Common Core: Truths, Falsehoods, and Why They are Good for our Children… Tactics and Why Common Standards are Good (Part 4)

Common Core:  Truths, Falsehoods, and Why They are Good for our Children…
Tactics and Why Common Standards are Good (Part 4)
 

To help you get a feel for what the Common Core (CC) and the proposed assessment system really is, here are a couple of examples of the standards and assessments.  I have included one example from the elementary, middle school, and high school levels.  CC focuses, at this time, on English Language Arts (ELA) and math.  So my examples will be from one or the other of these subject areas.  Again, keep in mind that this may look different from what you knew assessments to be when you attended school.  Also keep in mind that our students will HAVE to know facts, operations, and rules in order to successfully answer the questions they are being asked on these assessments.

Grade 4:
Sample Standard: Use combined knowledge of all letter-sound correspondences, syllabication patterns, and morphology (e.g., roots and affixes) to read accurately unfamiliar multisyllabic words in context and out of context.

Sample ELA Question (This question reflects a different standard than the one cited above):
Students are given a multi paragraph passage to read then they are to answer a series of questions.  Here is just one such question.

Read the sentences from the passage. Then answer the question.

“My grandma pulled the ball out, unwrapped it, and held it out for us to see. The ball was scarred almost beyond recognition. It had dog bite marks, dirt scuffs, and fraying seams. Right in the middle was a big signature in black ink that I had somehow overlooked. It was smudged now and faded, but it still clearly said ‘Babe Ruth.’ I began to shake inside.”

Click on two phrases from the paragraph that help you understand the meaning of scarred.

Grade 7:
Sample Standard:

Understand that rewriting an expression in different forms in a problem context can shed light on the problem and how the quantities in it are related. For example, a + 0.05a = 1.05a means that “increase by 5%” is the same as “multiply by 1.05.”

Sample Math Question:
Look at each expression. Is it equivalent to x+3y?     
                                                                      2

Select Yes or No for expressions A – D.

Grade HS:
Sample Standard:

Give an informal argument for the formulas for the circumference of a circle, area of a circle, volume of a cylinder, pyramid, and cone. Use dissection arguments, Cavalieri’s principle, and informal limit arguments.

Sample math Question (This question reflects a different standard than the one cited above):
A circle has its center at (6, 7) and goes through the point (1, 4). A second circle is tangent to the first circle at the point (1, 4) and has one-fourth the area.

What are the coordinates for the center of the second circle? Show your work or explain how you found your answer.

As you can see, these are difficult concepts with which we are asking our students to work.  These are the basic types of questions in the assessment system, which is designed to assess progress with the CC Standards.  There are performance questions, multi-step questions, questions which require the student to present information, and more.  I would encourage you to learn more about both the CC Standards and the Smarter Balanced Assessments.

If you wish to learn more about the Common Core, go to the CC website, http://www.corestandards.org/

If you wish to learn more about the Smarter Balance Assessments, go to the following website http://www.smarterbalanced.org/