Amanda, Craig, et al,

I have seen unfortunate effects of low expectations in the lives of  
two good friends, and I have seen extraordinary positive effects of  
high expectations as a teacher in the Court Reporter program at Temple  
University in downtown Philadelphia.  I am very much in favor of high  
expectations.  However, I have also spent many years reading essays  
written by Pennsylvanian eleventh graders for the annual state  
assessment.  It is based on that experience that I consider the  
writing expectations/standards/goals---whatever one wants to call  
them---of the Common Core Committee unrealistic.
On the other hand, I was delighted to hear about the success of the  
America's Choice writing program in elementary schools in Pittsburgh  
and elsewhere, and perhaps if such early intervention were more  
universal, eleventh grade writing might improve dramatically. I would  
like to think so.  Is there any indication, Amanda, that this program  
has had a positive effect on graduation rates in Pittsburgh, or is it  
too soon to know that?
(We do know that dropout rates nationally have risen recently, in  
spite of the hiking of standards in many school districts.  See
Diplomas Count, the June 10 report in Education Week.)
Thomas Newkirk wrote his commentary before the final writing standards  
were released, and in the final version the high school example that  
he used seems to have been eliminated; the elementary example is still  
there, but it has been significantly modified.  Perhaps the standards  
makers themselves were aware that they had been been pitching too high?

Ed


On Jun 10, 2010, at 9:09 AM, Godley, Amanda Joan wrote:

> Craig et al.,
> Craig wrote that the common core standards are “strangely  
> arbitrary.” I think that’s right on target, especially as someone  
> who was asked to consult on the language-related standards. The  
> language-related standards were originally imbedded in the editing  
> standards for writing, suggesting that the only reason to think  
> about language at all would be for editing formal academic writing.  
> Over the course of the seven months that I responded to drafts of  
> the standards and wrote the appendix that presents current research  
> on learning and teaching about grammar, I found that some of my  
> suggestions (such as including standards that addressed “knowledge  
> ABOUT language” and asking students to think about the FUNCTION of  
> clauses and phrases) ended up being included, but many other  
> suggestions were not. The resulting language-related standards  
> definitely focus more on teaching the conventions of Standard  
> English than I would like, but I’m glad that they at least nod  
> toward and leave room for teaching other kinds of knowledge about  
> language.  As far as I know, I am the only person with a background  
> in teaching/researching grammar and language who was a consultant on  
> the project, and that concerns me.
>
> Re: the writing standards, I actually don’t think that the example  
> of second grade writing standards you shared, Ed, represents an  
> unrealistic dream. My children (grades 1 and 3) attend Pittsburgh  
> Public Schools  - an urban district - and are taught the district- 
> wide, standardized ELA curriculum, America’s Choice. I have seen an  
> astonishingly high level of informational and persuasive writing  
> from my kids and their classmates. I’ve also seen how early  
> elementary children can be taught to develop a vocabulary for and  
> meta-awareness of writing that typically isn’t taught until high  
> school or college. As a former high school English teacher and  
> university-level basic writing instructor, I think the America’s  
> Choice writing curriculum is not perfect, but it has demonstrated to  
> me that K-12 students are capable of far more difficult and complex  
> literacy tasks than we typically ask them to complete.  
> Interestingly, large-scale studies out of the University of Michigan  
> also show that urban schools that use America’s Choice demonstrate  
> significantly higher student achievement on 4th grade standardized  
> tests of reading and writing than comparable literacy curricula/ 
> reform programs. The researchers hypothesize that the higher 4th  
> grade reading scores may be caused by the greater focus on  
> argumentative and informational writing in the America’s Choice  
> program.
>
> Amanda
>
>
> On 6/9/10 10:49 PM, "Craig Hancock" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Ed,
>    They do read a bit more like goals than standards. On the other  
> hand, I
> think we have resisted any clear articulation of standards for some
> time. I think our students are capable of a great deal more than they
> have been asked to do. I know we have shamefully high dropout rates in
> many of our schools, but I get the sense from students who survive
> those schools that  whole schools suffer from low expectations, not
> from high ones. I know I'm in a much different situation when these
> students come to college, but they respond very well to raised
> expectations when they get here. They take pride in being asked to do
> much more.
>     If I were poor and raising my children in an urban neighborhood, I
> wouldn't accept any of that as an excuse from them (or anyone else)
> for mediocre performance. Raise the bar high. Give the kind of support
> necessary for those who struggle with it. To me, that's a formula for
> high engagement. Again, I know I say that from the luxury of dealing
> with students who have made it to college. The view from here, though,
> is that we don't care enough and don't expect enough (though there are
> saints in the middle of all that. Bless them all.)
>    It seems to me that they have decided that students should learn to
> write narratives, to write an argument, and to write informatively. If
> you look through the sequence, it becomes clear that we don't already
> have some sort of proven way laid out to accomplish that. They seem to
> be imagining a sequence that might work. There are huge unexplained
> goals (like "logical") with a strange assumption that everyone knows
> what that is all about. Hugely important goals like "coherence" seem  
> to
> be reduced down to the right sort of transition words, which I can
> guess will become formulaic. I would love to see a word like
> "perspective" show up from time to time. (Either something is an
> opinion or it's factual/logical, not much respect paid to the fact  
> that
> many topics benefit from a myriad of perspectives. It looks different
> from this neighborhood than it does in the suburbs.) There's no place
> in all this where students are encouraged to report on their own world
> or become "expert" enough to have something to offer. There doesn't
> seem to be a recognition that the narrative of their lives is also the
> ground for significant contribution to public issues. (Why are the  
> drug
> dealers not bothered? What happens around here when someone gets  
> sick?)
> I guess I wouldn't be alone among writing teachers in wondering where
> engagement comes in. You've got to know what the hell you are talking
> about OR BE WILLING TO ADMIT THE LIMITS OF WHAT YOU KNOW and I don't
> see any respect paid to that. I keep getting students out of high
> school who have been encouraged to take definitive positions when they
> don't have the knowledge base. Most of these standards seem  
> articulated
> as ends in themselves. There's no sense that these are or can be very
> natural developments of the students' own voices and interests
> (interests in a double sense--what interests them and what is in their
> interest to find out and to articulate.)
>     I would say the standards are not fully thought out and at times  
> seem
> strangely arbitrary. But I'm not convinced they are too high.
>
> Craig>
>
>
> Craig et al,
> >       Indeed, he thinks the standards are too high, and so do I.   
> He gives
> > a couple of excellent examples, including this one, for SECOND  
> grade:
> >       Write informative and explanatory texts in which they  
> introduce a
> > topic, use facts and definitions to develop points,  
> present           similar
> > information together using headers to signal groupings when
> > appropriate, and provide a concluding sentence or              
> section.
> >       And another, for 12th grade, which he says is more  
> appropriate for
> > college literature classes.  (Once again, I agree.)
> >       I can't believe anyone on that writing committee has ever  
> taught
> > below college, or in any public schools that I'm familiar with, and
> > I'm amazed that officials from AFT and NEA are going along with this
> > nonsense.
> >
> > Ed
> >
> >
> > On Jun 9, 2010, at 7:56 PM, Craig Hancock wrote:
> >
> >> Ed,
> >>    My quick reaction to the writing standards is that they are very
> >> much
> >> genre focused without a particularly sophisticated understanding of
> >> the genres in play. It would be interesting, too, to see the  
> language
> >> section more closely connected to genre, since the corpus  
> grammars are
> >> now giving us a pretty good view of functional language patterns
> >> within the genres.
> >>    I couldn't access Newkirk's article without subscribing. Does he
> >> think
> >> the standards are too high? Why would the dropout rate be  
> staggering?
> >>
> >> Craig>
> >>
> >>
> >> I agree with Herb.  Also, has anyone looked closely at the writing
> >>> standards?  Read Thomas Newkirk's comments on them in the current
> >>> issue of Education Week.  He calls them an instance of "magical
> >>> thinking," and I agree totally.  If they are adopted and enforced,
> >>> the
> >>> dropout rate will be staggering.
> >>>
> >>> Ed
> >>>
> >>> On Jun 9, 2010, at 5:16 PM, Craig Hancock wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> The National governor's Association's Common core Standards have
> >>>> been
> >>>> released and can be accessed at www.corestandards.org.
> >>>>   Though they still don't go as far as they ought to in that
> >>>> direction,
> >>>> they seem a radical shift in favor of knowledge about language  
> (not
> >>>> just language behavior) throughout the grade levels. This, for
> >>>> example, is from grade 7: "Explain the function of phrases and
> >>>> clauses
> >>>> in general and their function in specific sentences." This seems
> >>>> to me
> >>>> the sort of thing that can't happen solely "within the context of
> >>>> writing" or through mini-lessons.
> >>>>    Check it out. If I am reading this correctly, they are calling
> >>>> for
> >>>> far more conscious attention to language from K-12.
> >>>>
> >>>> Craig
> >>>>
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> **********
> Dr. Amanda J. Godley
> Associate Professor
> English Education
> Department of Instruction and Learning
> University of Pittsburgh
> 5316 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
> 412-648-7313
>
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