The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are becoming a part of teacher education at a pace comparative to what is transpiring in K-12 classrooms across the country. The strategies and conversations I have with students in my social studies courses include how to design text-based questions (DBQs), how to prompt students to cite evidence from texts during discussions and when writing, searching for and incorporating texts to promote multiple perspectives, and reflection on the extent to which students accomplish the learning objectives and standards identified in the lesson plans. While these skills are not new to social studies education, they do require that teachers be more attentive to the skill building they are engaging students in and that students are aware that they are engaging those skills. This shift in thinking and language for teachers, however, is not accompanied by professional development or time to align curricula and materials. As teacher educators reassess the essentials of preparing teacher candidates for the field at the same time that in-service teachers are revising curricula and assessments, there are two groups of students caught in the middle: K-12 students and student teachers.
For the past few weeks I have been working with teachers around Ohio on how to better incorporate CCSS in the social studies, and last week I was a discussant for a national webinar on how CCSS is affecting teacher education classrooms at the University level. Between the workshops I have facilitated and the webinar, I have learned two things about how CCSS is being received: there are a lot of myths and social studies teachers have long done a lot of what CCSS asks.
As for the myths, it is easy to understand that there is a lot of confusion considering the roll out of CCSS has occurred faster than the professional development, explanation of how approaches to content will have to shift to keep up, and time for teachers to collect more appropriate resources has been limited. Some teachers think social studies will not be affected because CCSS is literacy based, so helping teachers recognize how their delivery will need to shift has been another myth in need of debunking.
A positive experience has been working with teacher candidates who are not only receptive to CCSS in social studies, but who, through collaboration with their mentor teachers, are helping their mentors better incorporate the skills and learning objectives that come with CCSS. As a teacher educator, not only is this what we hope for in the mentor-student relationship, but I am also hopeful that this makes my students more competitive in the job market, and ultimately successful in the classroom because their students will be successful.
For the past few weeks I have been working with teachers around Ohio on how to better incorporate CCSS in the social studies, and last week I was a discussant for a national webinar on how CCSS is affecting teacher education classrooms at the University level. Between the workshops I have facilitated and the webinar, I have learned two things about how CCSS is being received: there are a lot of myths and social studies teachers have long done a lot of what CCSS asks.
As for the myths, it is easy to understand that there is a lot of confusion considering the roll out of CCSS has occurred faster than the professional development, explanation of how approaches to content will have to shift to keep up, and time for teachers to collect more appropriate resources has been limited. Some teachers think social studies will not be affected because CCSS is literacy based, so helping teachers recognize how their delivery will need to shift has been another myth in need of debunking.
A positive experience has been working with teacher candidates who are not only receptive to CCSS in social studies, but who, through collaboration with their mentor teachers, are helping their mentors better incorporate the skills and learning objectives that come with CCSS. As a teacher educator, not only is this what we hope for in the mentor-student relationship, but I am also hopeful that this makes my students more competitive in the job market, and ultimately successful in the classroom because their students will be successful.