Week 2: Digging Deeper in CCSS

New Math Standards a Hurdle for Some Students and Teachers
"Our kids can do it ... we just need a timeline that's reasonable to bring it into the classroom." I couldn't agree more with this statement, but the districts and its assessments can care less. Many teachers who have been teaching under the NCLB has been accountable to assessments, and this has affected teachers' practice of effective teaching. With the adoption of CCSS, I believe teachers need to stem away from assessment accountability and teach students so that they understand the concepts. We have to prepare our students for the real world and get away from my students needs to get Problem 5 correct. The fruits of our labor are not at the end of the year, but when they become successful human beings pertaining to their own goals.

Common-Core Math Standards Put New Focus on English-Language Learners
The title says it all, so how do we prepare students? The article gives many pointers, for example opportunities for expression, scaffolds and support, and making language visible. In order to meet this demand and have my students meet CCSS-ELA standards as well, I have created a mathematical explanation paragraph stem that guides my students to explain their work. This is the format of their explanation:

According to the problem, I used the _______ strategy to solve the problem.

First, I ...

Second / Then, I ...

Third / Last / Finally, I ...

Closing sentence:

The sum of my addends, ____ and ____, equals ____.
The different of my minuend, ____, and subtrahend, ____, equals ____.
The product of my factors, ___ and ___, equals ____.
The quotient of my dividend, ____, and divisor, ____, equals ____.

Students meet ELA standards on writing topic sentences, sequential writing, as well as ending their paragraphs. In addition, they are using basic mathematical academic language that helps them to "sound" like mathematicians. I don't know the answer yet, but through this process, some students have produced solid use of academic language through their mathematical discourse.