Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Reflections on the K-6 Core Curriculum Language Arts Standards

I think that the core curriculum standards are very precise and clear in what they want students to accomplish in each area of language arts.  I think as compared to the Tennessee state standards the core curriculum standards are much less general. I have always thought that the standards were very vague.  When Eli went into Kindergarten I remember looking at the first grade standards to see what was in store and to see how he was doing.  At that time I felt like the standards for each grade were so similar that it was hard to know exactly what was expected at each grade level.  It looked like there was a huge amount of room for interpretation.  Probably not by the teacher but by the district.  I think the core curriculum standards address this problem.  I also like the fact that the standards are the same for every state that adopts them.  Children that move from state to state will have a better chance of having some continuity to their education. 
The other thing that I noticed was that media was not mentioned as one of the standards.  It is mentioned in the introduction but not as a separate standard.  I actually think that is a good thing because I don't think educators need to think of media and technology as a separate thing to teach but as a tool to use just like a book or paper and pencil.  Technology needs to be integrated into every aspect of the curriculum and it needs to be automatic not as a separate standard.
I am glad that Tennessee has adopted the Core Curriculum Standards.

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