Which subjects did your elementary school teach well?

[JumpyTheFrog]

Which subjects did your teachers actually do a good job with?

[Lang Syne Boardie]

State history and PE.

[TrixieB]

Cursive and printing. 

 

I don't know how reading was taught, because I could read before I started school.

 

Also I think some of the P.E. teachers did a pretty good job (different teachers came and went).  One year the teacher arranged to borrow roller skates, archery equipment, and gymnastics equipment from the district supply.  Not that we could learn many gymnastics moves in the two weeks that we had the equipment, but we got to try.  Roller skating and archery were super fun.  In fact I think we got the roller skates two or three different years.  Also I remember a Bruce Jenner poster in the P.E. portable. :)

[UCF612]

I remember very little about actual learning in school or how things were taught. I was educated and did very well in school but I don't know what can be attributed to my teachers and what came from my parents/sister/life/etc. I don't think my schools were bad at all but I just really don't remember! I'm always impressed by people who know what was used and how they were taught. I do remember using Letter People in Kindergarten, so I know we did phonics. I remember tons about the playing we did after school.

[BooksandBoys]

I'm not voting because I was homeschooled for elementary. While I would never use the curriculum my parents chose for me for my own kids, I received an excellent education in grammar, phonics, literature, spelling, printing, cursive, and writing.

 

Compared to my public school peers when I entered school, I also received a superior education in state, U.S., and world history, science (minus evolution), algorithmic math (not conceptual, but the school used algorithmic math too, so I didn't realize this was a problem until college) and health. I do not consider my education in those areas to be excellent, but for comparison's sake, it was.

 

My parents did not succeed in educating me well in geography, art, or PE, but I managed just fine when I went to school and am doing much better for my kids.

[Amira]

I learned every country and capital in fifth grade. That was probably the most unusual thing, but I went to two very good elementary schools.

[Farrar]

I'm not totally sure how to answer... different schools... different years...

 

My elementary school for most of my elementary years did a great job with inspiring creativity, teaching research skills, and making me a confident learner. I was part of a small program where we worked at our own pace and designed our own projects. We had some programs like math and Wordly Wise and D'Nealian handwriting that were self-paced with teacher support. Other things were up to us to create projects. Sometimes they were group based, like when we all studied manners together and some were personal like when my friend and I made a project about ice cream that was just us.

[Heidi]

Edited: Oh elementary. I thought it was referring to k-12. I don't know.... I don't remember. It was high school I was disappointed with.

[Pink and Green Mom]

I am 45 (yikes) and went to public school in central NJ for K-12. I feel like I received an excellent education.  I specifically remember being taught with plaid phonics books through 2nd or 3rd grade.  I remember using wooden blocks of varying lengths in math, but no idea what they were meant to teach.  I do remember chanting the color order, though:  white, red, green, purple, yellow, dark green, black, brown, blue, orange.  I remember doing long division with 2 digit divisors by the middle of 3rd grade.  Here in Florida now that is taught at the very end of 4th grade or early 5th grade.  I remember learning real U.S. history - not social studies.  I specifically remember spending a lot of time on the French and Indian War in the 2nd grade.

[regentrude]

Math, cursive, foreign language. We started Russian in 3rd grade.

 

I have no recollection about our reading instruction because I could read before starting school.

We did not print; everything had to be written in cursive (in fountain pen) from the very beginning.

[purpleowl]

For elementary (through the middle of fifth grade), I went to a school that used A Beka.  I had mostly good teachers, one superb (third grade), and one sub-par (fourth grade).

 

In some areas, I have specific memories of good instruction - phonics, specific songs in choir.  In other areas, I have only vague memories - reviewing before science tests with my parents, doing seatwork in social studies.  That doesn't mean those areas weren't taught well, just that I don't remember what was taught.  I have good handwriting (in both print and cursive) now, but the only thing I remember about my instruction in that area was that my teacher and my parents agreed that I should not be allowed to indulge my perfectionist tendencies during penmanship tests (I was having to finish out in the hallway while the rest of the class started something else because I took forever).  So I don't know whether I was just a person who would have had nice handwriting regardless of instruction, or whether the instruction was key in developing my nice handwriting.  

 

So basically...I could in good conscience vote for a few options, but I wouldn't necessarily be saying that I didn't have good instruction in the other areas, just that I don't recall enough about the instruction to evaluate it.  I did well across the board and enjoyed school (okay, I didn't enjoy PE, but that probably says a lot about me and zero about whether the instruction was good or bad).

[MEmama]

Grammar. I had the dreaded 4th grade teacher (4th/5th split class) who was all.about.grammar. Everyone hated her except me. I loved it!

 

I honestly don't remember actually learning anything else in elementary school, and very little in all the years after. In middle school I had a teacher one year for "world history" who focused only on Ireland because that's what he liked. One semester we had "geography" but it was just filling in traced maps, as I recall. High school was equally as uninspired and I remember very, very little of it. As someone else has mentioned, I'm always sort of incredulous that some posters have such vivid memories of their school years.  I mostly just remember the mean girls, the dumb boys, and wishing I didn't have to be there. 

[Guest]

Test taking.

[Butter]

Phonics, math, printing and cursive (we got a handwriting grade every year), writing (especially my 4th grade teacher), state history, US history but only through the Civil War, Music (my music teacher was amazing), art (I hated art, but it was covered well), and PE (I hated PE, too).  The only major subject that wasn't really covered much at all was science.  I mean, we had science, but it was mostly reading/theoretical.  I don't remember more than two or three experiments my whole elementary school career.

 

We were also taught computers well.  I was in the first Kindergarten class in our district to be put on computers and learn how to use them at least an hour a week right from the start.

[Spryte]

I wasn't sure how to answer, as I attended a different school almost every year. So I chose the only school I attended for two years. It was not a PS school.

 

What I remember most was an excellent grounding in world history. Excellent. And Latin. Music. Art. I did well in the other subjects, clearly learned something, but not anything to make me look back and think, Wow!

[Sahamamama]

State history & geography -- I still remember what we learned about the Lenni Lenape and I remember most of the counties and most of the state features/landmarks.

 

National history -- At least the colonial parts, LOL. That's what you get when you live in a former colony. ;)

 

Music -- learned to read music, play an instrument & thoroughly enjoyed choir.

 

Art -- loved art class!

 

Library skills -- I don't see this listed, but we had a great librarian who taught us quite a bit about using a library.

 

Writing -- I mostly remember lots and lots and lots of creative writing, probably most of which was awful, but we did do plenty of writing. I'm not sure there was much instruction, though.

 

Science -- this was mostly nature study, exploring topics of interest (ants, plants, trees, bees), growing plants in shoe boxes with holes, the class fish tank, the class hermit crab, pressing leaves & flowers, making butter, the solar system, rocks, and filmstrips. Remember filmstrips?

[MinivanMom]

I started out at a Title I school in a rough neighborhood. They did a good job of teaching phonics, but that's it. The one good thing about our district was that they ran an old-fashioned gifted program where admittance was based entirely on IQ scores. We were tested in 1st grade, and the top 30 kids in the district were bussed to a single school to attend a self-enclosed gifted class from 2nd-8th grades. I qualified for this program based on IQ. I was on par in reading, but far behind the rich kids in basic math skills. I caught up quickly, but I wouldn't have qualified for the program in today's climate where qualifications often depend on achievement scores as much as IQ.

 

My experience in elementary school from 2nd-5th grade was wonderful. Our "gifted" teachers were hand-picked, and they were all wonderful. We were taught conceptual, Asian-style math. We were part of the pilot program for Reading Workshop and Writing Workshop when they were being developed out of Fresno State. We did intense art, music, and drama. We practiced beginning Spanish each day. We were taught cursive, and we would copy a poem in cursive everyday. We had an hour of recess everyday after lunch, and then we would come in and "rest" while our teacher read aloud to us - even in 5th grade. I remember my 5th grade teacher reading us Summer of the Monkeys and Where the Red Fern Grows among other books. We did science experiments, studied American history, and memorized geography. Our gifted program had extra funding for fieldtrips, so we got to go to the symphony, Shakespeare performances, museums, etc. We didn't study grammar or world history, but those were covered well in middle school.

 

I had a wonderful experience in elementary school. I sometimes joke to my sister - who also went through the same program - that I have to homeschool, because no other elementary school will ever live up to what I experienced.

[6packofun]

I attended 4 schools between K-6.  I remember having several good art and music classes, one really good history class and a few fun science projects or experiments. I was held back for K because of my age, so when I started I already knew how to read and write (print and cursive) so those subjects were very boring for me.  I was not gifted, IMO, I just shouldn't have been held back.  lol  The K teacher made me her helper while the other kids did their work in reading and writing.  :(

[Dmmetler]

I had an amazing elementary school speech therapist and a great adaptive PE program that focused on life skills, so we learned to roller skate, bowl, play ping-pong, and stuff like that. General PE was miserable.

 

I had a kind of strange elementary GT program-I qualified for more hours of GT than were offered at my local school, so I ended up going with the GT teacher between three different schools. I think I spent more time in her car between 4th-6th grade than in my homeroom back at my base school,

 

I had a few good years and teachers otherwise, but no one subject where the school stood out. For example, the reproductive system unit of 6th grade health was awesome. Of course, it helped that the teacher was pregnant at the time....

 

The elementary band director was pretty good, the general music teacher not so much. Art was usually not a separate class.

 

 

I ended up getting a really, really good foundation in US history, but I think that's because as a kid growing up in VA, between state history and US history and US government, there may have been a total of 2 years in 13 years of school that WEREN'T US History! Maybe 3...

 

 

 

[Annie G]

I went to three different elementary schools, two were public and one was private. I think overall I received a really good elementary education but some years were dismal.  I moved before second grade and the new school had lots of kids just learning to read so I just stagnated that whole year.   But the next year I was moved to a private school and I entered behind in math- they expected me to start 3rd grade knowing my multiplication facts cold. And I had no idea how to write cursive.  Only took a couple of weeks to catch up, though. 

 

I don't think I had any art or music education to speak of. 

 

This was in the 1960's.  

 

 

[Sneezyone]

I started out at a Title I school in a rough neighborhood. They did a good job of teaching phonics, but that's it. The one good thing about our district was that they ran an old-fashioned gifted program where admittance was based entirely on IQ scores. We were tested in 1st grade, and the top 30 kids in the district were bussed to a single school to attend a self-enclosed gifted class from 2nd-8th grades. I qualified for this program based on IQ. I was on par in reading, but far behind the rich kids in basic math skills. I caught up quickly, but I wouldn't have qualified for the program in today's climate where qualifications often depend on achievement scores as much as IQ.

 

My experience in elementary school from 2nd-5th grade was wonderful. Our "gifted" teachers were hand-picked, and they were all wonderful. We were taught conceptual, Asian-style math. We were part of the pilot program for Reading Workshop and Writing Workshop when they were being developed out of Fresno State. We did intense art, music, and drama. We practiced beginning Spanish each day. We were taught cursive, and we would copy a poem in cursive everyday. We had an hour of recess everyday after lunch, and then we would come in and "rest" while our teacher read aloud to us - even in 5th grade. I remember my 5th grade teacher reading us Summer of the Monkeys and Where the Red Fern Grows among other books. We did science experiments, studied American history, and memorized geography. Our gifted program had extra funding for fieldtrips, so we got to go to the symphony, Shakespeare performances, museums, etc. We didn't study grammar or world history, but those were covered well in middle school.

 

I had a wonderful experience in elementary school. I sometimes joke to my sister - who also went through the same program - that I have to homeschool, because no other elementary school will ever live up to what I experienced.

This was my experience too but my school did a fine job with regular kids. I loved everything about my elementary years. Friday activities were the best. We signed up to leave the school or to do special activities (community center pool, roller rink, macramé, stained glass, ceramics etc.).

[TechWife]

We had a great PE teacher who taught exercise for fitness, not just for sport. He was very encouraging to this non-athletic person. I know I received an inadequate math education and an inadequate fine arts education. I don't remember much else, really. 

[medawyn]

I could read before I entered school, but my elementary school used WRTR and A Beka grammar. I had an awesome education in phonics, spelling, and grammar.

[Laurie4b]

My elementary school did a good job with the 3 Rs, although I recall that they used the Dick and Jane readers, which are not phonics based. (I am a huge believer in phonemic awareness/phonics for teaching reading.)  I was apparently one of the 80% who can learn to read no matter how they are taught, so it was okay in my case. I wonder about the other 20% though. 

[alisoncooks]

I'm struggling:  I don't remember much from elementary school.

 

I remember a wonderful, play-based kindergarten with a kitchen center and giant wooden blocks.  And the smell of crayon and rubber cement.

I remember singing the times tables in 3rd grade.

I remember doing some public speaking (reports & such?) in 4th or 5th.

 

Other than that, very little sticks with me...

[TrixieB]

I am 45 (yikes) and went to public school in central NJ for K-12. I feel like I received an excellent education.  I specifically remember being taught with plaid phonics books through 2nd or 3rd grade.  I remember using wooden blocks of varying lengths in math, but no idea what they were meant to teach.  I do remember chanting the color order, though:  white, red, green, purple, yellow, dark green, black, brown, blue, orange.  I remember doing long division with 2 digit divisors by the middle of 3rd grade.  Here in Florida now that is taught at the very end of 4th grade or early 5th grade.  I remember learning real U.S. history - not social studies.  I specifically remember spending a lot of time on the French and Indian War in the 2nd grade.

 

Cuisenaire rods!  :thumbup1:

[kewb]

Who can remember that far back.

I can say my public school education was before no child left behind and it was an excellent education.

[Matryoshka]

I have no idea.  I learned to read before I entered school, and then was always in the independent reading group.  So, reading books to myself.

I was also advanced in math, so more often than not I was given a book and told to teach it to myself.   There were a couple of years where I had a good math teacher who had an advanced section?  I think two? 

 

I don't remember doing any science at all until 6th grade - in school, anyway.  Went to the science museum a lot with my family.

I hear from my mother that there was social studies, but who knows what it was - everything I learned was from going to museums and on trips with my family, and from reading books on my own.

 

I learned a second language in elementary... but my mother taught me.  Nothing available in school.

 

Wonder why I ended up a homeschooler...

 

I could say better things starting in middle school.  Except math - that was still 'here's a textbook, teach yourself'.  That finally got better in high school.  But you said elementary...

[Garga]

I have no clue. It's all a blur. And I'm not sure I'd trust my 8 year old self to be able to assess how good of a job a teacher did. Maybe I just liked the teacher? Maybe I picked up the stuff on my own?

 

I learned pre-alg in 7th grade and it didn't click (I was a daydreamer.) The next year, I had to repeat it and it clicked. I thought, "This teacher is great! I understand it!" But was it the teacher? Or was it just that it was all review for me? Had I simply matured?

 

I hear stories from people my age talking about what happened in school when they were kids vs schools now and it often comes across to me as if they're comparing Hogwards to a muggle school. I really don't think schools were as magical in the past as people say they were. I think that they're remembering their immature kid memories.

 

Maybe I'm just in a cynical mood today...but I'm just a little skeptical of a 25 year old kid-memory.

 

ETA: Oh wait...you said elementary school. That was 33-37 years ago. I honestly don't remember back that far.

[Starr]

I'm old and went to good public elementary schools. I'm hazy on the history/science teaching in the early grades other than our state/regional history. Otherwise we learned it all. We even split into different levels of math. So progressive for the time. :)

[scoutingmom]

I mostly self taught...... so not sure. I remember more how the teachers treated students. 4th grade, I ended up having 4 teachers (2 schools).... and they varied so much. 1st I only had for a week.... the 2nd told us basicallh that if we needed to go to thd bathroom or get a drink, to quietly go get one and come back.... that he trusted us with that responsibility. The 3rd, I remember that we got to paint partitions (cardboard), and during quiet working times we could get them to surround our desks (even groups of desks with friends) as long as we got our work done reasonably quietly. Thd 4th.... the one K had for most of thd year.... was the one that if you finished early you had to sit quietly with your head on the desk and do nothing.... agony! That is the type of thing I remember from elementary.

 

 

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[Tsuga]

I went to 5 elementary schools plus a different pre-school.

 

So, all of them and none of them.

 

I remember the following:

 

• I missed multiplication because we moved.
• I missed long division because I got moved to the gifted program (I did short division my entire school career) after I got to California.
• I learned to read before pre-school and somehow never missed a spelling word other than vacuum in the fifth grade. I remember missing that word! That's where I learned about Latin roots. I was enthralled.
• I remember science from 3rd (pre-G&T) and 5th and enjoyed astronomy and taxonomy. I remember the huge projects we did.
• I remember making a booth and doing a long report on a specific agricultural product in fifth grade.
• I remember that Washington, Oregon and California all had different orders for history so I did the goddamned Oregon trail three times: 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. It. Is. So. Boring. There were interesting parts in history but they were censored out except the Donner party. OH! And then I did it twice in middle school because of the same issue--we moved. And then they wanted us, if you can imagine, to play Oregon Trail on the computers in high school. I was so over that scenario.
• I remember that the punishment for not doing work in class was sitting on the line at recess and reading. But I didn't do my work because I was reading. So I read all day long except during tests (even in gifted and talented classes).
• I remember building rockets in the fifth grade. That was fun.
• Oh, and we had a class pet in California. I don't know if we did in Oregon or Washington.

 

Did they do a good job? No clue. My assumption is that my kids will remember about as much from elementary school as I do, so I work to enrich their education through lots of activities, outings, and hands-on stuff as well as challenge work like music and language and chess and so on. I think my children are getting a much better education than I got. Their teachers play music for them, read aloud to them (ours didn't read aloud to us after kindergarten), they go on field trips (we almost never went or perhaps we couldn't afford it?), they get to build robots and bridges and gabions and dams and grow gardens. They go on nature walks around the school properties. They enjoy reading and get phonics instruction.

 

 

[wintermom]

I think it was more individual teachers whom I remember learning a great deal from, rather than a school in general. 

 

I had an amazing music teacher in grades 3 - 6; wonderful grade 3 teacher for all subjects particularly math, literature, geography and science; my grade 1 teacher (Mrs. Green from Jamaica) was also a great teacher. I still remember exactly how she taught us handwriting, and we were good at it! My mom still has a sample and it's neater than I write now.

 

Middle school was really bleak. I had a wonderful science teacher in grade 8.

 

In high school, my most memorable teachers were for grade 11 physics, grade 11 & 12 math, grade 11 biology, grade 12 English, and grade 10 & 11 phys. ed.

[Onceuponatime]

I can't remember elementary well either. I remember hating cursive, being picked last in PE, who I had a crush on, the time a mouse ran across my teacher's foot, and lots of other random memories. I don't remember very much about my actual education at all.

[Guest]

I had several good teachers but I have to say my 4th grade teacher was the best TEACHER. Not our New Best Friend.

 

She made us do the multiplication tables through the 12s--all the other classes got off at the 10s. We thought they were lucky...but WE were the lucky ones.

 

Thanks to her, I can outline ANYTHING and I know/knew my grammar rules cold. We also had fabulous history and geography and she ALSO read aloud to us a lot.

 

Yay Mrs. Williams!!

[Guest]

The two things I thought were taught very well in my childhood Christian school were Phonics and Spelling. We had the ACE PACES and, whatever other drawbacks they surely had, they did work very effectively for me in those two subjects.

 

I grant you some of it was an inclination towards language anyway. Yet, I know the spelling instruction was very thorough and taught much about word roots, word families, and other very important facets of language.

 

Until I was an adult with my own kids, I had no idea that many or most kids "learn" spelling by memorizing a disconnected group of words with a theme such as "camping," or, "holidays." It was immediately clear to me what an inferior way of "teaching" spelling this would be.

 

ETA: ironically, to fix spelling.

[LisaKinVA]

I chose several.  But, I attended 10 different schools in 9 different districts in 4 different states.

 

Elementary #1-3 -- I was reading before I ever entered school, and have zero memory of formal reading instruction.  I could do all basic arithmetic math functions before 1st grade, and really taught myself.  So, I have zero input there.  This school did a better than average job with differentiating instruction.  Did a great job with fostering a love for learning -- and allowed me to accelerate in any area I needed to (including music).  There aren't many 9 year olds playing in the band for 4th & 5th graders.

 

Elementary #4 -- Did really well with history, literature and vocabulary.

 

Elementary #5 -- I had a great music teacher....but a horrible classroom teacher.  The best part about that year was cross-age tutoring, and getting away from her class.

 

Junior High #1 -- Choir and PE were the highlights of my day.  History was probably 3rd.

Junior High #2 -- my music teacher (with whom I have spoken to in the last 10 years...), my math teacher and science teachers were very good, and my 2nd semester English teacher.

 

High School #1 -- Geography and US Gov't, Geometry 1st & 2nd quarters, My Biology teacher.

High School #2 -- World History, Spanish, Math, Chemistry, PE & Health

High School #3 -- technically I was homeschooled.  I received a very basic high school education at that point, and essentially did the minimum and worked full time instead.

 

Overall, I don't think I ever received a lot of direct writing instruction...it was intuitive for some reason.  I had to teach myself to spell (not a natural speller, I came up with ways to remember that were not rules based at all), I say my math and science instruction was really good, because based upon those classes in my 9th and 10th grade years, I was able to CLEP general science in college.  Math...because I was able to recall and do well enough to place into precalc in college, despite not really taking anything beyond Algebra 2 (I self-taught Trig, but it was an awful year...).  The classes I selected had me engaged and I remember both the instructor and the content.  Classes that had a lot of discussion (8th grade English, World History, US Gov't), also were excellent.  I had a very liberal teacher for World History who did not "punish" me for having a different opinion.  She instead praised me for both being willing to take a stand AND backing up my positions with evidence & examples.  She even submitted one of my original compositions to a state contest as the best from the school.  She is probably the one high school teacher I had who really showed me what an excellent teacher should be. Next to her, my next favorite teachers were 2nd/3rd and 4th.

 

Good teachers are hard to find, excellent teachers -- the kind that really inspire students to do greater things, are even more rare.  Not too long ago, I went back and tried to contact old teachers who had inspired me.  My 3rd/4th grade teacher, my 5th grade teacher and my 10th grade PE/health teacher had all died (one of cancer, one from complications from diabetes, and one from Sickle Cell).  I was sad I never got to tell them about the impact they each made on my life. 

[J-rap]

I went to elementary school in the 60's.  I don't think I can justifiably say if a subject was taught well at that age.  I only know the unique things  that I remember.  (for who knows what reasons!)

 

I remember a big focus on our state history -- California.  We did field trips to missions, etc., which were really fun and interesting.

 

And I remember the SRA reading program.  Does anyone remember that?  We were tested and assigned a color, and then we'd work through the colored cards every day on our own, which had reading assignments for whatever level (color) you were at.  But I have no idea if that was actually "taught well." 

 

And I don't remember any science at all, though we must have had some??

 

I remember choir mostly because our choir teacher's name was "Mrs. Puterbaul," (pronounced pewter-ball), and we always had to sing "We Are Marching to Pretoria."

 

 

[Hikin' Mama]

How in the world do you remember if you had a good education in elementary school? I'm 48 and couldn't tell you if it was good or not or even what we studied, other than state history. And at that age, I certainly wasn't evaluating the quality of my education. I just went to school; it's what I did. :) I can tell you that I liked all my teachers and my principal. He was awesome with the kids and visited classrooms often just to interact with students. I can also tell you that I was a good student with no learning disabilities and that school was positive for me.

[AmandaVT]

My elementary school was awesome - one of the big reasons I'm homeschooling is because no school around here can come close to how I was taught. Looking back, they leaned towards a classical type of education. We studied ancient Greece and Rome and had toga parties and changed our classroom into an ancient temple, complete with columns we made in art class. We learned latin, we diagrammed sentences, learned cursive, read read read read, learned the rules behind spelling, started french in 3rd grade, had science labs by 4th grade, had mandatory after school sports every day for an hour and a half, music and art were each twice a week. It was a nursery-8th grade school and by the time I got to 9th grade, I switched to a public high school and started out the year closer to 11th grade. That school wouldn't let me skip or put me in higher classes (except French), so I was bored through high school until about 11th grade. 

[73349]

I went to elementary schools in two different districts, and can't comment on phonics, since I could read before starting. I do feel that they did a good job with math and music.

 

The gifted program was just a half-day a week enrichment pull-out. I would've far preferred acceleration.

[JustEm]

In elementary school they taught all the classes well. It wasn't until about 7th grade that I felt I stopped learning in school. That was about the time it turned I to shove as much info down their throats as possible, test them, and then never mention learned things again. Even college was like that for 75 percent of the classes. It really destroyed my love of learning, which I am now slowly getting back.

[Luckymama]

Honestly, I don't remember that much from elementary. I attended different schools in different states K-5 during the early-mid 70s. I cannot separate learning at school from learning at home (my parents were academics--chemists).

[scoutingmom]

 

 

.

 

And I remember the SRA reading program. Does anyone remember that? We were tested and assigned a color, and then we'd work through the colored cards every day on our own, which had reading assignments for whatever level (color) you were at. But I have no idea if that was actually "taught well."

 

 

Yup! Well, I think I used them in grade 1.... but I used them with my kids last year!

 

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[Annie G]

 

And I remember the SRA reading program.  Does anyone remember that?  We were tested and assigned a color, and then we'd work through the colored cards every day on our own, which had reading assignments for whatever level (color) you were at.  But I have no idea if that was actually "taught well." 

 

 

 

I was in elementary school in the 60's too...we had SRA in first grade and I LOVED it.  Moved that summer and the school I went to in second grade was awful- those kids could barely read! And we had no SRA. At age 7 I wondered why they didn't use SRA because it worked.   We also had reading groups- we did SRA while the other kids were at reading groups.  My 1st grade report card shows both a phonics grade and a reading grade. 

 

My oldest went to a school using look-say reading instruction and it was awful. Between that and invented spelling, it was an awful experience. 

[momto10blessings]

Music, art, PE

[vonfirmath]

I don't remember a lot of details of elementary school.  Multiplication in 3rd grade. More multiplication and division in 4th. Some of the books we read in 4th grade (Island of the Blue Dolphins in particular). Different art techniques. The yearly carnival was a BIG hit. Getting to learn Latch Hook at the end of 4th grade and work on a regular project. If we learnt science, I remember NOTHING about it. But I know we read books and did projects. dioramas. Reports. Etc.

 

I know we did spelling. But I was a natural speller so it wasn't something I had to work at.

[Matryoshka]

And I remember the SRA reading program.  Does anyone remember that?  We were tested and assigned a color, and then we'd work through the colored cards every day on our own, which had reading assignments for whatever level (color) you were at.  But I have no idea if that was actually "taught well." 

 

I remember we did SRA in 4th grade.  I immediately tested to the 'top' level - I think it was silver.  I read short stories on the cards and answered whatever questions there were in short order.  Then they just let me read whatever I wanted (thankfully real books).

[Abeille]

Elementary school for me was in the mid-70s, in Canada. We moved around a lot, and back then your grade placement was decided via a battery of standardized administered at every new school I went to (and there were a lot, in several different provinces). Because of those moves, I skipped all but two weeks of 2nd grade (moved in last month of school as a first grader, promoted to 2nd grade after testing, then moved up to 3rd with my new classmates), and all of 4th grade. There would have been another grade skip, but my mom raised a stink so I actually did sixth grade. I wasn't in any school for a full year until seventh grade, but I remember doing sentence analysis and diagramming in that year. That English teacher gave me a very strong foundation in grammar and writing that helped me very much in later years.

 

Not elementary, but I went to a wealthy school for senior year and all of the classes were of a much higher calibre than I was used to. It was the first time I truly understood how schools could vary according to the economic class of the local neighborhood.

[luuknam]

I voted for Phonics, Math, and Cursive. I'm having a hard time deciding on whether I think they taught other subjects 'well'... seems more vague. And my elementary school closed in the middle of 5th grade (too few students), so I went to another one for a couple of months, and then to a third one for the rest of 5th and 6th grade.

 

I can say that they never taught printing at all - cursive right from the start of 1st grade, no writing of any kind before 1st grade - could not even write my name before 1st grade, though my last elementary school actually taught *printing* with movable type you needed to arrange in a grid, then ink, and then press on paper. Every week a kid from each class was selected to print a story they wrote on the printing press and another kid from each class to help, so I've dealt with the printing press a few times. I'm assuming that's not what was intended by "printing" in the list of subjects taught in school though.

 

My elementary schools did a pretty decent job with math compared to what I'm seeing in the US today.

 

And while Dutch phonics is fairly easy, the most valuable thing I ever got out of school was when they introduced phonics in 1st grade. Before then, I knew the alphabet song, but didn't know the letters made sounds, and when my mom tried to teach me to read the summer before 1st grade because I was begging her to do so, she used "whole word" methods (and we both got mighty frustrated), so the school teaching phonics was awesome. I'm not sure they did a 'good' job teaching it, but they didn't do a bad job (would be hard to do a bad job with Dutch phonics if you're teaching it at all). They taught it, and after the first few letters I got the concept and jumped a couple of years of reading levels in a couple of weeks, after which the rest of first grade phonics was mighty boring.