No Need to Fear Common Core

Thursday, July 17, 2014Printer-friendly version

Teachers provide some of the most critical voices of support for the implementation of higher standards. After all, teachers are the ones on the ground each day working tirelessly to ensure that all students reach their full potential. Here’s what a few teachers have to say about standing by higher standards:

No need to fear Common Core

by Colleen Considine, Commonwealth Magazine

June 23, 2014

“Grit is a term we should be using a lot in education, especially when discussing the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). I am completing my ninth year of teaching; next year I will again be in a first grade classroom. … I have found that, with Common Core, I am able to develop even the youngest students into critical thinkers who will find success in the face of adversity along whatever path they choose. My students have shown plenty of grit at every grade level I have taught. It is critical that we educators do the same.”

And,

“I began using the Common Core standards three years ago in my second grade classroom for all of my instruction. The standards hadn’t been fully implemented and I was scared. Among other challenging concepts, the standards ask second graders to understand and use the US algorithm strategy of adding and subtracting three digit numbers – a highly conceptual piece of learning that I had previously introduced at a fifth grade level. In fact, my students were so successful with this curriculum that half of this inner-city class earned a coveted spot in the Boston Public Schools’ Advanced Work Class program. My students showed amazing grit and taught me what it really means to have resolve.”

And,

“Can you imagine what these students will accomplish if we teach them now to solve issues critical to their lives and our nation’s future? By supporting the transition and implementation of CCSS, we are also teaching them to succeed in a highly competitive global economy. These students will dig in and show the grit necessary to create positive change in their world and ours.

"And this means that we as educators have to have the same resolve. Rising to a higher standard is the right thing for kids and therefore the right thing for teachers. If we don’t, where is our grit? What kind of example are we setting for our students? Children love a challenge when supported successfully — whether it's running the fastest lap around the playground or solving a math problem beyond their level.

"That's grit. Let’s take a lesson from our kids and show some. “

Colleen Considine is a first grade teacher in an inclusion classroom at the Lee Academy Pilot Elementary School in Dorchester and a Teach Plus Teaching Policy Fellow.

 

Without the Common Core in Oklahoma

by Valeria Hughes, Education Week

July 9, 2014

“As far as I can tell, Oklahoma educators could possibly have no standards by which to teach when we return to school next month.

"As an elementary school teacher, my concern is about getting the best standards in front of my students. And for this reason, I am dismayed by the loss of the Common Core writing standards. Writing instruction has long been neglected in state-written academic standards, and the common core moves writing back to its rightful place in a thinking-based curriculum that is stair-stepped from kindergarten through the 12th grade. The writing standards require the development of listening and speaking skills, in addition to close reading of informational texts with annotation and concise, written summaries.

"In the building I am privileged to work in, we have worked endlessly as a staff on implementation of the common standards. We have deconstructed each of the standards to create common formative assessments. We have had book studies and writing workshops in an effort to gain a better grasp of the writing standards. While we do not stand to lose everything with this latest legislative development, my wish is that educators will think about what is best for students wherever we end up, instead of what is easiest for themselves.”

And,

“Yes, in the fall, as a curriculum specialist, I will help the teachers in my building negotiate the rough and choppy waters of the return to PASS or whatever standards we will be asked to teach. We will continue to teach them in a rigorous and child-friendly manner, holding tightly to our belief that all children can learn to read, as well as write. The writing instruction and beliefs that we teachers have implemented over the past few years will not simply vanish into the dark night. We will continue to push on in hopes of a brighter day in Oklahoma.”

Valeria Hughes is a curriculum specialist in an elementary school in Ponca City, Okla.

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