The Teaching Channel, with collaboration from the National Writing Project, earns its Gates money and delivers an upbeat and energetic picture of the Common Core in classrooms in New York City, Connecticut, and Iowa. No doubts expressed. Everybody in these films is on board with the Common Core. 



• The Teaching Channel features high quality videos of strong teachers at work. They have opened a channel to collect videos that focus on activities related to Common Core interests. Great teachers—for example, National Writing Project Teacher-Consultant Jennifer Ochoa--demonstrate practices related to the literacy standards (Common Core Standards 
ELA.RL.8.1). Videos are designed to be useful in inservice or study group settings—National Writing Project website, Aug. 26, 2012

• Teaching Channel Presents
Watch teachers break new ground putting the Common Core Standards into practice in Math and English Language Arts. The emphasis of these lessons is on deeper thinking, analyzing, and problem solving to better prepare students for success in college and future careers.--website announcement October 2012

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funding, Teaching Channel: $11,076,761

Gates and Melinda Gates Foundation funding, National Writing Project: $2,645,593

Question: How representative are the schools in which "representative" Common Core lessons are presented? The elementary grade lessons are from New York City schools, for example:

• New York City elementary school: 82% free and reduced lunch; 89% Asian

• New York City elementary school: 92% free and reduced lunch; 83% Hispanic 


   
  For middle school and high school exemplary Common Core literacy lessons, the film moves to much less diverse settings. 


• Westport Connecticut middle school: less than 1% students receiving free and reduced lunch; 94% white

• Johnston Iowa high school: 13% students receiving free and reduced lunch; 91% white.

Sarah Brown Wessling, 2010 National Teacher of the Year, Teacher Laureate for Teaching Channel, and host of Teaching Channel Presents, makes the claim that "68% of teachers have favorable or very favorable view of the Common Core." No documentation was provided. One of the teaching segments features her classroom.

Added Information: Ben Grossman, Network Achievement Manager at New York City Department of Education, is featured on the film as New York City Common Core Specialist. A New York City Common Core Instructional Coach is also featured--showing just how serious the New York City Department of Education is about all this.

Although some of the lessons on the film are very problematic in both content and purpose, overall, the film presents slick and appealing snapshots of students working on the Common Core--and earnest teachers proclaiming how wonderful it all is.

NOTE: My first years of teaching--in a New York City High School--I signed up for a professional development course offered by the New York City Department of Education. Once a week after school I joined other teachers from throughout the city to listen to a talk by a leading contemporary poet: W. H. Auden, Denise Levertov, Stanley Kunitz, and on and on. Auden begged us not to teach Wordsworth's "Daffodils," not because it isn't a good poem but because, he said, students should know that poetry is alive, that living people engage in it. Now, when I watch a video with middle schoolers struggling with Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle" and a Shakespeare sonnet, I don't celebrate the rigor. Instead, I am sick to my stomach. I just don't think Dylan Thomas wrote that fine poem for 11-year-olds. But New York State Education Commissioner John King, a strong supporter of the Common Core, assures us that this sort of thing prepares students for the real world. According to the New York Times, King's children attend a Montessori school.

I feel enormous gratitude for the New York City Department of Education--who introduced me to W. H. Auden and cohorts, poets who had a huge impact on my teaching career. I wonder how many teachers today are lucky enough to encounter such a professional development course.

Susan Ohanian
 
blog

October 03, 2012


https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/tch-presents-common-core-state-standards