Standard Focus: Your Standards are NOT Against You!
When most educators hear the word "standards" there are a few common natural reactions. Some teachers sigh, roll their eyes, or even cover their face. Others might have choice words or even smirks to offer in exchange for the word being spoken. Still, there are others that might break out into a sweat because they know mentioning the standard means changing something, unfavorable PD, or an evaluation of some sort. While this might all seem humorous, it's quite true. I myself had had several of these reactions multiple times. Recently however, I was inspired by a podcast episode on "Teach Me, Teacher" in which Jacob Chastain took listeners into a deep dive for Readers' Workshop. Since I am always on the look out for new ideas and ways to approach Workshop in my classroom, I was surprised to hear that in his classroom, Jacob starts with... (drumroll please) the standards. He always shows the students what standard they are covering, and throughout his lesso