The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts Instruction in Grades 6-12: Origins, Goals, Challenges

I am fairly new to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and got my first exposure to using them a few months ago for my summer class. My first thoughts were that there were a lot of standards and my experience with standards is that they can be very limiting to a student. The more I look into the CCSS though, the more I see that it is different from my previous notions about standards in our education system. It recognizes that “standardization is not the same thing as holding high standards.” It leaves room for teachers and other faculty to choose how they want to meet these standards, which is very appealing to a future educator such as myself. An example from the reading that supports my own excitement about this freedom to teach using CCSS is from a teacher who decides to teach composition using online role play instead of the typical five-paragraph essay form. It is examples like this that make me look forward to experiencing teaching in the CCSS system. This short reading explains how in the past, educational standards have been very limiting because of their tendency to initiate teaching to the test, fragmented curricula, failure to recognize cultural diversity, etc. These have been major flaws in our education system and its impact cannot be overlooked as it has been in recent years. Hopefully with the new Common Core State Standards set in place, we can find a way to reverse the effects of the “achievement gap” in our country which heavily favors white US households. The poor are being neglected in this sense and the CCSS is the first step to a long recovery process for our education system. The end of this reading explains that the CCSS is a “road map for developing your own curriculum that is relevant to your unique students and classrooms.” This is an idea about the CCSS that I strongly support because it allows for teachers to tap into the potential of every student when it comes to their education and that is what our job as educators is all about.

DISCUSSION AS A WAY OF TEACHING Stephen Brookfield

Stephen Brookfield’s article about discussion in the classroom is a useful resource for showing different discussion methods in the classroom. I’ve always been a little bit more on the quite side when it comes to class discussions but Brookfield is very convincing when showing how important participation in class discussions can be. The beginning of this article shows how a teacher can set ground rules for their classroom in regards to discussions. This made me reflect on the multiple experiences I have had with class discussions that I found invigorating as well as the class discussions that nearly put me to sleep. Some of my favorite discussions involved discussing a topic with a group of three or four students and then reconvening with all of the other groups to discuss that topic as a class. The discussions that I remember disliking usually involve the class not being prepared for the discussion, or the teacher trying to force a comment or idea out of me that I do not have at that moment. That being said, I had mixed feelings about the discussion methods that Brookfield introduces in his article. One method really stood out to me. In my notes about the “Snowballing” discussion method I wrote “Winner!!!” (pg. 13). I like this method the most by far because it seems like a perfect way to get everyone in the class involved in a discussion. I can just picture students moving around in an eager fashion while they join a new group every few minutes to share their ideas on the topic. By the time the whole class comes together, everyone’s thoughts have been shared and expanded on in one way or another and this could make for an exciting class discussion in the end. This method is something that I am definitely going to try in my classroom one day. A method that I am not very fond of in this article is the “Specific Moves” discussion method (pg. 7). The list of moves seems forced for students who might not have anything to say for their specific move and it seems limiting for a student who might have more to say than what their specific move allows. When reading this list of moves I imagined putting myself in a class discussion where I have to “Use body language to show interest in what different speakers are saying,” and it makes me uncomfortable just thinking about it. I believe that class discussions can be some of the most beneficial classroom experiences that a student can have if done correctly. This article opens up new ideas for class discussion and methods that can be used to get the most out of a student’s educational experience. It is one that I will keep in mind when I begin to lead my own class discussions in the near future.