The Common Core State Standards

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.