Standards

I spoke with my cooperating teacher about standards and which subjects get the most attention. She believes that math and science are the ones that are getting the most attention because they are two of the subjects being evaluated for the standardized testing done at the end of the year. I have seen how math is a high priority in my cooperating classrooms because it is taught for the biggest chunk of time during the day. It is the first subject taught in one of my cooperating classrooms and taught right after lunch in the other classroom. I believe that it is meant to be done when students are best able to pay attention and learn. With science, I have seen the team of 4th grade teachers work together to teach the various standards of their science curriculum. The teachers specialize in a particular standard of a science unit and rotate students so that they learn from the teacher who is specialized in that standard. 

I have also seen the teachers put a lot of effort into helping students improve their reading skills. The English Language Arts standards expect the students in each grade to be able to comprehend certain things as they read, such as identifying the narrator's point of view . I have seen the teachers have the students read many texts as they practice identifying these literary elements. 

My cooperating teacher believes that social studies is a subject that gets pushed aside a little because of the time needed to focus on math, science and reading. She believes that standardize tests are fundamentally good because they give students and teachers standards to work for and can be measured at the end of the year.