Standards for K-12 Students
Common Core Standards - Content Knowledge and Skills
Each discipline area typically references standards established by a national professional organization. So, for example, standards for mathematics originate with the National Council of Teaches of Mathematics (NCTM) and the National Science Teachers Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) have influenced science standards. This does not mean that all students are focused on the same expectations. Perhaps the most recent effort to identify key educational goals for all students is the effort to create the Common Core State Standards. Presently individual states adopt and implement standards and the idea of a common core was to change this approach so that expectations for students were consistent no matter where the students happened to live. At the time we were preparing this content, common standards were available for English Language Arts and Mathematics and the effort was underway to get as many states as possible to endorse these standards.
It is not our intent to examine any of the content area standards in depth with the exception of standards focused on what students should be to accomplish with technology. Our main goal in considering content area standards is to establish a general context for thinking about classroom activities. However, we do want to bring special attention to a focus in the English Language Arts standards that place special emphasis on argumentation. We single out this goal here because argumentation is a form of writing and presenting likely to involve the higher-order thinking emphasized later in this chapter as 21st century skills and because argumentation also involves skills essential to a method of integrating technology in many content areas that we describe as authoring to learn (see chapter two).
In commenting on argumentation, the core standards proposal states that the standards place unique emphasis on student ability to write “sound arguments on substantive topics and issues, as this ability is critical to college and career readiness”:
“When teachers ask students to consider two or more perspectives on a topic or issue, something far beyond surface knowledge is required: students must think critically and deeply, assess the validity of their own thinking, and anticipate counterclaims in opposition to their own assertions.” (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010, p. 24)
So, among the important goals identified as core standards is the capacity to create products offering clear explanation, logical analysis, and sensitivity to differing positions. The general demands imposed in the work necessary to generate such products require a depth of understanding that move students beyond basic retention of course content. Some suggestions for the type of tasks that involve argumentation might thus be helpful in offering teachers activities they would find useful (e.g., see WebQuests).
Learning about technology and common core: An exercise
As we prepare this content, only a hand full of states have not adopted the Common Core standards (state by state information). This would mean it is very likely you will be making use of these standards as you teach or prepare to teach. Hence, we assume you will be exposed to these content area standards in other courses or in connection with other responsibilities. What we would like to do is to emphasize the critical role technology plays in these expectations. The phrase "integrated technology" would certainly be an apt description.
Here is a little exercise you might try both to become familiar with the standards if this is new to you and to explore how activities involving technology and skills in the application of technology are integral to the skills the standards emphasize. We downloaded the pdfs provided by the Department of Public Instruction for our state. We then used a tool (iAnnotate of the iPad) that would allow a set of standards to be searched for different key terms. So, for example, when we search the language arts standards using the term "digital" appeared more than 40 times.
The way this tool works we could then explore the different references to technology skills and the use of technology tools.
This was intended only as a demonstration. You will likely spend a considerable amount of time reviewing all of the standards appropriate to your area and level of responsibility.