We round out this week with a “Top Ten” list of statements we have heard people say about the Common Core. In a session at IRA this week, Meredith Liben and David Liben, who were/are heavily involved with developing the standards and are now offering guidance on how to implement them, made it clear that we have to use common sense with our Common Core implementations. As we have said, and as they confirmed, if an instructional decision sounds crazy, don’t do it! Nevertheless, craziness abounds in school districts. So, here are the top ten crazy things we have heard people say about the Common Core State Standards.
10. “The only professional learning our school district is offering next year is on the Common Core.”
9. “In order to meet the requirements of Shift 2, we are reading during P.E. for one class period per week.”
8. “With the Common Core, we have to expect students to build their own background knowledge. If they encounter something in text that they don’t know, they need to go to the library and find it. We shouldn’t tell them anything that makes it easier for them to understand the text.”
7. “All questions we ask of students must be text-based questions.”
6. “In our school district, schools are only allowed to order informational texts for classrooms and school libraries. We are not to spend any money on other genres.”
5. “All of our elementary instruction is changing to whole group lessons.”
4. “We took two weeks to closely read that paragraph.”
3. “Now that the Common Core is here, you know there’s not enough time for us to do independent reading.”
2. “Ninety percent of the reading in elementary schools needs to be at frustration level.”
1. “We have to teach students not to make personal connections to texts.”
This is a truly upsetting list. If the CCSS devolves to this level we are in big trouble. What does David Coleman have to say about this? Also I am sensing that teachers/schools/teams need a clearer vision of what a CCSS-driven classroom/school would look like. Standards and higher ones are great, the details of the implementation are what count for children right in classrooms…….reading for one entire PE period? Sorry, but that is nuts. And who is to say that kids will actually read if the PE teachers send home articles about their subjects/issues for homework. Or frustrating text they cannot read???? The vision-thing…..we need more of those and the speed of implementation; there needs to be a saner approach to jumping in blindly do to something you don’t truly understand. However if we are to “read” the standards closely and DO what they SAY, is this what will come of it?
It is upsetting, isn’t it Janet? We’re dumbfounded by some of these comments and when we hear them, it makes us more committed than ever to keep writing this blog so that we can help people ensure they are using their common sense when approaching the standards.
Thank you! I just ran across your blog for the first time. I agree these are upsetting and dumbfounding comments, so thank you for helping to keep the conversation going about using common sense!
Denise
We’re so happy you stumbled upon us and hope that you will visit often! If you hear other crazy things people say (or have questions that you wish someone would answer!) please be sure to let us know!