By Chuck Taylor
For The Alpine Sun
The Alpine Sun was invited to a full tour of Shadow Hills Elementary School and Joan McQueen Middle school this past week. Our mission was to discover what’s new in our Alpine Union School District.
By Chuck Taylor
For The Alpine Sun
The Alpine Sun was invited to a full tour of Shadow Hills Elementary School and Joan McQueen Middle school this past week. Our mission was to discover what’s new in our Alpine Union School District.
First stop was Shadow Hills. We visited math, science and English classes. In each class we found a mixed version of Common Core being taught with a combination of the “new” way and the old way. We found that the math portion was a bit confusing to us in that there were additional steps required to arrive at the correct answer to a problem when we could have gotten the same answer in less time by working the problem as we had been taught. In Science, we found students busy on individual computers working on a study that involved tracking what the weather forecasts were as opposed to what the actual weather really turned out to be. They would then chart the statistical findings. In English, students were divided into small groups where they would read a chapter of a assigned story and then write down what they had learned. Then the students would compare notes as to where they agreed or disagreed. Interestingly, these discussions usually led to a common belief.
At JMMS, we toured English and math classes, ranging from 6th through 8th grade.
Again, we found the new Common Core being utilized within the instruction. The Algebra classes which traditionally meant memorizing formulas was completely different. Before a problem was introduced to be solved, there was a written narrative explaining what each problem was looking for. The Sun asked several 8th grade students who had taken the “old” form of Algebra in 6th and 7th grade how they liked the new process? In every case, the pupils said that they found this way of learning was much easier to figure out. In the English classes, they followed up on the Common Core method of teaching that they had learned in their prior year of classes. Now there is more emphases in Non-Fiction, although fiction is still used in study groups. By having students read Non-Fiction, they are not only learning how to assimilate what they read, but they are also learning about history, culture, industry, etc.
Our findings during these visits was that the Common Core being shown on social media is really not what Alpine has adopted. Common Core may be a base line for teaching critical thinking, but the Alpine version has been tweaked and adopted to what works best for our students. Interestingly, although Common Core is being utilized in the District, the old version of instruction has not been thrown out the window, rather, it has been merged in with the new way.
Finally, we learned about the Pathway program. This involves a period every day where students are divided into individual groups of from 6 to 9 students where study continues, but with interaction and discussion among the students. More on this program in a future story.
Bottom line on Common Core based on our visits is this. Students for the most part really enjoy it. Teachers have bought into it and like the innovative method of teaching. On the other hand, parents may find themselves confused when trying to help their children with homework. Parents always learned to solve problems, (especially) math by memorization. Although the parent may help come up with the correct answer, their children may tell them that they arrived at the right destination but on the wrong road.
The district will be doing internal testing to watch progress and will have the ability to adjust to accentuate what is working, and modify what isn’t.
