Over the past four months I have spent quite a bit of time scouring the Internet for what the major publishers are putting out for Common Core. I noticed that most products have”Common Core Aligned”printed on everything now. I even notice that well know authors like, Calkins, and Pinnell are now being promoted as aligned to Common Core. I went… Read more →
The skill set for Common Core is pretty static. There are NOT a lot of skills. For literature there are ten skills. TEN. For Georgia Educators who have been here for a while, mentioning the word QCC conjures up images of hundreds of skills that had to be taught just for reading. This shifts how we look at ELA instruction…. Read more →
As I think about Common Core and what I know about curriculum, I am very interested in looking at pieces that support the Common Core standards. One huge component is analyzing text for the messages they communicate (both explicit and implicit), and analyzing text from multiple cultural perspectives. For teachers who cling only to canonical pieces and the “right” answers this will be a challenge. Luckily… Read more →
I get tons of emails about kids not “getting” it in reading classes. Advice is solicited to get students using rigorous text and stretching their reading levels. The more I talk with teachers the more I notice an absence of scaffolding. Scaffolding is when you slowly release responsibility to students instead of just dumping the skill, concept, or content in front of them. If… Read more →
As Common Core begins to roll out, I have been really dissecting these standards, particularly for high school. I’ll be honest, I have been looking and reading with a skeptical eye. My skepticism is really not about whether the standards are good, bad, or other. My skepticism comes from the mere notion of standardizing anything. As a critical race theorists, I instantly… Read more →
