Beyond State Standards

When the state and district are talking about exceeding the state standards, they are only talking about going beyond what they have identified as important, i.e. the standards themselves. When I am talking about going beyond the state standards, I am talking about exceeding the state standards by gaining the skills that ALLOW a student to exceed the various standards. What are some of the things that are not state standards but are essential to learning: a work ethic; perseverance; willingness to ask questions; reading comprehension of books that the student doesn't like; reading successfully when there is noise and distractions; reading for a least 20 minutes without stopping; study skills; test taking skills; being able to read and write cursive; typing 60-80 words per minute; typing all their own work by the end of fifth grade; being organized, learning how to use a planner and managing their time; meeting due dates; being independent; networking; and advocating for themselves.

Tomorrow in language arts we are auditing the journals and auditing the edit sentences. We are taking our first edit quiz.

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