A deadly shooting in Minneapolis at the hands of a federal immigration officer comes weeks after a bombshell report on President Donald Trump's desperate drive to rush 10,000 deportation officers onto the payroll by the end of 2025.The explosive Daily Mail report found that the administration's $50,...
That’s nuts.
My kids school promises literacy by 4th grade and hasn’t mentioned it since. They’re in 8th grade now. It’s brutal, I’ve been working on thier reading level but it’s hard when the school isn’t making it a priority.
I strongly recommend the podcast Sold a Story about the way reading has been taught in the US. It may help you, believe it or not. It’s also just fascinating. You can find it wherever podcasts are on offer.
I appreciate the suggestion, but I hate podcasts. I just don’t connect with them, they’re background noise I don’t process.
I’m consuming media I would prefer it to be a solo activity, whether that’s reading or watching a video. Audio only content is in some nether place where I comprehend nothing.
From a quick skim of the transcript of the first episode, the correct method is phonics. Which thankfully the school and I both teach, they just stop promising to improve the reading level after fourth grade.
I believe they stop working on literacy early on. I taught 10th-grade English in two US states, and over five years of teaching, I maybe had four students reading at grade level. Yet a majority of my students went on to college. How does that work?
The problem is you weren’t allowed to fail them for not reading at 10th grade level.
That should be the bar to pass.
Edit: and that should have been the bar the whole way up. Your job should have been to get them from 9 to 10. Give them lower grades from other things, but not reading level.
I absolutely agree with you. Unfortunately, when the system incentivizes keeping bodies in seats for funding, it creates an environment that is not conducive to learning. Admin forced teachers to adjust grades on numerous occasions. And I suspect standardized tests are manipulated before they are sent in. But that can only last for so long, those tests will eventually be computerized.
I don’t think people understand the impact that an entire generation (or generations at this point) lacking a general education and being functionally illiterate is going to have on society.
Colleges will admit anyone, and pass them too, because it’s a business…
I don’t like listening to podcasts but they provide the full transcript, which was a good read.