Let’s Re-Learn How to Read for the Common Core
Let’s Re-Learn How to Read for the Common Core
by Stephen Chiger
It’s about time I said I was sorry to Professor Smith.
One of my most vivid college memories is of him rebuking my modern drama class for our lazy reading of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Why did no one notice, let alone try to analyze, the symbolism of Nora dancing the tarantella?
I felt terrible, and as Smith pushed us, I realized why he was so flustered: Ibsen had selected details like the tarantella (Not a tango! Not a waltz!) to articulate a controversial and groundbreaking message. We had skimmed.
Professor Smith, I want to make amends. The new national education standards called the Common Core are designed so that your students will now be better prepared for the type of analysis you expect — but to make that work, we’ll have to start training teachers in the same way you trained me.
If we narrow the Common Core down to a handful of changes, one of the largest is that students will need to read
It’s about time I said I was sorry to Professor Smith.
One of my most vivid college memories is of him rebuking my modern drama class for our lazy reading of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Why did no one notice, let alone try to analyze, the symbolism of Nora dancing the tarantella?
I felt terrible, and as Smith pushed us, I realized why he was so flustered: Ibsen had selected details like the tarantella (Not a tango! Not a waltz!) to articulate a controversial and groundbreaking message. We had skimmed.
Professor Smith, I want to make amends. The new national education standards called the Common Core are designed so that your students will now be better prepared for the type of analysis you expect — but to make that work, we’ll have to start training teachers in the same way you trained me.
If we narrow the Common Core down to a handful of changes, one of the largest is that students will need to read
