Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I think the guy has an additional agenda, but I from what I can tell they both have legitimate concerns. Critical thinking is fostered by classical reading.
The biggest problem with common core is the ASS/U/MEption that children remember stuff. So many skills in 8th grade are dependent on mastery and remembering from early years. With such a stringent curriculum, there is little or no time to reteach, but alas, reteaching is normally required.
Not sure if this should go here, but I'd hate to start another thread.
Concerning the remembering of previous info for which is necessary for learning to build upon... has anyone else seen a drastic reduction in the students' abilities to recall over the last few years? I have and it's killing me.
I had a student - an an AP science class - ask me the same question 3 times in 30 minutes. Not a concept question, but a simple defintion of a scientific prefix - and the question wasn't how to use it, but what was it. Same student asked again the very next day. I told him to look it up himself, I'm done being his "memory crutch."
Is this something that over-usage of technology is creating? Is this the results of the ACT-style questions being used for EOC's (and very soon the PARCC's) that rely on interpretation of data over specific facts?
Or am I seeing the same level of memorization ability (or lack thereof) as I have in the past, but I'm getting grumpier and more senile in my old age?
There's so many SPI's on our standards in general chemistry, that I'm having a hard time covering it all, much less covering it with depth and enough repitition to create long-term memory. Is this a problem with CC of the NGSS?
Not sure if this should go here, but I'd hate to start another thread.
Concerning the remembering of previous info for which is necessary for learning to build upon... has anyone else seen a drastic reduction in the students' abilities to recall over the last few years? I have and it's killing me.
I had a student - an an AP science class - ask me the same question 3 times in 30 minutes. Not a concept question, but a simple defintion of a scientific prefix - and the question wasn't how to use it, but what was it. Same student asked again the very next day. I told him to look it up himself, I'm done being his "memory crutch."
Is this something that over-usage of technology is creating? Is this the results of the ACT-style questions being used for EOC's (and very soon the PARCC's) that rely on interpretation of data over specific facts?
Or am I seeing the same level of memorization ability (or lack thereof) as I have in the past, but I'm getting grumpier and more senile in my old age?
There's so many SPI's on our standards in general chemistry, that I'm having a hard time covering it all, much less covering it with depth and enough repitition to create long-term memory. Is this a problem with CC of the NGSS?
Yes I have and I think it's due to lack of rote learning. The material is not getting from short term to long term memory. Repetition is what gets into into your long term memory. Homework has fallen by the wayside and repetition of earlier topics during the year is left to the great review before the standardized tests due to lack of sufficient time to teach the full curriculum. And that is due to the curriculum being broadened so much to capture breadth of more material over depth and understanding.
Some Math topics are taught and done with in 2 days and then forgotten for months until review.
That gets everything back into short term memory for "the test".
And mnemonics seems to be another "bad" teaching method. Middle schoolers never learned half of what I learned.
And this is not just math. I still need to sing the diddley about "30 days has Sept, April, June and November" and they asked me to teach them that because they never learned it.
CC relies a lot on team and critical thinking to achieve results
Teachers become facilitators and listeners.
Common Core is just another top-down standardized "flavor of the month" approach that will ultimately fail. Until the education establishment understands that teachers are the classroom professionals (aren't we tested, investigated, observed and evaluated enough?) this silliness will continue and student performance will continue to slip.
I was going to create a new thread to ask teachers about the latest "Core Academic Skills" Praxis exam, so this probably sums up the feeling I wanted to gauge. I'm going to start the journey to become an elementary school teacher, and will begin with the Praxis Core, as required by my state. I realize this is a brand new part of the Praxis exam now as of July, 2013 and wanted some insight into the what and why of it, partly because due to its novelty I'm having trouble finding study guides and information on part of the praxis series.
Anyway, my question is, if the US is so concerned about comparing our students to other (European/Asian?) countries' students, why don't we model our curricula or even teaching methods after theirs instead of just creating more arbitrary tests? Do those countries also rely so heavily on (arbitrary) testing? If not, why compare results without comparing the approach? Am I missing something...
Not sure if this should go here, but I'd hate to start another thread.
Concerning the remembering of previous info for which is necessary for learning to build upon... has anyone else seen a drastic reduction in the students' abilities to recall over the last few years? I have and it's killing me.
I had a student - an an AP science class - ask me the same question 3 times in 30 minutes. Not a concept question, but a simple defintion of a scientific prefix - and the question wasn't how to use it, but what was it. Same student asked again the very next day. I told him to look it up himself, I'm done being his "memory crutch."
Is this something that over-usage of technology is creating? Is this the results of the ACT-style questions being used for EOC's (and very soon the PARCC's) that rely on interpretation of data over specific facts?
Or am I seeing the same level of memorization ability (or lack thereof) as I have in the past, but I'm getting grumpier and more senile in my old age?
There's so many SPI's on our standards in general chemistry, that I'm having a hard time covering it all, much less covering it with depth and enough repitition to create long-term memory. Is this a problem with CC of the NGSS?
No. I've been teaching since before computers and cell phones were common and it was the same back then. I'd say something - something simple, like, turn to page 21. I'd say it again. I'd ask if everyone is on p. 21. Literally one minute later someone would ask me what page. And then a minute after that someone else would ask the same. Many students don't pay attention and they never have.
The biggest problem with common core is the ASS/U/MEption that children remember stuff. So many skills in 8th grade are dependent on mastery and remembering from early years. With such a stringent curriculum, there is little or no time to reteach, but alas, reteaching is normally required.
Yep. I was teaching 6th grade special ed math and we skipped the first 2 lessons on factoring-assuming they remembered it from the previous year. Even the regular ed students didnt remember it and it had to be retaught. Kids forget things and need refreshers-even "typical" non-special ed kids (taught regular ed for 10 years too) and even in year-round schools (did that too). It's a part of learning for many kids-teach, forget, reteach! common core has too many assumptions on what they SHOULD know.
Anything that is Bill Gates' baby, and Common Core IS pure Gates Foundation, is bad news for the country.
We are not Europe, where the counties have national standards, for the simple reason our legal system supports the concept of state and local control of schools.
These idiots, meaning every single president from Clinton onward, never studied the Constitution and understood that simple truth about local control of curriculum.
The feds have the right to get involved where civil rights and equal opportunity are concerned, but curriculum is not one of the areas where it belongs.
Of course, putting national standards, especially these where the standards are deliberately age-inappropriate, is just an excuse to privatize all of public education by making sure every public school in the United States fails to reach those inappropriate benchmarks.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
