An Increasingly Complex Text

            I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been selected to sit on the committee that is writing California’s next instructional framework for English Language Arts and English Language Development. Not only has the state updated its ELD standards to run parallel to the new Common Core, but the very title of the framework tells you that the state is moving in a very bold direction.

Core (and Not Necessarily Common) Values

            I was hired in the Fall of 1999 and charged with shepherding my three periods of seniors through the school’s first-ever, year-long Senior Project consisting of a research paper, a fieldwork project, and a multimedia presentation all centered around a single topic. The Senior Project epitomized our department’s instructional values at the time: embrace any topic the students choose; develop his/her academic perspective on the topic; showcase that perspective in the student’s writing and speech, and ensure it has a practical application outside of academia. This grand, culminating assessment became the common core of our English curricula; all our reform efforts in 11^th-, 10^th-, and 9^th-grade courses would later be founded on these same principles. Even as the state’s new curricular standards were rolled out, I never felt overwhelmed by them because I already had such a clear image of the kind of student that my English team wanted to see at graduation. Truth be told, I may have started by designing my lessons around the standards, but in short order, we all tailored the standards to our vision.

The Miracle Ballot - How the Common Core can make judging easier and more instructive

After a two-diamond coaching career in the National Forensic League, I now develop Common Core curriculum, assessment tools, and teacher workshops. I currently sit on California’s ELA/ELD Curriculum Framework Committee and advise its State Speech Council. The National Forensic League originally published this article in its February 2013 issue of Rostrum.

            We expect every judge to be a tabula rasa – a blank slate – whenever they walk into a classroom and evaluate our students. To drive the point home, we hand them a slip of paper that resembles, for all intents and purposes, a blank slate.

Lifting the Common Curse

“Americans of all political persuasions tend to get nostalgic about what they think of as the great causes of the past. …The fight against Jim Crow has become a kind of civic fairy tale in which the forces of good triumphed over the forces of evil; the saga has its heroes and villains, its martyrs and shrines….And now, … those who care about civil rights — those who care  about human rights — must dedicate themselves to the cause of public education. It’s the crucial front … access to a good public education is the civil-rights issue of our time. End of debate.”

An Educator's Take on the BCS

 

How did I become so obsessed with college football?

Well, first and foremost, the blame lies with Gary Bettman and the National Hockey League, who have locked out the athletes that normally occupy my sports-geek brain cells through the autumn and winter months. With my two fantasy teams forced into hibernation thanks to the prolonged labor dispute, I had to sink my teeth into some other athletic escapade. I’ve never really been a football fan, despite being raised by pigskin-obsessed parents, but since my brother’s alma mater (Notre Dame) started making headlines with their streak of victories, I find myself increasingly intrigued and engaged.