Common Core Standards Drive Wedge in Education Circles
What’s the controversy behind the Common Core State Standards? This article from USA Today presents the argument from all fronts citing criticisms from Diane Ravitch that the standards have not been field-tested to David Coleman touting the renewed emphasis on content. April 27, 2012
What Should Be Common in the Common Core Standards?
Very poignant IRA blog post written by Janet Allen imploring teachers to use what they know about good teaching as the work to understand and implement the Common Core Standards.
Dear Governor, Lobby to Save the Love of Reading
In this article, Anne Stone and Jeff Nichols look closely at ELA practice questions and note the reductive nature of assessments. They “lobby” for fostering a love of reading. Though this article came out in January ‘12, its really well written and the message is always timely.
Socially Complex Text and the Common Core
Greg Mcverry expresses his frustration with the “hubbub revolving around text complexity” pointing out that the definitions for complex text don’t take into account the technology demands of 21st Century learners. He argues that it is impossible to address the true nature of text complexity without using the Internet.
Send in the Clowns: Common Core Implementation Advice Just Keeps Getting Worse
Great article by Kathleen Porter Magee. She also explores what publishers mean when they say a curriculum is aligned to the standards. She writes, “When it comes to organizations peddling Common Core implementation resources and strategies, the buyer should beware.”
This edition of Cathy Toll’s newsletter, Partnering to Learn, has several articles that offer insights for literacy leaders. Toll takes a relatively neutral stance on the Common Core and offers some big picture thinking.
Following the Money
Damon Hargraves looks closely at the monies connected to the development of the Common Core. Who stands to profit from their development?
Guest Opinion: New Education Standards to Prepare Nation for Future
A good article for the general public explaining the goals of the Common Core Standards.
This article “thinks about books like food–that there are those that are good for you and some that merely taste good.” Inadvertently deals with some of the issues of text complexity highlighted by the Common Core Standards.
Tom Hoffman on the Common Core: It’s What You Need to Know to Get a “C”
Is the Common Core a template for test questions?
Never Mind Algebra. Is Literature Necessary?
NY Times contributor Tim Clifford takes on the Common Core’s call for balance between literary and informational text and wonders what we will cut next in our ELA curriculum and what the ramifications will be for doing so.
Two Common Core Blunders to Avoid and How to Do It
On the Shoulders of Giants blogger Ariel Sacks writes about the informational-literary text split at the middle school and high school levels. She points out how some people have misinterpreted and over-generalized the intended meaning of this Common Core directive.
