{"id":21498,"date":"2014-02-24T08:23:27","date_gmt":"2014-02-24T13:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=21498"},"modified":"2014-03-06T15:53:34","modified_gmt":"2014-03-06T20:53:34","slug":"why-less-is-more-for-a-rural-florida-school-preparing-for-common-core","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2014\/02\/24\/why-less-is-more-for-a-rural-florida-school-preparing-for-common-core\/","title":{"rendered":"Why &#8216;Less Is More&#8217; For A Rural Florida School Preparing For Common Core"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"full_story\">\n<div id=\"attachment_21502\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Casi Adkinson, a teacher at West Defuniak Elementary listens as a student explains her answer during morning group work. \" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2014\/02\/2-24-CasiAdkinson.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-21502\" alt=\"Casi Adkinson, a teacher at West Defuniak Elementary listens as a student explains her answer during morning group work. \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2014\/02\/2-24-CasiAdkinson-300x200.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2014\/02\/2-24-CasiAdkinson-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2014\/02\/2-24-CasiAdkinson-620x413.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Jackie Mader \/ The Hechinger Report<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Casi Adkinson, a teacher at West Defuniak Elementary listens as a student explains her answer during morning group work.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em><\/em>In Defuniak Springs in Florida\u2019s panhandle, the third graders at West Defuniak Elementary are learning division.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, 72 divided by six. Their teacher, Casi Adkinson drew circles onto the board.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I share my 72 into my six circles,&#8221; Adkinson said. &#8220;Are we ready to do that together? Ready? 1,2,3,4,5&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>With the class counting along, Adkinson drew 72 marks, grouped into six separate circles.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Ok, I shared my 72,&#8221; she said. &#8220;What do I do next? Alaya?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Oh! You count how many there are in the six circles,&#8221; Alaya said.<\/p>\n\n<p>By the time the lesson is over, the class finished only four problems.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I know to some people, they might think \u2018that\u2019s not many problems, I\u2019d want to cover 20,\u2019&#8221; Adkinson said. &#8220;It doesn\u2019t matter if you cover 20 problems if they don\u2019t understand why they\u2019re doing it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The idea of \u2018less is more\u2019 has permeated West Defuniak Elementary since 2011. That\u2019s when the school began to phase in the new Common Core standards with its youngest students.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The standards lay out what students are expected to learn from kindergarten through twelfth grade. That\u2019s led to big changes in this rural district.<\/p>\n<p>Students are reading more non-fiction, and must use evidence to back up written responses. In math, students have to learn more than one way to solve the same problem, and they must explain their methods.<\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2014\/02\/20\/teachers-union-president-wants-new-direction-for-common-standards\/\">Teacher&#8217;s Union President Wants New Direction For Common Standards<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2014\/02\/19\/why-the-debate-over-cursive-is-about-more-than-penmanship\/\">Why The Debate Over Cursive Is About More Than Penmanship<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2014\/02\/18\/state-board-tweaks-standards-despite-objections\/\">State Board Tweaks Standards Despite Objections<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2014\/02\/10\/core-questions-how-does-common-core-address-poverty\/\">Core Questions: How Does Common Core Address Poverty?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/01\/2-20-CommonCoreApple.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/topic\/common-questions\/\">Send Us Your Questions About The Common Core<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;To solve it I drew one big circle,&#8221; Ava said, &#8220;and I put the number nine in it and I know we\u2019re dividing by three so I put three groups and then I counted to nine and made them all equal and it equaled three.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Eight-year-old Ava\u2019s attempt to divide 9 by 3 has taken over an entire sheet of paper. Ava\u2019s ability to show her work, also showed Adkinson that the new standards are helping students understand the material on a deeper level.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Last year it would have been \u2018Are you going to multiply or divide? \u2018Multiply?\u2019 Awesome, correct answer,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Now I want them to provide evidence. I want them to prove to me why they\u2019re doing what they\u2019re doing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Although many teachers are optimistic about the new standards, they are also cautious about rolling out too much too soon.<\/p>\n<p>This spring, kids in grades three through twelve will be tested on the old standards. That means teachers like Adkinson are teaching a hybrid. She said the district has been careful in planning when each concept will be taught.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The FCAT is &#8212; its very important that they are prepared for it,&#8221; she said. &#8220;We don\u2019t want to teach them something that\u2019s going to either confuse them\u2026But we also have to prepare for Common Core coming because next year, it\u2019s full implementation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have just made sure that what we\u2019re teaching is what\u2019s going to prepare them for that assessment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_21503\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Students in Casi Adkinson's third grade class at West Defuniak Elementary participate in a math lesson. \" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2014\/02\/2-24-AdkinsonClass.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-21503\" alt=\"Students in Casi Adkinson's third grade class at West Defuniak Elementary participate in a math lesson. \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2014\/02\/2-24-AdkinsonClass-300x200.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2014\/02\/2-24-AdkinsonClass-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2014\/02\/2-24-AdkinsonClass-620x413.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Jackie Mader<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students in Casi Adkinson&#39;s third grade class at West Defuniak Elementary participate in a math lesson.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The community has mostly welcomed the new standards. But West Defuniak principal Darlene Paul said some parents are worried that test scores and grades will drop as harder standards are introduced.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The concern is that students are making A\u2019s and B\u2019s in Kindergarten and first grade,&#8221; Paul said, &#8220;and somewhere where we hit second grade and the rigor makes a jump, and their children are not making those grades anymore, they might have a B or a C, then that becomes a big concern.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Paul has other worries too.<\/p>\n<p>The new Common Core tests will be on computers, which means students will need to be familiar with technology that many of them do not have. West Defuniak serves about 650 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. More than 70 percent qualify for free or reduced lunch.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Everyone doesn\u2019t have an iPad,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Everyone at home is not able to get on the Internet. Those are some of our barriers and challenges.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Next year, there could be even more challenges for teachers who are just now becoming familiar with the standards. The state Board of Education recently approved nearly 100 changes for the Common Core.<\/p>\n<p><em>Editor&#8217;s note: Jackie Mader is a reporter with The Hechinger Report. This story is part of a series from The Hechinger Report and StateImpact Florida looking at how Florida schools are getting ready for Common Core standards.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Defuniak Springs in Florida\u2019s panhandle, the third graders at West Defuniak Elementary are learning division. Specifically, 72 divided by six. Their teacher, Casi Adkinson drew circles onto the board. &#8220;I share my 72 into my six circles,&#8221; Adkinson said. &#8220;Are we ready to do that together? Ready? 1,2,3,4,5&#8230;&#8221; With the class counting along, Adkinson [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":21502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[1157,308],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21498"}],"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\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21498"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21576,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21498\/revisions\/21576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}