Category: Common Core Standards

Graphic Organizers For Common Core ELA

With its comprehensive collection of CCSS-ELA graphic organizers, The Visual Edge provides a very visible way for students in grades 6-12 to approach Common Core-related standards. Teacher-reviewer Joyce Depenbusch has numerous suggestions for the next edition.

Building a Common Core-Based Curriculum

Susan Udelhofen’s discussion of mapping is very useful for identifying the process of curriculum building, with each step outlined in sufficient detail to provide clear and explicit direction. Kathy Foster recommends it to any district developing its curriculum.

Middle School Reading with the CCSS

Gretchen Owocki tackles complex literature, informational texts and content-area reading in her new middle grades CCSS book, weaving together instructional elements in a teacher-friendly format. Reviewer Anne Anderson highly recommends it.

The Common Core Ready Classroom

Rather than wasting space unpacking the standards (again), PD director Bryan Harris supplies educators with tips on running a classroom, asking questions, and staging conversations for a CCSS friendly culture, says teacher-reviewer Lena Welch.

Listening and Speaking: Essential Skills

Erik Palmer makes a compelling case for the explicit instruction of communication skills in Teaching the Core Skills of Listening and Speaking, relating them to CCSS anchor standards and providing helpful lessons and good advice, says reviewer Rebecca Crockett.

Cooking with the Common Core

Sarah Tantillo has taken her 2012 book, The Literacy Cookbook, to the next level, adding flavor-enhancing Common Core ingredients to the mix. Reviewer Linda Biondi reports Literacy and the Common Core: Recipes for Action “deserves a five star rating.”

How to Avoid CCSS Weak Teaching Advice

Reviewer Tyler McBride says the authors of Uncommon Core draw on research and their classroom experience to help teachers and administrators avoid some “absurd” teaching practices implied in the Common Core standards and get CCSS implementation right.