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They may push it through with the lower grades when they revise CC, but my friend who is a regent says that it will be hard to get rid of the 120 year old regents exams.
As much as I hate to do, as a retired History teacher, so I agree with the Math teacher. It is possible to learn about the Viet Nam war without knowing much about the War of 1812. For Math, if you don't get Chapter 2 you won't get Chapter 3.
Coney has it right. Unless you think history is about memorizing names and dates, you need to understand what came before to understand today, and the future.
Funny thing is, I'm a physicist so you'd think I'd be arguing the math point. Well that's a given, but not the whole picture. It is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition, to being educated. You know what I tell students who are interested in STEM during recruiting pitches and school career days? Yes, math and science. But just as important is English, history, geography. Because you have to be able to communicate. You have to work in teams. And that means understanding more than the narrow discipline.
I think that applies to any subject. You can't get to the next level if you haven't had the basics. To do a proper analysis of the Vietnam War, you would need to know what came before it. Just as with math, the student wouldn't be ready for that until later grades. It would be the same with languages. I agree that the student may not be able to complete all calculations until the other things had been taught, but you can explain what the concept is behind the volume of cylinder to kindergartners without them being able to come up with a precise numerical answer. This is actually part of the curriculum for prek and k. You use strings to measure the circumference and little manipulatives to measure area. But just as with having a thorough understanding of the events that led to the Vietnam War, the key word is thorough, you would need to know what happened in the world previously. This applies to all subjects.
It's not with every subject. That's why in college students have to take a placement exam in mathematics and have pre-requisite classes they must take before they can sign up for higher level classes. In the history department, I can take Modern African Civilization without needing to take U.S. History since 1945. However, you CANNOT sign up for a Calculus class in college before you've taken Trigonometry. You CANNOT take Algebra 2 without having a knowledge of Algebra 1.
Coney has it right. Unless you think history is about memorizing names and dates, you need to understand what came before to understand today, and the future.
Funny thing is, I'm a physicist so you'd think I'd be arguing the math point. Well that's a given, but not the whole picture. It is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition, to being educated. You know what I tell students who are interested in STEM during recruiting pitches and school career days? Yes, math and science. But just as important is English, history, geography. Because you have to be able to communicate. You have to work in teams. And that means understanding more than the narrow discipline.
No, you and Coney have it 1/2 right. It's orders of magnitude easier to teach, since we're using the example, the Viet Nam War to someone with no or little understanding of the War of 1812 than it is teach division to someone who doesn't understand multiplication.
Who said that the ability communicate clearly isn't important for STEM? Well no one but STEM people. I know too many nonverbal STEM folks who aren't able to give a clear answer when you ask them what time it is.
Nah, we've got social studies in the New York State Common Core standards right in this big fat book next to me, grades prek-12. And yeah, New York is weird. They do it their way.
There are no Common Core social studies standards. Each state has their own social studies standards.
The Common Core ELA standards make suggestions on how to teach literacy in the content areas (including social studies), but makes no mention of what subject matter should be taught.
There are no Common Core social studies standards. Each state has their own social studies standards.
The Common Core ELA standards make suggestions on how to teach literacy in the content areas (including social studies), but makes no mention of what subject matter should be taught.
Then I must be confused about CC. We have the New York State Standards for the Common Core. I had to follow it and use an assessment instrument that included social studies. This was for an early grade level. The assessment instrument was not just for my state, but something that some area districts purchased for their use and it is supposed to be based on CC. As you stated, there were some specific content areas, but most of it was skill based, e.g. map reading skills, etc. But the students were assessed these skills. And my lesson plans had to state which CC social studies standards were part of the social studies lessons.
It's not with every subject. That's why in college students have to take a placement exam in mathematics and have pre-requisite classes they must take before they can sign up for higher level classes. In the history department, I can take Modern African Civilization without needing to take U.S. History since 1945. However, you CANNOT sign up for a Calculus class in college before you've taken Trigonometry. You CANNOT take Algebra 2 without having a knowledge of Algebra 1.
I think we are discussing two separate things. You are writing about prerequisites. It would be presumed since these are college students that they have some broad, basic knowledge of history or they would not have been admitted or passed high school. I am talking about concept development and I work with the babies. You can introduce the concept of volume to little kids. That is the point of early childhood education. They then can use this introductory aspect of the concept of volume, much later to start using numbers to measure volume with formulas, etc. First, students have to grasp numeracy, counting, more and less before they can understand the concept of addition. It is the same with any subject. You can't reach point F until you have mastered the concept of A in order to really understand the concept.
This would infuriate me. The 50:50 split is based off an arbitrary bell curve and done simply because the school does not have the teaching resources to offer rigor to all of the kids. Advanced math should be open to ANY kid who wants to do the work. Repeatedly scoring at 99th percentile is enough to demonstrate her competence. It is upsetting that kids in 7th grade are placed on a track where AP calculus will not be a viable option 5 years later.
Aren't your state tests being replaced by PARCC? That's about as national as it gets.
Not really - when only 7 states of an original 29 states are left...so not really "national"...more states will drop it soon....
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