More Colossal Common Core Reading Failures to Consider

by Guy E. White on 17 February, 2015

No one likes people interrupting a great story.

Most of my formative learning experiences happened in the uninterrupted experiencing of great literature, followed by meaningful, open conversations about what was read. Increasingly, this way of reading and discussing feels less possible with the demands of “Common Core” implementation. Though, this has little to do with the amount of classroom time available.

Time is not the issue that deserves most of our attention: it’s the values that surround what we do as educators. What’s the purpose of school? Frankly, I don’t think anyone has truly defined that; it’s too controversial of a subject to touch with any simplicity. It’s too risky for educators and our leaders to boil down what we are doing into a single sentence.

Want to test that? Simply email your principal and ask him or her what they think the purpose of school is. If you were to dare to send such an email, I have a feeling they would not be able (or willing) to boil it down to a simple, direct statement.

By way of complication, the “standards” tend to be educators’ and leaders’ default answer to this very important question. They point to the standards and say, “This! This is what students are supposed to learn!” By default, then, these become the purpose of school.

Things can get quite strange from there. I was chatting with a friend yesterday, who handed me a prompt from her daughter’s fourth grade class. It was a printed page from a workbook that asked something to the effect of “What was the theme of the story? What concrete details make you draw that conclusion? Provide quotes from the text that support your conclusion.” What struck me most was not the question - as an English teacher in high school, I ask similar questions all the time. I was surprised that it was a question about one of my favorite books from childhood, “My Side of the Mountain” by Jean Craighead George. My experience of that book was largely based upon reading the text aloud, listening to others, and talking about the book. I was never asked to create a graphic organizer, create Cornell notes cataloging themes and supports, or chart the timeline of events in the story. We read, we experienced, we communed around this crazy story about a boy running away to the forest by himself. I can say that stopping in the middle of the story, just as this poor kid was being asked, to create a short essay response about the themes within the story would have bored me to tears. I would probably not have cared much for this story if it were presented to me in such a way.

This experience, and a number of others, have made me wonder about some potential failures in the design of the Common Core State Standards. What do you think? Do the standards do the following? Or am I expecting too much (or the wrong thing entirely) from these standards?

Failure #1: Does Common Core Develop a Love For Reading?

In my opinion, what creates a passion for reading is (1) witnessing others having a passion for reading and (2) regularly engaging in reading such that the experience can captivate us. Seeing my teacher have a love for the text is what provided the opening for me to take a chance on investing my energy and time (as a fourth grader) into it. Engaging in the daily ritual of reading the text and appreciating it with others is what solidified my love for it.

Sadly, through shoddy implementation of the Common Core State Standards, much of this passion might not shine through. The purpose of this reading assignment is to build mastery in Standard “CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.1” (as noted in 9-point font on the bottom right corner of the worksheet). The purpose of this assignment is not to develop a love for reading.

Should that not be one of the purposes of this activity? I wish reading standard #1 was “Build an ever-expanding love for reading.” We could use some of that in our world.

Failure #2: Does Common Core Develop a Habit of Reading?

Regular engagement in the uninterrupted act of reading creates a habit of reading. As an adult with experiencing in these things, I liken the act of reading to meditation. It takes great effort and exertion to develop the habit and willingness to sit in a single spot, with one focus for fifteen minutes. That takes lots of practice!

When we make the act far less enjoyable by requiring page after page of notes and worksheet after worksheet of diagramming and dissection (oh, and don’t forget the computerized tests and the short-response essays), the act of reading becomes far less charming – and far less something in which any child would willingly and happily engage. We’re talking about nine-year-olds, after all.

So, if I were to name a second key standard that should be included, it would be “Build a regular in-home and out-of-home reading practice.”

Failure #3: Does Common Core Develop an Autonomous Learner?

For the purpose of this article, by “autonomous learner” I mean a student that makes independent, beneficial decisions about reading inside and outside the classroom. Such learners read what’s assigned, and also seek reading outside the curriculum that interests them.

I’m a practitioner. Every day (at the high school level), I work with students to develop their reading, writing, and speaking capacities (among a host of others). As a practitioner, I understand that one of the risks of over-scaffolding learning experiences is that students can become increasingly over-dependent upon the instructor to make sense of otherwise simple tasks.

Take reading a story, for example. In a world where reading has been developed as a passion and habit in students, providing students with the opportunity to read a text, discuss it, and answer some basic questions about it (with the help of the instructor) is a very simple sequence of activities. However, in a world where Common Core implementation forces upon students and teachers booklets full of worksheets and huge lists of deliverables, the act of reading one story can become quite the task, because the standards don’t care about the story – they care about the standards. The result is that students no longer expect to read; instead, they prepare themselves for worksheets, graphic organizers, and a list of other tasks associated with the reading. The reading itself is probably the last thing on their minds.

When students are asked to make decisions about their time, they will gravitate toward the tasks that we have habituated them to focus upon. In many cases, they have a habit of focusing upon producing deliverables rather than reading – because we have trained them to do so.

So, do the Common Core State Standards develop an autonomous reading learner? That remains to be seen. Based upon how many educators are implementing the standards though, it could be argued that students could potentially be less independent.

For educators, I encourage you to examine the purpose of a reading task you are about to undertake. Is this a task in which you want to build a love for the habit of reading? Or is something else the focus? Is that a problem?

For parents, trust your teachers. Spend time with your children emphasizing the practice of reading in your home. Make reading part of the fabric of your home life. Spending time with your children (especially reading to them) is the best thing you could be doing in this regard.

As for this father of two kids, my hope is that my children will develop a love for reading that will allow us to discuss and explore and for them to thrive – but not require them to fill out a book full of worksheets.

Am I misguided? Tell me where I am wrong.

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