Community Chat

[NoelSeven]

Just a guess, but maybe some states are dropping it because of content.

[Allegheny]

On 4/19/2014 NoelSeven said:

On 4/19/2014 Allegheny said:

On 4/19/2014 kdgn said:

It really is important that parents understand what Common Core is and isn't. Common Core makes complete sense. Some of the problems that are rising are from misunderstandings and some of the available adopted texts. The texts are supposed to align with the Standards but how they get there can be questionable.

It's not like when whole language was taught and phonics went out the window. I taught whole language for all of two days in kindergarten. I spoke with my principal, told him this wasn't going to work, that I wished to incorporate phonics back into the program. I was told as long as I kept the teacher's manual on my desk, in plain sight, do what I thought was best. I did. It was soon shown that thinking exposure was going to teach, that if a child didn't grasp a concept in first grade they'd get it in second grade, didn't work. All that happened is that children in trouble got further behind.

Phonics is back, good and strong, as it should be. Other methods are included though because not all children are phonetic readers.

edited to change a word.

I have to relate a story. My younger brother is 56 years old. He is very intelligent guy. When he was in school he was not taught to read using the phonic system. What system they were using I do not know. It almost brings tears to my eyes listening to him read something out loud trying to pronounce an unfamiliar word.

Some schools used to teach whole word recognition here. It never made sense to me. My mother taught me how to read using phonics when I was four. I taught my daughter to read, also.

NoelSeven Thank you for mentioning whole word recognition. I think that was the system they tried for several years when he was in grade school. Honestly listening to him struggle in pronunciation is pitiful and it hampers his spelling/writing skills as well.

[Burnsite]

Phonics was up there with fluoride in the water during the 1950s as a controversial topic. I lived one summer in a beach rental owned by a conservative older lady, and half the books she had on the bookshelf were devoted to the evils of phonics and its connection to the Communist party and teacher's labor unions.

Nice to see it is more accepted now.

I knew how to read when I was very little, so phonics was a bit puzzling for me when I got to first grade. It came in handy, though, as I was able to take on complex reading a lot earlier. I was a very good reader from age three. I got into trouble at school for having a messy phonics workbook.

[scotttie]

I learned to read very quickly using Phonics. I credit Phonics instruction with being able to sound out unfamiliar words now.

[NoelSeven]

On 4/19/2014 Allegheny said:

On 4/19/2014 NoelSeven said:

On 4/19/2014 Allegheny said:

On 4/19/2014 kdgn said:

It really is important that parents understand what Common Core is and isn't. Common Core makes complete sense. Some of the problems that are rising are from misunderstandings and some of the available adopted texts. The texts are supposed to align with the Standards but how they get there can be questionable.

It's not like when whole language was taught and phonics went out the window. I taught whole language for all of two days in kindergarten. I spoke with my principal, told him this wasn't going to work, that I wished to incorporate phonics back into the program. I was told as long as I kept the teacher's manual on my desk, in plain sight, do what I thought was best. I did. It was soon shown that thinking exposure was going to teach, that if a child didn't grasp a concept in first grade they'd get it in second grade, didn't work. All that happened is that children in trouble got further behind.

Phonics is back, good and strong, as it should be. Other methods are included though because not all children are phonetic readers.

edited to change a word.

I have to relate a story. My younger brother is 56 years old. He is very intelligent guy. When he was in school he was not taught to read using the phonic system. What system they were using I do not know. It almost brings tears to my eyes listening to him read something out loud trying to pronounce an unfamiliar word.

Some schools used to teach whole word recognition here. It never made sense to me. My mother taught me how to read using phonics when I was four. I taught my daughter to read, also.

NoelSeven Thank you for mentioning whole word recognition. I think that was the system they tried for several years when he was in grade school. Honestly listening to him struggle in pronunciation is pitiful and it interferes with his spelling/writing as well.

You're welcome Serious reading began in first grade when my daughter was that little. I knew she already read easy books so I was surprised when her teacher told me she struggled. It turned out that teacher did not believe in phonics, so I can see why some kids there, not just my own, had trouble. I told the teacher I'd teach her my way and I did, graduating from basic kid books to 4th grade level. It took less than a week.

[kdgn]

On 4/19/2014 NoelSeven said:

Just a guess, but maybe some states are dropping it because of content.

That just it- the content shouldn't be controversial at all. The Standards go into great detail as to what a student should know when they leave each grade level in every subject. If a district thinks the Standards don't go far enough they can make them more difficult. We did. Kindergartners were to be able to write to 20; we made it 31 because of the calendar. They just aren't to lower them-ie, having them write to 10 instead of 20.

[Disneylandfan]

Common core didn't have a lot of educators contribute and some that did have backed away from endorsing what has been packaged.

As far as the phonics, whole language debate. Whole language did have phonics embedded if you had the time to get to it- one of the problems with whole language is that it would require you to teach language all day long to present all of it's components. Very unrealistic.

When I first started it was the tale end of whole language. I taught phonics but also incorporated some whole language strategies-figuring out what a word you didn't know meant in a sentence by reading the sentence for meaning and figuring out what the word meant through context.

A problem with education is someone comes along and says this is the best method and then everything prior gets thrown out instead of incorporating a valid, new idea into what already works.

[NoelSeven]

On 4/19/2014 kdgn said:

On 4/19/2014 NoelSeven said:

Just a guess, but maybe some states are dropping it because of content.

That just it- the content shouldn't be controversial at all. The Standards go into great detail as to what a student should know when they leave each grade level in every subject. If a district thinks the Standards don't go far enough they can make them more difficult. We did. Kindergartners were to be able to write to 20; we made it 31 because of the calendar. They just aren't to lower them-ie, having them write to 10 instead of 20.

kdgn,

To what level does Common Core go? I'll bet there would be real trouble at the high school level.

[Disneylandfan]

Common core goes through high school.

My district likes to be in front for some reason and so kindergarten and first fully implemented common core last year. This year the rest of the district 2-12th implemented common core language arts and next year math. Though some teachers implemented the math portion already.

[biancardi]

On 4/19/2014 dooBdoo said:

I didn't save my response on the other thread, but here's the math teacher's article again:

About That ‘Common Core’ Math Problem Making the Rounds on Facebook…

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2014/03/07/about-that-common-core-math-problem-making-...

that actually makes a lot of sense!! I didn't have any context for the original thread with the photo and math is now second nature to me.

Being reminded about how I learned it and how I actually do the "new math" on a daily basis without thinking about it really helps put that in context.

I also now feel that the photo shown was incendiary because both ways are taught, not just one.