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

How “Integration” Makes these Standards Different

Common Core State Standards work team member and CEO of http://www.textproject.org Dr. Elfrieda Hiebert takes two minutes, in the video here, to address the integration of CCSS into classroom practice. She describes a key difference between the CCSS and state … Continue reading

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Multiple Texts with Close Reading

Dr. Timothy Shanahan responds to a teacher’s question about using multiple texts with the close reading method (here) He notes that once you have read a text closely “then it is perfectly reasonable to wonder about how this work connects … Continue reading

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Instructional Practice Guides

As part of their professional development launch in K-5, educators in San Lorenzo were introduced to the Instructional Practice Guides (PowerPoint here). You can download the guides here.

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August 16th “Blue Friday”

The PowerPoint for the August 16th Blue Friday K-6 ELA presentation can be found here. The short session included a review of the August 8th PD Launch and a discussion about an exchange between College Board President David Coleman and … Continue reading

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iTunes University CCSS Course Series

The Council of Chief State School Officers has created a series of iTunes University courses to prepare educators for the Common Core and the necessary instructional shifts. The courses provide experiences with critical outcomes and provide “classroom-ready resources.” You can … Continue reading

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Access to Common Core Edmodo Groups

Access to 11 popular Edmodo groups can be gained by using the links and codes in a document linked here. The groups include the social studies units and social studies close reading examples; SAP’s Basal Alignment Project and Anthology Alignment … Continue reading

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Teaching Annotation

Annotation seems to be a popular subject judging from the email I received asking for direction with this instructional approach. The following might help. In an article that appeared in The Reading Teacher, Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey describe a … Continue reading

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‘How to Annotate’

A popular request from the Instructional Practice Guide session were the annotations posters featured in the intermediate grade video (here). Although we do not have copies of the posters, we did capture images of the posters and have posted them … Continue reading

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2013-2014 Professional Development ‘Sessions’

Washoe’s elementary teachers worked through a number of Common Core sessions as part of the district’s professional development launch. The sessions, all of which can be accessed on Edmodo (group link here) include content to connect to CCSS in the … Continue reading

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More Social Studies Close Reading Examples Added

Our Social Studies Coordinators have added an additional 6th Grade Close Reading Folder to Edmodo. Presently, it includes Close Readings on Hammurabi’s Code, Spartan Families, and the Iliad. Teachers will be adding close readings to this folder throughout the school … Continue reading

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