Blog Post #6: CCSS Writing and Language

I wanted to examine the different language CCSS between 6th grade and 12th grade to see how far a student would come from learning the supposed basics of secondary English ed language requirements, to what allows them to graduate. Looking at 6th grade, it’s pretty basic and they should have a good foundation just from, you know, being alive for a little over a decade. Using proper pronouns, intensive pronouns (myself, ourselves), and using punctuation in their writing and proper conventions of standard English, such as spelling correctly. These are traits that teachers can typically expect their students to already be at, but it’s the deeper stuff that we have to focus on, or if some students aren’t at the level, we have to work on to catch them up or go over it all again so that the students that are slightly behind don’t feel like their so behind it’d be impossible to catch up. THe more intense standards look really interesting to teach and i didn’t realize that they were a common core standard, like varying sentence patters, learning about proper Greek or Latin affixes and roots, and distinguishing between connotations of words with similar denotations. These were surprising to see that we as teachers have to start this process at the 6th grade.
Compared to 6th grade requirements, it’s really cool to see how far the students have come by the time their senior year comes around. From seemingly simple standards, such as spelling correctly (which was also in 6th grade CCSS), to using context to figure out the meaning of a word, identifying word patterns , and understanding figurative speech. The more advanced CCSS are really cool to learn that I get to teach them- such as analyzing nuances, interpreting figures of speech, consulting specialized and general reference materials, and the ability to resolve issues of complex or contested usage by using references.