News Brief
Voices: Perfect Blend for Common Core
EdNews Colorado (03/11/2013) Keigan, JessicaJessica Keigan, a high school English teacher in Thornton, Colo., and a teacher leader with the Center for Teaching Quality, says there are concerns that the Common Core State Standards will force teachers to stop teaching fiction to make room for non-fiction, but she stresses that a focus on "either/or" is not required. She says one solution is constant collaboration, and she is part of a collaborative team of teachers who teach the same course and work together on timing and classroom activities, stressing that the standards set forth a common goal that focuses their conversations. She also has a teaching partner with whom she plans and implements daily activities and assessments and selects texts. Keigan notes, "The new standards are not a curriculum. Instead, they are a set of skills for which students will need to demonstrate proficiency. We have to decide what content we will use to help students master those skills." She uses poetry, narrative, philosophy, primary sources, artwork, music, and commentary, among other things, as part of her responsibilities in a 10th grade core that blends world history and world literature. She notes that as part of an English unit on persuasive writing and speaking in which students were to analyze rhetorical techniques, they read texts written by Enlightenment philosophers and speeches and documents from revolutionary thinkers, along with "A Tale of Two Cities" and parts of "Les Miserables." Keigan adds, "I am working hard to shift away from thinking about units based on texts to units based on skills. I am working hard to find engaging and meaningful non-fiction texts to pair with the fiction that I love to teach. I am constantly re-directing myself towards classroom instruction built around skills. And I am hungry for collaborative opportunities to help me continue my growth."
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