Wonders Reading

[nicolewi]

Just curious… does anyone else use “Wonders” reading curriculum in elementary school? Our district weirdly didn’t have a curriculum for a few years. They piloted a couple curricula last year, including Wonders,, and then decided to go with wonders. My daughter was part of the pilot group for Wonders last year and hated it. She is complaining about it almost daily this year and says it’s super boring and all they do is sit there listening to the teacher talk and they do the same things over and over and it takes forever. They seem to do a lot less actual reading but a lot more text analysis.

Just wondering if anyone else is familiar with this program and what you think of it. I haven’t researched it much, but I’m feeling annoyed that they finally chose something and now my kid absolutely hates it, and according to her, the other kids look, super bored as well.

FWIW she is in fourth grade and a top reader.

[lessel]

I'm not familiar with it. I read the brochure and it seems pretty solidly based on the science of reading concepts. info.mheducation.com/rs/128-SJW-347/images/Wonders2023-Brochure.pdf I could see a kid who is already a strong reader maybe experiencing some frustration. Those curriculums tend to necessarily be more structured and might have more repetition on the phonics/phonemic awareness stuff... which has been really lacking from a lot of reading curriculums that are widely used across the country in recent years. That said, it does seem like there's room in the curriculum to differentiate for kids who need more challenging activities. Maybe that's just not happening since it's new and teachers are probably still learning to implement themselves?

My heart goes out to you though... my son has dyslexia and went through a school trying to change it's curriculum to one that's more based on science of reading and it was... a hot mess. Ultimately good for the district and the kids in the long run, but you hate to see your own kid struggle.

[waverly]

nicolewi, I would ask the teacher or school if they have any differentiated reading for her. We had a differentiation specialist, so she would pull different groups every 4-6 weeks, so I think my daughter ended up with her at least 3 times during the school year to work on more advanced curriculum.

[beerlover]

We use this program in my son's district. My H is the curriculum director, so he should know something about it, I would think, lol. Feel free to PM me with any questions and I can try to ask him!

[suzubell]

It isn’t great. Your daughter’s analysis is accurate, unfortunately. Many schools are adopting it, but honestly, I believe because it comes from a major publisher. It isn’t great.

[macmars45]

My school just stopped using Wonders for the K-1st graders. The whole school adopted a new reading curriculum. There's a huge technology component to the new curriculum and lots of teachers aren't thrilled because technology bugs out mid lesson or doesn't work and then they're scrambling to do something similar on the fly. Also, kids need less screens not more especially at the k-5th level.