Activity 4: Blog Post Summary

I think of all of the topics we have covered so far in the Teach now program, this has been one of the more challenging ones for me. The reason being is that I have never had to deal with "real" standards during my 9 years of teaching here in South Korea. As I have mentioned before in many past blog posts, my job here is fairly simple. I try to create fun and stimulating lessons based on the topics in the book(I never actually use the book itself because it is very boring and not nearly challenging enough for most of the students). I make sure the lesson objectives are met according to the teacher's guide (for example: students must be identify different colours) but it seems that no standards are in place at my school. We teach the topic but they are not really tested on it. To make matters worse, in Korea, students pass the grade no matter what kinda score they get, they may know nothing about a subject but because of their age they will go to the next level. It just seems that no real standards exist here.

After spending a lot of time on the Common Core Standards Initiative web page, I am much more aware of the steps needed in order to make sure the students meet the standards set by the state. I must say that I was very overwhelmed with the amount of information on the page but I did like the fact that it was very well organized and clear. The CCSI is important because it allows for all students to get the same kind of education throughout the states (although I'm sure it's not 100% perfect). Before the CCSI, each state had set their own standards for what the students should know and that made it hard to know how well they were doing overall compared with other states. The CCSI sets clear, strong, and consistent benchmarks to make it easier to compare where students are in the scheme of things.

One thing that Taylor mentioned during the last VC that really surprised me was that in some states, they not only have the standards already unpacked for the teachers but the lesson plans for each of those objectives are prepared in advance. I guess for a teacher just beginning their career, this takes a lot of the stress off the teacher because they don't have to spend copious amounts of time deciphering the best way to teach a standard to their students. On the other hand, for a veteran teacher, having all the lesson plans already
set for them may stifle them creatively. I really found the video on unpacking a standard in very useful, it should you exactly how to break down the standards into clear objectives.

One teachers dissects all these standards into individual goals, they need to create the curriculum (lesson plan). Proper teacher training is essential to ensure that they are creating proper lesson plans that get the students to meet those set standards. A good technique to use is backward mapping since it allows teachers to break the standard down into smaller chunks (different objectives to meet the one standard). Backward planning is effective to set academic objectives first, then writing lesson plans to meet those goals.By doing this, the student's success rate is much higher.Teachers must also develop assessments that gauge if the students have met the standard. This can be done using several techniques such using Rubrics, Concept Maps,and Group Quizzes.


Standards, although helpful with regards to giving you direction, doesn't actually help you get there. It is up to the teacher to come up with the lesson plans that will eventually lead them to reach those standards. I look forward to being in a school where there are standards to meet because I think that'll push me a little more to make sure that my lessons are not just well planned and executed, but actually meet the standards set for the school.