| Tom Hoffman, took up the challenge to explain what is wrong with the Common Core ELA standards. He goes through them in the spirit of "close reading," and they read like a nineteenth century approach known as "parsing," whereby the student analyzed a sentence, identifying its grammatical and syntactical features. Today, promoters of the Common Core call it "critical thinking," but it sure looks like parsing, in which students are expected to read not for the joy of ideas, words, and stories, but for the interpretation and interaction of minute (and dubious) details and (possible) literary devices. The message? i third graders, teachers, textbook authors and testing companies should focus students on explaining how key details support the main idea.Would you ever, while reading a book on dinosaurs with your 8 yr old child, pause to ask how a detail supports the "main idea" of the book? |
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At dianeravitch.net
At dianeravitch.net
