Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/315828
Math standards realign content to and across different grade levels. Topics are pared down, allowing teachers to go into greater depth on each topic. The biggest change was the elimination of the Algebra I requirement for eighth-graders, but schools may still offer it to students deemed ready. With speaking and listening standards for each grade, students work more collaboratively, using technology in project-based learning to prepare for college and the workplace. Teachers can incorporate more than one standard at a time into their lessons in creative ways. For example, Kathy Harris recently modeled a math lesson on vol- ume in an Olivet Elementary School classroom that incorporated a sixth-grade language arts standard of determining the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words, speaking and listening standards others are used to rote memorization and balk when asked to explain their answers. "Isn't it enough to just know the right answers?" they ask the Fairfield-Suisun Unified Teachers Association member. Ready or not… Teachers must implement the CCSS this fall. The new standards change not only what teachers teach, but how they teach it. The English language arts standards have less emphasis on fi ction and a greater focus on informational text. Students are to provide evidence from what they've read to support their answers, rather than provide their opinion or explain how an issue they've read about relates to their own life. Carrie Forrest engages her second-graders in a story at Olivet Elementary School in Santa Rosa. P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y S C O T T B U S C H M A N "THE COMMON CORE STANDARDS OFFER NEW OPPORTUNITIES TO BE CREATIVE IN THE CLASSROOM. THAT'S EXCITING AND A LITTLE BIT SCARY." CARRIE FORREST 11 www.cta.org M AY 2 0 1 4 Educator 05 May 2014 v1.6 int.indd 11 5/16/14 3:21 PM