The focus on the close reading of texts suggests a new idea to SLJ’s columnist—an idea that taps librarians’ expertise and offers an exciting approach to inquiry.
RE: Reading | Consider the Source
By on May 2, 2013 2 Comments
The close reading of fiction and literary works is a standard requirement in our schools. Can we say the same of nonfiction?
We Are Not Alone: National Curricular Reform Around the Globe | Consider the Source
By on April 18, 2013 Leave a Comment
In adopting the Common Core State Standards, U. S. educators are part of a larger educational reform movement. From England to Japan countries around the world are debating a national curricula. Why are so many nations considering one? And where does the impetus to do so come from? Marc Aronson ponders these questions in his latest Consider the Source column.
National History Day—A Perfect Support for Common Core | Consider the Source
By on April 4, 2013 2 Comments
With its emphasis on research, learning, investigating, and arriving at one’s own conclusions, History Day is a perfect complement to the new education guidelines.
Speak Up | Consider the Source
By on March 21, 2013 2 Comments
How are New York’s librarians doing when it comes to Common Core? Find out as SLJ columnist Marc Aronson talks to educators who are in the trenches.
Coming Soon to a School Near You | Consider the Source
By on March 7, 2013 Leave a Comment
Common Core’s “Next Generation Science Standards” will be released this month, and although critics say the new guidelines still need work, they’re a step in the right direction.
Patchwork Common Core Implementation Plagues the U.S. | Consider the Source
By on February 20, 2013 4 Comments
When it comes to putting Common Core Standards into action, there’s one word for where we’re at as a nation: patchwork. Marc Aronson points out what school librarians can do to remedy the situation.
(Mis)Guided Reading | Consider the Source
By on February 13, 2013 1 Comment
Marc Aronson explores the fundamental clash between guided reading and Common Core.
Consider the Source: Why Do We Bother?
By on February 6, 2013 5 Comments
In his latest Consider the Source column, Marc Aronson talks about whether grades really matter, or if classical music is the key to a fulfilling education.
Consider the Source: Changing on the Fly
By on January 30, 2013 Leave a Comment
In his latest “Consider the Source” column, Marc Aronson compares recent developments in digital publishing to hockey’s “change on the fly” technique.
Consider the Source: Getting History Right
By on January 16, 2013 1 Comment
History texts for young readers and young adults should invite them to participate in the process of thinking about, and thus re-imagining, who we are and how we got that way. Using annotated citations and other methods, our goal should be to let kids in on the process.
Consider the Source: Two Is the Thorniest Number
By on December 3, 2012 Leave a Comment
In his latest Consider the Source column, Marc Aronson uses the recent presidential election as a jumping off point to discuss the different ways that American history is viewed.
Consider the Source: The Mandate
By on November 20, 2012 2 Comments
In the wake of the destruction wrought by Sandy, Marc Aronson emphasizes the importance of the Common Core standards as students and teachers discuss the link between the recent hurricane and climate change.
Consider the Source: On the Common Core Trail
By on November 6, 2012 Leave a Comment
Here’s Marc Aronson’s latest report from Common Core land. Two weeks ago, he was on the road for four days along with Sue Bartle leading Common Core (CC) workshops. They learned a lot—much of it encouraging.
Consider the Source: Shuffling Off to Buffalo
By on October 10, 2012 Leave a Comment
School librarians and the Common Core (CC) have been my focus all year, and especially this fall. Sue Bartle and I have been holding one workshop after another with teachers and librarians, spreading our CC gospel and hearing their issues and concerns. The great thing about being out in the field is that I learn as much as I teach—and one spectacular example of that recently took place in Buffalo, NY.
Consider the Source: Convergence
By on September 26, 2012 2 Comments
Marc Aronson discusses a set of books that looks at the same moment in history from three different angles. Taken together, the three titles offer a more comprehensive picture of a time of invention and discovery than we’d typically get from an individual book: one title focuses on a remarkable genius; another on a breakthrough invention; and the third title, which explores a transforming theory, is really best seen as a moment in which circumstance, individuals, and technology converge to make change possible.
Consider the Source: The Reign in Spain
By on September 7, 2012 Leave a Comment
The issues and questions raised by Common Core are not only apparent stateside. Marc Aronson discusses how his trip to Barcelona revealed that there might be an opportunity to collaborate with the Spanish city, and other international locales, to inspire students to be innovators.
Consider the Source: The Problem with Common Core’s ‘Appendix B’
By on August 24, 2012 Leave a Comment
We always warn kids not to “pile on”—adding an extra shove when another kid is already down. But in this case, I have to add my voice to Melissa Jacobs-Israel’s. Melissa has expressed her frustration with the Common Core’s infamous Appendix B: Text Exemplars and Performance Tasks, and I couldn’t agree more.Sadly, Appendix B isn’t down.
The Known and the Uncertain: The Special Challenge of Teaching Students to Think Like a Historian or Scientist
By on August 14, 2012 Leave a Comment
One of the joys of reading the Times Literary Supplement (TLS), the British book review journal that arrives in my mailbox more or less on schedule four times a month, is that it periodically includes lengthy essays drawn from lectures or from introductions to new books that are aimed at that borderline place between the educated layperson and the browsing academic. TLS’s editors often group a selection of each week’s works by theme, and its July 6 issue included several interesting reviews related to medieval heresy. One sentence in the piece stopped me in my tracks: “he” (I’ll tell you whom in a moment) “frames what he is not sure of within the boundaries of what he is sure about.”
My Sword & Shield: Why Social Studies Matters | Consider the Source
By on July 31, 2012 Leave a Comment
What binds us together as a nation? What do we hold in common? What are the invisible linkages of law, custom, trust—the “single garment of destiny,” as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., called it— which we weave with the intertwining threads of our lives?
