10 Things A Teacher Should Know About Common Core State Standards

Posted by Marsha on February 15, 2012

They are not a federal program; nor did the stem from a government initiative like NCLB. They are the result of governors from across the country and groups of corporate leaders who were concerned about the alarming numbers of high school students graduating from public school unprepared for college or a career path. http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards
They were developed by National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers in collaboration with teachers, school administrators, and content experts. Teachers were a critical voice in the development of the standards. The National Education Association (NEA), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), and National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), among other organizations were instrumental in bringing together teachers to provide specific, constructive feedback on the standards.
The Standards define what all students are expected to know and be able to do, not how teachers should teach. “By emphasizing required achievements, the Standards leave room for teachers, curriculum developers, and states to determine how those goals should be reached and what additional topics should be addressed. Thus, the Standards do not mandate such things as a particular writing process or the full range of metacognitive strategies that students may need to monitor and direct their thinking and learning. Teachers are thus free to provide students with whatever tools and knowledge their professional judgment and experience identify as most helpful for meeting the goals set out in the Standards.
All educators share the responsibility for students’ literacy development. “The Standards insist that instruction in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language be a shared responsibility within the school. Part of the reason for interdisciplinary approach to literacy is extensive research establishing the need for students to be proficient in reading complex informational text independently in a variety of content areas.”
Students are expected to use text-based evidence and relevant support answers, opinions, and points of view. “Students cite specific evidence when offering an oral or written interpretation of a text. They use relevant evidence when supporting their own points in writing and speaking, making their reasoning clear to the reader or listener, and they constructively evaluate others’ use of evidence.”
Students will be expected to use technology and digital media strategically and capably. “Students employ technology thoughtfully to enhance their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language use. They tailor their searches online to acquire useful information efficiently, and they integrate what they learn using technology with what they learn offline. They are familiar with the strengths and limitations of various technological tools and mediums and can select and use those best suited to their communication goals.”
Students will read more complex text. “Whatever they are reading, students must also show a steadily growing ability to discern more from and make fuller use of text, including making an increasing number of connections among ideas and between texts, considering a wider range of textual evidence, and becoming more sensitive to inconsistencies, ambiguities, and poor reasoning in texts.”
Students will write for a variety of purposes including in response to text and research. “The Standards acknowledge the fact that whereas some writing skills, such as the ability to plan, revise, edit, and publish, are applicable to many types of writing, other skills are more properly defined in terms of specific writing types: arguments, informative/explanatory texts, and narratives. Standard 9 stresses the importance of the writing-reading connection by requiring students to draw upon and write about evidence from literary and informational texts. Because of the centrality of writing to most forms of inquiry, research standards are prominently included in this strand, though skills important to research are infused throughout the document.”
There is an increased attention to speaking and listening as forms of communication and collaboration. “Including but not limited to skills necessary for formal presentations, the Speaking and Listening standards require students to develop a range of broadly useful oral communication and interpersonal skills. Students must learn to work together, express and listen carefully to ideas, integrate information from oral, visual, quantitative, and media sources, evaluate what they hear, use media and visual displays strategically to help achieve communicative purposes, and adapt speech to context and task.”
Emphasis is placed on conventions and the effective use of standard English and vocabulary. “The Language standards include the essential “rules” of standard written and spoken English, but they also approach language as a matter of craft and informed choice among alternatives. The vocabulary standards focus on understanding words and phrases, their relationships, and their nuances and on acquiring new vocabulary, particularly general academic and domain-specific words and phrases.”