Pre Common Core: The Pre Common Core teacher sits down with
eager anticipation to design an exciting lesson on cells.
He/She arrives at the classroom eager to present it to the
students. They respond with enthusiasm to the lesson because
the material is developmentally appropriate and they see the
purpose in learning the material to further their studies.
Afterwards the students successfully complete independent
practice using a textbook/reference material. The majority
get a passing grade and the teacher is pleased when grades on
the teacher made test come in higher than expected.
Post Common Core: Teacher uses a lesson that is forced upon
him/her by the department (consensus) thought police. The
teacher lacks joy and has been stripped of autonomy, but needs
the job. The lesson adds "rigor" which means none of the
students understand the material and it is developmentally
inappapropriate. Textbooks have mysteriously disappeared.
Half the class loses the poorly written worksheet. Students
are now expected to write in science more than "do" so they
spend the class writing a book about "Bill the Cell," instead
of looking at real cells with a microscope. Half of them
sleep in class and the other half plagiarize their book off
the internet because students all over the country are doing
the same mond-numbing assignment. The rubric allots 90 points
for exhibiting a fun attitude and 10 points for coloring. All
students now feels successful and know that they can go to
college, even though none, not even the brightest know or
understand the parts of the cell. For the final test students
must write a short answer about whether they like cells and
whether the cell likes them. Thank you, Einstein, for asking
the question.
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