O1
Offer an organized curriculum aligned to standards and outcomes- This is an important concept in that it helps keep some uniformity in our teaching. There are thousands of schools across the country and we need to have some homogeneousness in what students are learning. Having state and now national standards will help keep the consistency while still allowing for schools and teachers to be unique in their instruction.
When thinking about what I am teaching my students I use the GLE’s (I will be transferring over to the common core this coming year- http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards). I have been using the GLE’s for the last several years (Here are the reading GLE’s I have been using- http://www.k12.wa.us/Reading/pubdocs/ReadingEALR-GLE.pdf#cover). Although I am not excited about moving to the common core and having to re-familiarize myself with a new format for standards, I really like the idea of having common standards that (ideally) the whole country will follow (currently 45 states have taken on the common core).
I think that it is important for teachers to be aware of standards and plan curriculum accordingly. Using the standards helps guide our instruction so that we have a road map to follow. In some schools teachers are given curriculum. In my school some of the curriculum is given to us to use, but many teachers supplement the curriculum in order to meet the standards and needs of the students in the short time that we have to teach each subject (note: I work in a dual curriculum school, so we have about three hours a day to teach the general studies subjects).
Several of the teachers in our school have begun to look at the common core and have used both the common core and GLE’s in planning for instruction this past year. My school has also brought in a math consultant that we have been using over the years to help the teachers make the move towards the common core.
rebeccaaf 