Tag Archives: Common Core Standards

Before Work

A quick post before getting ready for work this morning: I had my pre-observation conference yesterday…my chance to show my evaluator (aka my principal) that I know how to write a lesson plan, that I use data to back up my choice of assessments and activities (I won’t bore you with any more details). The point is this: I worked at least 10 hours on this document and on the lesson that will be observed tomorrow. Hence, I got little sleep over the weekend and nearly fell asleep during 6th period yesterday. I said nearly.

I hit the sack as soon as I got home about 5 PM and gratefully fell asleep. However, my body woke up at 1 AM. I attempted sleep for 2 hours, gave it up at 3 AM, did some work, read some blogs, and read To Kill a Mockingbird because some of my students are reading it.

Now, my body is crying to return to bed and sleep. Alas, I have to take it to work (a 30 minute drive) and force it to be “on” for my students. I’m getting too old for this job.

By the way, for the class to be observed, I’m employing the skills I’ve learned while blogging. I set up a blog, We Read, Think, and Write, for my students to respond to their chosen novels and they will participate in that activity tomorrow (some have already posted their thoughts about the books). In addition, they will use my school website for their in-class and homework assignment.  Ms. Howard’s Freshman Honors English. I hope it works.

Thoughts about “The next generation”

As an educator, I think that I’ve been looking at this from the wrong side of the lens. For years, I have been soap-boxing that we need to find out what business and college need our students to know and to teach it.

However, after posting and reading the comments here and on my Facebook page, I think we need to also look at the children. What do they already know? What, then, do they need from us to help them go forward?

My state and district have adopted the Common Core Standards which were developed to provide equity for our nation’s students and to prepare them for college and the workforce. http://www.corestandards.org/

There is one standard specifically related to the skill of using technology, and it’s under Writing: Production and Distribution of Writing progressing through each grade level, i.e., W.1.6 = Writing Grade 1; W.11-12.6 = Writing Grades 11-12. 

The standard is worded in general terms and teachers can create assessments and activities that specifically meet the needs of the kids, but will they? I do not think so, for a number of reasons, primarily because of assessments.

Teachers are hyper-focused on the skills that are tested on the high stakes assessments because their own evaluations and sometimes pay are linked to increasing students’  test scores, in the name of accountability. There is little time to play with the creative activities that spark enthusiasm and curiosity because they “aren’t on the test.”

This results in tedious lessons that redundantly cover the same skills presented five years before. The students react in boredom and misbehavior, and their skills regress rather than progress.

I wonder if our students might be more successful if we look at where they are now and show them how to move to the next step. While keeping our eyes on the standards, I think we should also look at the student herself.

Of course, that might necessitate a smaller teacher to student ratio, rather than the typical 150 students – 1 teacher. But that is a topic for another day.