"What Kids Are Reading, In School And Out"

[wizwor]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Are smaller classes even necessary? I've often wondered if having two teachers in a single classroom would help. It would certainly help with ability groupings, as well as with the overall administrative headaches. It may also help to tackle this culture of, erm, independence (i.e. lack of collaboration) in the school as a whole since teachers are being forced to work with at least one colleague anyhow.

It would also help new teachers get into the field. I think that a lot of teachers teach as they were taught simply because they are given a year of training then thrust into a classroom to deal with things alone. Professional development is usually a day or two long, which doesn't leave time for things to sink in (especially when you're returning to the classroom the next day). On top of that, it helps if you have a set of lesson plans that you can modify with time. Doing everything at once is nuts. It also helps if you taught from those lesson plans before, because it takes time to learn a programme even if it is handed to you on a silver platter.

Anyhow, the problems with eduction seem to range from end to end: with parents on one end and governments on the other. (Yes, that includes teachers and students as well.) Having too many interests also seems to make the whole system too rigid. It's far to easy to stay with the status quo and tweak the status quo, even when everyone hates it, because noone will agree on how to make more significant changes.

This discussion is going to unexpected places. I think the whole teaching model is broken. I see people trying to adjust things from within and getting frustrated when they fail. A good example is the Mulligan Model not spreading like a virus across the US.

In my home, we have two children. One is very successful despite coming from a dysfunctional school system. The other is a Special Needs kid who benefits from the misplaced priorities that broke the rest of the school system. My youngest has benefited much more from the misplaced priorities than my oldest has suffered. So I immediately concede that it may not matter what we do to the schools.

We have also used something called VLACS (Virtual Learning Academy Charter School) which benefits from having discarded most of the constraints of traditional schools. Because they have no school calendar, they can implement a successful Competency Model.

I have also served as an apprentice. I think a lot of the watch-learn-do-teach approach to learning. I think teachers and students would benefit from some of this.

At some point, learning will be folded into living and working. We will learn and research and share online then meet up to do things that are hard to do at home.

[mike_bike_kite]

It would be helpful if we compiled a list of books that kids really enjoy and organise it by age. I don't mean classics that they should read but books a kid might get totally absorbed by. I'm always a little stuck when my younger son comes to me looking for something new to read. It might also be worth saying if it's more likely to appeal to one sex rather than the other. This might make a useful "sticky" or could be done as a reference page somewhere (or perhaps it's already done?).

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I cannot say whether smaller classes are necessary as I have no children. From what I gather from people who do and children that I know, classrooms are overcrowded. My own memory tells me that they were when I went to school, both as a child and an adult.

So smaller classes or much bigger classrooms? Or both? Bound to be expensive.

And the system has been going on for quite a while without being totally broken, so it would require massive intervention by a higher power to change it I think. Even if a few schools use different techniques that are much more successful, they will be sneered at by others as being elitist, or hard to implement etc. etc. , but in my mind the real reason is expense and the fact that the system as it is is ingrained in the minds and habits of thousands of educators and officials who either are unable or unwilling to change, and fear that massive changes will put them out of a job. I do not blame them as they have for the most part just been doing what they were told to do as the majority of us do in our jobs.

Helen

What is an overcrowded class ? Here we often have 30 kids in one class. Many parents complain that it is way too much, but it was always this much and it used to work pretty well.

What I see all the time though is epic failure from some parents, who are more often than not not involved at all in the education of their kids and are expecting it to be done completely through school, and I am not talking only of the curricular activities, but of everything else: manners, morals, ethics, discipline and so on. And the last those parents will do is encourage their kids to read.

Originally Posted by mike_bike_kite

It would be helpful if we compiled a list of books that kids really enjoy and organise it by age. I don't mean classics that they should read but books a kid might get totally absorbed by. I'm always a little stuck when my younger son comes to me looking for something new to read. It might also be worth saying if it's more likely to appeal to one sex rather than the other. This might make a useful "sticky" or could be done as a reference page somewhere (or perhaps it's already done?).

This is a very good idea !

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by aceflor

What is an overcrowded class ? Here we often have 30 kids in one class. Many parents complain that it is way too much, but it was always this much and it used to work pretty well.

What I see all the time though is epic failure from some parents, who are more often than not not involved at all in the education of their kids and are expecting it to be done completely through school, and I am not talking only of the curricular activities, but of everything else: manners, morals, ethics, discipline and so on. And the last those parents will do is encourage their kids to read.




!

When I went to school there were 30 to a class approximately. It was a lot different then as there was a stricter discipline maintained in elementary schools at least.

I went to one school though in 1967 (dating myself) where 2/3 teachers a year quit and there were at least two who were hospitalized, one for physical injuries, and one for a mental breakdown that was pretty well job related. And this is in Canada, small town, with 20 classrooms od about 30 students. Parents were no less lax in those days unfortunately. I think the percentages of parental discipline etc. may be slightly lower now due to more to income families, but it is far from a new problem and I think that the majority of parents were and are responsible parents. But like really bad teachers (and I had a couple) it is the bad ones who stand out and people tend to blame them all.

Helen

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

When I went to school there were 30 to a class approximately. It was a lot different then as there was a stricter discipline maintained in elementary schools at least.

I went to one school though in 1967 (dating myself) where 2/3 teachers a year quit and there were at least two who were hospitalized, one for physical injuries, and one for a mental breakdown that was pretty well job related. And this is in Canada, small town, with 20 classrooms od about 30 students. Parents were no less lax in those days unfortunately. I think the percentages of parental discipline etc. may be slightly lower now due to more to income families, but it is far from a new problem and I think that the majority of parents were and are responsible parents. But like really bad teachers (and I had a couple) it is the bad ones who stand out and people tend to blame them all.

Helen

I went to public school, and we were 30 per class, without much disciplinary problems. My kids go to private school, and there are a few disciplinary problems, but it is nothing compared to what is seen in public schools around here. And yet the police was in our school, as in every school in the district, to give a conference on the dangers of social networking and the increase of porn addiction in kids aged 13 to 15. And I don't believe that those problems are due to bad teachers, but to bad parenting. A tablet, a smartphone, a computer, those are not reliable babysitters, and yet they are so often used as such.
"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark..."

Here's one site that can help you choose books for kids:

http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/

(Note, it's probably publisher specific but there is a lot there.)

Knowing how to use your library's catalogue may help too. Some modern catalogues allow patrons to add their own data about books, including reviews and ratings.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

I've said before that if I didn't already enjoy reading going in, school would have destroyed the hobby for me.

The trick was to hide a paperback between the textbook covers and look studious in class while happily reading. I got a lot of reading done in math and history classes.

[mike_bike_kite]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Here's one site that can help you choose books for kids:

http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/

(Note, it's probably publisher specific but there is a lot there.)

Knowing how to use your library's catalogue may help too. Some modern catalogues allow patrons to add their own data about books, including reviews and ratings.

Thanks for the link but it isn't quite what I was after. I'd prefer to see books that kids actually want to read rather than books that seem to be prescribed for their age group. I'll admit I don't understand grade levels (I'm from the UK). What I'd really want to see is something like:

Age 13

• Harry Potter ****
• Hunger games *****
• Holes *****

Age 14

• The old man and the sea ****

Mike

[mike_bike_kite]

Originally Posted by aceflor

This is a very good idea !

I created a thread to list the actual books younger folk like by age here. I hope it doesn't interfere with this thread as my thread is more for reference purposes ie parents looking for books that might spark an interest in reading from their kids.

Mike

[shanghaichica]

I understand that there are developmental milestones for kids with regards to reading but reading should also be about enjoyment. I'd rather know kids were reading something even if it isn't the classics. Children should be encouraged to read. When I was younger I was bought the classics but I was also encouraged to read other books that I enjoyed.