I keep having to re-do someone else's work

One of the reasons I decided to try the ENY materials was that I figured someone else had done the heavy lifting on planning and designing lessons etc. To an extent I was right. What I didn't figure on was blatant errors in their materials, such as "Who's help does so and so ask for when he can't do the work" and worksheets that just don't work for kids. They are too small, they are on multiple pages, or they simply don't make sense. I have had to rework a sixth grade "graphic organizer" and one for seventh grade as well just for this week, and it's only Monday.

EngageNY is officially kicking my butt. I now know, clearly, why teachers in New York have been so upset about Common Core. These lessons are just ridiculous. Here are some examples:

I spent about four hours today working on lesson plans today for sixth and seventh grades. I got two days of planning done for sixth grade and one and a bit for seventh. I had to hunt high and low for the directions for a protocol, which turned out to be in Appendix A.

I am being asked to give my sixth graders an "Entrance Ticket" assessment that tests their comprehension of a chapter that they were assigned to read the previous night. They are supposed to get five minutes to answer three very basic comprehension questions. The idea is to hold kids accountable for their reading assignment/homework. For my lowest kids that five minutes will be consumed by taking out a sheet of paper and writing their name, date and period number at the top of the paper. Many of those same children will also have neither the comprehension nor the recall to answer the questions correctly. So my choices are to ignore the assignment, give it as suggested or figure out a way to differentiate it for ELs and IWENs. Not sure yet how I will go after this.

It's late and I'm tired. Over and out.

Now see, that's why I am doing this. We have some wonderful young teachers who have been using Google Classroom. They keep talking about it, so I decided to try it out. It is so easy. I just posted an assignment based on my lessons for "A Long Walk to Water" on Google Classroom for my seventh graders. I was able to upload an image and a template for the kids quickly and easily. The best part is that there is no additional username and password for the kids to learn other than the one they already have for the school's Google system. That was exciting!

I think I will say this repeatedly this year: Maybe I am just old. At 53 I don't think I am, but when I talk to younger colleagues who are also trying out the ENY stuff they seem to be seeing the opportunities for simplifying the process with technology more quickly than I am. I am fortunate to have such colleagues because it means that I can learn from them.

Maybe I am old. I finally gave up and printed out entire lessons on Thursday because I could not handle trying to keep track of things on the downloaded copies of the lessons on my computer. I was able to print the lessons out two to a page to save ink and paper. Saving ink and paper are big considerations because ink in particular is expensive and a little hard to come by.

We have been back at work for four days now, and I have started using the ENY lesson plans. It has been interesting, and by that I do not mean "interesting." Here are my thoughts in no particular order.

1. It took a while to get into things. I didn't have the actual books until Friday, so I was tapdancing a little for the first few days. That was OK because there was plenty to do with getting to know the kids etc. It was very exciting to have the books show up and get them all labeled and numbered etc. because I was sure these were books that the kids would enjoy. Percy Jackson is bound to be a hit, and "A Long Walk to Water" is going to be a mind-blower for my 7th graders. I was grateful for 8th graders needing community service hours who did all the labeling and numbering.

2. The idea that I get to teach a Percy Jackson book is a little surprising to me. I consider them to be 4th grade reading level, and I have 6th graders. So much for rigor.

3. I made a lot of copies, as predicted. I spent much of Thursday trying to figure out exactly what I needed to copy, printing out originals and then using the trusty Duplo machine.

4. It is much more difficult to teach from someone else's lesson plans than to teach from your own. It was tough to figure out what exactly I was supposed to do for the lessons. They are written with optimistic times for each element of the lesson. I skipped over some bits, and added more time to others.

5. It is nice to have someone else do the thinking for the lessons, even though they are difficult to figure out.

6. This is not that different from the old core literature teaching that I did waay back when in 1988. The big difference is the addition of non-fiction pieces to add to the literature, and the level of questions that the kids have to answer.

7. I assume that the idea behind starting with an easier book is to ease the kids into the concepts and skills involved with material that is more easily comprehensible. I do know that the 6th graders are about to be hit with a more difficult non-fiction article.

8. I am fortunate not to have an adminstration that is looking over my shoulder at every turn and questioning my decisions. If I did this would be much more stressful. That is not a CCSS issue though, that is a district policy and leadership issue.

About those EngageNY lessons. They are comprehensive. They are complicated. They seem really optimistic. And they seem really, really time-consuming. Oh, and I will be making tons and tons of copies.

I really have tried in the last few years to reduce the number of copies I make. We read out of books, we write on GoogleDocs, I don't do a lot of worksheets. Occasionally I print out articles that we are going to use as non-fiction to supplement fiction that we have read in class, but I don't do a whole lot of that. Using the copy machine is a hassle, and it just isn't environmentally friendly to be making a gazillion copies.

So, how many copies will I be making for my first two days of EngageNY for my sixth grade classes (approximately 90 students). Please don't start about how lucky I am to have only 90 students in my three sixth grade classes. Believe me, I know. I will be copying a three-page article and a page for a quick write for lesson one (Day 1) and a second hand-out for an exit ticket for lesson two (Day 2). My seventh graders will need two sheets copied for Day 1 and another copy for their exit ticket from Day 2. There is also a parent letter that needs to be copied (double sided English and Spanish). So for two days of instruction I will have copied. So that is 5x90=450 for sixth grade and 5x30-15 for 7th grade. That is 600 copies for the first two days of instruction. That does not include copies for activities in class. I don't know how this will work as I go on through the process, but I will keep you posted.

This is an experiment in blogging. It is an experiment in blogging as a way to journal a second experiment: My foray into the Engage New York lessons designed for the Common Core State Standards in English. Hence the title of my blog: CCSS, ENY etc.

SBACC and CAASPP are both names for our state test here in California based on the aforementioned CCSS. Since I have a pretty serious hunch that my students did not do particularly well last year, despite our hard work and best intentions, I am trying out the Engage NY materials, mostly because I don't have much in the way of materials available to me here in sunny CA. besides, why reinvent the wheel.

This whole decision was made yesterday, Friday. School starts on Tuesday. I am so glad I am not one of those wonderful teachers who spend their entire summer vacation planning curriculum and lessons for the school year. I would be seriously upset if I were. Instead, I roll with the punches and I will spend a lot of time this weekend trying to figure out which way is up.