Standards and Requirements

Today I'm going to spend a little time speaking about the new Oregon Technology Standards and Requirements. Specially, I will be addressing three standards, and how they relate to the classroom.


The three standards I feel most connected to are as follows: Creativity and Innovation; Communication and Collaboration; and Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making. I have outlined each of the standards below and how I feel that I could implement them into my subject area.

1. Creativity and Innovation 
This standard asks students to demonstrate creative thinking and problem solving skills, and to begin developing innovative products using digital technology. Students should be able to apply existing knowledge to come up with potential possibilities, generate new ideas, etc. Students should also be about to create original works either individually or as a group, and to also to explore complex systems, issues or trends.


Within the language arts classroom, I strongly believe in helping my students use their creativity and individuality to express themselves. This includes using online tools to bridge the gap between literature and the student, perhaps by blogging about their experiences, or using online mediums to highlight their projects. Students will be encouraged to work both as an individual and in groups to explain the literature and writing projects to the rest of the class, and furthermore I will also technology to help bring this information to my students.

2. Communication and Collaboration 
This standard asks students to use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, across the global community, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students will be able to interact and collaborate with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media. Students should also communicate with various audiences using a variety of media and formats. Furthermore, they will engage with learners from other cultures to establish global awareness, and contribute to team projects.


So much of literature study is about drawing connections between the words, the ideas, the writer, and the reader. I plan on creating an environment where students are able to share and collaborate with one another to further investigate the meanings behind artifacts presented in class, and working together to share this information with varied audiences. Students may create podcasts, blogs, or videos to communicate and work with one another, as well as convey the information they have gathered.

3. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making
This final standard will help students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources. Students should be able to identify and define authentic problems and significant questions for investigation, plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project, and collect and analyze data to identify solutions and or make informed decisions. Finally, they will use multiple processes and diverse perspectives to explore alternative solutions.

While this standard is a bit of a farther stretch for the language arts classroom, I can still ask my students to use media to help in their critical thinking processes. Perhaps this will be used in identifying a major problem that is addressed in literature, such as social justice, and then using multimedia to identify various solutions for this problem. Students will be able to use a variety of online and technology based sources to achieve their solutions, or at least explain them to the fullest extent possible.

There are a variety of challenges that students and the classroom faces in addressing these standards. First and foremost, technology is not available in equal access to each student, each classroom, or each school. While most students will have computers at home, the fact still remains that many students who are of lower socioeconomic status will not. Secondly, the technology is constantly changing and evolving, and it may be difficult to keep up on the most current technology on an ongoing basis. Because I will specifically be focusing on language arts and the English language, I will not necessarily have the time to devote to updating my technological knowledge.