Common Core - Writing
The common core standards have shifted in the way teachers implement classes. For one, writing has become very much intertwined with reading in that students need to provide essays backed by evidence. This has certainly opened doors for students to achieve their goals faster, but it’s a process that both parties have to adjust to, as expected.
The change has permitted essays and research papers to be more conscious about putting in evidence and refer to readings. This is far from the method before, which only focuses on tests and exams to gauge student’s comprehension and skills. Now, students need to demonstrate deeper ways of understanding of their writing and reading materials.
Teachers are relishing the benefits of common core because standards in reading and writing have become more condensed. That’s a decrease in language arts standards from 90 to 50, in some states.
Teachers now focus on general writing modes like argumentative, informative and even narrative type of writing. So instead of the previous multiple-choice kind of assignments, teachers assign paragraph responses that students need to provide evidence on.
Analyzing a character from a literary content and putting that to writing are other examples of common core assignments. It gives students a means to think more critically on a character like Beowulf, for example, instead of just taking in without proactive responses to the lessons.
As for argumentative writing, students are now not only graded for their thesis statements and their abilities to gather facts and information to push their persuasive devices, but also to provide textual evidence and counterclaims.
Writing lessons now are more of a practical kind of writing that graduates may definitely be able to use in college and in their future careers.