common cores

I have to be honest... This was not a fun article/ story/ summary to read.  It is useful but to just sit down on a Sunday afternoon for some light reading, I struggled to get through this.  Through each grade level it is the same goal with just something a little more specific added.  At the end of each grade level there is a section that summarizes range of reading and complexity and for each grade it just states at ex. 12th grade level, which is interesting to me.  It is a plus also that if you know the standards for one grade, the same standard will be the same content but more complex or less complex depending on the grade. The standards are good at letting a teacher know what skills a certain age should be able to accomplish but doesn't spell out what exactly they want.  I think they are a great guide on what to include in lessons but there is still a lot of flexibility left for the teachers to interpret the guidelines.  I guess this helps each school set its own curriculum and different materials they want to use.  They are just needing to use their selected material to reach the goals.  It is also funny that not all states have adopted the CCSS.  And the one of the states that didn’t was Texas.  Some of the states are ahead of Washington and have been using these standards previous.  I do wish, for my legalistic personality, that the CCSS were more exact.  I wish they said, by grade ten students will be able to read and analyze a poem.  Or by tenth grade history students will learn about the civil war and be able to identify the two sides, and what they wanted.  I just want to be told what to do.