{"id":15854,"date":"2013-01-07T10:25:50","date_gmt":"2013-01-07T15:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=15854"},"modified":"2013-04-29T23:27:11","modified_gmt":"2013-04-30T03:27:11","slug":"how-teachers-are-creating-new-lessons-for-common-core-state-standards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/01\/07\/how-teachers-are-creating-new-lessons-for-common-core-state-standards\/","title":{"rendered":"How Teachers Are Creating New Lessons For Common Core State Standards"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Gina Jordan\/StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Mrs. Kenton and her kindergarten students discuss a story about a gingerbread man. Under Common Core, the students must be able to show they comprehend what they're reading.<\/p><\/div>\n

Editor’s note: Reporter Martha Dalton with NPR affiliate WABE-FM in Atlanta contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe story was about a gingerbread man getting loose in the school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kindergarteners in Katherine Kenton’s class at Tallahassee’s Gilchrist Elementary School are learning to read using the new Common Core standards.<\/p>\n

The students have to show they understand what they\u2019re reading.<\/p>\n

“The gingerbread man got stuck on the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is where he broke his toe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their teacher says comprehension is the primary focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI added in a gingerbread theme to make it fun for this week and just looked at the standards in designing my lessons and seeing what I needed to focus on,\u201d Kenton said.\u201cI just find that the kids are learning a lot more because I think I\u2019m paying a lot more attention to the details when I look at the standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost all of the states have adopted Common Core standards<\/a> for public schools in English, Language Arts and Math.<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

Florida is phasing in the standards over four years. This is year two.<\/a><\/p>\n

The standards set clear expectations for student achievement at each grade level.<\/p>\n

To determine how well kids are learning around the country, federal Race to the Top grants<\/a> are being used to design two kinds of Common Core testing that will be split among the states.<\/p>\n

Unlike the FCAT, which is given once a year, the new tests will be given throughout the year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Gina Jordan\/StateImpact Florida<\/p>

<\/p><\/div>\n

Florida is developing Common Core assessments to measure how well students can read complex writing, complete research projects, and work with digital media. Those tests will be used in the District of Columbia and 21 other states, including Georgia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Students in Stormi Johnson\u2019s third grade math class at the Marietta Center for Advanced Academics near Atlanta are preparing for the new assessments. On this day, they’re tackling word problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat else does the problem give us?” Johnson asked her students. “We know 28 in all. Prenna?\u201d<\/p>\n

Prenna answers, \u201cWe know 28, but we don\u2019t know the unknown number.”<\/p>\n

Prenna goes on to solve the problem.Then, Sean raises his hand.<\/p>\n

“I disagree,” he says, and explains why.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what students in Common Core states are learning to do — explain<\/em> their reasoning. Johnson says that means they have to do more than simple calculations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need you to show me you understand the procedures with a picture, with sentences. So that\u2019s been the tricky part for the kids,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

Students aren\u2019t the only ones working harder. The Common Core is a set of standards, not a full curriculum. That means teachers have to come up with lessons to teach the concepts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf teachers are doing a really good job teaching it, they\u2019re spending lots and lots of time on just figuring out…the best way to teach this skill,” Johnson said.<\/p>\n

Since current textbooks weren\u2019t written with Common Core in mind, teachers are on their own for now.<\/p>\n

Both Georgia and Florida are scheduled to start using the new common core assessment tests within two years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: Reporter Martha Dalton with NPR affiliate WABE-FM in Atlanta contributed to this report. \u201cThe story was about a gingerbread man getting loose in the school.\u201d Kindergarteners in Katherine Kenton’s class at Tallahassee’s Gilchrist Elementary School are learning to read using the new Common Core standards. The students have to show they understand what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":15855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[1157,265,1019,1017,1058],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15854"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15854"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16011,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15854\/revisions\/16011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}