CREDE Standards

This week, we have been asked to blog about how we, as teachers are or are not implementing the CREDE Standards into our curriculum. According to Dr. Roland Tharp from the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence (CREDE) there are 5 research-based standards that should be used to help create a classroom where all students, including ELL's, can have a "high quality learning experience". These five standards seem pretty straightforward. They include:
1) Teachers and students working together.
2) Developing literacy and language skills across the curriculum
3) Connecting school to students lives
4) Engaging students with challenging lessons
5) Emphasing dialogue over lecture.

Being a high school art teacher, I do find it very easy to implement these standards into my classroom. In fact, I already do use most of these in my classroom. I do constantly work with my students, sometimes on a one to one basis and other times collaboratively. Art is a great subject to use cross curricular language and literacy. I talk to students all the time about how everything connects together and most of the students projects are based on their lives and what they are interested in or feel strongly about. I try to challenge the students for every lesson. When it is too easy students tend to give up or don't give it their all. I am not really strong in the area of lecturing anyway, so that is a real easy one for me. I would rather take smaller groups and teach them.
More later....