Is 4th grade tough all over?

[Pin Wizard]

When I was a kid 4th grade was a breeze and 5th was tough. Now 4th is tough and I hear 5th is easier. Please tell me this is also true in other states and not just in FL. I have a friend who's a teacher in VA and says it's the same where she is. DS finished homework at 10:00 p.m. Bedtime is at 8:30! And it's not helping that they have moved 1/2 of DS's class to another section. As if the work isn't tough enough to get used to, they now have homework on weekends, and are changing classes and teachers for reading, they've also moved ALL his friends out of his class into the other section.

 

[supercarrie]

I remember 4th grade being more difficult than 5th grade, and that was just a few years ago (I will be in 11th now.) Although 5th might have been easier because I was placed into the new 4th/5th grade class, which was supposed to be the gifted class, but instead turned out to be, for me at least, just a review of my 4th grade year. It could also have been that way because I did not like my 4th grade teacher but loved my 5th grade teacher. Still, I did find 4th to be harder than 5th.

 

[meeshi]

DS is going into 6th grade. I think 3rd grade was TOUGH, 4th was a breeze and 5th wasn't too bad. He only had 2 teachers in 5th. Now this year he will be changing classes with different teachers.

What I have noticed is that a lot of it has to do with the teacher.

 

[shortbun]

Fourth grade is horrible in Ohio
because of profficiency tests. Hated
by students/parents and I suspect
teachers all. Full of stupid stress
all legislated by a bunch of "old white
men" who are clueless about what
school is really about.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

DDs school was not like that. In fact I don't think they gave enough homework in 4th & 5th grade.
This year is middle school, 6th. I'll bet she is in for a rude awakening.
{{hugs}} I am sure I will be going thru the same thing too here shortly...

 

[JasonLyons]

I allways thought homework wasnt fair, they got you 8 hr a day then trying to take away your free time with more work, i wouldnt do it

 

[Kallison]

Yes middle dS is in for a rude awakening. He breezed through 3rd with no homework. He still does not know the meaning of extra work.

 

[Sunny]

4th grade is very tough now due to the new grades that are required on the tests. This has just changed in the last year or so (NY anyway). I'm not sure why they picked out 4th grade to do this, but....... What's strange is my son has always had homework every single night in elementary school - from K to 6th grade. As soon as he got to Middle School - it stopped and he breezes thru the work and tests with all 'A's. So, I guess, it does get easier...... not sure why yet though......

 

[browneyes]

My dd is in 4th grade. My ds is in 1st grade. He has homework every night. My dd has yet to bring home any homework. She might have something to read or 1 math problem to do, but she does that in the gym while she's waiting for me to come get them from school. In 5 years of school, she has RARELY had homework. Which is bad, she loves homework. I was hoping this year she'd be challenged a little more in her school work.

 

[PandyPaws]

Fourth grade was pretty tough here, and I hear 5th is even tougher (we're about to find out). Many times DS was up late trying to complete homework assignments. It was the inconsistancies that drove me nuts....some nights he'd have just a list of spelling words to write 3X each....then other nights he'd have to do sentences for those words, a math paper, and work in a social studies book! Also, other teachers from the same grade hardly assigned homework at all
DS started changing classes/teachers for math in third grade.

 

[pat fan]

My DS was in 4th last year and it was VERY tough!He had a LOT more homework than his brother who was in 7th grade !!!!4th is when they have one of the MCAS tests so I think that has a lot to do with it here.Hopefully this year will be a little better.I know his teacher this year and she's very nice,last years was a bit of a drill instructor

 

[Amy]

My youngest DS was in 4th last year, and it was absolutely horrible! He had so much homework, research papers, even had to do a bibliography that had to be in the proper form or else! I typed it for him and put a comma inside quotation marks when the teacher thought it should have been OUTSIDE the quotation marks, and he lost a point for that! Not to mention all the projects that were actually PARENT projects, not just kid projects. Plus, DS absolutely hates school, so we had to fight with him all the time to do his homework. And he also had to be tutored in reading, so we really had a difficult year. He'll be starting 5th grade next week, so we'll see how this year goes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

A side note: my oldest DS did NOT have this amount of homework/projects when he was in 4th grade. He had a different teacher!!

 

[Pin Wizard]

Great information...thanks, guys!! DS's teacher is becoming a grandma for the first time. She was in class the first day of school and has been out of state since enjoying her grandchild. (Just our luck!) DS's class is now on their 2nd sub teacher. DS says they are actually doing less work in class with this sub than with the first. So I guess what they don't do in class, they get stuck with for homework. Poor kid...what a way to start the year! I hope today is better for him.

 

[Pin Wizard]

Originally posted by Amy
[BI typed it for him and put a comma inside quotation marks when the teacher thought it should have been OUTSIDE the quotation marks, and he lost a point for that! [/B]

It goes inside. I remember that from 2 years of business school. I had a recent experience in Speech. We had to do an analysis of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. In business school we learned that 10 and above are written as numerals. Nine and lower are written as words. Well, when I got to the part about "one hundred years," I put 100. And I did it again later in the paper. She took off 2 points giving me 98! So from now on even if something is incorrect, I'll be putting it down the excact way I see it.

 

[Pin Wizard]

Here in FL they have the FCAT standardized testing. I believe they start them in third grade. I remember DS coming home with results last year. Last year I remember one of the radio stations here had contacted several state reps, board of ed, etc. here asking if they would participate in taking the FCAT for them. Some actually did do it! And the station reported that they hadn't done so well!

 

[CookieGVB]

ACK! School starts in another 2 weeks. Younger DS is going into 4th grade - I don't remember the older one having a rough year...

 

[Pin Wizard]

Originally posted by CookieGVB
ACK! School starts in another 2 weeks. Younger DS is going into 4th grade - I don't remember the older one having a rough year...

I see you're in NJ. When I was in 4th years ago, I lived in NJ. It was a breeze.

 

[nsyncraider17]

I moved from Virginia to Ohio in the middle of 4th grade, so the only difficulty I had was that my class in Ohio had been learning about Ohio history all year. I knew all about Virginia history, but nothing about Ohio. There were also proficiency tests at the end of the year, but I had very little trouble preparing for them. In fact, my school in VA was ahead of my school in OH. I had already learned how to do long division when I moved, and when I started school here, my class was still doing multiplication.

 

[TFMont]

My dd is in 4th grade this year but just started this week. She hasn't come home with any homework yet but my second grader has, just a little though. Fourth grade is the first year they change classes and have different teachers for different subjects. DD is really excited about this and three of the teachers seem great and one I'm not sure about yet.

Rumor has it that 5th grade is the hardest grade at this school due to amount of work and teachers so I think I'll try and enjoy this year.