I love a good critique now and then, but I want to build something too. How can we make our schools what we want them to be?
This is one of the more coherent pieces I have read about the CCSS. It lays out a specific issue that you have with the overall scope of the standards themselves, but then also looks at how they have been used by others and implemented by school districts.
I do worry, however, about going to any extreme within discussing these standards or their implementation. I too struggle with an overly narrow emphasis, but I like the ways in which you can do deep because of it. I too struggle with a text-only approach, but I understand that this is meant to combat the many assignments that are tangentially related to the text (diaramas, webquests, etc.). I too struggle with an obsession with only the outcomes, but I feel as though equity can be lost when we don’t look at objective outcomes for our kids.
I believe that there is a compelling alternative to be had for implementing standards in this way, but it will only exist if we create it. I think you are right to call attention to what you believe is misguided, but I also want to propose what we should do instead. Is there a model or a set of standards that you believe would be better? Are there other ways of analyzing text that you see as more valid and that have led to better understanding? How can we get to a place where we are helping one another to create the future rather than just looking at the present in despair?
via Challenging the Cold War Pedagogy of Common Core | Creative by Nature.
