learntolearn

Are the Common Core State Standards for all students? Do they address individual difference? the needs of students who don’t “sit still and follow instructions”? Are the standards sensitive to students’ goals and passions?

Here is one perspective-from the Alliance for Excellent Education:

Core of the Matter: If New Designs in Teaching and Learning Come to Pass, Vulnerable Learners Win with the Common Core (#CoreMatters)

http://all4ed.org/core-of-the-matter-if-new-designs-in-teaching-and-learning-come-to-pass-vulnerable-learners-win-with-the-common-core-corematters/#more-21359

“…..In fact, preceding generations of standards asked nothing new of teachers and required few if any changes in curriculum. The premise now is that the deep learning outcomes that the common core standards suggest cannot be attained absent corresponding qualitative improvements in curriculum and instruction. Before, our teaching strategies rewarded students who could sit still and follow instructions. Now, teachers must engage students in their own learning, create time and support for analysis and reflection, foster discussion and make explicit connections to the lives their students lead. These new pedagogies, if they come to pass, should work wonders for the new diverse majority of students in our schools, students who have in many ways been denied access to these rich learning opportunities…..”
[bold italics mine]