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… but I ‘m sure I will get over it. At a meeting last night we were handed copies of “Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects. I’m not sure anybody has a full vision of what the Common Core Standards, Next Generation Science Standards and the Danielson model for teacher evaluation will ultimately look like in terms of a vision statement for the school and district. Ultimately we want all students to be successful and ultimately productive members of society. Hopefully or students will find a satisfying career. The conversations though tend to go something like this: “The focus has to be on Literacy and Math. These are the core subjects and everything is taught through these two common cores. “ As I look into the handout, I see literacy components that have always been a part of what I teach, but find myself really disheartened when the conversation steers around read more, read more, read more. Oh yeah, while you are at it, move the reading level up to a 9th or 10th grade level, our 7th and 8th graders need to know how to access the text at a higher level. At this point, my head is spinning. Probably around on an axis much like an evil demon I am sure. We have a measurable portion of our students that are reading at least three or more grade levels below standard that have been routinely passed from one grade to the next and now you want us to throw high school texts at them? I am a tad scared here. Wondering does all the talk about read, read, read, write, write, write, calculate, calculate, calculate mean that Science with hands-on labs will take a back seat? Most of our elementary students don’t get Science aside from reading about it. Math/Science Partnership money went predominantly to Math with the excuse, “We have to shore up the Math first, Science will get their turn soon.” Soon never came. Now STEM seems to be the buzz word, but will it be funded properly. Don’t get me wrong, I am a STEM teacher and have been very successful with my students. Many go on to high achieving high schools and into college with full scholarships. I guess the back of the mind question I have floating around is, “Am I going to be asked to change what I have been doing successfully to something that is questionable?” I really wish I could see a clear path of how the integration of all of these components is ultimately going to come together and have a student emerge from the public school system as a whole child. We have seen the diminishment of the arts, woodshops and home ec have been eliminated in many middle schools. Computer labs have become “testing centers.” Crystal ball, I really wish you worked better.

I feel your pain Sandy...I'm got "selected" to be on the district "Common Core Implementation Team" and am not a happy camper. They've gone as far as to tell us that 70% of the students day needs to be learning from reading information text. As far as I'm concerned this is garbage. They tell us we need to change our approach to teaching, and replace things that we do in class with reading and writing. The most discouraged I got is when I realized that the PARCC test is only going to test ELA and Math. Science is not being tested...does science even matter anymore? Do we think that if they can read well and write good :) that they have all the education they need??

Sandy, I feel your pain! But as we lament the increase in focus on literacy, perhaps we need to turn it around, and expect those literacy people to support the need for our students to be able to communicate intelligibly in science (and social sciences). The literacy focus meshes well with the inquiry focus that has been emerging in science. What scientific literacy means (at least in part) is that we expect students will be able to communicate their hypotheses, experimental design, and results with a level of lucidity that is profoundly lacking in most current classrooms. We need to make sure that the standards incorporate learning of real descriptive and quantitative communication skills. In my humble opinion, we need to hold our students responsible for learning to communicate and research to become rational citizens. Perhaps we need to lobby for more non-fiction, including science in the literacy curriculum. In my experience, content written at grade level in science is often more difficult than prose at grade level, because of the amount of difficult vocabulary, lack of contextual cues, and information density not found in literature. We also need higher expectations of our students regarding their writing skills. Is there a possibility if we all have high expectations that our students may begin to turn in organized, well-developed, grammatically correct writings with real content? Frankly, I am distressed that students don't feel a need to produce a paper worthy of their English teacher for their science teacher. My daughter, who is now wrapping up grad school (as a freshwater scientist)finds that writing is a critical skill. She would also find herself in a difficult spot if she had not become as skilled at reading technical materials. For her, the reading amounts to several hundred pages a week though. Having them read a chapter in a novel is what we expect, but it is in no way even close to the real expectation once they have left K-12. She always used to tell me about "fiesta de rojo" that her teachers would have with the papers, but now, we don't want to make them feel bad, so we don't use red ink any more. Pity.

There are many ways that you can incorporate science into the curriculum while still satisfying the Common Core Standards. As mentioned above, students can read science content. This can fulfill the reading requirement. The students can also write reflections on what they learned in their science classes, as well as what processes went on during experiments. This incorporates writing and science together. Students also use math in science frequently. The teachers can collaborate with each other and figure out ways to incorporate the math and science lessons together. These are all ways that science can be included even after more schools are focusing more on the Common Core Standards.