Blended Learning and the Common Core State Standards
Posted by onWhen I think about the changes and challenges that the Common Core State Standards will bring, I’m reminded of the conversations I’ve had with former students during their freshman year of college. They all consistently expressed their amazement that the days of “just memorizing things” had passed. The challenges of higher education demanded that they spend less time with their flashcards and more time learning a subject deeply, wrestling with concepts, and articulating and defending their own ideas.
It should come as no surprise that the Common Core Standards, which were created to prepare students for higher education, will challenge students similarly. Fortunately, in the same way that higher education’s lecture and discussion model helps students achieve these more challenging academic requirements, blended learning models which combine online curriculum with small-group instruction, give K-12 students and their teachers the opportunity to meet the more challenging academic goals defined by the Common Core Standards.
In the higher education system, the lecture and discussion model supports more rigorous academic demands. In lecture, professors build students’ foundational knowledge of a topic. Then, in discussion groups, teaching assistants support students as they apply their foundational knowledge of a topic to more challenging tasks. In this smaller setting with more support, students can master more complex skills, such as synthesis, analysis, and application. Similarly, if we consider a blended learning model with two stations, a computer-based station for building a foundation of knowledge, and a teacher-led small group station for learning more complex skills, K-12 teachers can achieve the same ends as the college lecture and discussion model. However, instead of achieving these ends during separate times, in different places, and with the support of an army of teaching assistants, with a blended learning model K-12 teachers can achieve the same ends in one classroom and one class period.
Leveraging blended learning’s computer-based and teacher-led stations, teachers can successfully meet the Common Core Standards’ challenge of teaching fewer topics in greater depth. All deep understanding begins with building the foundational knowledge of a topic’s concepts and academic vocabulary. Through multiple examples of a concept and practice opportunities with immediate feedback, students can build this foundation of knowledge at the computer-based station. Then, students arrive at the teacher-led station ready to delve deeper into a topic and its complexities. Through the deep dives into topics via teacher-led small group in concert with online curriculum, students can apply their knowledge to more challenging tasks and thereby gain an understanding of a topic at its greatest depths.
In addition to studying topics in greater depth, the Common Core Standards will also require students to analyze more complex texts across all subject areas, synthesize and defend their ideas in writing, and apply their knowledge to solve problems. All of these are complex skills that require the same type of individualized instruction and support students in the higher education system receive from their discussion sections. Fortunately, blended learning can help teachers deliver instruction in sessions like these discussion sections, but in a scalable way. With data captured from the digital content on the computer stations, teachers can efficiently identify where a student requires further support. Empowered by this information, teachers can then design differentiated lessons to support students’ individual needs. Provided the time and space to deliver these differentiated lessons in a small group, teachers can successfully guide students towards mastery of the Common Core’s more complex skills.
The Common Core Standards will push our K-12 system towards greater alignment with the standards and skills required for success in in our higher education system and the 21st century. The introduction of these new standards is challenging school systems across the country to evaluate existing instructional approaches and to innovate with new instructional models. Blended learning, among others, could prove to be a sustainable model for achieving the educational goals of the Common Core Standards.
Hi Will! I’d also like to add that blended learning also shifts the paradigm of classroom learning and teaching from “teacher focused’ to “student focused” where there isn’t one single important source of information in the classroom. While allowing educators to cover more concepts in greater depth – with a variety of tools – blended learning also directly prepares our 21st century learners for a world where there is no sole teacher, the onus is on the individual to make decisions after using all of the resources available to aid in the process. Student centered learning encourages students to learn from one another and take ownership of their own learning, ie: Speaking and Listening Standards K-5, Standard #1c
“Ask questions to check understanding of information presented, stay on topic, and link their comments to the remarks of others.”
The awesome thing about the CCSS is that it leaves the method of assessment in the hands of the teacher.
Great post -
Lyndsey (Julie’s friend)
One area where I agree the CCSS and blended learning could really come together is with the push for students to read more complex texts across the subject areas. Not only could blended learning allow scalable access to targeted discussion sections with teachers who have data on gaps in student knowledge, technology could make these complex texts more accessible by using interactive features to build student understanding of the relationships between parts of an author’s argument and how authors develop their arguments, which is specifically required by the CCSS. I would be excited to see a product that offered students that interactive engagement with complex texts.
Lyndsey – I couldn’t agree more. Your point is one of the things that excites me the most about blended learning and the Common Core standards that promote independent learning. I’ve seen too many students head off to college academically prepared, but unprepared for the independent learning environment that constitutes higher education. Arriving unprepared for this independence, small things, such as monitoring their grades or managing their time, creates droves of college dropouts. Obviously, blended learning and these Common Core standards are no panacea for this issue – as I know you’re not suggesting – but like you I’m excited about the potential blended learning holds for releasing students to direct more of their own learning and to become the college-ready students the Common Core will push them to be.
MDK – I think you’re right to point to the technology component of blended learning as strong point of potential for pushing students to read more complex texts. Any English teacher, much less math, science, or social studies teachers who often aren’t provided a great deal of reading training, can tell you what a difficult task it is to find a text that is appropriately complex for each student’s reading level and to provide the scaffolding necessary to access that text.
If you’re looking for a program that can provide both of these, I’d encourage you to check out our partner, Achieve 3000. They have thousands of articles that span multiple subjects and are at reading levels ranging from the 2nd to 12th grades. Using this treasure chest of articles, the program assigns students texts that align with or just above their current reading level, and provides them scaffolding specific to each article that allows each student to access increasingly difficult texts.
Thanks to you both for you comments!