Talk to me about academic expectations/assessments early in the year for 2nd grade in public school - Page 2

[meemee]

you know i worried about dd when she was into CU and JBJ. ugh!!!!

but i never discouraged her. neither did i encourage her.

i think its a phase they go thru. they were both fun and hilarious reads for dd. there was another good silly series that even i enjoyed.

and then she was done. i think in the evolution of a reader they DO become aware of content and language.

what is so so funny to me is dd using in everyday speech something she obviously had read and it sounds so out of place. sometimes she IS putting on a show, but really at other times she has no clue she is using phrases from her book, yet fully using them in the correct sense. 

dd was a reluctant reader and i have to express my gratitude for Diary of a Wimpy Kid to turn her into a reading fiend. 

[rabrog]

If you're still getting this stuff after the first month (or better yet, take a look at the book or workbook they're doing in class), push to have her tested and moved up to where she needs to be.  Do not let them stagnate your child because it's easier for them.  I'm seeing it in our magnet school, too, and so far DD has had awesome teachers but I'm not too fond of the one this year.  I'm preparing to go in and get this straightened out.  Your child's education is the first priority and you're the only one who will make sure she is being challenged and learning.

Jenn

[savithny]

What is the cutoff where you live?

In my state, the cutoff is December, and the state curriculum reflects this, and there's very little holding back.   My guess is that in our district, your DD would be starting 3rd grade with a November birthday.   Do you have a December cutoff, such that she coudl have gone a year earlier, or a September cutoff, such that she's just the oldest but would not have started earlier?

I know that private and public schools sometimes have different attitudes towards redshirting; in my DS's K class, the entire class was born in the same calendar year -- there were no kids who could have gone the previous year but didn't.

That said, my DD is starting 3rd grade (just starting -- we've had 3 days of school so far).  She's bringing home simple one-digit addition/subtraction worksheets.   They use the Everyday Math (Chicago Math) curriculum, and that had them doing some multi-digit addition and subtraction by the end of 2nd grade, but no formal multiplication yet.   

You can almost certainly go to your state's Department of Education and get the state curriculum guidelines for skills/topics for each subject online.   That's where I learned that the people I met on another board who were going on and on about how "Kindergarten is the new First Grade" and "Kids should be doing three-digit addition in 1st grade," were not accurately representing their state's curricula.   

[beanma]

Hey y'all, 

Thanks for all the responses.

Savithny, the cutoff in our state is Aug 1st, so she's not really that close to it with her b-day being at the end of Nov. She is usually one of the older kids in the class, but there's often somebody with an Aug, Sept, or Oct b-day. 

The open house was pretty informative. They are doing a lot of "benchmarking" right now. The teacher said that they will be doing more grouped instruction after they've finished the benchmarking. They're using Envisions math. I'm not sure if they will be doing differentiation in math or not, but I hope so. They're getting their homework straight out of the Envisions workbook. It is super easy right now, but hopefully will challenge dd2 later on. If it stays this easy I will ask if I can see it. I really just feel like this stuff is too easy for the typical 2nd grader. I think dd2 is pretty appropriately in 2nd grade and is bright, but I don't know that she needs to work ahead so much as the whole class needs to be doing harder things than 4 + 0 = 4. 

I didn't hear about what curriculum they use in math in 5th grade, so I don't know if Envisions is still in use then or not. So far dd1's math seems to be right about on par with her needs. 

Dd2 is moving up in her reading level. (She was a K and is now an M — she says 5th grade is a Z, not so sure about all that). She was very annoyed when she was having to bring home "Frog and Toad" and "Nate the Great", but now she gets to bring that darn-tootin' "Junie B Jones" home so at least she's happy!

[Mom2M]

Originally Posted by beanma 

pianojazzgirl, I can recommend instead of Junie B, but also series and also about girls and also funny, the following: Ivy & Bean, Clementine, Just Grace, and Judy Moody. (Although I don't find Judy Moody quite as entertaining for me as the others, it's still definitely a step up from Junie B.) 

hth!!

Thanks for these recommendations! Junie B. Jones kills me, ugh.

[beanma]

Yeah, Junie B is not my cup of tea, but I guess there's something to be said for getting them reading...

So, it seems like the work is starting to get a little more challenging for dd2, which is good. She's asked for help a couple of times recently with her homework although she understood right away when I explained it. I think the Envisions math curriculum starts with the basics and works on getting those 1-20 math facts down pretty solidly, so that's why they spent one day covering adding 0. Now they're working on equivalencies like 9+7=10+6. It's a different related concept every day and they move along pretty quickly so I think it's going to be okay. 

She's also found a couple of other chapter books to read besides Junie B, so I think things are going to be on a pretty good level for her and she will be challenged a bit. 

I miss the interaction I had at her previous school (small private hippie school), but on the other hand I have to admit I do appreciate that level of interaction not being required. I didn't volunteer to be the room parent .

[Emmeline II]

Originally Posted by beanma 

So, it seems like the work is starting to get a little more challenging for dd2, which is good. She's asked for help a couple of times recently with her homework although she understood right away when I explained it. I think the Envisions math curriculum starts with the basics and works on getting those 1-20 math facts down pretty solidly, so that's why they spent one day covering adding 0. Now they're working on equivalencies like 9+7=10+6. It's a different related concept every day and they move along pretty quickly so I think it's going to be okay.

I don't know what our specific math curriculum is, but this week ds came home with an incentive program that started with adding 0+#, #+0, 1+#, #+1, then at the end of the week they do a timed quiz where "mastery" is getting 20 of 24 right in 1min--when I was in school we didn't do this type of thing until 6th grade (for multiplication). I'm not worried about his ability to a "0" and "1" to other numbers but I appreciate that they are trying to get these to be second nature...I haven't seen ds get out his "math buttons" yet (that he has been using since K). I was not a good student in elementary, particularly in math and I could have benefited from this kind of repetition (though I realize this isn't the case for your dd). By the time the material gets more challenging ds will already be in the habit of reviewing this way and hopefully won't be slowed down by having to do simple things slowly.

Ds' school is a STEM school that more or less keeps students on the same track until 3rd grade (for the gifted program) and 4th grade where they start differentiating for math and science; though there are competitions within and outside the school and specialty clubs (math, robotic, art, etc.) that are open to anyone, and things like the language arts fair and science fair where children can branch out a bit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by beanma She's also found a couple of other chapter books to read besides Junie B, so I think things are going to be on a pretty good level for her and she will be challenged a bit. 

I miss the interaction I had at her previous school (small private hippie school), but on the other hand I have to admit I do appreciate that level of interaction not being required. I didn't volunteer to be the room parent .

I may have mentioned this above, but I have ds read chapter books that challenge him a little bit for homework reading and he can read whatever he likes otherwise, though his teacher probably emphasizes AR books at school during DEAR time (Captain Underpants books are AR so no worries for ds ). 

I've been going back and forth on the room parent thing--I plan on volunteering for most of the "one day" events, such as "Grandparents' Day," the fall festival, and field trips, but I don't think I want to be in the classroom a lot...for ds I think it might be disruptive (he has behavior issues and disruptions like me could throw him off), and dd would likely keep coming over and giving me hugs and kisses (nice but disruptive to the class)...also, the school is 15min away, not down the street like the regular public school. Though, the "room parent" request talked about help with planning various things--if they need someone to make phone calls to arrange field trips and such I could probably do that.
 

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by Emmeline II 

then at the end of the week they do a timed quiz where "mastery" is getting 20 of 24 right in 1min--when I was in school we didn't do this type of thing until 6th grade (for multiplication). 

Really? I went to primary school in the early 1970's and 3-minute multiplication fact drill started in 3rd grade with mastery expected by early 4th grade. I thought that was a pretty standard thing. These days multiplication is often introduced a bit earlier, but rote mastery has long been expected by 4th grade at the latest in most places.

Miranda

[AllisonR]

Originally Posted by moominmamma 

Really? I went to primary school in the early 1970's and 3-minute multiplication fact drill started in 3rd grade with mastery expected by early 4th grade. I thought that was a pretty standard thing. These days multiplication is often introduced a bit earlier, but rote mastery has long been expected by 4th grade at the latest in most places.

Miranda

Me too. Multiplication tables in 3rd - I was grounded the entire year for consistently failing them. I still don't know them and I am 44. Too bad, as I would have been very good a higher math, but because I was not good a memorization at age 8, I was turned off to math for decades. A shame. I am sorry to hear they still have these drills. 

[melissa17s]

Originally Posted by AllisonR 

Me too. Multiplication tables in 3rd - I was grounded the entire year for consistently failing them. I still don't know them and I am 44. Too bad, as I would have been very good a higher math, but because I was not good a memorization at age 8, I was turned off to math for decades. A shame. I am sorry to hear they still have these drills. 

I also got turned off to math, but it happened at the high school level and not elementary.  My dc's school has been moving away from much of the weekly timed testing and only doing it for required assessments.  Currently, 2nd grade dd is learning about money, and the kids are preparing to have a farmer's market selling produce from their garden.  Ds started multiplication around 3rd.  Knowing the math program the school uses, I went to the website and can get an idea of goals and expectations http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/about/program_goals/  

[Emmeline II]

Originally Posted by moominmamma 

Really? I went to primary school in the early 1970's and 3-minute multiplication fact drill started in 3rd grade with mastery expected by early 4th grade. I thought that was a pretty standard thing. These days multiplication is often introduced a bit earlier, but rote mastery has long been expected by 4th grade at the latest in most places.

Miranda

Oh, we were expected to know them, but there wasn't much work on the tables in class. My 6th grade teacher was the only one to do "multiplication races" and I think it was for bonus points and it didn't count against us--which is how it is for ds.

[Polliwog]

We're in the same district and I love the Lake Woebegone reference. I've never thought of it that way, but it's kind of true. LOL. DS did two years of kindergarten and in now in first grade. This is his first year using enVision. I really like it. Some of it is presented differently that I learned it but it's much closer to how I learned to teach math when I was in college. Do they have a SMART Board in her classroom? Some of the math stuff they do on there is pretty neat.

Our whole school does both group and differentiation. Every morning, music starts playing around 8:00 and you see children filing out of their rooms, heading to other classrooms (some stay, of course.) They do math (and sometimes other stuff,) then return to their classrooms. Club R. is a highlight of DS's day.. I would be very surprised if there wasn't reading and math differentiation at your school.


BTW, I had thought about trying to get my younger DD in the dual language Spanish program but it wouldn't be a good fit for DS. I doubt that I would want the kids to be in two different schools. And I'm sad to see that your other school folded. I hadn't heard.