An Academic Jigsaw Puzzle

     Doing a jigsaw puzzle is tricky. You might have to search and search for the piece you are looking for. You might be tempted to use a scissors in an effort to force a piece to fit where you want it. But when the pieces have been put together correctly, the whole picture comes into view and there is much rejoicing in the land.
   
     Putting together the English/Language Arts Common Core Standards and the CPMLE felt a bit like doing a jigsaw puzzle. I had to pour over both documents, looking for similarities and differences, compliments and contradictions. In the end, I felt restricted, and I struggled to make these two sets of standards come together. It seems that the ELACCS placed most emphasis on print texts and print writing. When technology was encouraged, it asked me to teach students how to "...make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest." (This reminded me of how businessmen in a board room use a Powerpoint presentation to show financial ups and downs.) It also, at one point, encourages teachers to teach students how to write digitally and how to read digital texts, but these requirements were small portions of the "Reading" and "Writing" sections. This may seem that it fits with the CPMLE, but I feel that it would require the scissors to really put these two together.
     
     This is because the CPMLE doesn't just ask us to teach kids how to read and write digital media. I believe that it is really asking us to teach students how to think about and analyze media in all forms. The CPMLE talks about "active inquiry" and "critical thinking" in detail. It "expands" on existing definitions, and aims to develop "informed, reflective, and engaged citizens." This document seems so much more active, and seems to ask much more of students than does the ELACCS. How do these two go together?
     
     I believe that the answer lies in reading between the lines of the ELACCS, specifically the "Reading" and "Writing" portions. As discussed in our reading from "Seeing and Writing 4," texts can be analyzed just like photos, paintings, and other types of media can be analyzed. The ELACCS asks students to be able to: "read closely," "determine central ideas," "assess point of view," and "analyze structure." Even though this section directs teachers as to what they must teach in regards to "Reading," it is clear that the mastery of these skills/knowledge is essential to meeting the goals recommended by the CPMLE.
    
     In the writing section, the ELACCS talks bout how media should be used as a source, and that students should be able to locate and analyze credible sources. The ELACCS also requires students to "write arguments to support claims," "convey complex ideas and informations," and "develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences." These requirements, while centered on print writing in the ELACCS, are the tools necessary to create any type of media as recommended by the CPMLE. This document encourages students to do lots of critical thinking, "to use document-based evidence and well-reasoned arguments to support their conclusions," and to "enable students to express their ideas..." No scissors are need to make these pieces fit together: the CPMLE and the ELACCS seems to encourage the same goals, despite referring to different types of media or "texts."
    
     The question then becomes one of implementation: How should I implement the recommendations of the CPMLE and the requirements of the ELACCS at the same time? I appreciate the fact that the CPMLE states that MLE should be taught in various settings and in multiple grade levels. Thus, I believe that I should use/teach media as frequently as I use/teach traditional reading and writing techniques. The end goal of my teaching, as more explicitly stated in the CPMLE, is to help students to become critical thinkers and "informed, reflective, and engaged participants" of a "democracy," and, by extension, the world around them (made ever bigger by access to the World Wide Web). I am excited to teach students how to read, write, speak, and listen in a manner that is analytical and evaluative, and that requires critical thinking. I recognize that this is much effectively accomplished if I incorporate the use and creation of various types of media in my teaching. 


     Indeed, the picture that this completed jigsaw puzzle creates is quite beautiful to behold.