The Common Core Lesson Book, K-5


Book Description

The quality of instruction is the most important factor in helping students meet the Common Core Standards. That's why Owocki's "Common Core Lesson Book" empowers teachers with a comprehensive framework for implementation that enhances existing curriculum and extends it to meet Common Core goals.




The Common Core Reading Book, 6-8


Book Description

"Working effectively with the standards requires the critical understanding that the teacher-not the standard or the program-is the most important variable affecting adolescents' achievement." -Gretchen Owocki The Common Core Reading Book, 6-8 makes the reading goals of the standards doable for teachers in every content area. It also keeps the focus on instruction that's meaningful to adolescents and that supports deep engagement with literacy and your subject-area content. "I wanted to honor the intent of the standards," writes author Gretchen Owocki, "and at the same time respect the fact that students are eleven, twelve, and thirteen years old only once in their lives." Gretchen has matched sensible, step-by-step teaching strategies to the 10 reading anchor standards, giving you instructional choices that you can match to your students' needs, your goals for their development as readers, and your content-area's key texts. Whether you are a skilled teacher of reading or new to it, Gretchen pays special attention to the needs of literacy teachers and subject-area teachers alike with tools you'll use every day: a precise description of what each standard asks from adolescents instructional decision trees that simplify lesson planning clearly presented instructional strategies that release responsibility to students "students who..."suggestions for tailoring support to meet kids' individual needs. For close reading, citing textual evidence, evaluating arguments, analyzing visual media, or anything the Common Core reading standards ask for, rely on The Common Core Reading Book, 6-8. You'll find a framework sturdy enough to teach with, flexible enough to plan from, and so respectful of you and your students that it will soon become core to your teaching. Begin reading now with our sample chapter.




Social Studies, Literacy, and Social Justice in the Elementary Classroom


Book Description

Elementary-aged children are often positioned as not developmentally ready to learn about race, racism, and injustice. Yet, the classroom materials used in most schools misrepresent history, withhold knowledge about racial injustice, or fail to uplift stories of resilience and resistance. For almost a decade, this groundbreaking resource has been one of the most highly used textbooks in justice-oriented social studies methods courses for grades 3-8. The author has thoroughly revised her bestseller to provide additional lessons that are more deeply situated within the current context of converging pandemics--COVID-19, racism, and impending environmental catastrophe. Grounded in the daily realities of public schools, Agarwal-Rangnath shows teachers how to use primary and other sources that will offer students new ways of thinking about history while meeting language arts standards for information text proficiency and critical thinking. Educators will also learn how to teach language arts and social studies as complementary subjects. New for the Second Edition: More concrete connections between theory and practice. Additional lesson examples that are centered in today's context of converging pandemics. Reflection questions that challenge readers to think about ways to navigate curricular constraints and standardization in the classroom.




20 Literacy Strategies to Meet the Common Core


Book Description

With the advent of the Common Core State Standards and high expectations with regard to content literacy, some secondary teachers are scrambling for what to do and how to do it. This book provides an accessible plan for implementing content literacy and offers 20 research-based literacy strategies designed to help students meet those standards and become expert readers.







The Literacy Cookbook


Book Description

Proven methods for teaching reading comprehension to all students The Literacy Cookbook is filled with classroom-tested techniques for teaching reading comprehension to even the most hard-to-reach students. The book offers a review of approaches that are targeted for teaching reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. The book also includes information on how to connect reading, writing, and test prep. Contains accessible and easy-to-adopt recipes for strengthening comprehension, reading, writing, and oral fluency. Terrific resources are ready for download on the companion website. The materials in this book are aligned with the English Language Arts Common Core Standards The website includes an ELA Common Core Tracking Sheet, a handy resource when writing or evaluating curriculum.




Transformational Literacy


Book Description

Engage, challenge, and inspire students with work that matters Transformational Literacy, written by a team from EL Education, helps teachers leverage the Common Core instructional shifts—building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction, reading for and writing with evidence, and regular practice with complex text—to engage students in work that matters. Worthy texts and worthy tasks help students see the connection between their hard work as readers and writers and their capacity to contribute to stronger communities and a better world. The stories, examples, and resources that permeate Transformational Literacy come primarily from the more than 150 EL Education schools around the country that support teachers to select, supplement, customize, and create curriculum, and improve instruction. The book also draws on EL Education's open source Common Core English Language Arts curriculum—often cited as one of the finest in the country—and professional development offered to thousands of teachers to implement that curriculum effectively. Transformational Literacy combines the best of what EL Education knows works for kids—purposeful, inquiry-based learning—and the new imperative of the Common Core—higher and deeper expectations for all students. Teach standards through a compelling and purposeful curriculum that prioritizes worthy texts and worthy task Improve students' evidence-based reading, thinking, talking, and writing Support students to develop a new mindset toward the challenge of reading complex texts Transformational Literacy introduces an approach to literacy instruction that will engage, challenge, and inspire student with work that matters.







Common Core Literacy Lesson Plans


Book Description

Schools nationwide are transitioning to the Common Core--our advice to you: Don't go it alone! Our new book, Common Core Literacy Lesson Plans: Ready-to-Use Resources, K-5, shows you that teaching the Common Core State Standards in the elementary grades doesn't have to be intimidating! This easy-to-use guide provides model lesson plans for teaching the standards in reading, writing, speaking/listening, and language. Get engaging lesson plans that are grade-appropriate, easy to implement and include ready-to-use reproducible handouts, assessments, resources, and ideas to help you modify the lesson for both struggling and advanced learners. Our Common Core Literacy Lesson Plans are designed to fit seamlessly into your K-5 curriculum. You get practical tips for revamping your existing lessons to meet the standards. Students learn how to read informational texts, write opinion-based essays, and improve their speaking and listening skills. Grammar mini-lessons and foundational skills mini-lessons will help you teach language conventions, phonics, fluency, and more! We take the guesswork out of Common Core lesson plans with this practical, easy-to-use guide. All lesson plans are grade-appropriate, and every lesson plan includes... Common Core State Standards covered in the lesson Overview of objectives and focus of the lesson Background knowledge required and time required A detailed, step-by-step agenda for the lesson, plus a materials list Differentiation ideas to adapt the lesson for different kinds of learners Assessment ideas, including rubrics and scoring guides A place for your notes: what worked; what can improve Bonus! We show you how to extend the lessons into longer units to suit your particular grade's curriculum, and even help you create more of your own lessons!




Common Core CPR


Book Description

The ideal? Newly minted high school graduates all across the nation, each one a complex text genius, a writer and analytic thinker beyond compare. All on to glorious colleges and careers, thanks to the Common Core. The reality? The 1.3 million students who fail to graduate from high school each year and the hundreds of thousands more who either gave up or lost interest long ago . . . The reality is why Common Core CPR is needed. Urgently. Because if we continue to insist that all students meet expectations that are well beyond their abilities and mindsets, these kids will only decline faster. We must be brave enough-and trained enough-to cast aside what we know harms students and apply with renewed vigor the teaching methods we know work. Releah Lent and Barry Gilmore rise to the challenge, and there are no two authors better equipped to do so. They embrace what is best about the standards-their emphasis on active, authentic learning-and then explicitly show teachers how to connect these ideal outcomes to practical classroom strategies, detailing the day-to-day teaching that can coax reluctant learners into engagement and achievement. You'll learn how to: Consider choice and relevance in every assignment Plan and spot opportunities for success Scaffold students' comprehension of complex fiction and nonfiction texts Model close reading through thoughtful questioning Teach students to use evidence in reading, writing, speaking, and reflection . . . And so much more It's not the big sweeping formulas for achievement that will win the day; it's the incremental growth that teachers need to make happen: that one book, that one writing assignment, to help a student turn a corner. "If we can get that one transformational moment to occur, and follow it up by designing more opportunities for success, that's the ideal," say Lent and Gilmore.