Turning Points Chapter 3

Chapter 3 of Turning Points 2000 discusses the use of standards and the development of appropriate assessments. To begin, I really liked the idea behind standards being used as the basis of middle school curriculum. This idea is that standards support excellence and equity. What this means to me is that standards are meant to outline knowledge and skills that students should gain through a curriculum, but that they should also be achievable for every student in the school. This chapter also stresses the idea that academic standards should be useful and worded in a clear way. I think that this is incredibly important because students should be gaining knowledge and skills that are useful to them in real life situations. In addition, students should also be able to understand what the standard is asking them to be able to do, meaning they should be able to understand the standard as it is written. One concern that was brought up in this chapter when it comes to working with standards is covering material. I think that this is an important topic because this is something that every new teacher is concerned about, including myself. Like the book says teachers can get caught up going faster through material to try to cover as much as possible, while leaving students behind. However, I find it helpful that the texts suggests to prioritize what to teach based on what is most vital and least vital. For me this means that I have the ability to adapt my teaching and the learning sequence in my classroom to fit the needs of all students.