FeedIt’s Time to Address Common Core State Standards
September 17, 2012 in Book Club Possibility, Common Core Standards, Elementary Educators, High School Teachers, Middle Grade Novel, Middle School Teachers, Preschool to 1st grade teachers, Reading Skills, White, E.B., Writing Skills Tags: Charlotte's Web, Common Core Standards, E. B. White, English language arts, Reading fluency
By DeusXFlorida flickr.com
I am not going to just reiterate what it says on the Common Core State Standards website because it is a great resource, and I’m sure that your school district or home school group has already provided you with a lot of information, too. Here’s the website link if you haven’t checked it out recently: Common Core State Standards website. The standards are listed on this website, along with “Myths and Facts”–which is an interesting discussion of the standards.
While also giving my opinion of this, I wanted to highlight a couple points. This is all in the English/Language Arts section–I am not addressing mathematics here. I think the standards are a terrific idea–maybe not all the pressure that teachers are feeling and the, of course, dreaded assessment that is going to come with it–but I do feel in this country we’ve needed a common set of standards at each grade level BECAUSE children move, and they move across the country or to another state or even another district ALL THE TIME in the middle of the school year. When I taught 5th grade in Francis Howell School District back in 2000 to 2002, it was common to have four or five new students throughout the school year as well as lose students. In this economy, it is even more common as parents have to find new employment. If school districts are following the Common Core State Standards, then students should have fewer gaps in their education as they move from district to district. Also, teachers can share materials and ideas more easily with the Common Core State Standards–within their buildings and district but also within the entire state. Websites and forums can be established to help teachers with teaching the standards.
What’s good about them? I like that a reading list is not given–there is no “here’s what you HAVE to read.” Instead sample texts are used to explain the type of material that should be used at that grade level. And many of the suggestions are texts that are already being used in the classroom. That’s nice–because as teachers learn a new way of thinking about their teaching and lesson plans, at least they are familiar with the text For example, in third grade, two of the fiction samples are: Charlotte’s Web and Sarah, Plain and Tall. I also like how these standards are making school districts think about literature that will address social studies, health, and science objectives, instead of using textbooks. I’ve been a proponent of this since I started teaching back in 1994.
So, what do you think? If you are in the classroom and using these, how’s it going? I’d love to hear from you.
A quick lesson idea with Charlotte’s Web:
One thing that hasn’t been emphasized much, but I think is really important and realized this when I taught Title I Reading at David Barton Elementary in Boonville is FLUENCY. Fluency actually helps with comprehension–it’s a lot harder to remember and concentrate on the story if children are struggling with every word or taking 15 minutes to read a page. Charlotte’s Web has loveable characters and some very emotional parts (such as the first time Charlotte saves Wilbur or at the end when Charlotte dies and Wilbur takes care of her babies). These would be great for practicing fluency. You could do this in one of two ways: peer reading–where students read with a partner out loud AFTER you’ve modeled reading aloud. Your model has to show expression and emphasis. You can also assign a group of children a certain section or even “part” to read. They practice this at home or in the classroom (even to a stuffed animal), and then they “perform” their part during a read-aloud day in class. (Reader’s Theater is also great for practicing fluency).
This post is long and you don’t have a lot of time. SO, I’m done. Here are a couple resources from Amazon:)
September 17th, 2012 at 7:51 am
One other thing I was just thinking. . . it’ s important for children’s authors to be aware of these, too. If you want teachers to use your books in the classroom, show them how they can use them with the standards!
September 17th, 2012 at 8:02 pm
I like the idea of specific targeting. Teachers appreciate materials that will help address the standards they are responsible for. In my district we were ‘unwrapping’ the standards that were given and really break down what they all meant. The state was doing the same thing for us at the same time. I felt that it wasn’t the best use of our time to spend hours unwrapping one standard when there are many MANY to go through and state people were being paid to do the same. Standards are needed because of moving. We were a very high moving school. The interesting thing is, just because standards are in place doesn’t mean they are all being implemented the same time, so even if a child moves they could be repeating/missing something. The flip side is, I would NOT like the idea of all teachers doing everything at the same time within a district. My last year teaching I had 1/3 of my class on IEP’s. and another 1/3 were learning English as a second or third language. We moved at a different pace than other third grade classrooms.
I loved doing reader’s theatre with my struggling readers. I had some leveled plays which let me have several kids with all different abilities participate in the same play.
In our district we had reading lists for each grade. There were battles between adjacent grade levels about who could read which book. For example, some of the third grade teachers wanted to read a fourth grade book with their higher readers and chose it from the list, then the fourth grade teachers were upset because they planned to use it as an entire class read aloud and now a bunch of students had already heard it.
Ok, this is a super long comment, but I liked reading your post
September 18th, 2012 at 7:27 pm
Rose,
You sound so much like me–these are the same things I used to hear/talk about/worry about when I was teaching. It is such a huge issue, and you are right NOTHING will solve the “moving” problem all together .But it’s a start, in my opinion.
Margo