Standards

Both the NCTE and CCSS standards outline the expectations that educators have at a state and national level that should be met by students at every grade level.  After focusing in on standards four through eight of the NCTE standards, the key idea in each standard seems to be aiming to get students to apply their skills and knowledge to understand the bigger picture.  Number four aims to get students to use language to communicate to many audiences and five gets students to use many strategies in order to improve their writing process and use it for many purposes.  I like number five the best because it highlights some of the things we are attempting to learn in this class.  We are learning the strategies that we can teach students in order to be higher orderly thinking students and applying what they know to every kind of writing.  Number seven of the NCTE standards is another good one because it aims to get students to effectively gather research and apply it to their reading.  It seems important that students should be able to digest their research before applying it to their writing.  I like the NCTE standards for the ways that they aim to get students to use and apply their previous skills and knowledge.  These standards are not perfect but they have good intention. 

            The CCSS standards are also helpful in educating students and the standards are put in place to have students be meeting specific requirements at the end of each grade level.  The standards for writing at the ninth and tenth grade level cover research, range, production, and types and purposes.  While I think all of those categories are necessary and well outlined, there seem to be a few holes.  I would have liked to see outlines on creativity or more on the editing process itself.  It would have been nice to see a section on standards for being a peer editor, even though this process does not occur in all the schools, if it was implemented into the standards it might become a norm in public schools whom are required to follow them. 

            In “Rhode Island Teachers Respond to PARCC: A White Paper,” I really enjoyed reading other teacher opinions on the PARCC testing.  Despite my earlier support for the standards and their coverage of student skills and achievements, there is too much pressure and less consideration for students cannot understand the standardized tests.  The socio-economic situations for every school community is a very big part of the “achievement gap” that occurs in schools.  Something this big in effect on students cannot be overlooked by educators who implement these tests.  There cannot be a national expectation for every student to perform the same based on one type of test.  Accommodations and modifications must be made in many circumstances and this seems to be the frustration for many educators.