Words: 675
It would be a good idea to have an oversight body that would assess the teacher’s understanding of the lesson and the supporting tools prior to entering the classroom. Certifying the teacher to Implement Common Core Standards rather than trusting a teacher to Implement the standard would be the action I would take. How can we as teachers ask our students to participate In standard based curriculum If we as teachers do not assess our teaching practices of the standards? How can students demonstrate understanding or mastery of a standard if the teacher who delivers the lesson is not certified to address such standards?
It is nice to know that both sides of the Common Core Standards argument can agree that high expectations should be similar for all children of our nation. In order to assess students from a rural educational institution compared to their urban cohorts, a standard based assessment would be best. The standard will be the same for the two students but how they approach the standard and chose to show competency of the standard may differ. Does this make one student more correct than the other? No, Just as two similar businesses men, artist or writers may approach a challenge there are many answers.
We need to teach our children, as well as parents and teachers, that mastering a standard will not conclude with everyone having the same answer. We are no longer looking for one answer but yet the understanding of a standard that may have many answers to explain a process, concept or theory. We are now looking for “what students should learn and be able to do as they progress through school. ” (Sconce, 2014, p. 117) In order to develop the understanding of a standard we must ask ourselves what expect all educated citizens, student, to have learned? (Sconce, 2014, p. 117) If we start planning each lesson with the question, what do we want each student to learn and then ask what standard does this address? We as teachers will develop better sessions and the assessment will follow. If we start with the assessment, all we will be teaching Is drill-based lessons to pass a test. As the lead teacher for the Digital Medal Arts Academy at Century High School In Santa Ana, It Is my Job to Implement the Common Core Standards and make sure my colleges are administering the standards as well.
The purpose of an academy setting projects the students are gaining deeper understanding of the subject material with a digital media arts framework. As the animation teacher, I ask students to storyboard an animation they have developed from a story in their English class. The students are to track the time they used for research, development of the story, character creation and production as well as track the cost for materials to develop a budget.
Once the animation is complete the student will have worked on cross- curricular standards that included English, math and animation. When students are working on cross-curricular assignments they understand that it is of more importance. Moreover, they are more excited to show the work they have completed in their other classes. What may drive the cross-curricular projects home are the reservations of the work to the group and the field trips to support our academy effort. Last week all three teachers and twelve students attended Comic Con in San Diego.
This allowed the students to see their teachers excited about the learning process and showcase the world of digital media arts on a large platform. “The curriculum guides we seek would offer a practical road map for achieving the goals set by standards in the limited instructional time available to teachers. ” (Sconce, 2014, p. 117) Our academy uses the Common Core Standards as the road map to frame our cross-curricular lesson. The results I have seen are students who are challenging themselves and each other to not only reach the standard but to achieve quality work.