It was the great American Writer E.B. White who said Omit needless words. Think about this as you read all the useless jargon now babbled about in reference to school lessons and Common Core State Standards.
It is time to revisit my list of weird education terminology. I have added some new words and phrases from Common Core, and I provide links to other lists.
Education jargon has always been confusing, but it is even more so today. I think education reformers, who often don’t know much about children and how they learn, try to impress with words and wordiness. Mostly, it looks odd. A lot of it also sounds like its purpose is to be confusing, or its intent is to get tough on students (and teachers and parents).
One of my favorite lists is the Educational Jargon Generator from the Science Geek. HERE.
Marilee Sprenger lists critical Common Core words. I find it interesting that without Common Core these words probably wouldn’t be critical. HERE.
Here is what’s called Source Coding from Marzo Research Laboratory which can be found online. Terms include acronyms. I wonder how many teachers have memorized the acronyms. Let me know if you have and I will send you a star to stick on your forehead.
- Dot Notation (These are the numbers and letters that align to the Common Core Standards like W.K.1; 6.NS.A.1; HSN-RN.A.1)
- Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement (BBK)
- Designing and Teaching Learning Goals and Ojectives (DTLGO)
- Mathematical Practice (MP)
- College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards (CCRA)
- Technology (Tech)
- Number (Num)
Here are the new words I added to my old list which can be found HERE. Some of these are familiar, but I am just now adding them.
- Across content areas
- College and Career Ready
- i3
- Synergy
- 21st Century
- Summative
- Data
- Balanced literacy
- Infographics
- Targeted prescriptions
- Higher-order thinking skills
- Exit ticket
- Curriculum framework
- Differentiated instruction
- Snapshot data
- Exemplar
- Math pedagogy
- Assessing student learning
- Student teaching design
- Using outcomes data
- Standards guidance
- anchor papers
- I can statements
If you have some strange education words to add let me know. Enjoy the day.
Citations
EB White The Elements of Style (p.23).
Source List for Terms, Vocabulary for Common Core, 2013 Marzo Research Laboratory.
We now hear these:
Capstone assignment
Power standards
Thank you, Stefan. Power standards. Ha.
Since I am not teaching CC directly (only to my kids, and in college I deal with kids raised on CC), I suffer most because of the jargon. People rarely address this, so this post is a relief for me.
My additions:to your education-based but business-inspired buzz-expression dictionary
Personalized learning
learning outcome
technology-based (like technology-based assessment tools)
formative assessment strategies
assessment literacy
interdisciplinary learning
I also suggest a dictionary of expressions for future use to widen our buzziscope and also to show our creativity to our future employer in case our outdated educational institutions get taken over.
rigoristic (like “a rigoristic approach to math by a rigorist”)
discipline-driven (once reformers dare to be honest about what they really are doing, this is how they will buzz the basic idea behind their education)
MyPersonalProfessor (software to accompany Pearson’s MyMathLab software in a personalized learning environment )
test-guard (the only humans kids see in their fully-computer-based classroom)
belief-science (this is going to be the hot new 21st century super course that will replace all science and math courses by an interdisciplinary course that will also be affectionately called Christianity-based science.)
Thanks, Máté. Great words. I will add them to the list.
My all-time least favorite but perhaps most apt is “rigor”. It brings to mind “rigor mortis”,which is almost the state in which I find my students post-test.
I’m with you, Betsy. I hate that word used in reference to students. Thanks.
I hate rigor used in math. We already have enough math haters, as it is.
“Rigorous Mathematcs” sounds exactly like “Revengful God”.
Certainly sounds like that to me, Máté Wierdl!
Teacher talent
Stakeholders
teacher preparation landscape
Transformational model
Lemme copy a beautiful paragraph here for your enjoyment from a reform document
“What is in it for the University? In addition to seizing the moment at hand to
harness the University’s engine to the most dynamic k-12 education reform
work in the nation, you believe that the opportunity to re-imagine and
reengineer the teacher preparation pipeline from a public university
perspective at this scale represents a cornerstone/signature opportunity to
position the University as a national leader. At the end of the day, if we can
collectively and collaboratively get this right, we will have built a “force
multiplier” when it comes to economic development and quality of life
opportunities, particularly for the most underserved.”
Wow, Máté! It’s like driving in the fog with that paragraph!
Can we share your article on our site and provide a link back to yours?
Sure! Thanks!