Teachers College, Lucy Calkins

Teachers who have used or are using thing,please tell me what you think about it. My new pincipal is trying to push it on us and it doesn'y look good at all for my kids.

Re: Teachers College, Lucy Calkins

It's horrible, imo, for elementary ages!

Re: Teachers College, Lucy Calkins

All I know is, if reading and writing would have been taught this way when I was in elementary school, maybe I would have actually ENJOYED it!

My fifth-graders are phenomenal writers. They spend an hour of their day actually READING, and immersing themselves in great literature. Isn't that so much better than, "Everyone read this book, it doesn't matter how boring you might think it is, and then answer questions 1-4"?

It's a h e l l of a lot of work on the teacher's part, but IMO, the payoff is huge.

LOVE it!

Re: Teachers College, Lucy Calkins

i like it on the upper elementary/middle school levels. it's too abstract in my opinion for the younger grades. the younger kids need EXPLICIT instruction in phonics and spelling. Lucy Calkins' approach is too whole language based IMO. some kids don't get it if it's not explicitly taught. ask any upper lementary middle schoo lteacher who has kids that went through this program when they were younger...they're still using invented spelling.

i also feel it can be biased towards non-English speaking families and students... who arent' always coming from language rich and book-based enviornments...they end up having limited things to talk or write about...

Re: Teachers College, Lucy Calkins

Re: Teachers College, Lucy Calkins

I don't think it is good for special needs children or struggling children either!

Re: Teachers College, Lucy Calkins

It depends. Some love it, some hate it. I teach special ed, so I don't love it because it's not appropriate for where my kids are.

Re: Teachers College, Lucy Calkins

I put "other" because some parts I love, other parts I hate. I have found some good ideas & some I would never use with my first graders. I used some ideas from her Poetry Unit of Study last year & it worked great. Honestly, I feel it's like every other program out there. Teachers need to pull from it what works for them & leave the rest.

Re: Teachers College, Lucy Calkins

Re: Teachers College, Lucy Calkins

I agree with those who say it is NOT for younger grade elementary school or for kids with special needs..there is NO phonics component and not every child is going to get it if you don't tell them where it is...I do like the compact method of teaching, but, again, if you're strict (and this is true of any program), it's hard to do what you need for your class...if your kids are gifted and have skills already in place, I can see it being enjoyable..as a side note, I wish I'd known to meld together all of the reading ideas out there so I could be sitting and drinking margaritas somewhere from the money Ms. Calkins made..haha...

Re: Teachers College, Lucy Calkins

Thanks to all who replied. I teach very low level fourth graders (not sp. ed but most should be) /From what most of you have said, I have a feeling if we start using this program its going to be a disaster

Re: Teachers College, Lucy Calkins

I agree with whoever said it wasn't great for struggling kids and/or ELLs. I teach middle school, and I also don't think it's realistic for classes with 30 or more kids (esp. when many of them are struggling readers/writers.)

Re: Teachers College, Lucy Calkins

as a program by itself, i don't like it

it needs to be supplemented with phonics, grammar, sentence structure, etc.

it's a ton of work for the teacher

Re: Teachers College, Lucy Calkins

Re: Teachers College, Lucy Calkins

i teach kindergarten. as pp have said i think they need explicit instructions at this point and most need a guide in topics. the inventive spelling does not help in the long run either. jmo

Re: Teachers College, Lucy Calkins

I think there are some very useful elements that, when combined with teacher judgement as well as other variations, can halp student progress in reading and writing, specifically.

Re: Teachers College, Lucy Calkins

just like any program it has its good point and bad points.

i dont like the fact that they were so strict about how to use their program-
it was like programmed lucy robots would come in and demonstarte these lessons!!!.Thank god my district let Columbia go...... It was too restrictive in my opinion