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First, Common Core doesn’t use the term, “cold read.” It appears to be meant as a pejorative for close reading, though it only characterizes one dimension of close reading (the withholding of information from outside the text—while ignoring its emphasis on how texts work and the use of text evidence in interpretation). Close reading sounds warm and cuddly (“let’s get close”); while cold reading is, well, cold.
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Controversy sells, which is why so many media outlets focus on the negative when it comes to the Common Core State Standards.
Mel Riddile's insight:
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Barbara discusses the relationship between instructional rigor and the Common Core State Standards. She focuses on using the standards as a foundation, and then building on the standards with instruction.
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Despite most voters not being aware of the controversial standards, there is broad support for them among members of all parties.
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New Learning Standards for ELA/Literacy, drawing from the Common Core ELA Standards for Literacy, include the use of informational text in all grades and content areas as a way for students to gather and build knowledge. Another way of looking at this it to consider yourself a teacher of the language of your content area.
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By Maria Ferguson, Executive Director of the Center on Education Policy at George Washington University. "teachers, administrators, and state leaders can’t afford to ignore practicality."
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Despite its great promise, the Common Core is unlikely to be the "game changer" our policymakers hope it will be unless sensitive and skillful leadership is provided to shepherd the profound changes necessary. Undoubtedly, that leadership will have to come from principals who must take the lead in helping teachers and students meet the challenge of elevated expectations. The challenge for principals goes far beyond managing building and personnel effectively.
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A growing group of parents are letting their children skip out on standardized tests.
Jenny Sloane's curator insight,
November 25, 2013 3:35 PM
I did not even know parents had a choice to opt of of their children taking standardized tests. I do agree that testing should not start until kids are a little older. I think it ridiculous that a 6 year old should have to worry about taking a test like that. Furthermore, I agree that one disadvantage to standardized tests is that it replaces critical thinking. If both teachers and students main objective is to score well on tests, they will be inclined to teach and learn materials just to master the exams. However, I feel like it should not be the parents chioce whether or not their child should take the tests. If it is part of the curriculum, all students should be required. Even if I do not agree that young children should be taking the tests, if that is what the curriculum calls for, everyone should be expected to follow it. Standardized tests are also a good way to track students' performances. Not that I think students should be compared to each other or really competitive, but it could show if there are any learning gaps that need to be addressed from an early age. One question I would want to ask the author of this article is what do children when other students are preparing or taking standardized tests if their parents let them skip it altogether? This article is from NBC so I think it's purpose is more of getting opinions out in the public rather than reporting statistics and hard facts about the advantages and disadvantages of standardized tests.
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Separating facts from myths and defining rigor in the classroom.
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As more schools start implementing Common Core this year, the majority of public school parents said they didn't know about it, or if it was happening in their schools.
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"If your school technology budget is strained, look into maximizing your E-rate benefits."
Mel Riddile's insight:
Only 15% of Oklahoma schools have the technology or bandwidth needed to participate in online assessments. Regardless of the Common Core Standards and the related assessments, when will schools in these states have the technology to prepare students to live in the second decade and beyond of the 21st Century?
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The Fordham Institute By E.D. Hirsch "In the domain of reading comprehension, the value-added approach to teacher evaluation is unsound both technically and in its curriculum-narrowing effects. The connection between job ratings and tests in ELA has been a disaster for education."
Mel Riddile's insight:
Key point: While math tests are based on the curriculum, reading tests are based on general knowledge that students have gained over their life span from all sources and are not based on what a teacher has done in a single school year. Therefore, VAM are "ill conceived and unfair" in evaluating teachers.
Dr. Dea Conrad-Curry's curator insight,
September 9, 2013 9:34 AM
Agree: High Stakes tests should not be used to measure teacher efficacy. However, I like the organization of the PARCC Blueprints and if the organization is followed, all the #CCSS are met. From that perspective, usinsg the assessment design to guide instruction will be valuable.
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David Coleman, the current president of the College Board, has a particular take on academic vocabulary; and, if you want to better prepare your students for the new wave of standardized testing under the Common Core and the new SAT, you better get hip to it. As he told the New York Times, Coleman believes academic vocabulary is all around us, and he is out to rid the SAT of "words you will never use again" and plans to instead focus standardized testing on "more common words like synthesis, distill and transform, used in context as they will be in college and in life."
Mel Riddile's insight:
Sample SBAC vocabulary question: Read the sentence from the text. Then answer the question. "Nanodiamonds are stardust, created when ancient stars exploded long ago,disgorging their remaining elements into space." Based on the context of the sentence, what is the most precise meaning ofdisgorging?
Dr. Dea Conrad-Curry's curator insight,
September 9, 2013 9:42 AM
Educators: you must understand Isabel Beck's concept regarding the three tiers of vocabulary! That is the basis for academic vocabulary as referenced in the Common Core. Robert Marzano and the Common Core's references to academic vocabulary are NOT THE SAME. Isabel Beck and the Common Core classify domain / disciplinary vocabulary as Tier 3 or academic vocubulary. Marzano's academic vocubulary consists of disciplinary terms--Tier 3 vocabulary under the Beck matrix. There seems to be much confusion about the term academic vocabulary. We need to be on the same page with shared vocabulary. Read Beck's Bringing Words to Life: http://www.amazon.com/Bringing-Words-Life-Vocabulary-Instruction/dp/1572307536 |
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The Common Core Standards for Literacy in the History/Social Sciences, Science and Technical Subjects are all standards that non-ELA teachers, from art to science, can target.
Melissa Jacobsen's curator insight,
September 16, 2013 11:46 AM
A brief article that includes details on text-dependent quesitons and speaking and listening
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By Tim Walker According to a new poll by the National Education Association, the Common Core State Standards are strongly supported by its members. Roughly two-thirds of educators are either wholeheartedly in favor of the standards (26 percent) or support them with “some reservations” (50 percent).
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“DURHAM, NC--(Marketwired - Sep 10, 2013) - MetaMetrics®, developer of the widely adopted Lexile® Framework for Reading, has witnessed a substantial increase in the number of publishers providing Lexile® measures for their books as a result of the...” Via Kim Muncie
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"Under Common Core, students won't be tested on how well they memorize. Instead they'll be asked to defend their answers drawing from multiple sources, understand mathematical concepts and apply information to situations they could face in a future job."
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Coming Together to Raise Achievement: New Assessments for the Common Core State: New Updates on the Work of the Assessment Consortia
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If teachers are ever in situations where they have to explain them to parents, or if there are parents who want to understand more about them, here are some relatively useful resources:
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This article from Voices from the Middle (May 2013) provides an overview of the Common Core text exemplars and gives examples of ways teachers can group text exemplars and other trade books in ways that will support middle graders’ understanding of complex texts.
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"There is nothing "wrong" with focusing on the solution of a math problem. But we found that we shared a concern about the truly haphazard approaches among students we often witness. One colleague referred to this as "mashing numbers.""
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Common Core has certainly raised some questions -- from what assessment will look like, to curriculum development and how the standards are in practice. There's others, I'm sure.
Nancy J. Herr's curator insight,
September 25, 2013 3:28 PM
Here are some sites that give clarity to the standards and wxamples of assessments for CC math. |
