What do you know about the common core standards? What scares you about them? How can you become more knowledgeable about them?
Response:
I like many of the other teachers in Oklahoma are learning on the fly when it comes to Common Core. From what I have learned from professional development inservices and workshops is that Common Core standards are a set of national standards that allow every student in the U.S. to learn the same set of skills that will help them to be successful at a second level. This could be college, vo-tech or on the job training. However, from reading some of Patsy's blog (the resident Guru on Common Core) I found out exactly how Common Core relates to Oklahoma. I remember hearing about most of these things over the past year, however, no one explained them with as much simplicity as Patsy.
From what I have learned, the Common Core Standards now only encompass English Langauge Arts, Literacy and Math. At our school we have been working (probably not enough) with english teachers for how to best incorporate non-fiction texts into a science, history and math classrooms. However, this is a hard process because it is hard to get a clear picture of what types of questions will be asked. It is nice to hear that the testing company now has resources online that show the types of questions that students will be assessed on.
One of the things that scares me the most is the rapid change. It seems that people higher up the ladder decided that we must change something in order to prepare our students in a better way and this is product. The whole program seems rushed. The standards are supposed to be in full implementation for the 2014-15 school year and we are just now getting sample questions. Most of the textbooks that we use for each subject were purchased before the shift to Common Core, so they offer little help to prepare students. This leaves teachers with only one alternative, make their own material and when it comes down to it many teachers would rather use pre-made materials instead of making up an entire curriculum for an entire year of teaching to Common Core Standards. This is probably why most of the training we have received has been on how to modify existing materials to meet CCS. It seems unreasonable to ask teachers to change much of their teaching style and content within less than 2 years. From experience I know that there are teachers out there that are very scared of the quick time table.
Another thing that scares is that they are now (January 2013) just getting around to publishing the first version of the "Next Generation Science Standards" (www.nextgenscience.org). These are still in the development process and it is not known yet of a date for implementation. However, once they do finish the standards it will be up to the states to adopt them as part of the CCS movement. My guess is the only way to be prepared for CCS is to do the best to become educated on the standards themselves and the way they will be assessed (PARCC).
Common Core is an interesting subject to me. I pretty much know nothing about it. I started teaching late so I guess I missed the seminars on it. I am a first year teacher so I haven't had to change what I teach, but I know some veteran teachers are not happy about it. The only reason I can understand as to why they don't like it is that they don't like change. One thing that worries me is it took me a few weeks before Christmas to get my text books and teaching materials (that sucked!) this year and so I wonder how long it will be before we actually get the CC teaching manuals and student workbooks.
ReplyDeleteI think the timeline is the big problem with Common Core, like you said everyone is trying to play catchup (textbook and testing companies) to the rate at which the standards are being implemented. I do think that veteran teachers are a little disgruntled at the thought of having to change, however they do have a case that not much information has been given to the schools of what exactly they want teachers to accomplish to prepare students. Hopefully this is something that will be provided soon.
DeleteI agree that it is scary that this new concept of the common core standards is rushed. I do not believe that it is necessarily "the cure" to ensure that all our students nationwide are prepared to move on to a higher level. I believe each school should have its own practice that works for them. I think we need to remain open about other ways we can educate our students, rather then just assume that the common core standards will solve everything in our education system.
ReplyDeleteI think that the states saw that what we had was obviously not working and we needed to do something. The CCS are the "something," however, like all new things in education, they were not thought out that well. I do believe that schools do need to be accountable for what their students are learning, however I agree that we need to remain open about collaborating with each other on the best ways to teach the necessary skills our students need.
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