This week the kindergarten teachers at my school will get together to work on summer curriculum in an effort to align the kindergarten curriculum with the Common Core Standards. This is something that we have been working on for the past several months, but now we need to work more seriously on it and get it more complete for September.
One of the more challenging areas we have found is to take our many themes and to try to condense them into more in-depth, meaningful themes. Right now we have many themes that last for 1-week or 2-week durations. Now we will look to dig deeper and extend our themes into 4-week themes.
I would love to hear from anyone who is working through the same process as we are, or if you have completed it already, please share any advice and/or suggestions! What are your themes? Have you condensed them for the Common Core? What kind of shift has it made to your curriculum?
Thanks!
June 25, 2012
Aligning With the Common Core
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I will be so interested in your comments to this post. We are moving to Common Core and are wondering the same thing.
ReplyDeleteJennifer
kindertrips
We have worked all year on this as a grade level team and also in break out groups in language arts and math. Math is done and the document is really an awesome resource. To condense this response (because I could go on and on,lol) it is basically a gigantic table. It indicates the unit, common core standard number, and then resources that can be used including specific books, songs, manipulatives, games, website names/games, purchased computer games (names and the specific game that practices the skill). This is all in addition to the actual lessons and activities included in the math curriculum itself. Short Cycle Assessments are also included on the spreadsheet along with R.T.I. activities. Oh, and it also includes an "I Can" statement for each unit as well.
ReplyDeleteWe do not do specific themes as a grade level however we do seasonal themes as well as a few others that align well with our reading curriculum.
It is still a work in progress as we implement it this year, but we worked really hard together and I think the final product will be so beneficial to student learning. We do have the flexibility to add other activities in as well, but we have those rare gems that need some level of accountability (does every school have a few of those?)and this is really a great 'go to resource'.
If I could figure out a way to send you a page or two of the document I would but I only have a 'hard' copy.
What kinds of themes do you do in Kindergarten?
:) Nancy
We have a template we are using to create our units, and I was part of a Model Classroom team for our district. There is much more work to do, but as far as themes, we do not teach theme-based, but rather standards-based, which is very different. The standard and assessment are the focus rather than the theme, which is crutial when getting the 'depth' the CC suggests. A place to start would be to look at your Science & SS standards and use those topics perhaps as your 'themes.' Then, take those and incorporate your language standards and choose texts that connect to these standards. Hope I am making some sense here... if not, message me & I can try to be more clear. :) Best of luck!!!
ReplyDelete~Kimberlee~
Two Fulbright Hugs
Teacher TimeSavers
Hi Nancy- It sounds like your district is doing really well! We are still in the very much overwhelmed stage. Hopefully after we get together tomorrow it will start feeling better. We worked on math throughout the year and it too is a work in progress and now we are just beginning ELA, which just feel HUGE! I have always taught theme based. For example, I start the year with an All About Me theme and then move to Fall/Apples and everything I do is centered around those activities. The curriculum specialist that is working with us (who is great) is guiding us away from mini-themes and wants us to look at in-depth themes. I would love to keep in touch with you about more Common Core! Thanks for your post!
ReplyDeleteHi Kimberlee- Actually what you said makes a lot of sense! So instead of coming up with what we "like" to teach, we need the standards to drive our instruction. You said that you didn't use themes, but did you use the standards to create themes as you suggested or did you still not use themes at all? Now I am not sure that I am making sense..Lol! Your post was helpful and I appreciate your response.
ReplyDeleteJennifer- Good Luck to you! I hope some of this helps!
ReplyDeleteHey Sarah - the standards definitely drive all we do, so there are no "themes," (so-to-speak), but you can create standards-based units bacsed around (say..thinking)... American Symbols & make sure that your writing, reading connections are based on those Social Studies concepts (some may consider that a theme, but also a standard in GA). In a standards-based CC classroom, you will not see a lot of themes that are not directly linked to the standards. :)
ReplyDelete~Kimberlee~
Two Fulbright Hugs
Teacher TimeSavers
Thanks Kimberlee that is very helpful!
ReplyDeleteHi!How did the writing go?
ReplyDeleteOh, guess what? I get to co-teach with my friend next year, she was my first choice when they asked who I wanted to work with....And the even better news I get to do ONLY Kindergarten next year not K/1. Yahoo!! I had messaged you a while back about co-teaching...not sure if you remember. :)Downside is I have 11 students so I have to divide my time between two classes. They said that was too many for one class, which it really is...it would make the room 50/50.
ReplyDeleteNancy- I am sooo happy for you!! I do remember our conversation about co-teaching. That is wonderful news! I think the only way that it can really be effective is if you have a great relationship with the person you co-teach with. You have to be able to literally share your space, students, everything! It is the best way to teach!! Please keep me posted on how it goes! Thank you for asking about working on the common core curriculum. It actually went really well. We had a specialist come in and work with us and she one of the most important suggestions she gave us was that the common core is a shift, not a complete change. That we should not try to put something into the curriculum that we were never going to follow. She really guided us to keep themes because that is how we teach, but to make each theme more in-depth. We were able to use themes, but still at the same time write our guiding questions and goals based on the standards. It is definitely a work in progress, but it feels like we made progress!!!
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ReplyDeleteJess
From Blood to Books!
We will be tackling this in the next few weeks also. Should be an interesting process.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the sweet comment you left on my blog. I'm so glad you found my blog so I could find yours! I am a new follower! : )