The teachers at my school talk about the need for cross grade level articulation, but we never seem to have the time. All of our scheduled Tuesday meetings are taken up with B.S. and then most grade levels meet within their own grade for several hours after school on their own time. With that said teachers don't have any more personal time to give up.
I do like the idea of common core going deeper instead of briefly touching a million topics. I think that's the way it used to be. Specifically, the topic of time that Erica mentioned. The curriculum we use spends a day on telling time to the hour (review), to the half (review), and ten and five minute intervals. You better hope you're not absent that week. I remember when we would make time clock books of many different types and the learning would be spread over months. Subjects need to be more integrated, so that students have the opportunity to continually apply a skill to different areas.
But getting back to the point, knowing that grade two only covers time to the five and ten minute intervals doesn't really help third grade if we only spent two days on it. I see that first grade worked on time as well, but only to the hour and half hour. Those kids still ask me what time recess is. Teachers need to do cross grade level planning with the whole year in mind. Second grade is only just starting 3 digit addition and subtraction, but if I was a third grade teacher the standards make it seem like we've been doing it all year.
Hi Donna,
ReplyDeleteI totally understand the frustration that you are feeling because it is something that I am experiencing at my school site too. We have all of these Tuesday afternoons free for professional development, yet they are always being usurped by some non-sense. When what we really need is to be given that time to earn more about our standards and to talk to each other about what our students are coming into our classrooms knowing and what gaps they may have.
These conversations are especially critical now as the abrupt change of standards has left a whole generation of students with gaps in their knowledge because they did not experience the full CCSS progression of mathematics content.