Standards Standards Everywhere . . . and Lots of Places to (Re)Think

I met today with a reading person at our state DOE office to talk about the new standards (reading and general teacher preparation) that we are having to implement in our courses and programs. There are TONS of them, and we have to document how we are meeting each one in terms of both formative and summative assessments. I went into the meeting quite scared because where I used to live, when they (the State) brought us (teachers and teacher educators) in to write new standards, we soon found out they really didn't want us writing new standards (they sort of knew what they wanted but I guess including us was part of the process).

I came out of the meeting today quite excited about putting these new standards into our courses. Now, I would be lying if I said I wouldn't prefer just leaving it to us (teacher educators) to create and teach courses without being told what standards had to be in there, but given the fact that the standards are not going away and we have to address them, at least I found there to be much more freedom than what I had originally thought. Given that it is my job to prepare teachers across all content areas to help students read and comprehend I think what the state is asking of inservice teachers (see list below) is pretty much what I do in my courses.

1. Rather than emphasizing more general strategies and questions, reinforce focus on the text and cultivate independence.
2. A significant percentage of questions/tasks should be text-dependent.
3. High quality sequences of text-dependent questions elicit a sustained attention to the specifics of the text and their impact.
4. Questions and tasks should require the use of textual evidence, including supporting logical inferences from the text.
5. Questions and tasks should require careful comprehension of the text before asking for further connections, evaluation, or interpretation.

We've also asked them to implement the following:

1. Make close reading and rereading of texts central to lessons.
2. Provide scaffolding that does not preempt or replace text.
3. Ask text dependent questions from a range of question types.
4. Emphasize students supporting answers based upon evidence from the text.
5. Provide extensive research and writing opportunities (claims and evidence)
6. Offer regular opportunities for students to share ideas, evidence, and research.
7. Offer systematic instruction in vocabulary.
8. Ensure wide reading from complex texts that vary in length.
9. Cultivate students' independence.