As a student, I moved to a different state in the middle of high school before Common Core, and my first year at the new school I was totally lost. My previous state's curriculum was totally different than the new state's. I was happy when Common Core (mostly) was adopted nationwide so that more students don't suffer in the same way I did
The California educational system was very rough for students who struggle a bit. In elementary school, I felt like I was treading water for years. High school was a bit easier because there was more resources for struggling students. Once I hit college and out of the crazy school system, I excelled and graduated with my bachelors degree with honors. Goes to show you that a struggling student isn’t automatically doomed for failure.
Laura, thank you so much for taking the deep dive on all of my questions. My curiosities have been satisfactorily satiated. There is a lot of information available on specific differences in the Math programming, but not as much for ELA. I am 44 and still have fond memories of literary analysis in high school, but balancing time to include instruction in areas that will benefit more kids in various practical settings makes sense. Also, I think your tpt store is a great example that there is still room for plenty of classical and other great literature. Being a homeschool convert, I have benefitted greatly from the structured framework of the common core to use as guidelines. As I plan, I find myself wanting to fit in ALL THE THINGS! I love your content and I hope you continue to share. Congrats to finding a great work/life balance!
My pleasure, Keri! I'm so glad this info. was useful, even though I do tend to go off on a ramble every so often. I do work to blend fun and rigor in my resources. Great to hear that's coming through on your side with the user experience. Success!
Thanks for watching and commenting, Kristy! Don't know if I have enough content to fill a whole video on my library life. I'm a library assistant, which pretty much means I run the circulation desk and chit-chat with college kids all day long. It's a good fit for me right now because I get to enjoy being around young people without having to grade papers/take any work home. As for fiction writing, I tried that a while back and failed: laurarandazzo.com/2019/04/20/20time2019-the-results/ Thinking I'm better with blog writing, YT video, etc. I do like creating, though! :)
I am from Egypt. My students struggle a lot with the language itself; they have like a language barrier which makes it really difficult to go deeper in the text complexity. It really hiders going higher with standards. Students in Grade 9 can hardly deal with texts leveled 5 or 6. What should I do? Could you please give me some advice.
