It’s not enough for your child to know what happens in a book. They need to answer critical questions about the book.
Few can argue against the Common Core State Standards being one of the most disruptive changes to the American educational system in modern times. They are reshaping nearly every facet of how our students learn, and in a relatively short period of time.
But how does that reshaping look on the ground level? If you walk into a classroom today that is operating in the spirit of the Common Core, what would be different from the classrooms in which you were taught?
The pacing
The first thing that strikes outsiders about the Common Core is that children are learning certain skills much earlier than we did as students, particularly in math. For example, kindergarteners are now touching on subtraction, a skill that traditionally came late in the 1st students to be prepared to take more advanced subjects in high school, making them more marketable on the global stage.
The collaboration
Although so-called “group work” has been popular in classrooms since the 80’s, the Common Core calls for more varied forms of collaboration that better mimic the work students will be asked to do in the world of college and career. There is a lot of “Think-Pair-Share” and project-based units where students are working toward a common goal, trying to circumvent the classic downfall of traditional group work—one person getting stuck with all the work. In today’s classroom, students are working together just as much, sometimes more, than they work individually.
The higher-order thinking
Perhaps the key goal in writing the Common Core standards was the elimination of rote memorization as a sign of education success. Knowing your multiplication facts faster than anyone else in class is a great trick, but can you use those facts to solve real-world problems? In today’s classroom, students are asked to fill in the blanks more often, to apply their knowledge in creative and critical ways. In English, for example, knowing what happens in chapter 4 of Tom Sawyer isn’t good enough. A question more likely to be discussed is “What would Tom have done if one of his friends died on the river raft?”
The real-world application
Along with the elimination of rote memorization comes less reliance on non-interactive learning content. To be fair, there are still the teachers that bind themselves to the grade year. The architects of the standards say that faster pacing leads textbook and perhaps there always will be, but a teacher operating under the true spirit of the Common Core will provide many opportunities for their students to interact with the skills and knowledge they are acquiring in class. The call is for students to get real-world, hands-on practice while they are still in school. In units and subjects where that isnot possible, digital content is seeking to fill the gap.
The Next Level
Is this picture truly becoming part of the norm in the classroom or, at your school, is it more of an ideal? Educate us in the comments below. If you thought this article brought up some valuable points, please share it among your social networks using the buttons.
And if you feel a child you know needs a little more help preparing for this rigorous new curriculum, please find out more about Athena’s services and how they can help you using this link.