Core Task Project

Carol Jago, former president of the National Council of Teachers of English and current AP Literature content advisor for the College Board, shares insights into the Common Core and the impact they will have on instruction. Key points are addressed below.

2:10 Jago addresses the assessment coming in 2014-2015 and how reading and writing will be fully integrated. She describes how children will read multiple texts—both fiction and nonfiction—and then write about what they’ve read.

7:15: The point is made that literacy is a shared responsibility. Teachers have to be prepared to assist students in reading and writing across the disciplines (slide).

12:15 Jago describes CCSS misconceptions and starts with the use of informational text (slide). She notes that the move from students reading 50% informational text in elementary to 70% in high school does not fall on the English teacher. Rather, these percentages reflect all of the readings done throughout the day.

28:27 You can only get to the words that students need to know through reading. That is, Jago is specific in stating that lists of words and vocabulary quizzes will not get students to the number of words children need to know (slide). Further, teachers need to move students into complex text if they are going to be exposed to words they don’t know.