Once again, I’m happy to welcome Reuben Duncan to the Critical Skills Blog. Reuben is the Assistant Superintendent for Towns and Curriculum in SAU 29 here in Keene.
I am asked all the time, so it would seem, “How can we ensure our success with the Common Core?”
Boring!
I think it would be more exciting to talk about how we can blow it! I mean, I think we should talk about how to swim in the ocean of mediocrity.
I asked many educators and curriculum experts what needed to be done in order to not succeed. And I would like to share my findings with all of you.
There are 6 easy steps to ensuring a complete common core catastrophe! I mean, these techniques will yield 100% mediocrity when used as prescribed—I promise! And here is the best part, you only have to do one of them on a regular basis.
Here they are:
1. Lecture
2. Continuously ask low-level questions
3. Plan and teach in isolation
4 Make certain student compliance is the central focus of class—better yet, grade the students based on behavior and compliance.
5 Cover the curriculum
6 Think that “this Common Core stuff will all go away, so I can just wait it out and avoid any difficulties due to a change process.”
I am sure that there are many other steps we could take to maintain the status quo…but these are the items that floated my way while listening to the keynote speaker at a recent conference. For the record, #4 is my favorite. Philosophically speaking, it is in complete contradiction to the Common Core and its desired outcomes.
The Critical Skills Classroom 