One idea that is transforming education is that all public schools are moving from state to national standards, referred to as “Common Core State Standards”.  Most educators are applying these ideas to their current curriculum. The standards from the Common Core (which have been adopted by public schools in nearly all of the fifty states) such as "speak audibly, and express thoughts, feelings and ideas clearly" can be traced from K to 12th grade.  Nobody could possibly argue against these being important life skills for students of all ability levels. In order to practice proper speaking and listening skills, some students need to be presented with an alternative text. 

On May 16th , 2013 The Eastern Council of the Connecticut Reading Association will be hosting the second installment of “Vocabulary Instruction across Units of Study Using 2012-2013 Picture Books” at Killingly Intermediate School. Are you a parent or teacher worried that newly adopted public school learning standards will crush our children’s spirit as much as “No Child Left Behind” which should have been called, “Test the Children As Much As Possible”? Is there room for fun in the newly mandated Common Core State Standards? Veteran literacy coach and current classroom teacher, Kim Eiler of Killingly Public Schools would answer this question with a most enthusiastic, “Yes, of course there is fun in standards!”  I have been truly inspired by Kim since meeting her back in November. Kim’s language arts curriculum has been developed over the past fifteen years for grades K-6, and my co-teachers and I at Hale-Ray High use Kim’s teaching strategies as part of our high school reading classes.

Although some of my students are reluctant readers and public speakers, I am impressed at their ability to share poems and stories with the kindergarten students in our town. Recently, we shared a book of poetry called Take Two! A Celebration of Twins by J. Patrick Lewis and Jane Yolen. When I initially proposed this project, I hoped that the physical exercise required of the students would also enhance learning. Twice during March, I was able to take a one mile walk to and from our destination of East Haddam Elementary, through the woods and fields around the elementary and high schools, with a few of my teenage students in order to share beautiful, newly published picture books with Mrs. Laurie Hall’s full day Kindergarten class. On the recent walk back after our third visit to the elementary school, I discovered that my students had internalized the words “bereft” and “marathon”, from the poem “Fair Is Fair!” “Bereft means that you’re sad, but sad because you are so lonely,” said one of my students. The student also discussed the word “marathon”, and that in the poem that she read, this word means a “really long running race” instead of a “movie marathon” or a “study marathon”. Another student shared poems from Marilyn Singer’s A Strange Place To Call Home: The World’s Most Dangerous Habitats and the Animals That Call Them Home. When I asked him to explain what the word “altitude” meant in the poem about mountain goats, he said that “the goats go higher and higher on the mountain”.  All of the students were able to make connections to the poems and help the five and six year old students to also interpret the poems. Seen on my left, my students Kylie and Emily are each holding a copy of one of the newly published non-fiction books that is recommended by the International Reading Association for support of teaching the Common Core State Standards (Photo Credit: Debbie Ryczek).

I hope that you will join me at Killingly Intermediate School on May 2nd. The school is also close to Providence, RI and Worcester, MA, so if you happen to live near those cities, you may also want to cross over into CT. The cost of the workshop is free to CRA members, and $15.00 for non-members. Kim positively impacted the lives of my students, and I know that she will also enhance your teaching of reading to your students or even your own children. For more information about this workshop and to reserve your space, please contact Eastern CT Reading Association President Joanne Bell joanne.hbell@gmail.com  and also visit www.ctreading.org to learn about more professional development opportunities including our two day October, 2013 annual conference in Cromwell, Connecticut.