How to Foster College & Career Ready Students, according to Common Core
The type of student that we want to send to college is nothing new. When Common Core compiled their college and career ready list, all teachers–young and new–recognized those descriptions of what we have tried to mold for years. But, we have to admit, how we teach our kids to be like that is a little different from even what I remember while in school.
Common Core gives us a portrait of the ideal student, the goals of the standards, and the standards themselves. What it doesn’t give us, though, is how we can make this happen in our classrooms. That’s where the controversy comes in (everyone’s favorite part) because everyone has a different idea on how to do it right. Of course, things have gotten harder for students, and equally harder for teachers and parents, at times, too. We need a way to translate all this information into practical human English, and strategies for how to build these skills in our kiddos.
That’s the challenge I’m going to take on. If you got better, please let me know!
Please Note:
“The descriptions that follow are not standards themselves but instead offer a portrait of students who meet the standards set out in this document. As students advance through the grades and master the standards in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language, they are able to exhibit with increasing fullness and regularity these capacities of the literate individual.”
They demonstrate independence.
Students can, without significant scaffolding, comprehend and evaluate complex texts across a range of types and disciplines, and they can construct effective arguments and convey intricate or multifaceted information. Likewise, students are able independently to discern a speaker’s key points, request clarification, and ask relevant questions. They build on others’ ideas, articulate their own ideas, and confirm they have been understood. Without prompting, they demonstrate command of standard English and acquire and use a wide-ranging vocabulary. More broadly, they become self-directed learners, effectively seeking out and using resources to assist them, including teachers, peers, and print and digital reference materials.
What That Means:
Students can read, write, speak, listen, calculate, research, think, and answer on his/her own, without special accommodations.
How to Foster That:
- Include all needed information on their handouts and direct them to use it when they have questions.
- Ask 3 then me.
- Have a list of resources (Khan Academy, CrashCourse, database…) in the classroom to answer their questions before they ask you.
- Have students finish so much on their own before you help them.
They build strong content knowledge.
Students establish a base of knowledge across a wide range of subject matter by engaging with works of quality and substance. They become proficient in new areas through research and study. They read purposefully and listen attentively to gain both general knowledge and discipline-specific expertise. They refine and share their knowledge through writing and speaking.
What That Means:
Students learn lots of information and can share it effectively.
How to Foster That:
- Have students review their notes frequently.
- Have students practice the same skills repetitively.
- Use Kahn strategies to have students share their knowledge/skills.
- Hold discussions where students share how they know what they do.
- Have students verbally “teach” what they learned.
They respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline.
Students adapt their communication in relation to audience, task, purpose, and discipline. They set and adjust purpose for reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language use as warranted by the task. They appreciate nuances, such as how the composition of an audience should affect tone when speaking and how the connotations of words affect meaning. They also know that different disciplines call for different types of evidence (e.g., documentary evidence in history, experimental evidence in science).
What That Means:
Students can adapt what and how they share information based on what, with whom, how, why they are sharing it.
How to Foster That:
- Give the same assignment various times, changing the RAFT (role, audience, format, task).
- Have students take on roles and share with one another accordingly.
- Have students at varying levels work together so they have to present differently.
- Change the format so they have to address the audience differently.
- Writing a letter to a younger student about a science topic.
- Writing a report about a set of math problems and how they’ll change the world.
- Writing a law based on a historical failure that tries to correct it for future generations.
They comprehend as well as critique.
Students are engaged and open-minded—but discerning—readers and listeners. They work diligently to understand precisely what an author or speaker is saying, but they also question an author’s or speaker’s assumptions and premises and assess the veracity of claims and the soundness of reasoning.
What That Means:
Students can thoroughly understand and effectively question what is being shared with them.
How to Foster That:
- Have students ask questions about the motives, purpose, quality, etc. about everything.
- Have students compare and contrast everything.
- How different people do different equations
- How different things are written
- How different countries handle the same societal problem
- Have students analyze the process of creating anything.
- Have students identify any justification for why something is done the way it is.
- Have students list exactly what they interpreted from equations, texts, theories, laws, facts, etc to analyze how well the information was portrayed.
They value evidence.
Students cite specific evidence when offering an oral or written interpretation of a text. They use relevant evidence when supporting their own points in writing and speaking, making their reasoning clear to the reader or listener, and they constructively evaluate others’ use of evidence.
What That Means:
Students use evidence for everything.
How to Foster That:
- Have students justify why they came to those conclusions.
- Have students analyze and evaluate where they may have gone wrong on assignments.
- Have students identify what others use to support their claims.
- Have students use direct evidence from lectures and texts when they can.
- Have students practice argumentative for normal communications (assignment extensions, extra credit, late work…).
They use technology and digital media strategically and capably.
Students employ technology thoughtfully to enhance their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language use. They tailor their searches online to acquire useful information efficiently, and they integrate what they learn using technology with what they learn offline. They are familiar with the strengths and limitations of various technological tools and mediums and can select and use those best suited to their communication goals.
What That Means:
Students can use technology effectively to help them gain and share knowledge when applicable.
How to Foster That:
- Have students use technology to share everything.
- Have students use technology to learn lectures and take notes.
- Have students use technology to find resources when they have questions.
- Have students use technology as alternative means to traditional ways for anything.
- Have students practice work on technology (math [yes, Google does that], science, history, art…)
- Have students do research and bibliographies whenever you can.
They come to understand other perspectives and cultures.
Students appreciate that the twenty-first-century classroom and workplace are settings in which people from often widely divergent cultures and who represent diverse experiences and perspectives must learn and work together. Students actively seek to understand other perspectives and cultures through reading and listening, and they are able to communicate effectively with people of varied backgrounds. They evaluate other points of view critically and constructively. Through reading great classic and contemporary works of literature representative of a variety of periods, cultures, and worldviews, students can vicariously inhabit worlds and have experiences much different than their own.
What That Means:
Students endeavor to share and understand diverse perspectives, cultures, and lifestyles beyond their own.
How to Foster That:
- Have students teach and discuss the information based on how they perceive it.
- Study how different places study the same thing.
- Japan teaches math quite differently than Americans.
- Germany handles history classes differently than Americans.
- Add historical context to anything new you teach.
- What made Galileo so interested in the sky?
- How did Newton draw that conclusion about gravity?
- Add in literature from different countries (not just different American cultures) with similar themes to what you need to teach with American literature.
- Mythology from Africa
- Parables from Asia
- Art from India
I’m sure there are more ways to do each of these. As I research and apply them to my classroom, I’ll keep this updated so you can bring the strategies to your classrooms.
So, what do you do in your class and curriculum to foster this knowledge and these skills in your students? Do you think there are other elements of the college and career-ready adult that Common Core has missed?
Let us know in the comments below and on social media, of course.
College & Career Ready descriptions and more about Common Core can be found here.
