AmyinMD Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 My dd is in 7th grade at ps this year. Most of the classes are fine but the language arts I'm unhappy with. The do no grammar work at all. They did have a quiz on the parts of speech definitions earlier this year but that's all they have done. Every single day they practice for the state mandated testing. My dd is getting pretty good at the BCRs (brief constructive response) and the ECRs (essay constructive response). For these they practice reading strategies and the teacher requires the kids to use a highlighter as they read. This really frustrates my dd. She has never had to read with a highlighter before. Mostly they use hand outs of short stories and poems from what I can tell. They haven't done any novels this year. There has been no literary analysis in class at all. I remember reading Julie of the Wolves and other novels like that in 7th grade. Do 7th graders no longer read novels for class? There is one book project per term which involves literary analysis but there is no instruction in class on how the kids are to do this. For example this term they picked a book from an approved list and found 10 pictures to go with it and wrote a paragraph about each. I thought my dd could have put more into it. Most of her paragraphs were around 3-4 sentences. The teacher gave everyone that turned the project in a 100 and didn't even read any of them. Dd brought it home the day she had turned it in. I realize the teacher has 120 students and can't possibly read every word of each assignment but she hasn't provided any constructive feedback on my dd's writing all year. I figured she'd at least do that for the quarter projects. They do vocab lists each week and fill out the exact same worksheet (definition, picture, and sentence). They read 15 min each night and write 1-2 sentences about what they read (called a book log). They practice for state testing. I'm not opposed to some practicing and I think dd is learning some good things from it but I think every day is way too much. I just checked dd's online grades for 2nd quarter and aside from the one project every single assignment is for vocab words, book log, or a BCR/ECR for test practice. Is this pretty typical for a middle school language arts class? I feel kind of out of it since this year is the first time any of my kids have gone to school. I'd like to afterschool for LA but dd is so tired at the end of the day. I had thought of getting something like Latin Road under the disguise that we'd use it for Latin but she'd be getting English grammar along with it. I do Latin with my younger dd and my older dd keeps saying she is interested in learning it too. We're going to go look at a couple of Christian schools here because this is one of many things we dislike about the school. I'm not sure if a Christian school would have less focus on the state testing or not. 2 of the schools also offer a part time option for homeschoolers which would be nice. I do love the bus the public school offers though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Take a look at K12's scope and sequence documents for their middle grades English courses (Intermediate English A and B and Literary Analysis and Composition) at http://www.k12.com to get an idea of what middle school language arts might look like without so much test prep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caroline Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 My sons's middle school was not like this. They did Vocabulary from Latin Roots. They had a grammar book, but I don't remember what it was, now. They wrote one paper a month. These ranged from a few page essays to a long research paper at the end of the year. He read To Kill a Mockingbird, Animal Farm, The Red Pony, and The Count of Monte Cristo. He also read poetry and short stories. Many of these were tied into what they were learning in Social Studies. There might have been other novels, but it has been 3 years, so I don't remember. Those are the ones I remember purchasing. Test prep was done, as needed, on a test prep website outside of school time. Amount of test prep time was based on a pretest, so my son just did a couple to get a feel for the test. I would think students at a Christian School would not have to pass the state tests, and therefore there would not be prep time involved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooahwife Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 I don't know about Maryland, but where I live, private schools do not have to participate in any testing program mandated by state or federal governments. You should check with the state board of education to see if that's the case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renee in NC Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 My 12yo's LA is just like this. He also has a separate reading class. However, they are doing Daily Language Review, so he is getting *some* grammar/word study/spelling. However, my 17yo's was not - he attended a Core Knowledge school and they did little test prep and more literary analysis. They still didn't do grammar, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBM Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 My beef with our school is writing. My son is in 8th and at this age he should be writing papers, not making *fun* posters to analyze the books he's reading. Ugh. As you might imagine, language arts is one of the areas I supplement at home. The high school he'll attend is tough, so he's going to have to be up to snuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caroline Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 My beef with our school is writing. My son is in 8th and at this age he should be writing papers, not making *fun* posters to analyze the books he's reading. Ugh. As you might imagine, language arts is one of the areas I supplement at home. The high school he'll attend is tough, so he's going to have to be up to snuff. Even with as much writing as my son was required to do, we still required writing at home. I think writing effectively is extremely important, as I am sure you do, too. I have found that my son gets more writing instruction in social studies than his English classes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBM Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 Even with as much writing as my son was required to do, we still required writing at home. I think writing effectively is extremely important, as I am sure you do, too. I have found that my son gets more writing instruction in social studies than his English classes. Writing is by far the most difficult subject for me to teach. I just wish it could be easier. Urgh. Yes, the social studies teacher my son has assigns a lot more writing than his English teacher. They even had to do a short research paper this year. For that I am so grateful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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