4/20/2023 0 Comments RetrospectThe flaw which would require some rethinking is, however, fatal: The edict that readers make arguments in favor of an interpretation or understanding of a text using evidence within the four corners of the text. I’m not up to speed on the influence of this Core idea on current versions of teacher preparation reading and writing methods courses, but if they haven’t been impacted, there is an open door. The Core instantiates this call in national, not federal, standards that almost every state has voluntarily adopted. For decades literacy educators have been calling for reading and writing across the curriculum, for directly teaching ways of using literacy within disciplinary epistemologies as tools for constructing knowledge. Third, David and the validation committee especially valued the Core’s emphasis on literacy within the disciplines. Instead of devoting so many activities in the curriculum where learners are working at a comfortable level (in reading, knowing 98% of the words in a text), the Core expects children to learn to sit comfortably in complexity, to read difficult texts carefully and closely for nuances and subtleties, to scour the text within its four corners to get what the author’s words are saying. Second, again following David, the Core embraces the idea that children can do much more complex thinking and learning than we’ve given them credit for in the past. Nonetheless, expecting our teachers to increase challenges as the years pass is not a bad idea. True, there are problems in the details sometimes a goal for third grade is more complex than one for sixth grade, but as David points out, we just don’t have the research to map development at each grade level. David spoke about three big picture elements in Core assumptions that are worthy and form the basis for picking up the pieces of old inventions and repurposing them, as Janet Hecsch would say.įirst, the Core begins with the end in mind, with a vision of accomplishment at graduation, and then parses out levels of complexity starting in kindergarten. The idea for teacher development would be grounded in the professional prerogative of teachers to apply educational research according to their judgments rather than respond to external mandates or coercion (see David Pearson’s ltRRtl podcast on the Core). Following the Academic Passport model of the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education (WICHE), constituent LEAs or Counties or States could nest more thoughtful professional development and assessment frameworks in an ongoing research and development process involving resourced personnel. California could retreat from the minutiae and create something commensurate with the big Core picture, using much of the vision, restructuring the rest. They are firmly planted in educational institutions. They’re voluntary standards, not federal, a point that is becoming increasingly more salient. Schools have lasted because of the innovation and resourcefulness of educators over the long haul. As Janet would say, there is no reason to start from scratch even if it were possible. I’m beginning to wonder if the Core standards are as good as it gets-for this era.
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