Last week I posted my thoughts on the common core curriculum and how I've seen it affect the students I'm surrounded by each day. This week I interviewed my aunt who is a teacher at an elementary school in northern Utah. I asked her these questions
1) Which grade level/type of children do you teach?
2) Have you noticed a difference in grades and accomplishments since beginning common core?
3) What complaints have you had from parents regarding common core?
4) Is there a difference between what you used to teach and the new curriculum?
5) Are test scores similar?
6) What challenges come with teaching common core? (New students, slower/accelerated students)
1. I teach first graders.
2. The main change that I have noticed with my first graders since implementing the common core is that they have a much deeper understanding of mathematical processes than they did in the pass. My students now are much better at explaining their reasoning and HOW or WHY they do something. With this, I have noticed an increase in students being able to make their own connections and figure out their own ways of solving a problem. They are MUCH better at solving word problems/story problems and in the real life application of math. The common core standards require that we teach students many different math strategies. This provides students with several tools that they can have at their disposal. I like this because different strategies and tools resonate or make sense to different students, so teaching several of them makes it more likely that everyone will find a strategy or tool that works for them.
3. I personally haven't had any specific complaints regarding common core. The most I've heard is the occasional, "That seems like a hard assignment/concept for first grade. Is this because of common core?" (Invariably the issue at hand was completely unrelated to common core and was something that has been expected first grade curriculum for several years now.) I've heard parents, friends, and acquaintances with children in other grades complain about common core, but never parents of first graders. In fact, I haven't even heard any other first grade teachers complain about it. In all honesty, I think that the standards of the common core are mostly good teaching practices that many teachers have been implementing for years.
I have heard parents of some upper grade elementary (4th-6th) complain that their student got docked points on a math test where they were required to use a specific strategy. The parents felt that it was unfair to require the student to use a SPECIFIC strategy when they could solve the problem some other way. (For example, the problem may be :Solve the following addition problem by regrouping--and a student can solve the problem in a different way.) I have three basic opinions on this:
- It doesn't hurt students to learn more than one way to solve a problem. Different strategies may come in handy at different times with different problems. Learn them all!
- The real issue at hand here is assessment and accountability. If the test is purely to assess whether or not a child can ADD, then the child should definitely not be marked wrong for using ANY STRATEGY THEY WISH to add. If, however, the teacher is giving the test to see whether or not the child can add by REGROUPING, then a child who does not show proof of regrouping should get that problem marked wrong.
- My third and strongest opinion is that teachers need to use assessment for the right reason. First and foremost, teachers should use assessment to drive instruction. Tests should be given so that a teacher can see what a child already knows and what a child still needs to learn. Too much emphasis is given on a silly little grade letter. If I tell a child's parents that they got a D in math, that does nothing for the child. If, however, I explain that the child always leaves out the number 19 when counting and that the child adds numbers correctly most of the time, but never answers story problems correctly, that gives parents a better idea of what their child can & can't do & what they can help their child with at home. I recognize that this changes the older a child gets. Letter grades get more appropriate the older a student gets because a child has more responsibility for their own learning and they are a succinct way of providing information for college entry, etc. In the lower grades, however, the focus should be more on WHAT we as parents and teachers can do to help the student because they cannot yet help themselves, (They can't hunker down and study a textbook if they don't know how to read yet.)
4. There is a little bit of a difference between what I used to teach and what I now teach. Mostly, it's the same content, but going a little deeper into it.
5. In first grade, we don't have national or even statewide national tests. We do district, school-wide, and class wide tests, though. Since beginning to teach the common core, we have changed our tests to match what we are testing. (For example, coin values are no longer taught in first grade, so we don't test our students on the knowledge of coin values. Also, we have added many more difficult problems in both math & reading to match the more difficult concepts we are teaching.) I would say tests scores are about the same, but the tests are harder and more in depth.
6. I think one thing that has been a little difficult with the common core is that there is A LOT to cover. The most challenging thing has been trying to fit it all in. Sometimes I wish we could spend a little more time on one concept before we moved on so that some of my struggling students could have a chance to catch up, but that was a problem even before the common core came around.
Honestly, I'm not some crazy pro-common-core fan. I think the Utah core was pretty good before in the grade levels I taught. (K &1st) I do get a little bugged, though, when people complain about it & don't know what they're talking about. I admit that I don't know much about the common core in high school or middle school, but I've heard a lot of elementary school parents blame things on the common core that actually had nothing to do with it and that's what bothers me. Read the dang thing before you gripe about it. Maybe what you're complaining about actually has nothing to do with the common core. Maybe there's something your don't understand or maybe your kid just has a crappy teacher.
There are several points that my aunt view differently. This could be due to the age group, or the difference in perspective (teacher v. student).
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