The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts Instruction in Grades 6-12

It is my belief that the Common Core State Standards are a balancing act. This article cites some of my reservations, and though it does not adequately resolve any of them it gives a starting place. In the previous blog entry I spoke about how I viewed education with ELL colored glasses. This article managed to feed that view in a few sections. The one in particular that I think of first is Failure to Acknowledge Cultural Diversity. The title says much about the section, but there is a statistic in particular that I have had hanging over my head for years now, "... the majority of students in schools in 2030 will be students from non-dominant cultures ..." One of the specific examples this text gives is about a teacher within a mostly middle class white suburban school. A school which rigidly standardized the curriculum for the entire district. This left the English language arts classes teaching what the article refers to as a "dead white guy" curriculum. The students were not learning about other cultures or cultural points of view. This leaves students unprepared for the globalized world that we currently live in.


Point in fact, one of the Common Core standards for English Literature states that students should be able to "Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature." This standard would be hard to come by in the "dead white guy" curriculum, if not impossible. I fully believe that teachers need to be able to create their own classrooms to suit themselves and their students. Reading the article, this belief is mirrored back to me in multiple places.  It is a weight off my chest to have my beliefs reinforced.  Yet it is still a practice by many schools to create this "teacher-proof" curriculum.  As a future new teacher I am dismayed that there are school districts out there which believe this is better for their students, and I am afraid of finding myself struggling through the trials of my first year in one.  I have said it once and I will say it again, I view teaching from an ELL teacher's point of view.  The world is vast and complicated and beautiful.  Every student I teach should be introduced to as much of it as I can.  That will always be my goal.  And the above mentioned Common Core standard proves that this goal is a worthy one.