Holy Mesopotamia Batman: First Grade Common Core Social Studies vocabulary

[vaberella]

184. Actually kids should be reading by age 6 or 7.

I'm not saying they can read Maniac Magee, but they should be able to get through a Dr. Seuss level book. Again, students who are not able to read at that level, or even the Spot books or Clifford Books. Teachers should be finding ways to help them read. But that is only one aspect of learning. And reading is not the entire school day. They have roughly 5+ subjects they need to be taught in.

If I were running a school I would be more upset by the length of time students spend in school. If the brain in general cannot really study for more than 3 hours and retain that information. I find it boggling that students are spending up to 8 hours in a classroom.

You are right that reading is a way to improve vocabulary. However, we do have age appropriate books with those words. There are great picture books and picture dictionaries and even lessons by teachers that allow for student learning. I think you're looking at it Black and White. As a teacher, I always said the Common Core gives teachers room to be interesting, because they are stating expectations for the students.

I think that's important particularly in NYS since we all take the regents exam, be it public or private. Students do have to be prepared for that.

If there is an issue the issue should be more against the form of standardized tests that are given because although schools demand teachers to differentiation, the standardized exams are not. I would be pissed off at the new teacher evaluations which are supposedly under the guise of helping teachers but seem to be cutting us at the leg and really are the ones that hurt us and therefore hurt the children we are teaching.

The common core is miniscule and not that big of an issue compared to all these other things.