Thursday, January 10, 2013

What English classes should look like in Common Core era

What English classes should look like in Common Core era:


What English classes should look like in Common Core era

litThe recent controversy over how much fiction and non-fiction high school students are supposed to read under the Common Core State Standards begged the question of where the 70 percent non-fiction 30 percent fiction for seniors actually came from and how English classes should look. Here Carol Jago, a past president of the National Council of Teachers of English, explains. She has taught high school for 32 years and is associate director of the California Reading and Literature Project at UCLA. She is the author of “With Rigor for All: Meeting Common Core Standards for Reading Literature and Classics in the Classroom.”
By Carol Jago
The claim that the Common Core State Standards have abolished the teaching of literature makes for a great headline.  Who wouldn’t get hot and bothered over the idea that high 

A call to Obama to focus on early childhood education


President Obama will be delivering his State of the Union address outlining his priorities for the next year in a few weeks. Here's an open letter to Obama urging him to make early childhood education -- an initiative that has proven results -- a real priority in his second term. It was written by Elaine Weiss, the national coordinator for theBroader Bolder Approach to Education, and Cassie Schwerner, senior vice president of programs at the Schott Foundation for Public Education.
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