After a year of preparations, Fountain Valley schools are adjusting their lesson plans to reflect the Common Core State Standards.
The new assessments, adopted by 45 states, emphasize close readings of texts in language arts and explanations of answers in math.
Gone are the days of multiple-choice tests in which students could rely on the process of elimination to help them pass.
Now it's all about the educational journey, not the bubbled-in answer.
Starting in 2014-15, students will have to take new standardized tests on computers, which mean teachers are modifying what they teach and how they're teaching it.
Luckily, they're getting help from Common Core consultants – and from Google, Apple and Twitter.
The biggest fear surrounding Common Core is with the unknown – specifically, not knowing how students are going to be evaluated, administrators say.
For more than a decade, schools have geared teaching toward preparing students for the California Standardized Tests, or CSTs. This year, schools have to strike a balance between preparing students for the CSTs and making the transition to Common Core before 2015.
Even though schools have yet to see the final exams, they do have guidelines.
Students will be expected to support their arguments with textual evidence. Math classes will be grounded in more real-world contexts. Subjects will be fewer but more in-depth.
“The long and short of it is kids are going to have to explain their thinking, not just give an answer,” said Andrew Heughins, principal at Ethan Allen Elementary.
The way that students explain their thinking is also changing, Heughins added, because the Common Core exams will be administered on a computer.
The specter of computerized testing has caused a big push for more technology, both from teachers and at the district level.
The Fountain Valley school board is on the verge of hiring a public information officer to help get the message out that schools need iPads, new computers and the money to buy them. In the past two years, the Fountain Valley Educational Fund has cut its performing arts funding in half in favor of increased funding for new technology.
“Technology doesn't replace education, but it does allow us to access information,” Superintendent Marc Ecker said. “If you're going to need to prove a point, make an argument and support it, the access you have to information is critical.”
The technological shift that has occurred in Fountain Valley classrooms is staggering.
“It's changing overnight,” Courreges Elementary Principal Chris Christensen said.
Every classroom at Courreges has an iPad that can be projected onto the wall via an Apple TV transmitter. Many of the teachers have a half-dozen iPads, thanks to grants they have written to organizations such as the Assistance League of Huntington Beach.
Of about 90 Fountain Valley teachers who were awarded $500 grants from the League on Monday, more than a third spent the money on iPads or laptops, according to a spreadsheet provided by the school district.
Courreges also has two third-grade classrooms where every student has a Google laptop on which a digital penguin named Jiji teaches them math.
By the end of this school year, Christensen estimates, Courreges will have close to 10 iPads per classroom. By the end of next year, he hopes that every student will have some sort of digital device.
CONNECTING WITH KIDS
Part of the reason for the shift from No. 2 pencils to computers is because that's where students will be taking their standardized tests next year.
Learning how to compose a narrative on a computer is an important skill for young people, Principal Heughins noted. But for older students, technology can be more of a distraction than a learning tool.
Most schools have bans on smartphones in the classroom. But Fountain Valley High School has implemented a policy that leaves phone use up to the discretion of teachers.
While some teachers have kept the ban in place, others are using mobile devices and social media as a way to connect with young people and enrich classroom discussions.
Sean Ziebarth, who teaches AP English and journalism, uses Twitter as a virtual discussion forum. During a recent class discussion on “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Ziebarth tweeted a question that each student had to respond to in 140 characters or less.
Ziebarth said the advantage of these virtual discussions is that it encourages less outspoken students to participate in the discussion.
“On Twitter, everybody is engaged, and there's much less cognitive downtime,” Ziebarth said. “You can't be as long-winded, but that's another good skill: to distill your thoughts into the smallest space possible.”
Ziebarth's students recognized their teacher's efforts to make class more enjoyable by communicating with them in the same way they communicate with each other.
“As teenagers, we are really connected to our mobile devices,” said senior Beverly Pham, who took Ziebarth's class last year. “I really like the way teachers are incorporating social media into instruction. It makes learning more fun and enjoyable, which makes us more likely to remember the lessons.”
Twitter also helps Ziebarth align his lesson plans more closely with the Common Core philosophy of applying what students learn in the classroom to the outside world.
“We're moving past ‘write an essay so your teacher can read it,'” Ziebarth said. “We want them to be writing and creating things that have a real-world audience.”
Twitter and blogs are an excellent way to find target audiences, Ziebarth said.
In an effort to make AP English less about the ivory tower and more about real-world problem-solving, Ziebarth dedicates 20 percent of class time to students' ideas. Every Friday, students are allowed to work on a personal, long-term project that will affect positive change in the world.
This concept, called 20 Percent Time, is borrowed from Google, which used to have a policy of encouraging its employees to spend 20 percent of their time tinkering on their own projects. The idea is that people are most productive when they are working on something they are passionate about.
For the tech giant, the 20 Percent Time policy led to products such as Gmail and Google News. For Ziebarth's students, the free periods on Fridays have allowed students to write a children's book, raise money for disadvantaged athletes and organize a choir concert to benefit medical research.
Pauline Nguyen took Ziebarth's class last year as a junior. She compiled personal essays from students and teachers and self-published a book she likened to a kind of “Chicken Soup” for the high schooler's soul.
Nguyen said she and her classmates initially were daunted by the task of creating their own project, as it “pushed us out of our comfort zone.”
At the same, she felt empowered by the idea that she could control her own education.
“It was great because in all my other classes, we didn't really get to plan what we wanted to do,” she said.
“We learned that we were more capable than we thought we were.”
5 QUESTIONS WITH … SUPERINTENDENT MARC ECKER, ON COMMON CORE
The Common Core State Standards officially take effect during the 2014-15 school year, when students will be required to take a new series of standardized tests, and they'll have to take them on computers, not Scantrons. Fountain Valley has started to make the switch this year by asking teachers to start tailoring their lessons to prepare students for the new assessments. Superintendent Marc Ecker spoke with the View about what students and parents can expect this year.
Q. How will Common Core requirements affect instruction?
A.The new assessments will require much more thought and independent knowledge. We're going to, hopefully, see a linkage between what students are taught and what they experience in real life. They'll own the learning. We want them to have a deeper understanding of what they are learning rather than being able to recall facts. I can tell you all the states' capitals, but that doesn't necessarily help me with real-world problems.
Q. Why is the district so keen on pushing technology in the classroom?
A.Our schools are at a tipping point where we don't even have enough computers for the teachers. Technology doesn't replace education, but it does allow us to access information and to communicate and collaborate to a much greater degree. If you're going to need to prove a point, make an argument and support it, the access you have to information is critical. Many of our students leave a multitude of devices at home that they use all the time. Not using them is like going to war without the proper armament.
Q. What kind of new technology is the district looking at?
A.I think there are two concepts. One is devices and the infrastructure to support them. The other concept we need to bridge is the connectivity necessary between these devices and the concept of teaching and learning. We've piloted the Bring Your Own Device program, but we don't have the full answer right now.
Q. What kind of devices would you personally like to see in classrooms?
A.Probably some form of a tablet. Smart devices on the walls, where you're looking at the blackboard, which is actually a computer that can remember things, can pull up information and kids can write directly on the board. And those smart boards can connect with the tablets in real time. In primary grades, we've looked at smart tables where students sit around the same table, which is really a miniature smart board. We also need to arm our teachers with computers that are mobile and armed with the necessary programs.
Q. You said the Fountain Valley Educational Foundation is shifting its support from the arts to technology. Is technology replacing the arts?
A.What we had before was a very toned-down version of a full arts program in the schools. The foundation supported that to a limited degree. They supported a music program that was like a singalong or a music camp. It was fun and nice, but it cost a lot of money to pay those folks. The foundation has decided to focus on technology and in so doing give the arts to the district. We are transitioning to hiring a private firm to run the before- and after-school arts programs. The parents would pay the private company.
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