Author Archives: Aaron Grossman

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About Aaron Grossman

I am a 5th grade teacher at Roy Gomm Elementary in Reno, Nevada. I started working with elementary students as part of the Montana Reads program and AmeriCorps. In 2001, after graduating from the University of Montana and moving to Reno, Nevada, I student taught at Rita Cannan Elementary before receiving a 6th grade position at Veterans Elementary. I moved out of the classroom to be a Literacy Coordinator, then an Instructional Coach, and finally a School Improvement Program Coordinator. In 2011, I began working on the Nevada Academic Content Standards in the district’s Curriculum & Instruction Department. I returned to the classroom for the 2015-2016 school year to teach 4th grade at Huffaker Elementary. Before returning to the classroom, I helped develop the Core Task Project that has been featured by National Public Radio, the Gates Foundation, American Radio Works, Eduwonk, the Fordham Institute, Vox, and the Center for American Progress. In 2014, I received the Leader to Learn From Award for my teacher-centered initiative and work to bring college, career, and civics ready outcomes into Northern Nevada classrooms (here). In 2015, I was appointed by Governor Sandoval serve on the Statewide RPDP Council. The same year, Nevada’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction Steve Canavero placed me on the state’s State Improvement Team. This year I will be part of the National Council on Teacher Quality’s Teacher Advisory Group. I am Google Certified Educator and a Nevada Teacher Ambassador. I believe strongly that teaching content is teaching reading and I make sure my students have ample opportunities to work with social studies, history, science and art outcomes. I do what I can to blend the learning for my students and this blog is part of that effort. You can contact me at coretaskproject@gmail.com

Promoting Civic Education through Open Discussions

A big part of doing Common Core well involves kids engaged in rich and rigorous conversations. The positive benefits of this have been documented in several posts on this blog including this one from Dr. Lauren Resnick and this one … Continue reading

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Presentation to Board of Trustees, August 12, 2014

I was asked to present to the Washoe County School Board of Trustees on the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. The time to speak was brief—10 minutes—and in that time I moved the trustees through the principles that … Continue reading

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More/New Common Core Inservice Courses Available

A number of new Common Core inservice classes have been added to the Solution Where catalog. You can read the descriptions of each course below and click here to register for those that fit with your professional learning goals. CCSS … Continue reading

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Free Next Generation Science Standards Videos

Paul Anderson, a high school teacher who publishes under the name Bozeman Science, has created sixty Youtube videos for the Next Generation Science Standards. If you are a NGSS novice like me, the videos are proving well worth the view. … Continue reading

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Core Task Project Inservice Course Posted

If are interested in moving through the Core Task Project, you can earn a half credit by signing up for the course here. Most people reading this blog know of the CTP but if you need a reminder The Core … Continue reading

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CCSS and the Arts Training Materials

Secondary art teachers, from throughout the district, gathered to bridge art outcomes with the Common Core State Standards. The effort focused on a review of the instructional shifts followed by connecting the CCSS to the habits of Describing, Analyzing, Interpreting, … Continue reading

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Common Core Learning Modules

We have gotten a lot of requests for the learning modules, matched to the Common Core and the Instructional Shifts, that were developed last summer. You can access them, if you have an Edmodo account, here. (If you do not … Continue reading

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Instructional Move 1: Text at the Center of Instruction

Positioning text so that it is at the center of instruction is challenging, to say the least. Thus, as part of Core Task Project and Core Task implementation Project trainings, specific moves have been integrated to assist with this goal. The first … Continue reading

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Instructional Move 2: Stop and Jot

The “Stop and Jot” technique is not new to the veteran teacher but likely neglected because of its simplicity. The technique promotes retention and comprehension of content and costs very little classroom time to implement. Stop and Jot works like … Continue reading

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Instructional Move 3: You, Y’all, We

This is more food for thought than anything else. We have all become familiar with the approach “I, We, You.” That is, the teacher introduces a new concept and demonstrates how to do it—the I. Next, children work together on … Continue reading

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