Building the plane while flying it: Reflections on CCSS implementation

For almost two years now, my colleagues and I have been immersed in learning about the Common Core State Standards.  We have crosswalked, unwrapped, powered, and planned.  We've conducted professional development, discussed assessments, and written and vetted units.  And yes, the cliche applies, we've been building this plane as we're flying it.  Isn't everyone?

As we bring our first semester to a close, our district conducted a survey of teachers and administrators to gauge how things are going.  Yikes! Crash and burn.  Scathing comments about lack of preparation, faulty unit designs, and lack of resources.  Even a comment about building a plane while flying it.  If it weren't for emails and conversations with teachers who are excited about student engagement, I would probably retire my wings and quit flying altogether.

After feeling burned subsided, I started reflecting:  You are bound to hit some turbulance if you are building the plane as you fly it.   

Here's some lessons learned from our flight so far:

1.  Flight Plan: Of course you have to consider your point of departure and destination.  Our destination is for students to arrive at College and Career Readiness--not at performance on a high-stakes assessment. We had a pretty solid implementation plan that included all stakeholders.  We used a train-the-trainer model with teacher leaders who helped with pacing and unit designs.  They, in theory, took what they learned back to their colleagues and shared.  We had a feedback loop every step of the way.  But just as airlines experience weather conditions causing flight cancellations, things didn't always go as planned. We need to be flexible with our plans and willing to take an alternate route to our destination, if necessary.

2.  Air Traffic Control:  Clear, multiple-way communication is crucial.  District leaders must share (repeatedly) a unified message about expectations for reaching our destination as well as any changes to the flight plan. School leaders must buy-in to the message and communicate it to school personnel.  Teachers and administrators need to communicate problems encountered so that they can be addressed in a timely manner.  And it doesn't hurt to communicate what is going well, also.

3.  Carry-On Luggage:  Tight budgets don't allow for checked baggage, so we must make do with what can fit in our carry-on.  Vendors abound with products labeled "Common Core,"  and the choices can be overwhelming. We've also discovered that a Common Core label doesn't guarantee that the resource is aligned with the standards.  Before making a purchase, I ask myself, "How will this resource help me teach the standards?"

4. Oxygen Mask:  I've heard many times over from overwhelmed veteran teachers, "I feel like a first-year teacher."  When we feel like this work is getting out of our control, we need to grab our oxygen masks (i.e. our content knowledge and pedagogical skills) and breathe deeply.  We also need to help our colleagues with their masks now and again.  Collaboration is necessary for our success.

There is no direct flight to Common Core Implementation.  There's going to be turbulence along the way.  But the destination's worth arriving to together.

Notice and Note

So I've had this blog set up for over a year, with great intentions to write.  And like many of my former students, I felt like I had nothing worthy to say.  Poor example. Convicted. No excuse.  But in my Twitter ventures, I find gentle reminders by folks such as Steven Anderson and his Web 2.0 Classroom; I'm going to follow the advice--write when you can.  Here I go.

Yesterday, my colleagues and I spent a wonderful day with Kyleen Beers and Bob Probst learning about reading signposts that they describe in their lastest book Notice and Note.  The comment that struck me the most throughout this wonderful day of learning was this: Rigor without relevance is just plain hard.  So true.  Rigor without relevance creates disengagement--painful for both student and teacher alike.

How do we make works by Shakespeare, Henry David Thoreau, and Toni Morrison relevant to 21st Century digital learners? What I learned from Kyleen and Bob is that we as teachers don't create relevance by providing texts that match students' interests necessarily, rather we provide the conditions for reading complex texts so that students create their own relevance for reading.  Simple concept, but not necessarily simple to facilitate.  Fortunately, Beers and Probst have, through years of research, provided tools in the 6 signposts and accompanying anchor questions that not only aid students in creating their own relevance for reading, but also to keep them engaged in close reading.

I encourage teachers who hear their students say things like, "Thoreau is too hard." "Why do we have to read Shakespeare?" "This is boring." to take up Notice and Note and learn how to change students' minds.