Friday Open Thread
Anyone who has given thought to Common Core standards and has a opinion you might want to pass along/talk about, please shoot me an e-mail at sss.westbrook@gmail.com. I'll forward your e-mail on. Please send it to me by noon if possible.
Haven't checked other news sources but I suspect the charter law decision is generating a lot of discussion.
Both Board Director community meetings (Carr and Martin-Morris) are cancelled for tomorrow.
What's on your mind?
Haven't checked other news sources but I suspect the charter law decision is generating a lot of discussion.
Both Board Director community meetings (Carr and Martin-Morris) are cancelled for tomorrow.
What's on your mind?
Comments
Nothing in the Times about it.
PI Reader
PI Reader
(who sometimes reads the Times, too)
Today I wrote to the Board and asked them when they are going to do that job.
I don't anticipate a reply.
Why do they care so little about program placement?
everychild. onevoice
Meeting Reminder
Seattle Special Education PTSA General Meeting Dec 16th 2013, 7-9pm Rm 2700, School District main offices at 2445 3rd Ave S (3rd and Lander)
Guest speaker: Professor Virginia (Ginger) Berninger, UW College of Education, speaking on :
(a) evidence supporting the treatment-relevant, differential diagnosis of three Specific Learning Disabilities--dysgraphia, dyslexia, and OWL LD/SPI
(b) evidence supporting the teaching of handwriting and computer tools in the 21st century
(c) and proactive ways to develop collaborative relationships between parents and educators on behalf of children in cost-effective and evidence-based ways in general education, the least restrictive environment.
Dr. Berninger is a licensed psychologist and former teacher (general education, special education, and reading specialist) with extensive experience in school-related assessment, consultation, and research. She is currently Professor of Educational Psychology (Learning Sciences and Human Development), Learning Disabilities Coordinator, Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center for Human Development and Disability, University of Washington, and the Principal Investigator and Director of the NICHD-funded, University of Washington Multidisciplinary Learning Disability Center and Center for Oral and Written Language Learners (OWLs). During her 30 years of research on normal reading, writing, and math development and learning disabilities in reading, writing, and math, she has authored, co-authored, or edited over 200 research publications, including 12 books.
CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) services for persons with hearing impairment will be available at this meeting.
So in the broad sense, I'm okay with Common Core from what I've seen of the standards, but the actual SPS implementation is bizarre (from our one class perspective). Putting the standard in the rubric is not the same as actually teaching it. Sometimes the stated CC standard isn't really covered by the assignment, though in the teacher's twisted interpretation perhaps she believes it is.
I'd be interested in hearing how it's going in other classrooms.
-2cents
sss.westbrook@gmail.com
Identify and describe shapes.
Analyze, compare, create, and compose shapes.
(From Core Standards site)
The unfinished worksheet was sent home. What I observed was that many of the shapes described were a bit beyond what I would expect a kindergartner to have mastery of -- tetrahedron?
Based on my experience with early childhood development and having looked into Piaget (based education school stuff) I don't understand how the kids were expected to do this work without access to actual forms. Young children need that sensory input to help make sense of the world and within an academic setting I hardly expect a 5 year old to have strong knowledge of how many faces an abstracted diagram of the 3D form on paper might have.
That is where Common Core is truly failing kids -- in the classroom.
While my son was out sick I used blocks and various objects around the house and started teaching him the forms that way -- and he got it. Go figure.
Ann D.
Ann D
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/2013/06/OPP1085805
And what about Writers and Readers Workshops? How does this curriculum align with Common Core?
Most schools use these with a few exceptions, right?
What other tools are teachers being given?
Are tools being systematically given or are teachers expected to just develop their own things to fill gaps?
I am confused as to how we can say we are adopting the Common Core next year when I see so little evidence of conversation around these topics. And I hear about random worksheets being used. Perhaps I just don't understand....
-Common Core Confused
Its the curriculum not the standards that are the key here. No amount of professional development is going to change that unless you really expect teachers to ad-hoc design their lessons on the ground with a set of materials that don't match.
Ben
This is what we're seeing as parents. Same old stuff - CMP, EDM, RWW, but "aligned" to CCSS in name only.
2cents
Whatever the reason, all homework is worksheets - nothing that is creative or fun - and my son is unhappy for the first time ever. "It's dull. It's not easy, but it's really dull."
I've grown more and more distressed and started raising a fuss about worksheet crap, b/c being polite was getting me pats on the heads and educational jargon and being told "I was the only one complaining." Not hardly. I think I'm the only one who actually thinks my complaints might make a difference, and everyone else just gave up.
Me, I don't care about making nice, so I'm complaining about the CC worksheets. Whoever had a tetrahedron worksheet in K - keep a copy and start adding that to you letters. Complain. It's crap.
Signed: FTHEJARGON
Does anywhere in the real world use "rubrics"?
I've used a lot of checklists and evaluation tools, but the rubrics my elem. kids are supposed to use are so byzantine they make the federal register look like a light reading.
I told my 4th grader that rubrics were not a real world thing, and in all our grown up jobs neither parent had ever used a rubric, so he just had to power through it but it's just school junk. I hate having to tell him that, but he didn't understand and wanted my help (but of course he's not allowed to bring the rubrics home!)
So - rubrics? Anyone? Do they use them anywhere in the Real World?
Signed: FtheJargon Again
(some important special education class size ratios have been agreed to, and voted on......)
Can contract language be "tweaked" after membership approval?
Thanks.
Just Wondering
Naturally, I haven't heard back.
As an aspiring teacher, I can tell you we are required to use them. The kind of literal grading that goes on in school doesn't really happen outside school, does it? It's not like your boss gives you a B+ on your work on this project, right? But in schools, that's what's expected. It's only fair to give kids, and their parents, some guidance about how those grades will be assigned. When I plow through a stack of 60 or so lab notebooks, I know that the kids have been given a rubric before they wrote each lab report, so they have no excuses for leaving pieces out, doing superficial analysis in required areas, and so forth. It protects me from the accusation of arbitrary and capricious grading, and it lets them structure their work to some extent without simply being told what to do.
But that's at the high school level. Rubrics for elementary school strike me as less workable, because so little of that work is project-based, but maybe I'm just not thinking that through properly.
There are so many resources online for Common Core aligned lessons, and even non-aligned lessons that would teach the intended skills -- why don't teachers use them?
Ann D
Plus not all of the lessons online are worth much. Good teaching builds on a sequence of skills and content, and piecemealing with a lesson from here and a lesson from there is not necessarily a coherent way to do that.
As for CCSS - You should see how Pearson scammed some districts with their EnVisions math, telling them yes, the program meets CCSS standards, then after purchase, telling them no, it doesn't, you'll need to buy all new print materials, OR you can use the updated online teacher guide BUT you're not allowed to print it and none of it matches up with the student book.
Fun Times
This is what we've experienced with SBG in SPS:
1) Our child's teacher gives either 100% (4, meeting standard), 85% (3, meeting standard), or 75% (approaching standard). There is no in between. If the work meets standard and mostly, but not completely, meets the "exceeds standard" rubric, then the grade is 85%. The work has to be completely, absolutely perfect - 100%, or the grade is 85%. Final quarter grades are then averages of these 75%, 85%, and 100% scores. This system is even more rigid than your typical letter grade system.
2) Some teachers expect certain students to only meet standard. They tell them they don't have to do the problems labeled "exceed standard." If SBG is supposed prevent reduced expectations, is this really happening?
signed,
1984
Meet the wonderful principal, Paula Montgomery, and hear about the exciting work being done. Lots of Q&A, and a tour of JAMS too!
Come out and support this new school!
This is the first time SPS has opened a comprehensive secondary institution in decades, and it may serve as the template for the subsequent launches of Meany, Wilson Pacific, and even Lincoln high school, so let's all support JAMS getting a great start, whether or not your kids will go there !
-go JAMS
-North-end Mom
http://www.carolinacurriculum.com/stc/Middle+School/index.asp
We've been able to do a google search to find a link for read only online texts. It helps when there's a test and the material needs to be reviewed (or it wasn't covered thoroughly in class).
Our child has history/social studies classes without texts for each child. Crazy, isn't it? We've resorted to finding cheap used copies on Amazon.
-parent
FWIW
Kristin, can you answer these questions?
I would be interesting to see if there have been any valid studies done on whether "online texts only" enable students to learn math and or chemistry better than "bound books" with supplemental resources.
-- Dan Dempsey
(This could be another case of pushing technology for the sake of vendors rather than student learning.
--- No Vendor Left Behind?}
I must admit I love the feel of books when reading them and my children likes to attach sticky notes all over their books to highlight important points they want to remember and reference.
While college was over 30 years ago, I still blanched to this day the cost of textbooks and how many hours of work it took to pay for them (and this when minimum wage can still pay for one's college).
FWIW
http://www.ucds.org/spark/
For school leadership teams (BLTs here in Seattle) Vulcan Productions has developed a free resource for developing instructional practices. This was developed here in town but with educators across the nation and they are well-intentioned:
http://successatthecore.com/about/get-started.aspx
Ann D
In elementary school and even most of middle school, it's not so much about teaching specific scientific knowledge as it is about teaching the scientific process. Writing and testing hypotheses, measuring, documenting, graphing, analyzing. The actual details about soil or trees or stars or atoms may evolve over the decades, but the foundation of the scientific process is quite stable.
This may be slightly less true in high school, but good teachers can always make corrections in those cases. It's rare that large chunks of a K-12 textbook will be rendered inadequate over the course of its lifetime, which I believe is likely to be less than 10 years.
It really shouldn't be an either/or. Both content knowledge and the scientific process are important. There's just a general body of knowledge that students should be covering K-8. You should know about Charles Darwin, be familiar with general earth and space concepts, understand the basics about the human body, and have been introduced to the periodic table; the list goes on...
-parent
-Another Parent
Put on top of that incredibly huge class sizes and the abusive evaluation system. Granted, these are the main reasons I left teaching in SPS, but I still get it.
Maybe Ann D. can get a teaching certificate, be a guest teacher for a week, or sit through a non-training Common Core PD (that has evaluation consequences attached if you don't come up with your own materials) to supplement the already abysmal curriculum. Then we'll see if she's so quick to sound like the expert.
Under the horrible working conditions of teachers in Seattle, it still amazes me how they pull it off so well.
--enough already
http://www.engageny.org/english-language-arts
Even Georgia does better than WA State: https://www.georgiastandards.org/Common-Core/Pages/default.aspx
https://www.georgiastandards.org/standards/Pages/BrowseStandards/GPS_by_Grade_Level_K-8.aspx
Click on grade level for a fleshed-out curriculum. As far as I know, WA has nothing like these two sites.
The Danielson eval system was changed by state legislators from four domains to eight. Give ue a break. They prefer to use the whip to motivate teachers instead of providing resources that actually support good teaching. I don't understand why Washington is so far behind. Many states have better teacher support for common core than Washington. We are all online using them as best we can.
http://harvardmagazine.com/2012/03/twilight-of-the-lecture
2. An old UNESCO paper from 2002, but still relevant, particularly the sections on science and technology in schools- present curricula and recent trends and responses.
3. And finally, a great article about the misconceptions on teaching the nature and process of science (for those who want to debate the scientific process)
http://undsci.berkeley.edu/teaching/misconceptions.php
reader
http://folk.uio.no/sveinsj/STE_paper_Sjoberg_UNESCO2.htm
reader
I was just sharing resources. Others have said recently that Common Core implementation is just worksheets and others said teachers don't have time for research. I suppose I could post to the teacher's association page instead.
But but if you want to talk about bashing and attacking then go right ahead.
---
"I spend..." - I've read lots of stories where NYC teachers are being forced to use lesson plans from those sites by their principals and they aren't allowed any freedom. The Common Core sh*t has hit the fan yet here in Washington State/Seattle and when if does it isn't going to be pretty. A lot of the enthusiasm for it will fade when the tests start says teacher friends in NY.
Ann D
Ann D
There are so many resources online for Common Core aligned lessons, and even non-aligned lessons that would teach the intended skills -- why don't teachers use them?"
That doesn't sound like "just sharing resources" but maybe I'm just funny that way.
--enough already
Ann D.
You need to be careful when comparing states. In WA, districts have local control, meaning the districts themselves are in charge of selecting the materials and defining the curriculum. The state has "guidelines" and standards, but they really don't have the authority to enforce them - that is the job of the local school boards. In other states, CA for example, the state creates a list of approved textbooks and if schools want to purchase texts with state funding, they need to use the approved texts.
The blame for deficient materials and curriculum rests primarily with the district, both Teaching and Learning and the School Board. There are also oversight issues in which teachers are somehow able to get by with not covering year by year standards.
-observer
If NY is requiring teachers to use the online resource, all I can say is a lot non-NY teachers are using those resources and many others online by choice.
http://www.k12.wa.us/parents
just fyi
The point is that districts have local control. CCSS are standards, and do not specify how they are covered, just as current WA state standards don't dictate how districts are to cover the standards. That's why you ideally hire competent administration to help determine specific materials and curriculum for adoption. WA state agreed to adopt CCSS, so that's what districts need to take on. You can debate on the fairness of it, but it doesn't change the fact that students will be tested under the assumption they are covering CCSS.
-observer
A teacher in the trenches is telling us that the well is dry in terms of Common Core resources, both from the state and district.
This teacher has to live with the unprovided-for mandate every day.
The rest of us don't. Case closed in terms of who is "correct" on policy. It's the reality that matters.
--enough already
grumpy
Give credit where it's due is all I'm saying here. Nothing fancy or clever.
--enough already
http://educationnorthwest.org/webfm_send/1162
Based on the presentation, which district do you think is more prepared today?
-observer
Steve
Seattle Public Schools is adopting new instructional materials for the math program in grades K-5. You have a voice in this process!
We are currently evaluating eight potential math programs and we would like your input.
All program materials – textbooks, workbooks, teacher manuals, etc. – are on display for members of the community to review and provide feedback on. The materials are available for viewing at:
John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence
In the professional library
2445 Third Ave S., Seattle, WA 98134.
Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
The JSCEE building will be open during winter break, with the exceptions of Dec. 24, 25, 31 and Jan. 1. Feel free to come down and browse through the materials. We encourage feedback from the community at large.
You will have until January 8th to submit your comments on all of the different K-5 math programs under review (list below). Those comments will help the adoption committee identify three finalist programs for comprehensive review.
Starting in early March the three finalist programs will be on public display at five different locations across the city. (Sites to be announced) The final program will be selected by the Math Adoption Committee in early April and submitted to the school board for approval in May. Following approval, the materials will be delivered to schools in time for start of classes in the fall.
For more information, please visit the adoption webpage: http://bit.ly/MathAdoptionSPS14
We welcome your participation! For questions, comments, concerns, contact Adam Dysart (addysart@seattleschools.org) or Shawn Sipe (slsipe@seattleschools.org)
Programs under review:
Math in Focus
My Math
JUMP Math
Connecting Math Concepts
Ready Common Core
enVision
Origo Stepping Stones
Go Math
Random reviews of Jump Math from a homeschooler perspective:
I went all the way up to the 4th grade samples and it still looked like K-1 level. I think my first grader would be bored to tears with at least the sample portion of 4th grade, even if the samples aren't a good representation of the level of difficulty (which I certainly hope it gets more difficult than that).
In answer to the question "Is This a Complete Curriculum?" Timberdoodle answers, "Yes and No". So I think they think it is best for the younger grades or children struggling with math.
We used this program for 2nd and 4th grade math. I thought the program was good, but I didn't like how they taught children to use their fingers to count out the answer. My girls thought this was great, and we switched when my daughter told me she like this math because she didn't need to learn her math facts because she could just count on her fingers.
It could be kind of slow if you kid is math-minded, but other than that I've heard it's good. I've heard it was designed to be remedial, but I'm not sure about that.
I'd be interested what programs are considered the top 3 contenders.
-parent
Possibly not But the teachers would just as they are availing themselves of materials online from NY and other states.
enVisions is on the list? Someone wrote despairingly of enVisions either above or on a previous thread... I think APP has been using enVisions. I wonder how they like it?