To be honest I wish
that I would have read the excerpt from Beach, Thein, and Webb before I began
looking at the Common Core State Standards website. I’m ashamed to admit that I am not as
familiar with the Standards as I should be, but I think this is due to the fact
that I’m a Social Studies Major and the Common Core seems to not have as many standards
for that curriculum yet. Looking at the
website was a little overwhelming at first as I looked grade by grade, and I am
not sure if I was just getting tired or if they really did seem to start
repeating themselves. On a second glance
I noticed that yes, they do repeat themselves to a certain extent but they
build up in complexity each year.
I remember when I
was first introduced to the Common Core State Standards. I have to admit that I am not a big fan of
change, so I was very reluctant to wanting to learn these new standards. After reading the first chapter of the
assigned handout, I have a much better understanding as to why switching to the
Common Core will help create a better classroom environment and curriculum for
our students. After all, as teachers we
always want what is best for our students and should be willing to go to any
lengths to make sure that they succeed in school.
I like how the
Common Core allows teachers to take on a more active role in planning their curriculum
and steers schools away from scripted curriculum and textbooks that are being forced
upon teachers to teach. I was placed in
a school for my Social Studies student teaching where the history teachers were
forced to use a textbook and were practically dictated to what we had to teach
and when we had to have it taught by.
There was some flexibility, but not much. Even worse was the English curriculum, which
was a program called SpringBoard which is a scripted curriculum that teachers
have to implement.
I loved the school
that I was in and the lesson that I was able to create and teach, but sometimes
it would have been awesome to actually tailor my lessons to the interests of my
students, much like Liz was able to do when her students were struggling with
writing a five paragraph essay. It’s not
always a bad idea with letting your student’s guide what is being taught to
them, in my experience my students loved when I strayed from their textbooks
and workbooks and provided lessons that were relevant to their interests. However, I wasn’t able to do this very
often. Overall, I feel slightly more
confident in my understanding of the Common Core Standards having read both the
standards and the assigned reading.
