Literacy and Common Core Standards: Week 2 Reflection

As a fourth grade teacher in a Title 1 school where almost all the emphasis is on reading (or communication skills as we call it) and math, somehow science and social studies gets pushed to the side. Especially in fourth grade because our end of the year state tests are only in reading and math, while all subjects are tested in third and fifth grade. We are forced to integrate science and social studies reading passages into our daily literacy block if we want to get through all of the science and s.s. curriculum. Also, our students tend to struggle with nonfiction texts more than they do with fictional, so reading over the Core standards reminded me of the uses the web can have in presenting students with informational texts. For example, one of our standards in Virginia in 4th grade is to evaluate and synthesize information from multiple sources. Evaluating informational texts from multiple web sites, videos, blogs, wikis, etc, would be a great way for students to evaluate the validity of a text, compare and contrast different points of views, and form their own ideas based on multiple readings. I'm sure there's a whole host of other things that I haven't considered yet, but I'm hoping to as I play with all the tools.