Our district has been working to
align and reframe our ELA and math curriculum in light of the adoption of the
Common Core State Standards. While we
hear or read many buzz words or phrases in the process, I think the one I see most used is “instructional
shift.”
What exactly does that mean? If you Google “instructional shift,” you will
receive a very long list of articles and documents that are more than willing
to explain it to you, at least from that specific author’s viewpoint. I decided to think just about the word “shift,”
which is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, in part, as follows:
“…Move or cause to move from one place to
another, especially over a small distance…Change in emphasis, direction,
or focus…”
Certainly, implementation of the
CCSS with fidelity will require some degree of instructional shifting,
dependent upon the starting point for each teacher, school, and district. But when I just look at those two dictionary definitions, it strikes me that great teachers make instructional shifts all
the time, and have always done so. For example, within the delivery of a given
lesson, a teacher may change the direction or focus of the lesson because of an
observation made while monitoring for desired effects. Heck, just changing a student’s seat may
sometimes be the best instructional shift a teacher can make in an hour.
The difference with the CCSS is
that the instructional shifts are very intentional, planned, and optimally,
being collaboratively learned by teachers prior to instruction. Some teachers are embracing the shifts, some
need to learn more about the shifts, and some are fearful of the shifts. Regardless, each teacher needs to remember
that “shift” happens all the time in classrooms, sometimes directed by the
teacher, and sometimes directed by the students. Sometimes “shift” happens and no one even
recognizes it.
Whether you are a fan of the
CCSS, withholding judgment for now, or hate it, the reality is that its
adoption has given us an opportunity to reflect upon our curriculum with a
different lens. The time we are taking
to be intentional is hard work, but will result in better learning for all of our
kids. We begin each curriculum meeting
with a review of our working agreements, and number one is that “we are here to
do what’s best for kids.” And we need to
keep that focus during implementation. Teachers
must be supported in their learning, so that they can continue to do what’s
best for kids. As long as that focus
doesn’t change, we can handle all the other “shift.”
-
J. Walton
