Questions to Ask Common Core Vendors

Posted on November 23, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

Tom Vader Ark outlines suggestions for educators looking for resources aligned to the Common Core. He starts by encouraging us to ask, “The new English/language arts (ELA) standards focus on building knowledge through content-rich, cross-curricular nonfiction texts and on text evidence and complexity. How is your product changing to  support these shifts?” You can read his answer here.

If you are looking for a way to take current classroom materials and align them to the Common Core, the Basal Alignment Project is an excellent place to start.

 

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Common Core Works

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

The Council of Great City Schools has put together Common Core Works, a website dedicated to helping educators bring Common Core outcomes into the classroom.  The CGCS was instrumental in coordinating district efforts during the Basal Alignment Project.

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Shanahan on the topic of Instructional Shifts

Posted on November 17, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

Dr. Timothy Shanahan describes the Instructional Shifts  in the following webinar.  Marked are several pieces that you may want to visit including Close Reading.

4:47: “…these standards are so profoundly different big shifts in teaching are necessary.”

7:44: Shannon compares “How It’s Been” to “How it Will be”

14:42: Shanahan describes how we can respond to the changing Lexile (text Continue reading →

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Close Reading

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

Erica Beaton has put together the following Prezi on Close Reading. As you flip through the presentation, explicit connections are made from this instructional approach to the standards, to the 2014-2015 assessment and to College and Career Readines

Erica has done something especially clever with the Prezi by including video of students describing their experiences with close reading. You can access the Prezi here.

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Administrators Complete First Session of, “Leading the Core: ELA CCSS”

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

District leaders participated in the first session of, Leading The Core: ELA CCSS. The course is designed for administrators interested in supporting teachers, parents and community partners as they work with the ELA Common Core State Standards.  Through a lens of the “instructional shifts,” participants are gaining an acute understanding of how to align instruction, assessment and site culture to the CCSS.

You can access all of the course materials by logging into Edmodo and joining “Leading the Core” using code 6r9ebw. Directions for joining Edmodo and accessing this group are here.

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Big Ideas Underlying the Common Core

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

In a piece for EdWeek, Sarah Sparks reports on the research “infusing” Common Core. The story is a reminder that many of the practices we currently employ remain completely appropriate. It also serves as a reminder that some things may have to shift in order to reach these new outcomes.

“There are two really big ideas underlying the common core,” said P. David Pearson, a professor of language and literacy, society, and culture at the University of California, Berkeley. The standards first set out that children build knowledge through their close reading of texts, a concept “consistent with the last 20-30 years of research,” Mr. Pearson said.

Continue reading →

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Cautions about CCSS Implementation

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

In an archived webinar, educational consultant and author Grant Wiggins provides two key cautions as educators work with the Common Core. The first of these stem from a teacher’s temptation to over scaffold for children (minute 11:00). He argues that to meet the CCSS, students must be able to do so independently. Consequently, we need to be judicious with our “cues, hints and reminders” when working with children.

At minute 27:55, Wiggins describes the mistake that educators made “over and over” with state standards and potentially the mistake we will make with the CCSS. That is, assuming that teaching a standard in isolation and assessing a standard in isolation will mean we have effectively taught the standard. Wiggins notes, “this is simply not true.”

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K-2 Edmodo Resource Folder Added

Posted on November 10, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

Kindergarten Program Coordinator, Kacey Edgington, has created an Edmodo folder for those working with early literacy outcomes. You will find a number of helpful resources aligned to K-2 outcomes and you will be able to participate in conversations related to the primary grades. You can join the Edmodo group by using the code ehvyrx.

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An Authentic Close Read

Posted on November 10, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

In a video on Youtube, a teacher posted her use of the close reading strategy with Martin Luther King’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail.” The video is as authentic as you can get with students wrestling with a series of text-dependent questions. Typically I try to avoid including value added statements on this blog but… wow! I do not know who this person is but it is exciting to see the strategy employed in its purest form. Part One and Part Two.

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Linking Instruction and Assessment

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

During the Hug Vertical meeting, we facilitated a conversation linking the “instructional shifts” and SBAC, to sound assessment and classroom practices. Explicit in the message is that the shifts enable us to reach the standards, the coming 2014-2015 assessment and materials aligned to the Publisher’s Criteria.

November 8th PowerPoint

Document linking the 6 “instructional shifts” and the 3 “instructional shifts”

The SBAC Claims

Michael Cohen video link

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