Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are we talking about summer reading?

As a teacher, I can tell you that summer reading needs to be at a significantly lower level than school year reading for the same text. School year reading should be, for most kids, something that pushes their skills a little or a lot. It should be something where a kid needs some structure from the teacher to understand. Summer reading should be a few levels down from that, something at kids' independent reading level, similar to what they'd read for pleasure. It should be something that most of the kids can get a lot of meaning from 100% on their own, that is used to keep up the habit of reading, and to serve as the basis of conversations and activities that build momentum at the very start of the year while the teacher builds the expectations, structures and routines that will help them tackle more challenging work.

I get that it's a little frustrating that a kid has already read the book, but standardizing reading lists bring up a different set of issues. If we want teachers to able to look at their class and choose titles that resonate then we can't also be upset that two teachers in different schools chose the same title. What I don't get is being upset that the summer reading before 9th grade includes a text that in on a middle school level.

That’s because you don’t understand the underlying real reason. It’s obvious that it was not a DCPS middle school that required it. But it was a school that obviously had higher standards for its students and likely had a much higher performing student body overall.

OP is facing the new reality of what to expect in DCPS and we all know it’s low standards and expectations.

Anonymous wrote:when a curriculum is vertically aligned you don't have oversights like that. It suggests disorganization.

Anonymous wrote:Lol, I have a much younger kid, but just happened to notice LOTF is on the 9th grade reading list at our private.

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t reading lists coordinated across all grades in DCPS? Seems like bad management to assign same books in different year. But on par with DCPS in general I guess.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If schools went by the curriculum outlined, students wouldn’t repeat a novel. It clearly states that LOTF is a 9th grade read. It shouldn’t have been assigned in middle school. DC has curriculum issues, but the novels are clearly outlined. They had a milllion others books to choose from.

Regardless, a reread won’t hurt. Your child has grown and matured a great deal over the past two years. Perspectives change.

Perhaps that cohort of students were advanced. Should the teacher hold students back because "the curriculum dictates when they will get to the material?" That line of thinking is absurd and its why DCPS has never had a gifted education program. The city is essentially saying in so many words there is no such thing as gifted education, all children are the same. This is not true as the research at multiple universities across the country have departments and write curriculum for gifted education. Johns Hopkins, Duke, UConn, William & Mary, Cornell, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are we talking about summer reading?

As a teacher, I can tell you that summer reading needs to be at a significantly lower level than school year reading for the same text. School year reading should be, for most kids, something that pushes their skills a little or a lot. It should be something where a kid needs some structure from the teacher to understand. Summer reading should be a few levels down from that, something at kids' independent reading level, similar to what they'd read for pleasure. It should be something that most of the kids can get a lot of meaning from 100% on their own, that is used to keep up the habit of reading, and to serve as the basis of conversations and activities that build momentum at the very start of the year while the teacher builds the expectations, structures and routines that will help them tackle more challenging work.

I get that it's a little frustrating that a kid has already read the book, but standardizing reading lists bring up a different set of issues. If we want teachers to able to look at their class and choose titles that resonate then we can't also be upset that two teachers in different schools chose the same title. What I don't get is being upset that the summer reading before 9th grade includes a text that in on a middle school level.

That’s because you don’t understand the underlying real reason. It’s obvious that it was not a DCPS middle school that required it. But it was a school that obviously had higher standards for its students and likely had a much higher performing student body overall.

OP is facing the new reality of what to expect in DCPS and we all know it’s low standards and expectations.

Anonymous wrote:If schools went by the curriculum outlined, students wouldn’t repeat a novel. It clearly states that LOTF is a 9th grade read. It shouldn’t have been assigned in middle school. DC has curriculum issues, but the novels are clearly outlined. They had a milllion others books to choose from.

Regardless, a reread won’t hurt. Your child has grown and matured a great deal over the past two years. Perspectives change.