Last year, Beaverton first-graders expanded more of their prose beyond writing narratives about themselves, their summer, their dogs.
They wrote about how to do things, they researched topics and described them, and they expressed their opinions.It's part of the new Common Core State Standards, a national set of math, reading and writing rules that spell out what students should know and be able to do at each grade.
Beaverton School District has been quietly training teachers and mapping out strategies over the last couple of years to incorporate the new national standards and began phasing in the K-12 lessons last year.
Oregon adopted the more rigorous Common Core standards in 2010 as a way to ensure education consistency among schools and states, according to the Oregon Department of Education. The Common Core is replacing Oregon's existing standards.
About 44 other states have also adopted the Common Core, which are based on international standards and were designed to better prepare students for college and careers.
Parents likely won't see big changes in the classrooms because of the overlap between the Common Core and Beaverton's existing standards, said Jan Martin, elementary administrator for curriculum, instruction and assessment.
The district is phasing in the new lessons as it builds on those already in place based on feedback from teachers.
At the middle and high schools, the district has already moved Common Core into the curriculum, and teachers are incorporating new lessons as they receive training, some more quickly than others, said Robin Kobrowski, secondary administrator for curriculum, instruction and assessment.June Yi is among the teachers who helped move the writing standards into the classrooms. Teams of teachers and principals worked with district administrators to coordinate the Common Core changes.
"Our charge was to take the Common Core, which can be unyielding, to distill it and make it user-friendly for teachers and students," said the Sunset High School language arts teacher.
"I don't think it will be too much of a leap," she said. "Teachers have been using learning targets in the classroom. I think these will feel familiar."
Yi said she likes the rigor of the new standards. "There is an emphasis on using evidence to defend your answer, and I think that skill is critical across all subjects," she said.
The literacy portion of the Common Core has been criticized for its move toward more non-fiction or informational texts -- 70 percent by the end of high school.
But that's across all disciplines, Kobrowski said."The requirement will also be satisfied (through) science and other classes," she said.
The same is true for elementaries, where nonfiction must account for at least 50 percent of the reading.
This year, the district will continue to build on the K-5 Common Core writing standards and roll in math. Next school year, it's reading.
"We don't want to introduce four to five things at the elementaries," Martin said.
Hazeldale Elementary teacher Heather Craig said she's been impressed with Common Core writing so far. She taught first grade last year.
"I've seen amazing things come out of those 6- and 7-year-olds," she said. "The focus on persuasive and informational writing is producing better thinkers and communicators."
But Craig said it's hard to abandon the old approach that writing is evaluated on six traits: conventions (spelling, punctuation), word choice, voice, organization, sentence fluency, ideas and content.
"Now we'll be using a different evaluation tool to assess students in the three writing categories (narrative, explanatory and opinion)," she said.
The math standards will require more of both teachers and students as they stress math discussion and "flexibility" in solving problems -- fewer topics, but more in-depth.
Bonny Slope Elementary fifth-grade teacher Tricia Murphy said, "It's not a huge difference."
Murphy spent time at Columbia University this summer to learn more about Common Core as part of her work with a district teaching committee.
In terms of rigor, she said some areas of math will move a grade level.
For example, multiplying and dividing fractions will move from sixth grade to fifth. At the same time, calculating surface area will move from fifth grade to middle school, she said.
At Westview High School, math teacher Ryan Johnson said Common Core math is more difficult and time-consuming, but he likes the requirement of applying math to real world problems.
Students will take a more "investigative" approach instead of listening to a lecture, he said.
"I don't think anyone is going to be left behind," Johnson said. "My hope is that the culture of disliking math changes."
The district has held one meeting with parents related to Common Core, at the request of parents.
Linda Nezbeda said about 10 parents attended the meeting at Errol Hassell Elementary in June. Another meeting is scheduled for late September.
Nezbeda, who has children in first and second grades at Errol Hassell, said she isn't opposed to Common Core, but she's wary of the implementation of the standards.
"I think we should get out of Common Core until it's piloted and tested, and we know it's going to work," she said.
Oregon will test all students on Common Core standards beginning in the 2014-15 school year, replacing the Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (OAKS) with Smarter Balanced Assessment.
-- Wendy Owen