Mary G Johnson's List: Common Core State Standards

Edutopia blogger Heather Wolpert-Gawron looks at a key element of digital citizenship - responsible use of intellectual property - and slots it into the eighth grade Common Core Standard for gathering, using and attributing relevant information.

ReadWorks is a free service that has cataloged hundreds of lesson plans and more than one thousand non-fiction reading passages aligned to Common Core standards. With a free ReadWorks account you can search for lessons and reading passages by grade and skill. In your account you can create digital binders of the lesson plans and reading passages that you want to use. Learn more about ReadWorks in the video below.

As the Uncommon Corps, Marc Aronson, Myra Zarnowski, Mary Ann Cappiello, Sue Bartle, and Kathleen Odean are using digital media to share their passion for and knowledge of nonfiction literature and their experience with children, teachers, and librarians, to champion nonfiction and provide schools across the nation with access to kid-friendly, standards-based instructional ideas as they transition to the new Common Core Standards for English Language Arts and Content Literacy.

Educators are busy re-mapping and re-working curriculum at all levels to align with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). As I began to take a look at this monumental initiative, I decided a way I might help was to identify the rubrics that have been developed thus far for assessment of these standards. Some states started earlier than others with this project and I am sure additional resources will be showing up on the Web soon! Here are the rubric links that I have located thus far.

New York: On January 10th, 2011, the Board of Regents approved the recommended additions to the Common Core Learning Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy and Common Core Learning Standards for Mathematics, plus a new set of Prekindergarten Standards. The documents can be accessed below. Additional information about the P-12 Common Core Learning Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy is available on the EngageNY website at http://engageny.org/common-core-curriculum-assessments/

The adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) provides an unprecedented opportunity for authors and publishers -a chance to see more books in the hands of teachers and students. For the first time, all but four states have adopted the same set of Language Arts standards, which means thousands of teachers are going to be desperate for standards-based curriculum that aligns to the CCSS. They'll also be open to new literature. Authors and publishers who can provide curriculum guides that meet the new standards while tying in informational text, will become teachers' (and school districts') best friends. Curriculum Guides need to go well beyond the usual one-to-two page list of suggested activities and questions that authors and publishers often provide for their books. Instead, they should be intimately tied to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), have engaging activities and handouts that teachers can use with little to no preparation, and be based on solid instructional practices.

A Great Website for "Reading" Teachers...and That Means All of Us

I am really happy to share with you information about a website that does something critically important and does it well. It applies CCSS Reading Anchor Standards to Primary Source Images (photographs). The website is called Primary Source Nexus and can be accessed at http://primarysourcenexus.org. The site is a joint project of the Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) program of the Library of Congress and the Barat Education Foundation. All content area teachers should find this useful.

The Library of Congress offers classroom materials and professional development to help teachers effectively use primary sources from the Library's vast digital collections in their teaching. Find Library of Congress lesson plans and more that meet Common Core standards, state content standards, and the standards of national organizations

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are on many teachers’ minds this school year, and the Library of Congress is ready to help. The Library’s teacher resources are a great fit for teachers trying to meet key CCSS goals, including critical thinking, analyzing informational texts, and working with primary sources. They’re all free, and finding them is as easy as going to www.loc.gov/teachers. Hundreds of Library of Congress lesson plans, primary source sets, presentations and more—all based on authentic primary sources from the Library’s online collections—are now aligned to the CCSS, to state content standards, and to several national organizations’ standards

In 2007, governors and state education leaders began discussing the idea of working together to develop a set of rigorous academic standards to ensure that all students graduate from high school well prepared for life. As a result, in 2009, governors, state superintendents, state boards of education, teachers, parents, and business leaders took the historic step of planning for a shared set of rigorous and easy-to-understand state academic standards in English/language arts and mathematics for grades K-12. The new standards, which were released in 2010, clearly define what students need to know, and how well they need to know these things at each grade level, to be able to graduate from high school ready for success in college or a career-training program. In recent months, however, a number of myths have started circulating in the policy community and the media about these standards. As representatives of the two organizations that facilitated the development of the Common Core State Standards-the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers-we believe it is important to address some of the questions that have been raised about the common core.