Advocacy

I'm interested in hearing from others who teach in States (like my home State of Michigan) where the NCCAS standards haven't been adopted.

Do you still integrate the national standards into your teaching?  How so?  Does your district officially recognize another set of standards?

Just curious about other people's experiences.

Hi Ryan,

I'm dancing the fine dance of tying two different sets of standards to my teaching, the Florida (old) Sunshine State standards for theatre (which I think many are confused as to whether we're meant to just shoehorn our theatre curriculum into the new Florida (AKA Common Core) Standards, and disregard the uncomfortable bits that miss out half of the theatre curriculum.

On display in class are the National Core Arts Theatre Standards, and that is what I base my teaching and curriculum planning on (aside from what little guidance there is about what the district exam comprises). I tie the state standards on to it usually only when I have an observation coming, though I stress the rigor and higher complexity of demands made by the National Core Arts Theatre standards when I am in that process.

What is more discouraging is that most don't tend to pay attention as to whether one is using Common, State, National Theatre or Ted the waste disposal manager's standards. The conniption that everybody was having about the argument over the recent new common core standards feels more like political grandstanding, to be honest. But let's get into politics. :)

Sorry, I went off on a tangent there.

I incorporate them into my teaching by referring the students to the standards we're trying to hit during each unit. I briefly talk about their real world application, why the standard matters, how we will measure it, and those sorts of details. This takes more time in the earlier part of the year, then after a while it becomes repetition and permanently etched into my students absorbing sponges. At least, one hopes. There's always the odd one who has trouble remembering what class they're even in at any given moment...

Whenever we get the chance and when it doesn't take away from what we are doing in instruction, then that standard is briefly alluded back to when we're talking about did we hit it/did we not. I love the theatre standards, and they've really helped me get better at this teaching gig. :)

I feel like I'm in good company reading these responses.

I too prefer the national standards to my state's standards (I am especially smitten with the NCCAS enduring understandings, essential questions, philosophical foundations and lifelong goals.  I also like the way that the anchor standards cut across all of the arts).

And like you Phillip, I feel that no one much cares which set of standards I use.  (One of the silver linings of the dark cloud that is teaching a subject on the periphery of administrative attention, right?)  I really only reference the state standards once a year when writing my officially observation lesson plan (in which case I'll cite the relevant standards from both sets).

I will also say this: there's a ton of overlap between the two sets of standards, so, choosing one or the other largely seems like picking one set of vocabulary and organizational pattern over another more than it feels like choosing between two truly disparate things.  I think the packaging of the national standards is superior.

Still, I wondered about other people's experience walking the line or bridging the gap or wholesale choosing one over the other since my building seems to be further emphasizing overt use of standards for next school year as part of our continuous school improvement plan.  I can conceive ways I can be more explicit about the standards ranging from the somewhat passive (a poster on the wall) to referencing standards when I enter grades into a grading program (my choir colleague always includes the relevant standards in the notes section on assignments when he enters them into his gradebook).

I guess I fear finding myself in a "serving two masters" scenario if I get deep into referencing specific standards regularly and feel compelled to refer to both sets.