I’ve spent part of this week with a group of elementary teachers who are neck-deep in curriculum design. Prior to our first session, I asked them to talk with their students about the types of learning experiences they value most. These data were captured via survey, which enabled us to organize and share the findings, so that they could influence our next steps. As it turned out, they were very important data to consider. Learners…
Last night, I was asked to speak at the Cheektowaga Board of Education meeting about the work I’m beginning to lead there with the Common Core. This is something I’m asked to do fairly often when I lead any kind of an initiative in schools. Reporters are often present. This morning, I received an incredibly hostile voicemail message from someone who read this morning’s Buffalo News article and took exception its positive tone and particularly,…
I’m hearing great things from teachers and kids who are piloting the English Language Arts modules that were released earlier this year in Albany. In fact, several of the elementary writers in the WNY Young Writers’ Studio asked if we would consider implementing different modules during our summer fellowship sessions this year. Seriously. All of this has given me great pause. As a teacher, I’ve worked hard to give my students a real voice…
Last month, a number of teachers and consultant friends of mine began kicking around the idea of creating an archive of paired passages and texts that educators could pull on for a variety of purposes. I liked this idea very much, but not for the reasons people might suspect. To be honest, I’m not sure how many people will find resources like this valuable in the long run. It’s not about the resource for me, though. It’s about…
When I began Common Core lesson studies with elementary teachers two years ago, they made the same surprising observation in each of the classrooms I taught in that spring: the background knowledge that many readers shared was often very interesting. Some was even compelling. And much of it was completely inaccurate. This didn’t surprise us, but what typically happened next did: when I invited readers to share their background knowledge through talk prior to reading,…
This post is the next in a lengthy series intended to make the work that I am facilitating relevant to Race to the the Top and specifically, the alignment of curricula to the Common Core Learning Standards, transparent for others. Doing so has enabled me to gain clarity and new perspectives from others who are on the ground and doing this work. They have significant expertise to share. If you are approaching similar work in…
I think this is a critical guiding question for every educator in New York State right now, particularly those who are facilitating work with the Common Core Learning Standards, APPR, inquiry teams, and assessment design. If ever there were a time when mindfulness would take a back seat to panic and job satisfaction would be sacrificed to perceptions about imposed mandates, that time would be now. We run the risk of losing some incredibly talented…
In addition to sharing as much as I can about my work with the CCLS inside of schools this year, I’m also taking more time to reveal the workings of the WNY Young Writers’ Studio over here. Studio is a writing community comprised of teachers and writers of grades 1-12. We also identify mentors within our program who are interested in becoming teachers themselves one day, and we provide them opportunities to learn and apply…
In order to mine a standard’s true meaning, you typically have to unwrap it a bit. The purpose of this work is to distinguish the standard’s explicit and implicit meaning. Implicit meaning? Aren’t standards supposed to be articulated with precision? Well, that’s the hope, but even the best standards require skillful interpretation. This is informed by the professional conversations that we have with others and the expertise we are all willing to share. For instance,…
At first glance it might seem like we are doing this already, but teaching confidently with the CCLS challenges us to understand them with depth. Glancing at the standards is what we do when we say we are reviewing the standards….exposing ourselves to the standards….. or introducing the standards to teachers. Developing a fluency with the standards? Well, that’s a whole other ball game. This week, I’ll try to share as much as I can…