Curriculum

"I Can" Common Core State Standards

Common Core State Standards

The main crux of the curriculum developed and implemented at Wilton Place School is based on and faithfully adhered to the Common Core State Standards. They’re designed to be much more rigorous than current standards and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that young people need for success in college and careers, and to provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, and teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them.

These Standards are re-written by many school districts across the U.S. in student-friendly language, and the "I Can" Standards below were written by Folsom Cordova Unified School District. 

 

Transitional K:    Math  [ENG]   [SPN]           Language Arts   [ENG]   [SPN]

Kindergarten:     Math  [ENG]   [SPN]           Language Arts   [ENG]   [SPN]

1st Grade:          Math  [ENG]   [SPN]           Language Arts   [ENG]   [SPN]

2nd Grade:         Math  [ENG]   [SPN]           Language Arts   [ENG]   [SPN]

3rd Grade:          Math  [ENG]   [SPN]           Language Arts   [ENG]   [SPN]

4th Grade:          Math  [ENG]   [SPN]           Language Arts   [ENG]   [SPN]

5th Grade:          Math  [ENG]   [SPN]           Language Arts   [ENG]   [SPN]

 

How do instructions based on Common Core Standards benefit students?

 

1.    Common Core Puts Creativity Back in the Classroom

“Educators desperately want to reclaim the joy in teaching and student learning—which means creative lesson plans, meaningful exploration of topics, and inspiring the joy of real learning in our students.”

Our teachers at Wilton Place School participate in on-going training, dialogue, and exchange of ideas for effective and engaging implementation.

 

2.   Common Core Gives Students a Deep Dive into Concept Learning

The Common Core allows students to stay on a topic for a longer period of time and not only dive deeply into it, but also be able to understand and apply the knowledge to everyday life.
When students can explore a concept and really immerse themselves in that content, they emerge with a full understanding that lasts well beyond testing season.

Students used to skim the surface of most topics, working on them for just a day or two before moving on to the next, whether they’d mastered the first concept or not.

 

3.   Common Core Boosts up Rigor

The CCSS requires students to take part in their learning and to think more critically about content, as opposed to simply repeating back what their teachers feed them.  The CCSS requires more critical thinking and increased rigor that will make students more competitive on a global level.”

 

4.   Common Core Espouses the Value of Collaborative Work Mindset

The Common Core will create opportunities to share resources and to produce common resources.  
Students will work in teams when learning concepts, and as part of the new standards, they will have to evaluate areas of strength and areas in need of improvement in their own work, and in that of the other teams. Evaluation and offering meaningful feedback is a skill many adults are still grappling with – the new standards will ask elementary school students to master it by the time they enter middle school.

5.   Common Core Advances Equity
Educators are most excited about the Common Core because it’ll be a challenge for all students, not just the high achieving students, which will go a long way to closing achievement and opportunity gaps for poor and minority children.
Everybody is going to have a high bar to meet, but it’s a bar that can be met with support from – all of us and teachers.

 

6.   Common Core Gets Students College-Ready
One of the broad goals is that the increased rigor of the Common Core will help everyone become college and/or career ready.  If a student who was taught how to think critically and how to read texts for information and analysis can explain the premise behind a various thesis, she’ll have options and opportunities.