Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Words Their Way

Is anyone familiar with this spelling program? My 7 year old brought home a note that this is now being used at his school. It involves sorting words into categories.

Is this part of Common Core, or just something our school district has chosen? I'm interested to see how it works out.

Common core is not a curriculum, only a set of standrds with no specific way to teach them. So, must be the district, but I haven't heard of it.

Our elementary school uses it. Overall, we really liked it, but like anything it depends upon how it's implemented. It's basically a leveled spelling program p; the kids take a pretest and are then grouped. We had weekly lists with varied activities (usually a fair amount of choice) during the week to prepare, some in class and some homework.

For my DD, it was only so-so, but primarily because the highest grouping the teacher made was not challenging for her. My DS had a different teacher (and two classmates of similar spelling ability) and the teacher went out of her way to extend the program, using Greek and Latin roots and vocabulary; they ended up writing quite a bit (this was third grade).

Overall, we liked it, but I think it is a lot if initial work/start-up preparation for the teacher, and they need to be open-minded and flexible in their groupings (such as allowing kids to move up or down during the year, etc).

Hmmm - we were not told the name of our program but DS has "word sort" homework and a test on it - it is their spelling program. DS is pretty low in spelling (dysgraphic) so he is on pictures... sorts pictures into long a, short a sounds. Each week is different sound. As bad as he is at spelling he has no trouble with this and doesn't do the practice at home (like he is suppose to ) and still gets 100 on the test. They are doing all sorts of stuff to be in line with the common core at his school so I assume it's part of it....

Au contraire, the common core does contain some specifics (and a concern is that this may grow in the future as CCSS is still being developed). While there are indeed lists of standards, there are also tasks and books and their recommended placement by grade level / band. Despite having "standards" in its name, which some may call a misnomer, it contains so much more.

As a practical matter, most often items aligned to common core are numbered as to which standard(s) they are aligned with. This facilitates parents looking into the common core to see which standard(s) any classroom or homework activity may be fulfilling.

In addition to the associations between Common Core & SAT discussed on another thread, Common Core has associations with Pearson the British multinational publishing and education company. Many articles discuss that future standardized tests will assess knowledge of specific common core content. Knowledge in a vast array of other literature and topics will count for naught.

Many have read about the common core, few have actually read the common core. Some have found it a daunting task. Interested individuals can read the current CCSS here:
Common core link - http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards
Common core English Language Arts link - http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy
Citation:
Authors: National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers
Title: Common Core State Standards (insert specific content area if you are using only one)
Publisher: National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers, Washington D.C.
Copyright Date: 2010

Meanwhile, growing concerns about the future increase in specificity of CCSS are fueled by pearson posts including contests such as this one which asks teachers to submit lessons for evaluation in a contest seeking "best lessons for teaching what it means to be an active, engaged citizen." ("National Civics Education Contest for Teachers Announced", Sept 18, 2013, http://www.pearsoned.com/)

Emphasis added, showing CCSS is still underdevelopment. Committing to CCSS while CCSS is still being written is a bit like signing a blank check which will be filled out by the other party at a later time.

Can you provide a quote or specific link on this? I don't recall seeing any required curriculum when I read through the common core standards.

There was a lot of discussion of the various and confusing usages of "common core" in another thread recently - I can't vouch for the correctness of any of it, but I suspect Dude's post here:
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....t_do_you_think_of_potent.html#Post163354
may be pertinent.

I've backtracked through my link list and see that this where I first began to understand Common Core as having a specific curriculum component... there is a "placement" of certain academic content, for example "Grapes of Wrath", as shown at CCSS links including http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy and in the Appendices linked from that page.

Unfortunately, you've conflated the links provided, an error which I had also made when first beginning to both read CCSS and also read about Common Core.
Please see post
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....t_do_you_think_of_potent.html#Post163364
which contains the same link provided earlier in this thread.

What I see is "Grapes of Wrath" in this section
"Texts Illustrating the Complexity, Quality, & Range of Student Reading 6-12"

But, we have gone overlong in sidetracking from JenT's original question regarding "Words Their Way."