Is there a web site that makes available the entire COMPREHENSIVE grade school curriculum? (county, public schools)
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My kids are in elementary school. I've tried to talk with their teachers for years about giving me a heads-up about what they are teaching in class in various subjects. But it has been a fruitless endeavor. The school has a policy of "hiding the ball" on what exactly they're teaching and penalizing students when they are not able to cope.
So, I'm wondering does anybody know of web sites that provide detailed and extensive curricula (not just broad outlines) of what is taught in grade school? I am tired of chasing a moving target.
What questions do you have about the curriculum used that can't be brought up with your board of education?
What are your concerns re: coping?
In my county, the public schools don't use any textbooks for elementary school or apparently also middle school. There is no way for parents to know beforehand what the students will be taught or for the students to work ahead. We are only given very general information, which is unhelpful when it comes to specifics.
In second grade math, for example, students are required to demonstrate 6 or 7 different ways of doing 3 digit addition and subtraction problems. They are required to use "modeling" which requires expansion or compensation. They have to figure out how to compose and decompose 10s, or compose and decompose 100s. I've never heard of this stuff in my life, the teachers never explain it to the parents. They simply introduce these concepts in class and almost immediately start grading the students on their understanding.
That is why I'm trying to get some kind of online help in these and other areas.
I found this web site that discusses the kind of modeling I'm talking about. But once again, I've never seen this stuff before. Is this part of common core or something?
It's too bad that you haven't been able to get the information from the teachers but I wonder if it's just a communication problem. Are you concerned that your kids are not keeping up? I think that schools have the broad outline of the curriculum listed on their website, which is going to line up with the standards needed for the state, but they need to allow the teachers to teach the material in the way they feel is best. Not that individual teachers will be creating that curriculum, but it may change due to new information, maybe a problem with the class understanding the material, etc. Teachers have to be masters of improv teaching.
In my county, the public schools don't use any textbooks for elementary school or apparently also middle school. There is no way for parents to know beforehand what the students will be taught or for the students to work ahead. We are only given very general information, which is unhelpful when it comes to specifics.
In second grade math, for example, students are required to demonstrate 6 or 7 different ways of doing 3 digit addition and subtraction problems. They are required to use "modeling" which requires expansion or compensation. They have to figure out how to compose and decompose 10s, or compose and decompose 100s. I've never heard of this stuff in my life, the teachers never explain it to the parents. They simply introduce these concepts in class and almost immediately start grading the students on their understanding.
That is why I'm trying to get some kind of online help in these and other areas.
Realize that if the teachers had to explain every detail to the parents, then you would be in the classroom as long as the kids are.
Extremely simplistic explanation:
Composing and decomposing means making and breaking up numbers. For instance, when adding several 1 digit numbers, put together the numbers that make 10's first (7 and 3, or 6 and 4). Same with 100's. Decomposing numbers works the opposite: breaking a larger number down into smaller chunks. 65 is really 60 and 5, or 50 and 15. This deepens their understanding of what larger numbers really are, rather that just digits smushed together. (so, 65 is NOT 6 and 5)
Models help students SEE it area or size wise, before they represent it with digits. I understand parents confusion with models, but the kids get it. They really do.
i teach 5th grade, and most of our math concepts are introduced with models, THEN worked with digits. It took us teachers a bit to wrap our heads around the models (for multiplication and division of decimals and fractions). And you know what? They TOTALLY made sense. And actually, many of us were representing it that way in our heads all this time.
Every year, we have a Parent Math night. We've been showing parents models for fraction division, along with other models. i cannot tell you how many parents' eyes LIT UP. Oh my God, they would say...I never knew what i was doing before. this explains it all...etc.
In my county, the public schools don't use any textbooks for elementary school or apparently also middle school. There is no way for parents to know beforehand what the students will be taught or for the students to work ahead. We are only given very general information, which is unhelpful when it comes to specifics.
In second grade math, for example, students are required to demonstrate 6 or 7 different ways of doing 3 digit addition and subtraction problems. They are required to use "modeling" which requires expansion or compensation. They have to figure out how to compose and decompose 10s, or compose and decompose 100s. I've never heard of this stuff in my life, the teachers never explain it to the parents. They simply introduce these concepts in class and almost immediately start grading the students on their understanding.
That is why I'm trying to get some kind of online help in these and other areas.
Do you not get a weekly folder with the schoolwork for the entire past week, graded?
I can see why parents don't want parents making students "work ahead". You run the risk in that case of having to unteach incorrect things, and reteach which is harder than starting with a fresh slate.
I don't think at a district level - and maybe not even with an individual elementary school - will you have access to the lesson plans of each particular teacher.
If your child is struggling in math, is the teacher not willing to sit with you for 15 minutes and give you the worksheets and explain the processes?
In my county, the public schools don't use any textbooks for elementary school or apparently also middle school. There is no way for parents to know beforehand what the students will be taught or for the students to work ahead. We are only given very general information, which is unhelpful when it comes to specifics.
(snip).
No math books? No reading books? No spelling books? No language arts books? No social studies books? No science books?
No textbooks at all in elementary and middle school?
Really?
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