Weekly Reading: November 4th

1. What was the chapter about?

The Common Core Standards are based on critical thinking and how it applies to all interactions with language, from listening and speaking to reading and writing. The standards address both the different methods of interacting (listen, speak, read, write) as well as the different formats, purposes, audiences, etc of the works. These standards seek to insure that all students are ready to enter the adult world—whether that is through academia or profession—as well-rounded, discerning members of society.

Long points out the difficulties in implementing the new Common Core standards, at both the state and the school level. From lack of funding and resources to lack of community support, education has many challenges to everyday operation, let alone implementing as sweeping a change as this would be.

Pitcher et al. discusses a study which investigated students’ motivations to read as well as their concept of themselves and of others as readers. It discussed how the survey was modified from an earlier survey, how to modify it to fit a new group (if the reader wishes to give the survey to his/her students), and how to administer the survey.

2. What does this chapter tell you about teaching students?

The Common Core Standards tells what general thinking skills students should learn, but it does not give specific ways to implement them. The closest that it comes is suggesting types of literature to study when developing analyzation skills.

Long tells very little about teaching individual students, as he is focused on the macro level of education rather than the micro level. He does mention that teachers need to carefully consider how to best implement these new changes rather than fighting them or attempting to evade the new standards.

Pitcher et al. found that students read fairly often, but that much of that reading is not in the format of traditional academic texts. Rather than reading textbooks or novels, students read online and newspaper articles, magazines, emails and text messages, and song lyrics. Since these are the items which students want to read, teachers should include those sorts of materials in their curricula and allow students to make some choices about specific texts to read.

3. Can this chapter be applied in your content area?

The Common Core Standards suggest mythology as one of the types of literature to be studied, and Latin is the subject where mythology is most appropriate. Further, as the Romans (and their Greek predecessors) thought and behaved so differently than modern Americans, students need to be able to analyze them in terms of the Romans’ and Greeks’ own culture, rather than American culture. This, of course, requires that students know those cultures include.

Lack of funding and lack of community support is nothing new for Latin teachers. Too many people deride Latin as a dead language and useless in modern life, not understanding that the skills involved in learning Latin—grammar, spelling, attention to detail, nuances of meaning, translation—help students with writing in their own language. Likewise, by studying a culture which is both very similar and very different to our own, students learn to draw parallels between the ancient Romans and modern life.

Latin has a rather restricted set of authentic texts—after all, Classical Latin stopped being written almost two thousand years ago—but Neo Latin is still available in items such as Papal decrees, Dr. Seuss and the Harry Potter series translated into Latin, and online news sites. When studying culture, the options are almost limitless: Roman culture has remained a cultural fascination for decades, so many websites, magazines, and other sources have written about it. The only problem is finding reliable resources.