Now, I have all the time in the world--until Baby Sneaker blesses me with her presence that is!
One article I came across in Instructor magazine was about Common Core State Standards. I've definitely heard about them, but until today I had never really tried to learn more about them. The article lists 4 links to check out, so I did.
www.commoncore.org
www.corestandards.org
illustrativemathematics.org
nctm.org
I actually only checked out the first two and the second one is where I found pdf documents that actually list the new standards. It was really interesting to check them out.
Some of the goals behind the common standards are to increase the requirements for higher level thinking among students (which hopefully then puts less emphasis on standardized fill in the bubble tests) and to build more consistency in standards across states. I would be interested to see how current state standards compare across states because in some regards I feel like our current standards for Kindergarten here in Oregon are higher than the ones I just viewed. Yet, there are some differences that give me hope for some good changes in the future. It will be really interesting to see how these common core standards play out in terms of instruction, report cards etc.
One of the main things I noticed was that many of the Kindergarten standards begin with the words "with prompting and support..." I kind of like that it's acknowledged that kids in Kindergarten still require prompting and support. We seem to operate Kindergarten just like First Grade these days, so I wonder how the new standards will affect that. In some grade levels I think that maybe standards do need to be more vigorous, yet in Kindergarten I think we are already operating at maximum capacity in terms of what we are asking kids to do (especially in half day classes!).
I also like that the math standards place emphasis on two mathematical areas and encourage extended practice in just those areas. Our math program bounces around so much, that I think it would be refreshing to take a step back and really reorient ourselves to be working on what matters.
On the one hand I think that common core state standards are just another way to streamline education and push for everybody to be doing the same rather than crafting instruction that fits our kids. Yet, at the same time, I think consistency among states is a good thing and I think the process of creating common standards will create more clarity in what is expected of students at each grade level.
What do you think? Is your state adopting the common core state standards?
9 comments:
We have not officially adopted them but have spent a considerable time reviewing the standards. There is a lot of "with prompting and support" but which could be good and bad. I like how informational reading should be 50% of our reading and instruction. I know kids will love that.
Hope baby comes soon. She must love her home. My son was induced and it turned out okay.
We are deep into the switch to the common core. It is going to be a rough adjustment for a few years because there will be lots of gaps. Looking forward to this of course who knows how long it will last.
My state has not (and has no plans to) adopt them, but my district is planning on adopting them. We have quite a few military families, as well as families who move up because of oil jobs and the higher ups feel like this would provide more continuity for those students.
✪ Miss W
Miss W Teaches
We adopted common core this year in K-2. It's hard because things are not aligned yet with the other grade levels and there are apparently a lot of gaps between 2nd and 3rd grade. There are some math skills that you aren't suppose to introduce until 1st or 2nd grade that we still do in K. Like money. But I like the addition and subtraction standards. My kids are rocking this! Reading doesn't seem to different from what we were doing. I was in a meeting last week about math and how we were moving towards an assessment for 3-8 that was part constructed response and part multiple choice. IT's pretty interesting.
Ms. Kerri and her Krazy Kindergarten
I've looked at the Common Core a lot the past two years and I really like it- I mean as far as standards go which are never going to be perfect! I like the emphasis on informational reading and writing! The whole thing does not really up the standards from where we are in my district either so I'm not too worried about that... though I have a feeling we are just going to keep pushing kindergarten kids until they burst! Every year I think we can't expect anymore and then we do! It seems to go a lot better in the full day class than it used to go in half day though.
Hope Baby Sneaker comes soon!
Hi, I just found your blog! I'm your newest follower :)
❤Teri
A Cupcake for the Teacher
Here in NC we are switching to common core and getting lots of training on the standards.
Our trainer said the only 2 states that are not planning on switching are Alaska and Texas.
I am also in North Carolina so we will begin teaching the Common Core standards this coming fall. We've spent professional development time looking at the standards but not enough time to be prepared for what's ahead. In some people's comments I see where you're talking about gaps in information between grades. I am thankful that our district had enough forethought to realize that would happen so this year we've not only had to teach our regular curriculum but we've also taught the "missing pieces" from the Common Core. Also, the teachers that I've talked with seem to think the new standards look more challenging than what we currently have with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. Either way we are in for a wild ride over the next few years.
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