Reader response for "Best Practice: Bringing Standards to Life in America's Classrooms" (Zemelman,Daniels, and Hyde)

I was already familiar with much of the information discussed in this chapter, as the practices described seem to be widely accepted as best practices in teaching for all subject areas. However, there were a couple of points that I wanted to touch on:

When the Common Core State Standards were discussed, there is a preface that the standards are written as outcomes, focusing on "products we can see and measure". This seems necessary as standards that cannot be measured would not be of much use. This being said, the authors list a limitation of the standards is that they come across as an isolated set of skills that have previously dominated writing instruction. I am not sure how a set of standards listed as measurable outcomes can be listed in a manner more elaborate than an isolated set of skills. I feel that this chapter glossed over the purpose of the Common Core Standards- being merely an outline to keep students at a similar skill level in order to form a structure to help students thrive from  year to year. I feel it's completely clear that teachers need to use the standards as a jumping off point to use their teaching skills to help their students achieve, which is discussed in the chapter. 

Something else that jumped out to me in this chapter was this passage: "...the Common Core writing standards include much repetition from grade to grade, and some items are even starred, to be retaught in later grades. Of course, such reteaching has taken place year after year in many classrooms, eating up time that could otherwise be spent moving students further towards excellence." Again, the standards are not strict instructions for teaching and reteaching does not need to take place unless the teacher feels it necessary. I also did not like the negative connotation that reteaching is not moving students towards excellence and is more or less a waste of time. Jerome Bruner discussed Spiral Curriculum, in which he strongly advocates "reteaching", in a manner of revisiting previously taught skills in order to use a step-by-step approach to build upon them as a method of creating finely tuned skill sets. One of my Art Education heroes, Olivia Gude, runs a Spiral Curriculum Workshop, which is highly successful. 

Overall, I think the chapter was a good read. Some points I found especially important and have used in my own teaching were:

- Making topics personal and relate-able to students, as well as using a cross-disciplinary approach in order to make learning more valuable and meaningful to students.

- Teachers using modelling as a teaching method, including "shared writing" exercises. 

- Instead of using directives, holding a supportive talk to help students come to resolutions collectively. 

More information on Olivia Gude's Spiral Workshop