At the beginning of this school year, I took a new position as an Instructional Technology Teacher under the department of Curriculum. My first priority was to match the new Alaska State Standards with supporting technology. As I prepared my report, I began recognizing noticeable differences between our new system and the previous Grade Level Expectations.
For this blog, I want to touch on my own observations. I find pointing out the obvious over and over can become redundant. Not that it's obvious right away. The Powerpoint presentation offered in the seaccr website is a wonderful and comprehensive collection of three notable differences. I am very pleased to see a shift towards non-fiction. Most of the fascination I have experienced with books comes from reading biographies and tales of great feats.
If you haven’t already presented this to yourself, please watch Dr. Anne Jones' PowerPoint presentation, Using Collaborative Classroom Research to Implement the Standards ‘shifts’ in your classroom.
http://seaccr.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/ed-626-ela-shifts-presentation.pptx
Observation #1
If you begin every reading and writing standard with “I can…”, the sentence makes sense. Not so with the GLE’s. The GLE’s tend to state what students have to prove or be assessed on. I know that sounds a dash confusing so the way I think it through is that each new standard will help base my “essential questions” for my lesson plan. I’ve initiated my backward design lesson plan with one standard and off I go creating meaningful instruction and so far it’s been a more seamless experience when building my lesson plans. So in conclusion, students are going to see and hear about these standards in the lesson and will become more familiar with what their goal or objective is for the lesson because teachers can interprit them easier and state them clearly in the beginning of the lesson. I have “I can…” statements printed or projected in the classroom at all times during my thematic lessons.
Observation #2
Less is more but those standards are packed with words and phrases that ooze deeper understanding, higher order thinking, and expanded analytical processes. (EED 2012) The new standards offer more in depth and cross curricular instruction than the GLEs. Teachers can wrap a unit around one standard and not feel pressured to wrap it up and move quickly to the next “testable” item on the list. In conclusion, the new standards are framed for exploring and research compared to the checklist style GLEs.
Alaska Department of Education & Early Development
Tools for Standards Transition
Grade 4 Comparison
For this blog, I want to touch on my own observations. I find pointing out the obvious over and over can become redundant. Not that it's obvious right away. The Powerpoint presentation offered in the seaccr website is a wonderful and comprehensive collection of three notable differences. I am very pleased to see a shift towards non-fiction. Most of the fascination I have experienced with books comes from reading biographies and tales of great feats.
If you haven’t already presented this to yourself, please watch Dr. Anne Jones' PowerPoint presentation, Using Collaborative Classroom Research to Implement the Standards ‘shifts’ in your classroom.
http://seaccr.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/ed-626-ela-shifts-presentation.pptx
Observation #1
If you begin every reading and writing standard with “I can…”, the sentence makes sense. Not so with the GLE’s. The GLE’s tend to state what students have to prove or be assessed on. I know that sounds a dash confusing so the way I think it through is that each new standard will help base my “essential questions” for my lesson plan. I’ve initiated my backward design lesson plan with one standard and off I go creating meaningful instruction and so far it’s been a more seamless experience when building my lesson plans. So in conclusion, students are going to see and hear about these standards in the lesson and will become more familiar with what their goal or objective is for the lesson because teachers can interprit them easier and state them clearly in the beginning of the lesson. I have “I can…” statements printed or projected in the classroom at all times during my thematic lessons.
Observation #2
Less is more but those standards are packed with words and phrases that ooze deeper understanding, higher order thinking, and expanded analytical processes. (EED 2012) The new standards offer more in depth and cross curricular instruction than the GLEs. Teachers can wrap a unit around one standard and not feel pressured to wrap it up and move quickly to the next “testable” item on the list. In conclusion, the new standards are framed for exploring and research compared to the checklist style GLEs.
Alaska Department of Education & Early Development
Tools for Standards Transition
Grade 4 Comparison
RSS Feed