My friend and I are dismayed by the lack of rigor in our second-graders' curriculum and are planning to go to the school board meeting on Feb 26th to complain about it. I showed my daughter's 2nd MP portfolio to friends with first graders, and they felt it was very similar to what their first graders were doing, so my friend and I decided to gather some ammunition.
This is not particularly a gifted kid question. We don't have a gifted program (although I've been promised one by the new principal. He claims that differentiation is happening in the classroom to fulfill the letter of the law in NJ for providing gifted services, but it's not.) However, this question is actually just about what a regular, somewhat rigorous, 2nd grade curriculum should look like.
This is where I need help:
Part 1: Can you tell me about your child's curriculum and what kind of work is done?
- What grade is it?
- What region of the United States are you in? (For argument's sake, I think US responses would be most helpful)
- What kind completed work comes home?
- What is your sense of the curriculum--what your child does all day--in terms of math, lang. arts, science, social studies, etc.?
- How much of the work seems to be worksheets?
- Are there differentiated reading or math groups for kids working at different levels?
- What kind of writing are they doing? (For what subjects? Sentences? Paragraphs? Fill in the blanks? Sentence starters, where the teacher provides the first part of the sentence? Essays? Reports? Creative writing?)
Part 2: Can you provide me with some samples? If you have samples you'd be willing to share, PM me, and we can figure out how you can take a picture and email them to me. I would remove your child's name, but would share your region or district.
Thank you so much for helping out!
