Mrs. K

Today in class I said “In the words of A Tribe Called Quest… can I kick it”
And without missing a literal beat a student echoed back “YES YOU CAN” and now it’s our class anthem and his parents are my favorite

The end.

I have some significant behavior needs in my class this year and it was suggested that I try a Kindness challenge so anyway…. Instead I naturally spent my weekend writing an SEL curriculum 😏

But I did incorporate that idea as an end activity so 🥰

In many places Lucy Calkins or Fountas and Pinnel was replaced by “bloated basals”
So “vibes based reading instruction” has been replaced by “read this same short passages each day for 5 days and do 5 million worksheets on it + the spelling pattern qu which, as a 4th grader you mastered in K but…”

Striking to me that the state mandates to counter the damage done by one curriculum have done absolutely nothing other than replace the bad w arguably worse

We should be addressing the root of the problems which all circle back to
-Attracting and retaining talent
-small class sizes
-true HQIM

I mean… I can’t imagine less engaging 😬 (ok- some- a few- of the stories into reading picked are great and if they had included the entire books instead of the out of context passages from books that’d be rad too… but on the whole it’s awful and I’m so sorry something exists that is worse!)

The over focus on *just* Lucy as we move away from “balanced literacy” will be the downfall of reading instruction over the next decade. While methods given focus in her program where indeed bad practice there are equally damaging (but in the opposite direction) programs dominating the market now

Interesting. I don’t know SAAVAS well but understand it has similar complaints to into reading - especially with the disengagement piece

Agree iready is such a unreliable data point in many ways but… will say if you understand its limitations, the fact that kids suddenly aren’t showing as much growth as they used to is a red flag we should be paying attention to- especially when looking at the bigger picture and other red flags

Teachers in year two of Into Reading are expressing concerns over seeing the lowest iReady growth scores they have ever seen

It’s almost as if all of the teachers expressing concerns over bloated basals were right all along 😬💔

lol it feels that way. I had my suspicions and the November hit and I’m like… no possible way any of this is real life lol

My 4 yr old son just now: Mom I’m sick!
Me: You’re sick?
Son: Yes!! I’m sick of going to school!!
😅🫠

Just everything in the news cycle is so bizarre it all reads like a comic book lol

How is any of the last four years real life but especially how is the last couple weeks real life, you know?

Anyone else feel like they are living in a dystopian Marvel movie or…?

Parents Sue Lucy Calkins, Fountas and Pinnell, and Others Over Reading Curricula A first-of-its-kind lawsuit targets creators of whole-language reading curricula.

Who are these lawyers and are they down for future lawsuits involving other false advertising curriculum programs and companies 👀

www.edweek.org/teaching-lea...

The social app algorithms have my sense of humor down, I’m rather impressed.

I often come across suggestions that teachers need to be experts in children's literature and, crucially, that significant amounts of professional development time should be devoted to achieving this aim.

Let's explore this idea a little because I think aspects of it are problematic. 🧵🪡