Category Archives: Instructional Shifts

Publisher’s Criteria Webinar

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Aaron Grossman

The Council of Great City School and Student Achievement Partners hosted a webinar describing the Common Core State Standards Publisher’s Criteria (here). You can download the criteria for K-2 here and for 3-12 here. The webinar highlights key features of … Continue reading →

Posted in CCSS, Common Core State Standards, Instructional Shifts, Student Achievement Partners | Tagged Amy Briggs, CCSS, Common Core, Council of Great City Schools, Karen Vaites, publisher's criteria, Student Achievement Partners, webinar | Leave a comment

A Parents Guide to the Instructional Shifts

Posted on March 30, 2013 by Aaron Grossman

In a piece for his blog View out the windshield, Geoff Belleau outlines the “instructional shifts” and the implications for parents. He notes that there is a lot of advice for teachers but not enough for caregivers. Consequently, he takes … Continue reading →

Posted in Complex Text, Informational Text, Instructional Shifts, Text-Dependent Questions | Tagged CCSS, Common Core State Standards, Geoff Belleau, Guide, instructional shifts, parents | Leave a comment

Rubric for Interim Assessments

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Aaron Grossman

The Council of Chief State School Officers and the Council of Great City Schools released a rubric for interim benchmark assessments for English language arts/literacy. The rubric, written by Student Achievement Partners, is for district and state leaders to review … Continue reading →

Posted in Common Core State Standards, Instructional Shifts | Tagged CCSS, CCSSO, CGCS, Common Core State Standards, instructional shifts, interim assessments, SAP, Student Achievement Partners | Leave a comment

What are Districts doing to Implement the CCSS?

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Aaron Grossman

In August, WestEd cosponsored a conference on the Common Core State Standards. You can access video of presentations by Linda Darling-Hammond, David Liben, Bill Honig, and Kenji Kakuta here. A report, following the conference, was just released that describes what … Continue reading →

Posted in Common Core State Standards, Core Task Project, Instructional Shifts, Student Achievement Partners | Tagged Bill Honig, CCSS, Common Core State Standards, David Liben, instructional shifts, Kenji Kakuta, Linda Darling-Hammond, WestEd | Leave a comment

Contra Costa Trains on the CTP

Posted on March 3, 2013 by Aaron Grossman

The Contra Costa County Office of Education sponsored a training on the Core Task Project to assist with refining and aligning instruction to the Core. Close to 100 educators, from the region, gathered to move through the first day of … Continue reading →

Posted in CCSS, Close Reading, Core Task Project, Instructional Shifts, Student Achievement Partners | Tagged 3rd grade, 5th grade, CCSS, Close Reading Exemplar, Common Core State Standards, Contra Costa, Core Task Project, instructional shifts | Leave a comment

Shanahan on CCSS Policy (Webinar)

Posted on March 2, 2013 by Aaron Grossman

Text Project has posted a free webinar on the Common Core with CCSS Work Team member Dr. Timothy Shanahan (here). Shanahan moves viewers through some familiar stuff including the genesis of CCSS and the “Big Changes to ELA.” The changes … Continue reading →

Posted in CCSS, Close Reading, Common Core State Standards, Complex Text, Instructional Shifts, text complexity | Tagged CCSS, challenging text, Common Core State Standards, Complex Text, Professional Development, Shanahan, TextProject | Leave a comment

Scholastic and the Instructional Shifts

Posted on March 2, 2013 by Aaron Grossman

Scholastic is plunging into the “instructional shifts” and has posted an overview of what they are and the “baby steps” educators can take to implement them in their classroom. Yes, readers are guided to items to buy from Scholastic but … Continue reading →

Posted in Common Core State Standards, Instructional Shifts | Tagged BAP, Basal Alignment Project, CCSS, Common Core State Standards, instructional shifts, Scholastic | Leave a comment

Session 4 of Leading the Core

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Aaron Grossman

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 →

Posted in Common Core State Standards, Core Task Project, Instructional Shifts | Tagged Close Reading, Core Task Project, NASSP, NEA, school leadership, Text Complexity, text-dependent questions | Leave a comment

Core Shift Blast 9: English Learners and the Common Core

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Aaron Grossman

A new Core Shift Blast is available and the focus is on strategies to allow English Learners access to the Common Core. This includes a Position Statement from the ELL Department on the role of close reading and its value … Continue reading →

Posted in Common Core State Standards, Core Shifts Blast, Core Task Project, Instructional Shifts | Tagged CCSS, Common Core State Standards, Core Shift Blast, EL, English Learners, ESL, Jen Clark, Melisa Chavez, Pete Cobin, Torrey Palmer | Leave a comment

A&S January 11th and the “3 Year Plan”

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Aaron Grossman

At the A&S January meeting, Curriculum and Instruction shared their “3 Year Plan” for Common Core implementation. This was matched to the National Association of Elementary School Principal’s Action Brief and C&I elementary recommendations. You can review all of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Common Core State Standards, Core Task Project, Instructional Shifts | Tagged A&S, Achieve, Action Brief, CCSS, Common Core State Standards, implementation plan, NAESP | Leave a comment