How Standards-Based Instruction is Murdering School
The following is an excerpt from a longer recent post on this blog.
I am really tired of being expected to make Common Core the essence of everything I do in instruction. Why? Because it kills any opportunity students' might have to actually enjoy school.
What do I mean by this?
Around the country, many teachers are being trained to "unpack" the standards, not only among themselves, but with students. It is deemed a worthy classroom activity to give students the standards and spend time going through them as a class.
"Okay class, open your Common Core Standards to page five. This unit we'll be working on Common Core Standard 8.1. It's about citing textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. Why don't we all break up into groups and try to decide what the hell that means."
Doesn't that sound engaging!
Teachers are actually being trained to teach like this. After having the class break the standard up and analyze it, they do an activity and reflect on how that activity helped them move toward the standard.
I'm sorry - but this is not how engaging, authentic, valuable learning happens. This is test-driven, dull, and ultimately ineffective. It's not inspiring; it's not equitable; and it's inhuman. Humans have learned
