What I noticed about the CCSS is that the goal of each grade level is to focus on four critical areas in an effort to get students to develop conceptual understanding of concepts at each grade level. Each year students use the knowledge gained the previous year to focus on four more critical areas of mathematics.
So the overall understanding is that it is okay to teach concepts that students will learn next year if and only if you are able to cover the critical areas of your grade CCSS. Additionally, if a teacher hasn't taught one of the critical areas then there will be gaps that the new teacher will have to teach.
There is great value in articulation of content across the grade levels. When I taught in the regular classroom at my previous school, we met every couple of months with teachers of different grade levels to discuss curriculum (especially math) and discussed difficulties that were being encountered in student learning. As a third grade teacher, it was important to hear the feedback from the fourth grade teachers about the "gaps" they were finding in student learning. We began to adjust our instruction to make sure that we covered areas in content more thoroughly where needed. We also articulated areas where the incoming second graders needed more reinforcement before coming to third grade. We had some eye-opening discussion and this helped us to improve our focus and instruction. Understanding the progression of student learning proved to be very valuable for us as teachers.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is very important that we understand the standards of the grades below and above the grade we are teaching. We need to understand what learning the students are coming in with so that we can build upon that and refer back to what they learned in the prior grade when needed. I have taught Science for the past 8 years now. I have taught grades 2nd thru 5th and so I understand the progression of the standards and how they "spiral". I find myself going back and discussing the connection between what we are learning now and how that connected with their learning in prior grades. That's when I get those "aha" "Oh yeah, I remember!" moments.
My school does a great job of articulation at the specific grade levels twice a week for grade level planning and collaboration. There is not vertical articulation between grade levels. I think it would be powerful if they did. I will mention it to our Director and Lead Teachers.