OK! After spending the better part of the evening trying to figure out how to get on here and write a post, here I am! Needless to say this is my first blogging experience, so let's hope this goes through!
The area that had the biggest impact on me as I was reading was the section about "Literacy as the Spine." I think that a solid literacy foundation is the single most important aspect of a person's education. This foundation is essential for all other learning through out school as well as life. As a first grade teacher I feel a tremendous amount of pressure to make sure that students have a solid foundation before moving on to ensure that they get the most out of their education.
I also liked that the chapter talked about these skills as being important for everyone, to prepare them, not just for college, but careers and citizenship as well. Citizenship isn't a word that we use often, but I like that he used it, because we really are preparing students for the world, not just college.
I agree with Schmoker that we need to simplify the curriculum and really focus on teaching less, well, but I'm unsure of how, as teachers, that we are supposed to do that. I know that he says we need to cut the standards down to about 50%, but as a district, we are assigned curriculum that we are expected to teach with fidelity. I don't think we have the freedom to cut anything out.
I also agree with Schmoker about the essential need to simplify the curriculum and focus our teaching. I've worked with districts on developing "power standards" or "focus standards" in an attempt to focus instruction. While all standards are included, there is a more emphasis and teaching time placed on a smaller set of standards. Reeves, Schmoker, Ainsworth and many other researchers encourage this. However, I'm not sure how this plays out with the new common standards.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all Jessica I know what you mean on the tech piece for the blog---I feel horrible but I still can't figure out how to do my own blog post and have tried multiple times and asked for help and am still not seeing the button to let me post.
ReplyDeleteOn the book, I totally feel your struggle in being in the "developing" or "beginning" stages of Common Core and this new focus but only having resources and curriculum that goes with the previous standards. At my school we are posting objectives each day that align with the Common Core but it is hard for certain subjects, especially Social Studies and Science, because the books we have don't reflect the new standards at all. I do however like how there are fewer standards and I feel like I can go more in depth with material and I know the standards better already. I think we are getting there on preparing our students for citizenship but it isn't all going to happen at once, like we want it to! :) It does take getting used to and for me making changes in the way I teach things and getting push-back from students who aren't used to using the textbook yet. In the end though I know it will be worth the effort and growing pains of right now.
The conversation needs to happen at the building and district level. Do we believe that there are standards that will come more easily if we have focused on a few others more early on? If so, then let's advocate for that and try a pilot and see what happens!
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