How are elementary teachers going to teach and assess all of the power standards and learning targets meaningfully, given our schedule and time constraints? What resources will be provided to assist with this?

It’s important to remember that learning targets are parts of the power standard. If you think of it as a mathematical term, LT + LT + LT = power standard, the learning targets are not additional content or skills. Presently, elementary teachers are charged with teaching ALL standards. With the implementation of our new policy, next year, elementary teachers will be able to focus on the power standards and provide the depth that students need rather than trying to “cover” all the standards with the same level of emphasis.

This question prompts us to ask, “How are elementary teachers teaching science and social studies now?” While we understand time must be allotted for science and social studies instruction in a separate block, in addition to the literacy block, schools will have to examine their master schedules as well as what else teachers are teaching to carve out the time to teach the power standards. Some schools’ schedule accommodates this on days the student does not have rotation (PE/music).

Elementary teachers have new social studies resources as well as science kits. We realize there are some gaps in resources for science, and we are working to address this. Teams will begin to identify various resources and units that teachers can use to teach the content where a science kit doesn’t exist. Teachers also have a vast amount of resources at their fingertips via the Internet.

While the text is a resource that teachers can use as part of highly effective instruction, it should not be the sole resource. Some schools have dedicated some of their building budget to purchase leveled texts that align with the science and social studies content for students to use during guided and shared reading.