Last night, Portsmouth elementary school teachers demonstrated the impact of the new Common Core standards in their classrooms. There were no debates about “developmental appropriateness” or who wrote or funded the standards. The teachers were just reporting to the school board on the impressive results of their teaching to the new standards in their first and third grade classrooms.

School board meetings like this are happening all over New Hampshire.

Here’s a great report on the meeting from the Portsmouth Herald. (I’ll add video of the meeting when it becomes available.)

School Board members impressed with student learning, diversity

By Crystal A. Weyers
cweyers@seacoastonline.com
March 26, 2014 2:00 AM

PORTSMOUTH — Little Harbour School’s first- and third-grade teachers spoke of their shift to Common Core standards at Tuesday night’s School Board meeting.

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“I am so impressed by what they can do as first-graders,” board member Helene Mullaney said after the first-grade literacy presentation.

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Through Common Core, the first-grade literacy curriculum has introduced more nonfiction, and the teachers all agreed the students have “adjusted beautifully.” They have learned to identify and use text features to locate information and use those text features to learn how a nonfiction book is organized.

In math, the third-graders have shifted to focus on providing evidence of their thinking to a greater extent. They are required to show their thinking process and often share it during group work.

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“There’s this common misconception that kids are being taught there’s only one way to do things,” board member Patrick Ellis said. “I’m glad to see that you’ve shown kids use many different methods.”

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read the full report at Portsmouth teachers illustrate Common Core results | SeacoastOnline.com.