Full Description
Tools and Insights for Meeting and Exceeding the Common Core Standards
Literacy and the Common Core offers K-12 teachers clear guidance on how to design units, lessons, and objectives to meet the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts; it's filled with practical strategies that teachers can use immediately to target key standards; and it describes how to analyze the standards to support instructional planning and curriculum development.
This book aims to make life a little easier for everyone—teachers, school leaders, parents, and students—as we all strive to prepare students for college and the careers they most desire. The book includes practical tools, templates, and rubrics ready to be downloaded and customized to meet your needs. Additional resources may be found on the companion site, www.literacycookbook.com.
Here are just a few of the essential topics addressed:
Which standards to start with and how to tackle them
How to bridge the gap when students are not on grade level
How to engage and support parents
How to teach students to write effectively
How to translate the standards for actual use
Take the recipes in this book, make them your own, and enjoy your new "Common Core Master Chef" status!
Contents
CD Contents ix
Acknowledgments xiii
About the Author xv
Preface:Why I Felt Compelled to Write This Book xvii
Introduction: What Problems This Book Attempts to Solve, and How 1
PART ONE Basic Ingredients
ONE Strategic Planning to Strengthen Curriculum 7
Strategic Action Planning: How to Make Things Happen 7
How to Keep Track of the Standards 9
Curriculum Resources 11
Endnotes 13
TWO Schoolwide Approaches to Reading 15
What to ConsiderWhen Selecting Texts for K-12 15
Human Resources:The Varsity Reading Coach 18
Strategic Reading andWriting Class 24
Strategic Reading andWriting: Curriculum Overview Map 34
How to Get TwoThousand Students to Fall in Love with Reading 36
Endnotes 41
THREE Bridging the Gap When Students Are Not on Grade Level 45
What You Need to Know about Text Complexity 46
A Strategic Approach 47
How to Engage and Support Parents 49
Low-Hanging Fruit: Classroom Discourse and Vocabulary Instruction 51
Why and How to Maximize Cross-Content Connections 53
AWord to School Leaders 54
Endnotes 55
FOUR Unit Planning 57
The Big Picture 57
Annotated Curriculum Overview Map 60
Sample Curriculum Overview Map 61
Annotated Unit Plan Template 62
Sample ELA Unit Plan 65
From-Units-to-Lessons Logistics 69
Endnotes 71
FIVE Lesson Planning 73
Why Lesson Planning Habits Matter 73
Annotated Lesson Plan Template 74
How to Avoid Kidnapping Your Students: Rigorous, Purposeful, Measurable (RPM) Objectives 76
Objectives and Lesson Planning with the Metaphor of Your Choice 82
Designing Effective Do Nows 84
Using Do Nows to Strengthen the Four Key Critical Reading Skills 85
Some Truths about "I Do,We Do, You Do" 90
Exit Tickets 92
A Few Thoughts on Homework 93
Endnotes 96
PART TWO Appetizers
SIX First Bites of the Common Core 101
Which Standards ShouldWe StartWith? 101
Tasty Morsels for Staff Training 102
Outlining Your First Unit 104
Endnotes 106
SEVEN Close Reading Strategies 107
Quadrant Analysis as aWay to Boost Comprehension 108
Annotation Revisited:Why and HowWe Read 109
The Overlooked Skill of Skimming 111
What Text Dependent Really Means 114
The Most Important Skill You Could Possibly Teach 115
More Bites at Inquiry 124
Endnotes 126
PART THREE Entrées
EIGHT Argument versus Evidence: The Big Picture and Six Essential Steps 131
Argument versus Evidence: Step 1 133
Argument versus Evidence: Step 2 135
Argument versus Evidence: Step 3 136
Argument versus Evidence: Step 4 140
Argument versus Evidence: Step 5 142
Argument versus Evidence: Step 6 143
Endnotes 144
NINE Quote Sandwiches 147
The Recipe for Quote Sandwiches 147
Examples and Non-Examples of Quote Sandwiches 148
Drawing a Picture of "Context" 150
Endnote 151
TEN Open-Ended Response Writing 153
Common Problems and Solutions 153
What Is "RACER"? 154
A Handy Open-Ended ResponseWriting Rubric 155
Endnotes 157
ELEVEN Document-Based Questions for One and All 159
Topic-Driven Assignments versus Question-Driven Assignments 159
How andWhy to Take the Document-Based Question Approach 160
Endnote 162
TWELVE How to Translate the ELA Common Core Standards for Actual Use 163
Step 1: Trajectory Analysis 163
Step 2: Unpack Standards and Design Objectives and Activities to MeetThem 166
Step 3: Compare and Contrast Standards for Literature and Informational Text 168
Models of Unpacked Standards: K-2, Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8, and Grades 9-12 170
Endnotes 179
PART FOUR Desserts
THIRTEEN Appendix 183
Strategic Reading Time (SRT) Users' Manual 184
Trajectory Analysis Charts for Reading Informational Text (RIT) Standards 233
Endnotes 243
Index 245
How to Use the CD 255
How to Use The Literacy CookbookWebsite 257
