[eMINTS] Com Arts Programs

[Patrick Myers]

Our school is doing the Treasures Program from McGraw-Hill.  
My first impression of this program was that it was great and that it would
fill in all those gaps that our district seemed to have with the GLE's.  
After teaching with it, (our district is making all of us do it, all the
time), I have come to the conclusion that it is just another basal that is
full of stuff.

In fact, it has so much stuff, that it took about a quarter for most teachers
in our building to get used to how it was set up.  It also takes a lot of
time to implement, so plan on almost two and a half hours a day for
communication arts.  

This series has a lot of workbooks! (YUK!)
Reading has three different levels of workbooks: the approaching, on-level,
and the beyond.
There is a grammar workbook and also a Spelling workbook.  You will need all
this stuff to implement the program.

Assessment:  Our school has common assessments weekly. Treasures does supply
these. These look just like the MAP test stuff.  We have two people in our
district that oversee all the testing and assessments.  Teachers are
responsible for all their own testing.  It seems like all we do is test!


Bottom line: it stifles the constructivist/eMINTS philosophy, but any basal
will, right?

Patrick Myers
5th Grade
DeSoto School District #73
Myers.Pat at desoto.k12.mo.us


-----Original Message-----
From: emints-bounces at lists.emints.org
[mailto:emints-bounces at lists.emints.org] On Behalf Of Jonel Hammons
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 7:43 AM
To: emints at lists.emints.org
Subject: [eMINTS] Com Arts Programs

My school is looking at adopting a new communication arts program for
grades 1-6 as well as an assessment program. We are meeting with all the
company reps, but I would like to hear the cheers and jeers from those
who are using the programs.
I am interested in finding the  good points and week spots of such
programs as Macmillian/McGraw-Hill Treasures Series, Houghton Mifflin,
Wright Group,  and Scott Foresman.
  What is your school using to assess reading both from the grade level
standpoint and the skills assessment/intervention standpoint. We have
looked at both Dibbles and AIMSweb.  How is the assessment/intervention
being accomplished - classroom teacher only, assessment team, building
wide? I think information from those using it is more helpful than from
the ones trying to sell it.
Thanks for your help.


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