Choice Lit Topic: Common Core
Teachers and school leaders have a sense of urgency in understanding and implementing the Common Core. We share the experiences of teachers as they wrestle with new definitions of persuasive writing in the Common Core and build their nonfiction libraries. We include many resources from literacy coaches and school leaders as they bring together teachers to discuss and try out the Common Core in their classrooms. Whether it’s one teacher working with a few students, or a district looking to coordinate resources across hundreds of classrooms, we’ve got the materials you need to figure out how to integrate standards into your work while maintaining the integrity of your beliefs about literacy instruction.
Results
Explanatory Grammar Moves: Getting Verbal with It
The Common Core asks 8th graders to understand the use of verbals -- gerunds, infinitives, and participles. To keep myself from becoming verbally abusive, I will write about only one...
Rereading and Retelling to Inferring: Part 2
Linda Karamatic uses texts her second graders already know to build their inferring skills as they construct a chart together.
Liberty and Dystopia: February Literacy Contracts
Since it is February and we celebrate President’s Day this month, we focus on government and leadership in reading. We chose dystopian literature as the theme of the February Literacy Contract. ...
Act III: Exploring Subtext with A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare and the Common Core Series)
The Common Core states that high school students should be able to “adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and...
Streamlining Research Check-ins
For an obsessive person, I’m oddly disorganized. It’s strange: I am meticulous about list making, obnoxious about planning ahead, and consumed with noting everything on my calendar (I break into...
Act II: Understanding Hamlet Through Close Reading (Shakespeare and the Common Core Series)
I love to start out the study of Hamlet with these instructions for my students: "Number your paper from 1-4. In this order, write down your name, your mother's name,...
Penguins Are Amazing!: Informational Writing Comes Alive in Kindergarten
Gathered at the carpet one rainy February day, I said to my kindergartners, “We are going to begin researching penguins today. Do you know what it means to do research?’...
Common Core Research Shifts
As expository writing becomes more integrated in Common Core, many changes are occurring in my classroom as I redefine student research. There are four shifts that I am making with...
Act I: Delving into Deep Questions with Macbeth (Shakespeare and the Common Core Series)
The Common Core State Standards describe students who are “college and career ready” as exhibiting the following qualities: demonstrating independence building strong content knowledge responding to the varying demands of...
Journeys and Quests: January Literacy Contracts
January is the month of new beginnings, resolutions, and transformations. We love the month of January in the school year because we’ve got long stretches of teaching time. There is...
Explanatory Grammar Moves: Right-Branching Sentences
There is a secret that writers know about grammar: it’s the power of the right-branching sentence. It’s easy to navigate for novice and expert writers alike, and on top of...
Exploring Winter with Short Texts
December is a short month with lots of interruptions like choir practices and holiday parties, which lead to antsy students. Because of the time limitations, we will focus on shorter...
Teaching Rereading Strategies: Backing Up and the Bossy E
In this conference with second grader TJ from Sean Moore's classroom, the strategies of backing up and rereading as well as attending to the "bossy e" are discussed.
Two Lessons for Teaching Theme
I want students to know how to find theme in any fiction they are reading, and to be aware of the critical devices authors use to tell their story and...
Exploring Explanatory Moves Writers Use
There is a difference, subtle though it may be, between informational and explanatory writing. Let’s take a deeper look at the moves writers use to explain beyond merely explaining how...
Research Book Clubs for Struggling Readers
This past fall one of our fabulous learning support teachers and I were sitting on the carpet after school trying to think of a way to get a student we...
Creating Your Own Kindergarten Assessment
A dear friend’s kindergarten age son told me about his tearful bumpy bus ride to school. He confided, “I cry each day. The first day was okay, but I really...
October Literacy Contracts: Fear and Conflict
October is a wonderful month for teaching and learning, with relatively few interruptions compared to other months on the calendar. By this point in the year, we’ve established routines, relationships...
Nonfiction Reading Group in First Grade
Katie DiCesare brings together a group of her first-grade students who are reading nonfiction, helping them to expand the ways they share what they are learning with classmates.
Chris Lehman on Student Research (PODCAST)
Franki Sibberson chats with Chris Lehman (author of Energize Research Reading and Writing) about how the Common Core is changing the ways teachers approach student research in their classrooms. You...
“We Gather Together”: On Research and Weddings
There are many similarities between committing to a research project and committing to a spouse. As I worked with a team of seventh-grade teachers at Wawasee Middle School to create...
