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

CRT Instructional Materials

The Nevada Department of Education released instructional materials matched to the 2012-2013 state tests. You can access them here.

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What Principals Need to Successfully Implement CCSS

Mel Riddile, in a piece for the National Association of Secondary School Principals, describes the skills school leaders will need in order to be successfully implement the CCSS. Riddile highlights a number of ideas including “Students will be expected to … Continue reading

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Carol Jago Weekend Tweets

Past president of the National Council of Teachers of English Carol Jago shares her thoughts on reading and the Common Core through Tweets this weekend. You can follow Jago on Twitter by clicking here.  

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“How Can I Teach with Books that are Two Years above Student Reading Levels?”

Dr. Timothy Shanahan addresses a question many of us have been asking as we work with CC Standard 10 and the importance of allowing all students to work with grade level complex text. That is, “How can I teach with … Continue reading

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School Leaders: How to Successfully Implement the CCSS

Sue Beers outlines four strategies for successfully implementing the Common Core State Standards in a piece for ASCD. She highlights the need for teachers to have “time to learn, plan and collaborate as they build new systems of instruction and redesign learning … Continue reading

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BAP at 11,000 users

Edweek reports that the Basal Alignment Project is now at 11,000 users and you can read how this became the largest Edmodo community here. The Council of Great City Schools also weighs in with a press release in which Council Executive … Continue reading

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Social Emotional Learning and the CCSS Day 2

Day Two of the Social Emotional Learning and Core Task Project experiment concluded with participants reviewing the anchor standards for SEL and reading an article on grit by Thomas Hoerr. K-6 teachers studied several close reading exemplars before building a … Continue reading

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Martinez’s State of Education Address

This evening, Superintendent Pedro Martinez gave his State of Education Address. During the speech, he played a snippet of video of College Board President David Coleman describing the CCSS and the instructional shifts. You can access the entire video by … Continue reading

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The CCSS and Evidenced-Centered Design

If you are trying to understand how SBAC and PARCC will be assessing students in 2014-2015, the following webinar by Alliance for Excellent Education, provides a number of answers. Joan Herman, at the University of California, Los Angeles, explains Evidenced-Centered Design … Continue reading

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“Simplifying” Complex Text

How do you identify complex texts? And how do you design tasks that take into account text complexity? These two questions are featured in this video from Sarah Brown Wessling. The video is a nice place to start for educators … Continue reading

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