Standards and Disciplines

"The Prospect speaks with an education-policy expert Linda Darling-Hammond about standardized testing in the implementation of Common Core, a national set of guidelines on math and reading."

"How in the world are we supposed to apply the Common Core writing standards to teaching English language learners? We've been asking that question of ourselves and others over the past two years, and we suspect we're not the only educators doing so. After reviewing the many resources available that attempt to provide guidance to teachers of English language learners (see "Resources of Note") and combining what we've learned through our daily classroom experience, we've developed a tentative answer to that question. Educators need to keep in mind three crucial elements when teaching writing to English language learners (ELLs) in the context of the Common Core State Standards:"

"How to Get Students There ... The new online assessments will challenge educators to ensure that students not only have learned certain things, but also can demonstrate their knowledge using technology and apply their learning to a variety of tasks-all without the direction of the teacher."

"For some, the Common Core State Standards seemed to come from nowhere, and appeared to be a sneaky attack on states' rights to control local education. But for those involved in writing the standards, it was nothing short of an exhaustive and collaborative years-long effort aimed at raising the achievement levels of students across the country. "

"Until the release of the Common Core State Standards, many educators didn't realize that writing skills need to develop incrementally, with the work that students do at one grade level standing on the shoulders of prior learning. It would be hard to achieve this high level of craft and knowledge if students weren't moving steadily along a spiralling curriculum, practicing and extending skills in each type of writing each year. After all, in math, teachers agree on content and ensure that students move up the grade levels with the essential skills that teachers agreed upon. That same focus on writing as content, as a set of skills, will move grade levels of students forward, rather than individuals who happened to get this teacher or that. Writing will needto be given its due, starting in kindergarten and continuing throughout the grades."-LUCY CALKINS

"When students write a paper, it goes without saying that they must cite the sources that they use in creating it. For generations, students have created note cards to document and organize these resources and/or submitted a bibliography page with their finished work. In the modern classroom, student research and creation has taken on a new look. Before, when students created a poster, and then separately handed in a bibliography page to the teacher, justice was done and fair credit was given for the ideas used."

"Whenever I take a new teacher to observe a veteran teacher, I'm surprised at what they notice. We could have observed the most impressive lesson ever, but without fail the new teachers notice the little things in the classroom: the way the chairs are set up, the routine the teacher has established for collecting work, the posters on the wall. They inherently know that seemingly small details can make or break teachers."

"The Common Core has embedded within it some Big Ideas that shift the role of teachers to curriculum designers and managers of an inquiry process. How can project-based learning (PBL) help with this shift? "

" Published Online: February 29, 2012 Published in Print: February 29, 2012, as Reading Fiction Whole Reading Fiction Whole English teacher Ariel Sacks believes it's important to lead students to make their own discoveries in literature. -Emile Wamsteker A language arts teacher uses a 'whole novels' approach to give her students an authentic literary experience. By Ariel Sacks Article Tools PrintPrinter-Friendly EmailEmail Article ReprintReprints CommentsComments Literary fiction is an art that seeks to create an immersive experience for the reader, but we often don't approach it that way with our students. We parcel out books in pieces and ask students to analyze them along the way without the ability to understand a work in its entirety. This is sort of like asking students to interpret a corner of a painting. Without the entire context, it lacks meaning and can become frustrating."

"Take a moment to think about how you learned to write. What steps did you go through? What was your process?"

"The videos on this site exemplify the key shifts that Common Core brings to classroom pedagogy. For more information on the shifts please see the Description of the Common Core Shifts. Or, listen to the teachers featured on the site in the ELA shifts video and Math shifts video and in What Does it Mean?."

"At Harriet Tubman Elementary in Newark, New Jersey, 5th grade teacher Yvonne Copprue-McLeod teaches a lesson about reading comprehension and answering open-ended questions using textual evidence. Ms. Copprue-McLeod's strategy for her lesson is to have students work in groups, using specific details from the text to draw inferences and answer questions about the main character in the text. This lesson is aligned with multiple 5th grade Common Core ELA standards (RL.5.1, RF.5.4, SL.5.1, SL.5.4)."

"Millions of teachers and thousands of districts in 45 states are currently undergoing a sea change in the way that they teach and assess students. The new Common Core Standards for learning have been phased into states and districts since 2010, and the digitized Common Core Assessments are scheduled to deploy in states that have adopted them as early as the 2014-2015 school year. "

"Alan November elevated the "Official Scribe" as one of the roles that empower student learners.I see the role of the scribe as follows: The official scribe plays an important role in the classroom community. Their work is essential for students who were absent from class or need a review on a specific topic previously discussed. The official scribe also takes pressure off other students from having to take notes, but invites them in to contribute with corrections, additional information or resources."

"There may be no crying in baseball, but there's certainly math and science. On a recent Friday morning, students at the Center for Academic Success, a charter school for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade in Sierra Vista, learned that Pythagoras might have played as big a role in baseball as Babe Ruth. They began by learning the distances between the bases on a Major League Baseball field and mapping its geometry. They found isosceles and right triangles, talked about the Pythagorean theorem and how it's applied to the triangle formed by home plate, first base and second."

"I have always used field trips to enrich my students experiences and connect their learning to the real world. When an edtech entrepreneur asked me if he could visit my classroom and share his work with my students, I realized I could "flip" the field trip--and bring an intriguing experience to my students. What I didn't expect was what we would all learn in the process."

A focus on NGSS

"The Common Core Learning Standards describe the importance of teaching students how to comprehend informational text. They are asked to read closely, make inferences, cite evidence, analyze arguments and interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text. Primary source documents are artifacts created by individuals during a particular period in history. This could be a letter, speech, photograph or journal entry. If you're looking to integrate social studies into your literacy block, try out one of these resources for primary source documents. "

"Calculators. Protractors. Spreadsheets. Computer algebra systems. Dynamic geometry software. You might not realize it, but the Common Core State Standards for mathematics make explicit reference to the use of all these tools, and others, in learning math. I discovered this as I was gathering information for a recent Education Week story about calculator policies for the forthcoming common-core exams. It turns out that the standards have a lot to say about using technology."