Common Core Connections
Excerpts from Common Core for the Not-So-Common Learner, Volumes I & II
What Is Not Covered In The Common Core Document
It is critical that all those implementing the CCSS read the beginning pages of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects, even if your main focus is teaching mathematics. These pages contain essential information on the development of the Standards, the key design considerations in creating them, the focus of instruction and assessment as it pertains to individual grade-level standards, the characteristics of students meeting the CCSS as well as what the Standards are and are not. To this end, we would like to focus on the design limitations of the CCSS. Our main goal for emphasizing these limitations is to dispel any misconceptions about the purpose of the Standards with the following information:
· The CCSS were created to assure students are college and career ready. By design, they identify what students should know and be able to do. However, the Standards do not specify any particular curriculum to be taught or the techniques and strategies teachers must use to teach students.
· The Standards only describe the essential skills that must be taught; it is beyond the scope of the CCSS to identify “all that can and should be taught” (Common Core, p. 6). Therefore, a curriculum that only addresses the Standards, in our estimation, is not a complete curriculum.
· The methods, materials, and instructional interventions necessary to foster academic growth with students who are not yet working at grade level or the nature of assignments for students working above grade-level expectations are not specified by the Standards.
· The instructional supports necessary for English learners or students with disabilities to succeed are not specified by the Standards. In our opinion, teachers must continue to apply research-based strategies, best practices, and appropriate accommodations for working with these student populations.
· The Standards do not address the necessary social, emotional, physical, and cultural growth of students to be college and career ready.
These limitations, which are directly stated in the Common Core State Standards document, are specifically outlined to ensure that teachers maintain a strong sense of autonomy when making instructional decisions for their students, and district members involved in curriculum development have the flexibility to create a program of study best suited to their specific student populations.
It is critical that all those implementing the CCSS read the beginning pages of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects, even if your main focus is teaching mathematics. These pages contain essential information on the development of the Standards, the key design considerations in creating them, the focus of instruction and assessment as it pertains to individual grade-level standards, the characteristics of students meeting the CCSS as well as what the Standards are and are not. To this end, we would like to focus on the design limitations of the CCSS. Our main goal for emphasizing these limitations is to dispel any misconceptions about the purpose of the Standards with the following information:
· The CCSS were created to assure students are college and career ready. By design, they identify what students should know and be able to do. However, the Standards do not specify any particular curriculum to be taught or the techniques and strategies teachers must use to teach students.
· The Standards only describe the essential skills that must be taught; it is beyond the scope of the CCSS to identify “all that can and should be taught” (Common Core, p. 6). Therefore, a curriculum that only addresses the Standards, in our estimation, is not a complete curriculum.
· The methods, materials, and instructional interventions necessary to foster academic growth with students who are not yet working at grade level or the nature of assignments for students working above grade-level expectations are not specified by the Standards.
· The instructional supports necessary for English learners or students with disabilities to succeed are not specified by the Standards. In our opinion, teachers must continue to apply research-based strategies, best practices, and appropriate accommodations for working with these student populations.
· The Standards do not address the necessary social, emotional, physical, and cultural growth of students to be college and career ready.
These limitations, which are directly stated in the Common Core State Standards document, are specifically outlined to ensure that teachers maintain a strong sense of autonomy when making instructional decisions for their students, and district members involved in curriculum development have the flexibility to create a program of study best suited to their specific student populations.
What are some broad-based strategies for implementing the Common Core Standards?
Never before have school districts across the nation been so challenged by an increase in educational initiatives coupled with the lack of financial resources. Schools are being asked to do so much more with so much less. Enter into the mix, the implementation of The Common Core State Standards (CCSS), a substantial challenge for preparing schools to meet these rigorous benchmarks with their students, and an even greater one for those schools who have large populations of academically and linguistically diverse students.
The challenges of instruction for academically and linguistically diverse pupils are multi-faceted and, therefore, require multi-step solutions that involve all stakeholders—administrators, teachers, parents, students, and community members—in their development. In our view, efforts to achieve successful solutions require the following:
Never before have school districts across the nation been so challenged by an increase in educational initiatives coupled with the lack of financial resources. Schools are being asked to do so much more with so much less. Enter into the mix, the implementation of The Common Core State Standards (CCSS), a substantial challenge for preparing schools to meet these rigorous benchmarks with their students, and an even greater one for those schools who have large populations of academically and linguistically diverse students.
The challenges of instruction for academically and linguistically diverse pupils are multi-faceted and, therefore, require multi-step solutions that involve all stakeholders—administrators, teachers, parents, students, and community members—in their development. In our view, efforts to achieve successful solutions require the following:
- A shared vision and mission for all students reached through consensus along with the determination of measurable, achievable goals with an understanding of how to accomplish them
- Curriculum mapping and alignment to ensure that instructional content and practices for academically and linguistically diverse pupils are consistent with the Standards and the learning outcomes for all students
- Collaborative planning, instruction, and assessment among teams of teachers—content-area, ESL, Special Education, and Literacy specialists, among others—to foster the use of teaching and learning strategies to make academic material comprehensible for all learners
- Strategies to integrate language and content instruction to foster literacy and language development while acquiring content information
- A direct focus on teaching academic language needed to access rigorous content and opportunities for students to apply newly learned language through various methods of discourse
- Explicitly teaching literacy and language-learning strategies to develop students’ understanding of their own thinking and learning processes