lang posts?
Anonymous
11/25/2025 20:13
Subject: Middle school english curriculum
Anonymous wrote:How was quarter one with the new English curriculum at your kid's middle schools?
My 8th grader liked it a lot more than Study Sybc, especially the Frederick Douglass book. The teacher also added novel studies.
Anonymous
11/25/2025 20:06
Subject: Middle school english curriculum
Why can't middle schools teach or read Macbeth?
Anonymous
11/25/2025 20:05
Subject: Middle school english curriculum
How was quarter one with the new English curriculum at your kid's middle schools?
Anonymous
09/30/2025 20:57
Subject: Middle school english curriculum
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Here is what they should be learning in each grade:
English 6:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aZeAlNINm8fHAAVyVNbwJcQ1u14vK-b52qRjF_V1zx0/edit?tab=t.0
English 7: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GbCzfM3glwSUsf1DSYrYvCDhz4JgECgsStTaHLk8J3I/edit?tab=t.0
English 8: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HinKw5UZlW-7_hwMIktrkK045jnmSWd9JyEM191GgOg/edit?tab=t.0
If your child is not doing this curriculum (and is not in the humanities magnet), start with their teacher. If needed, escalate, starting with the content specialist and AP and then moving up.
So yes, they have trimmed even the standard 8th grade CKLA by removing Frankenstein.
Yes, that was answered above.
They removed 2 units from 6th grade and 1 unit from 7th and 8th grades.
My senior's AP Lit class is reading Frankenstein this year. Maybe that's why it's not being taught in 8th?
I don't think so -- just a coincidence. There is a lot of flexibility for AP teachers to select their own books; there is not a set curriculum for MCPS. I think it is just that they could only cover 7 units particularly given all the testing in the spring (semester 2 only has 3 units, whereas semester 1 has 4), and they had to select something to leave out. It is still so much more than they covered in Study Sync, where they only did 4/6 units and maybe did 20% of each unit. Ridiculous.
It’s a month in our ap English and no books.
AP Lang is more about essays than books. AP Lit should have started a book by now.
The sample syllabus lists:
* Summer reading nonfiction book, class worked in the fall
* The Crucible
* Macbeth
* The Great Gatsby
In addition to shorter works.
https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap-english-language-and-composition-sample-syllabus-1.pdf?course=ap-english-language-and-composition
Actually, any class reading The Crucible, Macbeth and The Great Gatsby is NOT actually teaching the designed course in nonfiction (although the CB winks at people overlapping their American or Brit Lit standards). This was simply a sample submitted by a teacher. But this course has morphed heavily away from challenging texts and toward very basic argumentation.