Letting the Text Take Center Stage - how the common core state standards Will transform english language Arts Instruction

Oct 15, 2026

文章以“共同阅读课”为切入点，回溯教师带领学生进行集体阅读的经典场景，并将其视为在不同教室中反复出现的“仪式”。作者进一步追问：这些阅读活动哪些具有功能性目的，哪些逐渐只保留象征意义，并将讨论引向共同核心州立标准（Common Core State Standards）的形成脉络与目标导向。文中概述了从1989年教育改革倡议、2002年联邦问责机制到2009年跨州统一标准的政策演进，强调标准强调学生需要掌握的学习目标而非规定具体教学方法。

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

Letting the Text Take Center Stage

Communal reading as a ritual

Policy origins of Common Core State Standards

Standards emphasize learning goals over teaching methods

Letting the Text Take Center Stage how the common core state standards Will transform english language Arts Instruction ILLUSTRAT IONS By ENRIqUE MOREIRO By timothy shanahan there is an iconic childhood moment that spans genera tions. My father, a boy in a clapboarded, one-room schoolhouse, along with the only other student in his grade, endured it; I timidly shared the experience with 50 Pattys, connies, and Billys shoehorned tightly into an amber-lit classroom; the children I taught did it (seemingly a lifetime ago); and the young teens I watched last week in the midst of a middle school science lesson, their teacher patrolling the aisles, persevered at it as well. The event to which I refer is the one in which a teacher leads a group of students in the communal act of reading a text. such communal reading events are usually aimed at transforming children into readers or exposing them to science or social studies information. This event has been repeated so often in each of our Timothy Shanahan is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of urban education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the director of its Center for Literacy. Previously, he was the director of readingfor Chicago Public Schools. A past president of the International Reading Association, he is the chair of the National Early Literacy Panel and a member of both the National Reading Panel and the English Language Arts Work Team for the Common Core State Standards Initiative. His research and teaching focus on reading achievement and family literacy. lives that it may seem more like a Norman rockwell painting than an actual memory: the boy wiggling in his chair, the dutiful pigtailed girl, the teacher’s opaque questions, children’s hands waving in the air, a monotone child’s voice quavering as it makes its way uncertainly up the street of sentences. one can also easily imagine a visit from the proverbial Martian anthropologist. considering the ubiquity of communal reading, or what I call “the reading lesson,” and its sameness across otherwise diverse classrooms, it would likely be classified as ritual. And as ritual, this little green observer would try to determine which of the actions maintained any discernible functional purpose and which had become purely symbolic, persisting mainly for the sake oftradi[tion. social](tion. social) scientists have long speculated about the reason for rituals; many now think they express and reinforce the shared values and belief systems of a society.1 our extraterrestrial visitor would surely want to know more about our reading lessons. But we’ll come back to that. Common Core State Standards In 1989, members of the National Governors Association (NGA) agreed to take the lead on educational reform. The agreement called for states to set educational goals or standards, with some federal assistance.2 By the early 1990s, all 50 states had done so, but not necessarily standards rigorous enough to propel students 4 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | FALL 2013 toward college or career readiness—nor was there leverage to ensure that even these undernourished standards would be reached by sufficient numbers of students.3 In 2002, this changed in a big way. No child left Behind became the law of the land, and it put federal financial support for education at risk if students failed to meet a state’s standards. the result wasn’t higher achievement, however. Instead of working more diligently to meet these standards, most states simply reduced their already low criteria to keep the federal dollars flowing.4 In 2009, the NGA, now in concert with the council of chief state school officers and with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, endorsed the idea of common or shared educational standards across states. Instead of each state setting up |

Comparison of Texts Written at Different Challenge Levels | | | --- | --- | | “I can work,” said Dick. Mr. Leopold Bloom ate with relish the | |

FAQs

文章如何描述“共同阅读课”？

文章用父亲、课堂与中学科学课中的观察来描绘教师带领学生进行集体阅读的情境，并指出这种活动在不同课堂中反复出现。

作者为什么把共同阅读课称为“仪式”？

作者认为其在差异化课堂中呈现出高度相似性，因此可能符合“仪式”的特征，用以区分具有功能目的的行动与仅保留象征意义的行动。

共同核心州立标准强调什么、又不强调什么？

文中指出标准强调学生需要学习的目标，但不规定教师应如何教学，学校与教师将决定帮助学生达标的最佳方式。

Oct 15, 2026

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