Teachers College Reading and Writing Workshop by Lucy Calkins is nothing but a repackaging of the FAILED Whole Language Method. A great saleswoman, Lucy sold her junk curriculum to Diana Lam in NYC when Mayor Bloomberg came into office. As soon as this sale took place, EVERY school was PURGED of all other reading programs, whether good or bad, the administrators went into every room, took all the books and through them in the trash. Our dumpsters were filled with books (sad because kids elsewhere could have used them.) Then all teachers had to purchase baskets and a rocking chair and rug for their classrooms. All chalkboards were covered, teachers had to go to training where the "Stepford Teachers" from Lucy Calkins who got $5 Million for training, were sent to teach us how to train our kids to sit on the rug and get "Mini-Lessons" with a marker board. GONE were the days when our kids would sit and we could teach them HOW to write their letters, they just wrote, end of story, no matter how they formed those letters, no time for that, just little "Mini-lessons" about hum...."Predicting Outcomes", "Book Clubs", "Turn and Talk". Every classroom had to have a "Leveled Library" which is just a way to sort books by difficulty from A-Z - There were guidelines on this but most teachers just leveled their libraries at their own discretion's.
All this to teach reading, but the real wonder of this method is that you NEVER teach kids HOW to read, you just meet on the rug discuss books and send them back to their seats with books which they must read on their OWN... Where's the phonics? Where's the instruction that kids so desperately need? NONE.... What a bunch of baloney. You want to hold back kids? Slow down their brain functions? Have them not learn to read? Use this repackaging of WHOLE LANGUAGE and you got it.
Sadly almost every school district is using this method because it comes out of the "renowned" Columbia University Teachers College. Elite schools, private schools, elite neighborhoods where tax papers are paying HIGH taxes for good schooling have this JUNK curriculum in their schools. So what happens? I get mothers coming to me telling me that the schools are saying their kids are "Learning Disabled" because they're NOT reading.... Well of course they're not reading, no one ever taught them HOW to read...
Teaching kids how to read, write, and spell, IS difficult and with junk curriculum it's IMPOSSIBLE, so I tutor these kids with a Direct, Systematic, Explicit Reading Program which is Multi-Sensory called Sing, Spell, Read & Write. Within in 3 months most kids are able to read on grade level with proper instruction and when they're done with the program they are way above their grade level.
Lucy Calkins TC curriculum throws WAY too much at the kids and teachers, is not systematic, has NO phonics instruction built into it and just plain stinks. Many teachers in NYC protested this program, NO ONE listened, the UFT protested, NO ONE listened, and now, of course many schools are scrambling once again to find what works.
If your child is in school, you MUST learn what they are using to teach your kids to read, write and SPELL (Spelling is IMPORTANT!!!) The programs must be DIRECT, SYSTEMATIC, EXPLICIT and based on PHONICS. If you're thinking that some kids learn to read with sight words and some kids learn to read with phonics, you're confusing the VARIOUS learning modalities with proper instruction. There are some who rely on different senses and avenues to the brain to get the information in, such as auditory, visual, tactile, kinesthetic - BUT ALL of us MUST learn phonetically. Therefore programs that are MULTI-SENSORY are the best and quickest way to teach EVERY child - NO MATTER what and SONGS with wonderful music stimulate brain memorization and brain growth while adding in the memorization of key information.
Again there is NO ONE who can adequately learn with the WHOLE WORD method, there are some people who will intrinsically decipher and teach themselves if they are not taught, many people have to do that, but they will miss out on learning so much more if they're not taught properly.
It's not hard to teach every kid, we must remember to use good instruction with multi-sensory techniques.
BTW, Lucy Calkins made $5 million dollars on that contract with the NYC DOE and charges about $1500-2000 for her interns (Stepford Teachers) to come and train. That's BLOOD money Lucy! I'm telling you now, it's BLOOD money because kids in the HOOD where I teach lost out on years of proper instruction because of your stuff.
Parents please learn more about teaching reading on my you tube channel abcwritestartread - I will be putting up more YOUTUBE stuff talking about all this. Parents stay aware and watch out, WHOLE LANGUAGE is here and it's insidiously and incestuously married to your Curriculum Directors and Specialists in your School Districts.