At yesterday's faculty meeting, our principal asked us how Common Core (and the teaching of said standards) is going. Most of the responses centered around the fact that CCSS Ask For Increased Rigor.
And that's true. They do ask for increased rigor, but that's really too pat an answer.
What the CCSS ask for is not just harder classes--to me, their intent guides us towards redefining the meaning of rigor.
Rigor is not the ability to know more facts than ever before.
Rigor is not more homework or more busywork.
Rigor is not more projects and more simulations, either. It's not more lectures, more complicated subject matter, it's not Bringing The Honors Curriculum To The Masses.
Rigor can be, and generally is, defined by one or many of the above criteria. But those criteria are wrong.
Where the Common Core is pushing us, at least in English, is towards transference. Towards thought processes (like the list given in Roger Schank's Teaching Minds)--processes like diagnosis, prediction, evaluation, causation, description. These are skills that apply to all disciplines.
It is of the utmost importance that students can see how the skills they learn with me (and with all of us) can transfer to something that holds their interest. Even better, we should try (and Cheryl, Karl, Kate, and I are trying) to sculpt a flipped class curriculum driven by student interest, as much as is possible without ignoring state-level standards.
To me, that's one of the great joys of the flipped classroom, amidst all the chaos and frustration and confusion and wreckage of the kind of teacher I once was: watching, student by student, as the lights come on, as they remember what they used to love about learning.
And that's true. They do ask for increased rigor, but that's really too pat an answer.
What the CCSS ask for is not just harder classes--to me, their intent guides us towards redefining the meaning of rigor.
Rigor is not the ability to know more facts than ever before.
Rigor is not more homework or more busywork.
Rigor is not more projects and more simulations, either. It's not more lectures, more complicated subject matter, it's not Bringing The Honors Curriculum To The Masses.
Rigor can be, and generally is, defined by one or many of the above criteria. But those criteria are wrong.
Where the Common Core is pushing us, at least in English, is towards transference. Towards thought processes (like the list given in Roger Schank's Teaching Minds)--processes like diagnosis, prediction, evaluation, causation, description. These are skills that apply to all disciplines.
It is of the utmost importance that students can see how the skills they learn with me (and with all of us) can transfer to something that holds their interest. Even better, we should try (and Cheryl, Karl, Kate, and I are trying) to sculpt a flipped class curriculum driven by student interest, as much as is possible without ignoring state-level standards.
To me, that's one of the great joys of the flipped classroom, amidst all the chaos and frustration and confusion and wreckage of the kind of teacher I once was: watching, student by student, as the lights come on, as they remember what they used to love about learning.
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