With the shift from the New Mexico Standards and Benchmark to the Common Core standards, came some shifts in how we, or maybe it was just me, teach writing. Instead of writing expository pieces, we now write information pieces, and instead of persuasive writing, we now explore argument. I have to admit, this has been a tough shift for me, I guess it's true that change is hard. I've never been the type of teacher who does all of the same things from year to year, but I guess I was a creature of habit at least somewhat, because these shifts in writing have been really hard for me to wrap my brain around. It probably didn't help that we didn't (at least in my district, at my school) receive much, okay really any, formal training on the new standards. We were given a copy of the red book, and went through and highlighted and marked various features of the new text, so it looked like we have delved into the standards, when really, all we did was color.
After doing some research of my own, and learning from other, wiser colleagues, I am finally starting to "get it" (at least I think I am). But, I know I still need a lot of work before I am prepared to really teach my students how to be effective writers of argument, and informational text for that matter. So, I'm actually pretty excited that we are exploring this genre of writing, as it will kind of force me to dive further into exploring argument writing, which, in turn, will help strengthen my instruction and my students' learning.
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