I found it interesting that the state of Virginia has not yet adapted the common core standards. I did find SOL to be a little confusing, as far as the testing requirements, and not enough information was found. I never got any feed back from the teacher I emailed in the beginning of the week, about the curriculum's for 2nd grade, so I'm still waiting to get more information on what Arlington County requires--mostly out of curiosity for my future. I was able to find this document which was helpful because it compared the SOL to the common core standards.
I found that "unpacking" a standard really can help you break down what you need to be focusing on teaching the student. This is definitely something new I learned this week. So I can take the list of requirements from SOL now and break it down, then create lessons and objectives from each standard. I also found on the website of the school I am interested in, the school has 4 long term assignments in the second grade. Each assignment has a theme: Patters, Time Machines, Mysteries and Heros. I am curious if this is something all schools in the county do or not. I did not find it on other sites. This is something I will be adding to my list of mentor teacher questions.
Having a daily learning objective is something I never thought about having on the board but after watching the video in Activity 3, the example of "SWBAT" i found really interesting. I think it would be nice to remind students of the objective for each subject so they are focused on what they need to be taking out of the unit. I also found the cognitive process dimension very helpful.
I think the hardest part is going to be having enough time for lesson planing. I want to find out the breakdown for each standard in SOL. How often is the SOL testing, passing score requirements, what about kids with IEPs etc... How much time do I have to teach each section of SOL. Is their a time frame for each standard. Is one standard supposed to be taught within 2 weeks, 3 weeks? These are things I will be discussing with my mentor teacher next year and I figured all these questions and planing will get figured out then. I am more of a hands-on-learning person anyways, so I already know most of my preparation will be from my mentor teaching experience and asking all the questions then.
I found that "unpacking" a standard really can help you break down what you need to be focusing on teaching the student. This is definitely something new I learned this week. So I can take the list of requirements from SOL now and break it down, then create lessons and objectives from each standard. I also found on the website of the school I am interested in, the school has 4 long term assignments in the second grade. Each assignment has a theme: Patters, Time Machines, Mysteries and Heros. I am curious if this is something all schools in the county do or not. I did not find it on other sites. This is something I will be adding to my list of mentor teacher questions.
Having a daily learning objective is something I never thought about having on the board but after watching the video in Activity 3, the example of "SWBAT" i found really interesting. I think it would be nice to remind students of the objective for each subject so they are focused on what they need to be taking out of the unit. I also found the cognitive process dimension very helpful.
I think the hardest part is going to be having enough time for lesson planing. I want to find out the breakdown for each standard in SOL. How often is the SOL testing, passing score requirements, what about kids with IEPs etc... How much time do I have to teach each section of SOL. Is their a time frame for each standard. Is one standard supposed to be taught within 2 weeks, 3 weeks? These are things I will be discussing with my mentor teacher next year and I figured all these questions and planing will get figured out then. I am more of a hands-on-learning person anyways, so I already know most of my preparation will be from my mentor teaching experience and asking all the questions then.
