Meanderings … and the Common Core Writing Standards

Published on: Author: bette Leave a comment

 

Writing for me is a process, an internal conversation – a way to process my thoughts.

I started this blog in 2009 for two reasons. One was to capture some of those random thoughts, and the other was to learn about “web logs” … or as I found out they were called: blogs.  Edublogs had been recommended to me because it is designed for teachers to use as a way to help students become proficient at using the internet to communicate their own ideas.  I started out with one experimental blog – and over the years have learned enough to feel comfortable using this format as a place to process, organize, and store drafts of my own work.

 

When I was a classroom teacher I had two favorite subjects: Writing and Music.  “Creative Writing” was taught as a separate subject in 1968 when I began teaching 4th grade at San Rafael School in Pasadena, California.  I loved publishing little books of writing to display at Open House.  It was all so simple and fun!

 

Someone once said that the more things change, the more they stay the same.  I’ve never been too sure about what that means … but it came to mind because I was just thinking about the Common Core Standards – particularly the Writing Standards.  We hear a lot about the Common Core these days, but I have yet to talk to anyone who really knows much about them. Since I’ve always been so interested in teaching writing, and in helping teachers teach writing, I wanted to know exactly what the Common Core Writing Standards were about.

 

They weren’t hard to find, but what really surprised me was that there are only TEN.  Not only that, when I read them … and waded through the somewhat confusing language (“Educationeze” as it’s been called) … I realized that I’ve been teaching the “common core” all my life.  So has every other teacher I’ve ever known.  At that point I got to work on translating them into plain English. Here’s what I came up with:

CLICK HERE:  COMMON CORE STANDARDS for WRITING simplified

 

The reason I started writing this morning is that I began thinking about Common Core Writing Standard #6.

     CCW 6: Use of technology/internet to collaborate and publish

 

It occurs to me that’s what Edublogs is all about.  When I hear people railing against “The Common Core” … I wish I could just send them my simple version of the Writing Standards!  I haven’t yet studied all of the standards for Language Arts – but I have noticed that there are only ten reading standards – and they correspond to the standards for writing.

For now, however, I’m going to move forward with Common Core Writing Standard #6.  If we are going to expect our children to “use technology and the internet to collaborate and publish” … then it seems to me that I need to get over my fear of technology and jump on the “moving train” … as I said I was going to do in 2009 when I decided to start this blog:

 

CLICK HERE: WELCOME to MEANDERINGS!

 

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