As more states across the nation make the
shift to Common Core standards, the rigor increases and the expectations of
higher level thinking skills required for proficiency far surpasses what
students have been required for proficiency. Being an upper elementary teacher,
I am eager to see the effects on students having been held to these standards all
along, but what does that mean for those students in upper elementary who have
barely gained exposure to what we are now asking. Going through their
elementary career, students have not been asked to write informational texts
and their time of free writing has nearly vanished. How do we adopt a reading
and writing program in upper elementary that will make up for the shortcomings
of these students while allowing for them to move at their readiness level and
be successful with the new standards? What would that reading and writing
program look like? So to begin exploring these options, the real question is,
what are the best practices and methodology for upper elementary students in
Common Core State Standards to be successful in reading and writing?
During the 2011 – 2012 school year, I was
hired as a Fourth Grade Reading teacher, and that was it. Our school had
separated reading and writing for my group of students. I was handed the SRA
Open Court curriculum and was informed that our Science and Social Studies
teacher would also teach writing, but had not curriculum or standards to abide
by. I was then given the option to veer away from Open Court and go where I saw
fit as long as the standards were met for the North Carolina Standard Course of
Study and that the students proved proficient on the End of Grade Test. This
lack of curricular structure, led me to discuss the options with other
teachers. Every teacher in our building was doing something different for their
reading and writing instruction. The only consistency was that we all had the
Open Court materials, some of them, and that we were aware of Reading A-Z as a
program that was available. Continuing through the year, I saw the disconnect
among grade levels as well as a lack of communication between all reading and
writing teachers. In the past, writing had been tested, but was recently
dropped and merely a writing sample is kept in each student’s portfolio.
Through this research, I hope to find a program that will enable our teachers
to have consistency and routine in their instruction to better prepare students
for the level of writing required for reading comprehension through Common
Core.
In doing so, I plan to present the data to
our school Principal to review for the upcoming 2012 – 2013 school year. By
piloting this program, there may be an opportunity for our district leaders to
review our work with the program and potentially implement them across the
district. However, for full district adoption, I will need to keep in mind the
cost of the programs I review, as well as the training required for teachers to
understand the materials and implementation of the program. Therefore, this
will not only guide my instruction in the fall, but potentially also within my
school and district to benefit all students to be successful.
Initially, I looked to leaders within my
school and two individuals who presented at our professional development
conference. After extensive discussions, I have decided to review work and
research done by Lucy Caulkins, Gail Boushey and Joan Moser – The 2Sister of
the Daily Five and Café, Dr. Robert Marzano, and Debbie Diller to name a few.
There have been additional researchers whom have conducted research upon these
programs, but through this study I hope to review their work as well as
discussing with teachers who have implemented these programs and seen results
to reach my final conclusion. It was the consensus, that students must
comprehend more informational texts and use higher order thinking skills, being
able to explain their thinking through writing to meet Common Core State
Standards. This is an ongoing issue and debate within classrooms across the
country. When reviewing the Six Shifts of the Common Core State Standards,
there are now required standards for writing that have not been in place prior
to adopting the standards. For example, one shift has gone from writing a persuasive
text to an argumentative text, not just your opinion, but have the evidence to
support that side of the argument (North Carolina Department of Public
Instruction, 2012). This is just one sample of increasing the rigor of the
expectations on students and their writing abilities. As the document, English Language Arts Unpacking Standards,
continues, it makes it more evident that our reading and writing programs
cannot remain the same, especially when they were nonexistent to begin with. If
students are raised to higher standards, we must be able to use the curriculum
to help them meet and exceed those standards.
Works Cited
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
(2012). English Language Arts Unpacking Standards.
Retrieved from http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/docs/acre/standards/common-core-tools/unpacking/ela/4.pdf
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