The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts Instruction in Grades 6-12: Origins, Goals, and Challenges

As a teacher candidate one of the things I have struggled with is figuring out how to design lessons around the Common Core State Standards. It is important to me to create an authentic curriculum based on things I find necessary to teach, including what books I teach, and I need to find a way to make sure it falls within the standards. This is especially difficult for me, primarily an art teacher major as the Washington state standards for art education are written very loosely in a way designed to fit for any medium (ceramics, drawing, painting, etc.). I can by and large do whatever lessons I want and so long as I’m mindful about the lessons I do and the standards I hit. The Common Core State Standards are very specific and rigid, leaving less wiggle room than I am used to. I have mostly written lesson plans for art classes with the exception of the specifically English education classes I have taken.

With that in mind, it is especially helpful that I had the ability to read this first chapter of “The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts Instruction in Grades 6-12”. I can already see how that book would be a very helpful tool should I find myself teaching an English class. It raised several concerns that I have had regarding the Common Core State Standards. For example, Beech, Thein, and Webb discuss the issue of homogenous instruction as a result of the standards and how that can negatively impact a classroom. The art classroom is designed to accommodate all skill levels that exist within the classes, I may have a student who has never received arts instruction in the same class as a student that has been taking art classes since they were three years old. That experience is helpful in training me to know how to differentiate and make the class accessible and appropriate for all of my students, however it also doesn’t help me figure out how to do so in a much stricter classroom with a curriculum that specifically depends on the scaffolding between the grades. Although that is only one of the issues I have with approaching the standards, it is helpful to see and know that there is a text designed to help teachers like me navigate difficult standards.