Week 6, February 10th 2020

After reviewing the common core standards for writing, I think that too much is expected of students at the age they are and the intellectual level they are at. In the 1st grade standards, it states that "Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion, and provide some sense of closure." This is too in-depth for first-grade students. First graders are still very susceptible to accepting the opinions of others and will take whatever opinion their family or other adults in their lives have because they do not know any better. When I was in first grade, I definitely did not have the capacity to form my own opinions about a book, much less how to defend it. I think asking them to form their own opinions, supply reasoning, and closure for their opinions is entirely too much for them to be expected to do. Asking a student to form an opinion about something in their life like, I like my mom and here is why, would be more reasonable for students to be working on. Similarly, 9th and 10th grade students are expected to be able to do the same things college students are doing. They should be practicing these skills definitely, but not be expected to be experts at these skills. "Develop the topic with well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience's knowledge of the topic,". The expectation that high school students have to have an extended definition is different to me. I did not learn how to effectively write an extended definition until I was in my major-specific classes in college. I think it is helpful to start practicing extended definitions, but I would make it a little easier for students to be successful.