Jolene Nechiporenko

ET, CA

Shananhan, T. (2013).  Common core ate my baby.  Educational Leadership, 70(4), 10-16.



Debunking myths about the common core state standards.

In his article, The Common Core at My Baby, Timothy Shananhan tackles some common fearful myths surrounding the common core state standards.

#1     New standards prohibit teachers from setting purposes for reading or discussing prior
 knowledge.

Shananhan tells us that "preparation should be brief and should focus on providing students with the tools they need t make sense of the text on their own."

#2     Teachers are no longer required to teach phonological awareness, phonics, or fluency.

"...the new standards require as much early emphasis on decoding and fluency as in the recent past, and claims to the contrary are no more than myths, not breaking from NCLB. 

#3     English teachers can no longer teach literature in literature classes.

"Clearly, the new standards involve more than just reading novels, stories, poems, and plays and interpreting literary devices."  Students will need to do more reading in informational texts such as science or history.
  
#4     Teachers must teach students at frustration levels.

The CCSS "indicate specific levels of text difficulty that students must be able to handle by the end of each school year.  These levels are considerably higher than current levels."

#5     Most schools are already teaching to the new standards.

"Writing instruction will need to focus more on writing about the ideas in texts and less on just putting personal thoughts into words.  At the same time, reading will involve more critical analysis and synthesis of information from multiple texts."

Shananhan explains that we can either shift our practices now or we can wait to our communities find out how 'well' we're really doing. (2013)

Implementing the common core state standards: What is the school librarian's role?

Engelbrecht, Shannon.

CA

Uecker, R., Kelly, S., & Napierala, M. (2014). Implementing the Common Core State Standards. Knowledge Quest, 42(3), 48-51.

Summary: This article is a synthesis of an article by the engage NY team (www.engageny. org/sites/default/files/resource/attachments/common-core-shifts.pdf). The original article was written to give families a high level explanation of the changes the Common Core would make in their students education. The authors of the librarian focus article took the six shifts that the engage NY team defined, and applied them to the work of school librarians.

Evaluation: This is an excellent article that shows the influence of much of the school library best-practice research combined with the new demands of the common core. It is laid out a a guide to the six shifts in approach and action that position school librarians to best support teachers and students in mastering the new skills required by the common core state standards. It would also serve public librarians as a guide to children's collections development and collaboration with teachers. This is one that I will be adding to my professional list of reference articles that I use to guide my annual planning for my libraries.

21st Century Learning Assessments – An Overview

Keith, E.K.

CA

IL = Constructivism & IL

Churches, A. (2014). 21st Cenury Assessment. Retrieved from Educational Origami: http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/21st+Century+Assessment

“21^st Century Learning Assessments” is one of many interesting items in a vast array of shared materials that is available on this blog and wiki. The article notes a move away from exam formats as assessments for 21^st century learning.

21^st century assessments must be appropriate to 21^st century learning. Appropriate learning opportunities and assessments include:

• Rich Real World Tasks

• Higher Order Thinking

• Collaboration

• Timely and Appropriate Feedback

• Transparent Schema

• Self and Peer Assessment.

This article contains clear explanations and reasons for each of the requirements for a good 21^st century assessment. It is very useful in getting a big picture understanding of the subject. In addition, the categories discussed will resonate with constructivist teacher librarians, especially in regard to higher order thinking, collaboration, and reflection.

Using Curriculuar Cultures to Engage Middle School Thinkers

Using Curriculuar Cultures to Engage Middle School Thinkers

Chambers, Julia

Schnuit, L. (2006, September). Using curricular cultures to engage middle school thinkers. Middle School Journal 38(1). P. 4-12 Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23024468

This article recaps a case study conducted in 2005-6 that had three teachers try an alternative “curriculum culture” in their middle school classrooms. Curriculum culture is defined as the way curriculum is delivered or the expectations, habits and norms that surround the learning. The three cultures were 1) a Culture of Constructivism, in which the focus is on building knowledge through student inquiry; 2) a Culture of Democracy, in which the focus is on preparing students to be capable citizens of a democracy through shared authority and responsibilities with teacher as facilitator; 3) Culture of Self & Spirit, which emphasizes educating the “whole child”, including social-emotional, physical, academic, and creative well-being. All three cases were deemed successful, with teachers reporting that their classrooms and their teaching practices had been revitalized.

Evaluation: As a Middle School Librarian, I can see why this age group, in particular, might benefit from any type of culture other than top-down, directed teaching. This article made me interested in reading more about the Culture of Democracy, because I think this culture would appeal greatly to the kids at my school – more so perhaps than the other two cultures since it’s based on participation and would suit many of their egos. It’s also (perhaps) a more concrete approach than constructivism and holistic teaching. It seems like this age group is still struggling to think in the abstract, so a democratic structure/approach to learning provides the comfort of exploring the abstract in a controlled environment.

CA