TELL THE GOVERNORS WHAT YOU THINK: standards comments are open till October 19
The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a joint effort by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) in partnership with Achieve, ACT and the College Board.
Out of curiosity, I looked at the WRITING standards - these are supposed to reflect college-readiness standards, if I understand the initiative correctly. There is NOTHING - not a word, ZERO, nada - about creative writing of any kind. In my own experience, students need to learn to write creatively FIRST, before you attempt to force them to do any other kind of writing - otherwise, you get students who write like automatons, alienated from their own writing and producing very little that is worthwhile. Even more importantly: creative writing is inherently valuable, as I have learned from my own students who love to write creatively even if, as they are quick to admit, they "hate writing" (understandably enough, if writing means the laundry list of tedium provided below).
So, see below for the Common Core Standards for writing. If they really think that promulgating standards like this will solve the writing crisis faced by our students, they are dead wrong in my opinion. The problem is that students are ALIENATED FROM THEIR OWN WRITING (and also from most of what they read in school, too - but that's a separate problem). These standards will not solve the problem of students being alienated from their own writing. Just the opposite.
Does anybody find anything inspiring here? I find it completely depressing. You can see the Common Core Standards for your area at their website here - they have standards for reading, writing, speaking/listening and math.
THEY ARE ACCEPTING FEEDBACK UNTIL OCTOBER 21: So, share your thoughts. You know what mine are - for my purposes, these writing standards are totally off the mark. These standards are really no different from the traditional guidelines people are currently using as they try to teach writing... with little/no success, as I see in the hundreds of students I have taught at the college level.
WHERE IS THE CREATIVITY? Sigh......... no wonder students show up at college convinced that they hate to write, and hoping to do as little of it as possible...
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Writing
1. Establish and refine a topic or thesis that addresses the specific task and audience.
2. Gather the information needed to build an argument, provide an explanation, or address a research question.
3. Sustain focus on a specific topic or argument.
4. Support and illustrate arguments and explanations with relevant details, examples, and evidence.
5. Create a logical progression of ideas or events, and convey the relationships among them.
6. Choose words and phrases to express ideas precisely and concisely.
7. Use varied sentence structures to engage the reader and achieve cohesion between sentences.
8. Develop and maintain a style and tone appropriate to the task, purpose, and audience.
9. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard written English, including grammar, usage, and mechanics.
10. Represent and cite accurately the data, conclusions, and opinions of others, effectively incorporating them into one's own work while avoiding plagiarism.
11. Assess the quality of one's own writing, and, when necessary, strengthen it through revision.
12. Use technology as a tool to produce, edit, and distribute writing.
When writing to inform or explain, students must also do the following:
13. Synthesize information from multiple relevant sources, including graphics and quantitative information when appropriate, to provide an accurate picture of that information.
14. Convey complex information clearly and coherently to the audience through purposeful selection and organization of content.
15. Demonstrate understanding of content by reporting facts accurately and anticipating reader misconceptions.
When writing arguments, students must also do the following:
16. Establish a substantive claim, distinguishing it from alternate or opposing claims.
17. Link claims and evidence with clear reasons, and ensure that the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claims.
18. Acknowledge competing arguments or information, defending or qualifying the initial claim as appropriate.
Out of curiosity, I looked at the WRITING standards - these are supposed to reflect college-readiness standards, if I understand the initiative correctly. There is NOTHING - not a word, ZERO, nada - about creative writing of any kind. In my own experience, students need to learn to write creatively FIRST, before you attempt to force them to do any other kind of writing - otherwise, you get students who write like automatons, alienated from their own writing and producing very little that is worthwhile. Even more importantly: creative writing is inherently valuable, as I have learned from my own students who love to write creatively even if, as they are quick to admit, they "hate writing" (understandably enough, if writing means the laundry list of tedium provided below).
So, see below for the Common Core Standards for writing. If they really think that promulgating standards like this will solve the writing crisis faced by our students, they are dead wrong in my opinion. The problem is that students are ALIENATED FROM THEIR OWN WRITING (and also from most of what they read in school, too - but that's a separate problem). These standards will not solve the problem of students being alienated from their own writing. Just the opposite.
Does anybody find anything inspiring here? I find it completely depressing. You can see the Common Core Standards for your area at their website here - they have standards for reading, writing, speaking/listening and math.
THEY ARE ACCEPTING FEEDBACK UNTIL OCTOBER 21: So, share your thoughts. You know what mine are - for my purposes, these writing standards are totally off the mark. These standards are really no different from the traditional guidelines people are currently using as they try to teach writing... with little/no success, as I see in the hundreds of students I have taught at the college level.
WHERE IS THE CREATIVITY? Sigh......... no wonder students show up at college convinced that they hate to write, and hoping to do as little of it as possible...
=========
Writing
1. Establish and refine a topic or thesis that addresses the specific task and audience.
2. Gather the information needed to build an argument, provide an explanation, or address a research question.
3. Sustain focus on a specific topic or argument.
4. Support and illustrate arguments and explanations with relevant details, examples, and evidence.
5. Create a logical progression of ideas or events, and convey the relationships among them.
6. Choose words and phrases to express ideas precisely and concisely.
7. Use varied sentence structures to engage the reader and achieve cohesion between sentences.
8. Develop and maintain a style and tone appropriate to the task, purpose, and audience.
9. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard written English, including grammar, usage, and mechanics.
10. Represent and cite accurately the data, conclusions, and opinions of others, effectively incorporating them into one's own work while avoiding plagiarism.
11. Assess the quality of one's own writing, and, when necessary, strengthen it through revision.
12. Use technology as a tool to produce, edit, and distribute writing.
When writing to inform or explain, students must also do the following:
13. Synthesize information from multiple relevant sources, including graphics and quantitative information when appropriate, to provide an accurate picture of that information.
14. Convey complex information clearly and coherently to the audience through purposeful selection and organization of content.
15. Demonstrate understanding of content by reporting facts accurately and anticipating reader misconceptions.
When writing arguments, students must also do the following:
16. Establish a substantive claim, distinguishing it from alternate or opposing claims.
17. Link claims and evidence with clear reasons, and ensure that the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claims.
18. Acknowledge competing arguments or information, defending or qualifying the initial claim as appropriate.
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