Teaching Standards and Awareness in California vs. New York
by This is a first person account of my experiences in both California and New York in regards to the knowledge of standards within the district. While both states are very different, they both have issues in regards to adapting the standards to the needs of the teachers.
California
My district’s standards are basically non- existent. In fact I’m not sure if we really have any. I know for a fact that most everything is based on the California state standards simply because everything we do is about the standardized state tests. My department is foreign language so we direct our attention more to the California framework for Spanish which in itself is very much aligned with the national foreign language standards. My instructional patterns are pretty closely aligned with the national standards although that wasn’t my plan at first, over the years it has been apparent that I am aligning myself more and more with all the standards. For example my class goal is based on speaking Spanish and I mean conversational Spanish at a basic level through comprehensible input and authentic situations. This consists of reading of stories, listening to stories and authentic situations that would happen in a real world setting and then practicing those situations through question asking in the target language and role playing. The students are always covering standards 1 and 2 which are communication and Culture. They learn to write better and speak better from reading this is also in Standard 1. They learn songs which they never forget which covers standard 6 which is being life long learners. All in all I don’t think by any means that I am done planning and designing, on the contrary I am always looking for ways to improve and get better and of course align myself more with the standards.
New York
“I am very aware and follow the standards of my school. We have a mission statement which clearly states the objectives, accountability, and expectations to meet the needs of the students, parents, and all interested parties involved with our district. I adjust my curriculum to meet any changes in the standards from my district, which change from time to time based on New York State Education Department. New York State follows a standards-based curriculum; in fact, NYS standards surpass many of the other standard based curriculums throughout the country. I can easily change my instructional practices to meet the needs of the students to pass the state assessment.”
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On May 19, 2010 at 8:17 am
California has an interesting twist to standards… They are easily understandable. Remeber Charles Mingus, “Making the simple complicated is commonplace. Making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, THAT’s creativity.”