Lack of Adequate Common Core Training

I teach middle school math for a large urban district.  My school district was “transitioning” to the Common Core during this past school year (2012-2013).  This transition consisted of the implementation of two Common Core units designed by the district.  Each unit took approximately one week to teach, and consisted of a Formative Assessment Lesson (FAL), standardized homework problems, and a unit test.

A few days prior to each of these two units, teachers were offered a voluntary one hour training session after school.  Additionally, throughout the year we have been exposed to piecemeal information about Common Core at faculty and department meetings.  This information has been in the form of lecture and PowerPoint presentations that have detailed the shifts in focus, coherence, and rigor.  I would estimate my total Common Core training time at less than one day, yet I have been required to make a substantial shift in my instructional content and pedagogy for those two units.

This year (2013-2014), we are to fully implement Common Core.  Our content and instruction is to completely shift to align with the new standards.   We do not yet have textbooks that align with Common Core to guide us.  Due to a grant our district has received, teachers are being offered eight hours of Common Core training for the upcoming year.   Four hours of training will be provided at the start of the school year, and the remaining four hours will be provided midyear.  To say that I feel unprepared for the upcoming year is an understatement.  We teachers with approximately a day and a half of training and dated textbooks will be expected to correctly implement vastly new standards next year.

I’m curious as to the amount and quality of Common Core training provided by other districts. How much training did you receive last year? Was it productive? What is planned for the upcoming year? How prepared do you feel to implement the new standards?

Common Core Lessons: Are they too difficult for the average student?

As I take my first steps into the muddy waters of Common Core, I’m rapidly discovering that my students are not adequately prepared for the rigor of these new types of lessons. At first, all of my students were excited at the prospect of creating their own learning, while I walked around merely “facilitating.” I wasn’t giving them any information, just encouraging them to make their own discoveries. But the novelty for many of my students quickly wore off, and was replaced by frustration.

As a TEACHer, I wanted to help, to guide, to show them. I knew that if I could just show them an example or two, they would feel more confident in solving these more complex problems. Most of them lacked the background knowledge to even attempt the tasks before them. They wanted so badly to “get it right.” I imagine most of this desire stems from years of being taught to take standardized tests. But also math IS a subject in which there IS a correct answer. It’s not open to subjectivity, which a lot of students actually like.

Alas, my limited Common Core training told me, and I in turn told the students, that the answer isn’t the important thing, it’s the process. This was a frustrating concept for both the students and me. I understand that constructivist learning is supposed to be a messing and daunting process. However, I fear that those learners who are already struggling may give up completely. Moving forward, I personally feel that as a professional, I will need to adjust Common Core lessons to match the ability of the students who are in my classroom. Perhaps some students will require quite a bit of skills review, scaffolding, and modeling. Perhaps a few will be prepared to jump in with both feet and figure things out completely independently. Likely, most students will be somewhere in between. And isn’t that a teacher’s job; we meet each student where they are and help them to go as far as they can?

I’d like to hear about the experiences of other educators. If you’ve already been implementing the new standards, are you finding the lessons too challenging for some students? How much latitude do you have to modify the lessons to meet the needs of your students?