Monthly Archives: February 2013

Text Complexity and the Common Core

MetaMetrics recorded a webinar on Valentines describing the importance of text complexity and the Common Core. Specific topics that may interest readers have been marked below. Minute 6:45 The Crisis of Text Complexity High school textbooks have declined in all … Continue reading

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Culturally Responsive Teaching and the CCSS

Teaching Tolerance Fellow Emily Chiariello describes her work around teaching the Common Core State Standards “with culturally responsive instruction” (full link here). She sees the CCSS and culturally responsive pedagogy as a strong fit citing teacher’s shared responsibility for teaching … Continue reading

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SBAC eNewsletter

If you are trying to stay current with Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, you may want to take advantage of their eNewsletter. You can subscribe here and keep track of SBAC’s progress on the CCSS and the next-generation assessments.

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Social Emotional Learning and CTP Final Session

The last session of Social Emotional Learning and Core Task Project concluded with participants outlining specific SEL skills that fit well with the close reading strategy. Educators will be sharing an addendum to the close reading exemplars that includes before, … Continue reading

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ELL Quarterly Meeting February 12, 2013

At the secondary ELL Quarterly Meeting, EL instructors reviewed the close reading strategy and a close reading exemplar. You can find the PowerPoint here and the lesson here.

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Jessie Beck’s PFA Learns about CCSS

Included in the Jessie Beck Elementary Parent Faculty Association meeting was information about the Common Core State Standards. Parents and teachers moved through the what and why of CCSS followed by some research governing the inclusion of specific outcomes in the … Continue reading

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Finishing the Labor of Understanding before Talking Back

In a piece for Educational Leadership, professor of English Mark Bauerlein describes the importance of text complexity and the dispositions students will need if they are going to be successful with this outcome.  These include A Willingness to Probe The … Continue reading

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NEA CCSS Toolkit

In the most recent issue of WEA Today, Middle School Director Linda Hunt describes how “NEA President Dennis Van Roekel appointed 56 members to a nationwide effort to prepare educators for implementation of  the Common Core State Standards called the … Continue reading

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Core Shift Blast 10: TDQs

Text-dependent questions are the focus of Core Shift Blast 10. Explicit connections are made with this instructional shift and the Basal Alignment Project and the coming assessments. Linnea Wolters and Stephanie Barragan share their experiences using the Guide to Writing … Continue reading

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Session 4 of Leading the Core

District administrators gathered for the fourth session of Leading the Core. The focus of this session was on teacher observations, close reading look fors, text-dependent questions and tools to build site capacity. All of the resources are posted in the … Continue reading

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