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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2014 18:50:34 GMT -5
Common Core...Its destroying the system. Common Core standards require the integration of multiple media formats in addition to "text" including film/videos, music/lyrics, art, drama, and even social media. Science, math, and social studies require an English-type word/vocabulary study. All disciplines require an "integration of knowledge" component that is designed to let students incorporate their own perspective and think outside the box. These standards require differentiation in both instruction and assessments. Unfortunately, most teachers lack the knowledge/training to design/implement curriculum and teaching strategies that truly incorporates the standards. They can't do things the way they always have in the past-- ie. direct instruction-- the teacher lecturing in front of the class-- but they don't know/were never taught anything else. Right now, my mostly Hispanic middle school students are finishing up a young-adult autobiography written by an illegal migrant child farm worker (The Circuit by Francisco Jimenez). Along with the "standard" literature analysis English lessons, we explored contemporary issues like how hard/easy is it to cross the Mexican-American border, what could we do to improve the immigration process, where does the produce in our grocery stores come from, and who was Cesar Chavez (among other things)? (There's a Hollywood film out right now that answers that last question. LOL) For my struggling readers, I have audio books in both English and Spanish. For two weeks straight, students entered class to a mix of Mexican corrido music and we analyzed the lyrics. We watched videos of actual illegal border crossings and interviews with current migrant farmers. We designed art and multi-media presentations on non-violent forms of protest and the immigration debate. For the past nine weeks, my students have been thoroughly engaged and learning--and I am meeting standards because my curriculum is designed around the Common Core. Are you familiar with the math curriculum Lacy? I have seen the math and its despicable.
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xdeadlyxmirage
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Disrespecting narrative film since the 15th century.
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Post by xdeadlyxmirage on May 19, 2014 18:58:53 GMT -5
Common Core...Its destroying the system. Common Core standards require the integration of multiple media formats in addition to "text" including film/videos, music/lyrics, art, drama, and even social media. Science, math, and social studies require an English-type word/vocabulary study. All disciplines require an "integration of knowledge" component that is designed to let students incorporate their own perspective and think outside the box. These standards require differentiation in both instruction and assessments. Unfortunately, most teachers lack the knowledge/training to design/implement curriculum and teaching strategies that truly incorporates the standards. They can't do things the way they always have in the past-- ie. direct instruction-- the teacher lecturing in front of the class-- but they don't know/were never taught anything else. Right now, my mostly Hispanic middle school students are finishing up a young-adult autobiography written by an illegal migrant child farm worker (The Circuit by Francisco Jimenez). Along with the "standard" literature analysis English lessons, we explored contemporary issues like how hard/easy is it to cross the Mexican-American border, what could we do to improve the immigration process, where does the produce in our grocery stores come from, and who was Cesar Chavez (among other things)? (There's a Hollywood film out right now that answers that last question. LOL) For my struggling readers, I have audio books in both English and Spanish. For two weeks straight, students entered class to a mix of Mexican corrido music and we analyzed the lyrics. We watched videos of actual illegal border crossings and interviews with current migrant farmers. We designed art and multi-media presentations on non-violent forms of protest and the immigration debate. For the past nine weeks, my students have been thoroughly engaged and learning--and I am meeting standards because my curriculum is designed around the Common Core. I was wondering if you would comment. I'm glad you did. I do not think I have ever had much of a problem with the common core in the sense of what it sets its goals at. However, I agree that from my experience many teachers do not know how to incorporate everything, at least not well. As a student, even when students were presented the multiple formats, I found that quite frequently students would not engage with them. I am reminded of the multiple intelligence types that I was taught. With that however, it markedly over stereotyped students, and any implementation it had was shaky at best. Your class sounds like a good one, I'm curious as to what the art/multi-media presentations looked like. What types of assessments did you give your students? I'll tell you though, that many classes are nothing at all like that, and progress is slow while engagement is low. What measurements does enforcement of the common core use for you (How would a teacher not doing well at implementation of the common core be separated from one doing well)?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2014 18:58:57 GMT -5
Common Core...Its destroying the system. Common Core standards require the integration of multiple media formats in addition to "text" including film/videos, music/lyrics, art, drama, and even social media. Science, math, and social studies require an English-type word/vocabulary study. All disciplines require an "integration of knowledge" component that is designed to let students incorporate their own perspective and think outside the box. These standards require differentiation in both instruction and assessments. Unfortunately, most teachers lack the knowledge/training to design/implement curriculum and teaching strategies that truly incorporates the standards. They can't do things the way they always have in the past-- ie. direct instruction-- the teacher lecturing in front of the class-- but they don't know/were never taught anything else. Right now, my mostly Hispanic middle school students are finishing up a young-adult autobiography written by an illegal migrant child farm worker (The Circuit by Francisco Jimenez). Along with the "standard" literature analysis English lessons, we explored contemporary issues like how hard/easy is it to cross the Mexican-American border, what could we do to improve the immigration process, where does the produce in our grocery stores come from, and who was Cesar Chavez (among other things)? (There's a Hollywood film out right now that answers that last question. LOL) For my struggling readers, I have audio books in both English and Spanish. For two weeks straight, students entered class to a mix of Mexican corrido music and we analyzed the lyrics. We watched videos of actual illegal border crossings and interviews with current migrant farmers. We designed art and multi-media presentations on non-violent forms of protest and the immigration debate. For the past nine weeks, my students have been thoroughly engaged and learning--and I am meeting standards because my curriculum is designed around the Common Core. This is so far over my head all I heard was. "My teenage class is all illegal and I am teaching them how to cross the border safely. I play mexican music all day and then we eat tacos. "
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2014 19:06:45 GMT -5
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Miss Lacy
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Professor
In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back.
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Post by Miss Lacy on May 19, 2014 21:20:03 GMT -5
Are you familiar with the math curriculum Lacy? I have seen the math and its despicable. The purpose of Common Core is to scaffold learning the skills and content required to prepare students for the next level. This is especially important in math-- where a student isn't gonna learn how to multiple/divide until they can proficiently add/subtract. Most elementary and middle schools have adopted a "box" curriculum called "Everyday Math" which is designed to teach (as an example) 2nd graders the math skills/concepts they will need to successfully solve 3rd grade math applications--- and so on through the grades. They start teaching pre-algebra in 5th grade and by grade 8, students are suppose to have the knowledge and skills to be successful in freshman algebra. This is the design. It is essentially an 8 year curriculum. However, like I said before, some teachers just don't know how to teach it-- and if a kid gets one of those lousy teachers in (say) 3rd grade, they will fall behind in 4th grade math and probably never catch up. As an alternative ed and special ed teacher, I have had many many students in the 7-12 grades that didn't know how to simplify a fraction (something they were supposed to learn in 5th grade). Soooo--- how am I suppose to teach them algebra?
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Post by 101mitch on May 19, 2014 21:21:07 GMT -5
School is no longer about learning, it is about getting good grades.
Someone with an A that doesn't understand the subject is somehow better than someone who gets a C but understands it.
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Post by 101mitch on May 19, 2014 21:28:26 GMT -5
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Miss Lacy
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In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back.
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Post by Miss Lacy on May 19, 2014 22:18:00 GMT -5
As a student, even when students were presented the multiple formats, I found that quite frequently students would not engage with them. I am reminded of the multiple intelligence types that I was taught. With that however, it markedly over stereotyped students, and any implementation it had was shaky at best. Again, it's all in HOW the material is presented. Differentiation involves multiple intelligence types, but it's not like--- I've gotta have a song for the aural student, a dance for the kinetic student, a video for the visual student, etc. Nobody can be categorized as just one form of multiple intelligence. Differentiation involves KNOWING YOUR STUDENTS including their current skills and knowledge base. Students "taught" a majority of the background knowledge to their fellow classmates. Assessment criteria was specific and structured, but their individual projects were quite diverse. The first presentation lesson was Mexican culture and how it is integrated into American culture. The students created Prezis (amped up online powerpoint program) that incorporated images, music and video. Some displayed costumes and other folk art. One group did a mini novela (Mexican soap opera). We did a drama simulation on food-- from the field to your table-- and students created backgrounds, social profiles, and self-portraits for their individual characters. Students also did all the background for the Cesar Chavez lesson and produced similar individualized presentations. Ironically, most had NO IDEA who he was-- but they became experts on unionizing, boycotting, protest marching, and hunger-striking. LOL After we analyzed the imaginary in Chavez's Ocampa poster, the students created their own imaginary protest posters. (I gave them free rein to decide upon the issues they wanted to protest for or against.) As far as measuring teacher success, it's all about "depth of knowledge" or DOK which is basically aligned with Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning and asking questions. DOK1 stuff is identify and recall. DOK2 gets into summarize and analyze. But a highly-effective teacher is designing curriculum that asks the right questions in order to engage students in DOK3--evaluating and creating. I call the process knowledge base (DOK1), understanding (DOK2) and making meaning (DOK3). If students can't make meaning (and incorporate it into their own lives) out of what they are learning--- why exactly are they learning it?
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Miss Lacy
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In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back.
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Post by Miss Lacy on May 19, 2014 22:22:00 GMT -5
This is so far over my head all I heard was. "My teenage class is all illegal and I am teaching them how to cross the border safely. I play mexican music all day and then we eat tacos. " LOL Hmmmm-- we did eat tacos in class one day.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2014 22:33:18 GMT -5
This is so far over my head all I heard was. "My teenage class is all illegal and I am teaching them how to cross the border safely. I play mexican music all day and then we eat tacos. " LOL Hmmmm-- we did eat tacos in class one day. Haha thanks for taking that as it was intended. By the way I heard Charlie Brown finally kicked the ball.
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