Some thoughts on Common Core and Expectations of Teachers
I’m attending Common Core training/planning in my district. We’re being told that the district will not be purchasing curriculum, but would like teacher to develop it. There are pluses and minuses to this. One of the things I’m hearing constantly at these meetings, is that finally we’ll have standards that will prepare kids for college, as though our current/last set of standards were not aimed at preparing kids for college. The problem was not in standards, but in what we asked the kids to do and that was dictated by two things, the curriculum we used (and how it was implemented) and what the kids were actually assessed on.
The biggest difference between Common Core at this point, and the current curriculum is that currently the emphasis in Common Core is on having students produce writing, and doing high level analysis in that writing. The old standards have writing and analysis, but the elementary curriculum that held sway for the last decade emphasized decoding and phonics to the point where kids are given tasks in that domain up through sixth grade
The biggest difference between Common Core at this point, and the current curriculum is that currently the emphasis in Common Core is on having students produce writing, and doing high level analysis in that writing. The old standards have writing and analysis, but the elementary curriculum that held sway for the last decade emphasized decoding and phonics to the point where kids are given tasks in that domain up through sixth grade