Common Core Templates

If you are looking for templates that incorporate the Common Core State Standards the Literacy Design Collaborative is a great place to start.

Tablets and Teaching

Tablets are an increasingly popular way to integrate tech into education. We know the Common Core standards require that students be fluent in the new technologies. The trick lies in using tablets to enhance education with out letting them become a distraction.

Social Studies Framework

The new social studies framework is meant to be compatible with the Common Core state standards for reading and language arts. The idea is for these standards to support and reinforce the common core standards in the context of social studies.

So how does this work? First, it's important to understand that this is a frame work rather than a curriculum. It provides a way to approach the teaching of social studies along with giving the core competencies that students should achieve at various grade levels. It is not a detailed list of the content that schools should be covering. For example, students are expected to be able to develop claims using evidence. They can do this using a standard expanding horizons curriculum, the Core Knowledge curriculum (my personal favorite), or with any curriculum chosen by your particular state or district.

C3 Framework Organization

Dimension 1: Developing Questions and Planning Inquiries	Dimension 2: Applying Disciplinary Tools and Concepts	Dimension 3: Evaluating Sources and Using Evidence	Dimension 4: Communicating Conclusions and Taking Informed Action
Developing Questions and Planning Inquiries	Civics	Gathering and Evaluating Sources	Communicating and Critiquing Conclusions
	Economics
	Geography	Developing Claims and Using Evidence	Taking Informed Action
	History

Much of this will look familiar to anyone who has worked with the Common Core state standards. What I find interesting is the part about developing questions and planning inquiries. While these skills are not explicitly called for by Common Core, they should be very useful in leading to the type of deep learning that the Common Core is calling for.

Talk Like a Pirate

I got a kick out of the take on why pirates say are.

However, my favorite use of "Pirate talk" is to help students with those tricky r controlled vowels. I introduce one sound at a time in my reading group. I test the student's ability to read words with the target sound and move on as they find success. They love the chant:

AR says "arrr" like a pirate.         art, park, star
Or a pirate can say more.             more, for, your, floor, board
Will a pirate steer near here?       steer, near, here
A pirate can get tired.                   tire, fire, wire
Er-er-er the pirate is unsure.        Her girl sure learns words.
When they're there, 
the pirates wear their fair share.  fair, share, wear
                                                      there, their, they're

Those last three are the trickiest. I explain that "there" is a place like here, there, everywhere. The "their" with an "i" in the middle shows belonging. "It is their treasure." And "they're" is the contraction for "they are". It helps the children with spelling these words correctly to point out that each of them begins with the word "the".

What Does Explaining Your Answer Look Like?

There is a lot of talk about having children explain their answers, but what does this look like? This is especially challenging in the younger grades. This video give an excellent example of kindergarten children explaining their math reasoning.

More or Less

When I showed young children how to use number lines, I used to take advantage of an old teacher trick and tell them to count "hops" on the line. This stopped them from counting one for the number they were already on  and getting an answer that was one less than the actual answer.

I don't do that anymore. I came to realize that this did not lead to deeper understanding. Instead I work with the children on the concept of more and less.

I start with objects. First we work with two groups of different sizes to identify which group has more objects and which has less (or fewer) objects. Then we work on adding one more, two more, three more, ect.

From this foundation we can move to the number line.  To use the number line to find 5 + 1, I say "Five and one more." Then I point to the number line as I say "Five, one more than five." We move on to two more than, three more than, ... Later I will compare the two ways of using the number line to add. I might show 5 + 4 and count one while pointing to the 5 and end landing on 8, and then do it counting one as I point to 6 and end landing on 9. I ask the students to think about which way of doing this is correct and why. After they have had some time to think, I call on a student to tell the class which way is correct and to explain why.

I do something similar with less than. This leads to a much deeper level of understanding than the old "Let's count hops" trick.

It's Time to Get Your Learn On!

My kids got a kick out of seeing this video from Kid President. It's a great introduction to writing a persuasive essay. It's also good for helping students distinguish facts from opinions. Even my reluctant writers were excited. This lead to some of the best writing I have seen this early in the year.

Common Core Tests and Accessability

The accommodations that will be permitted for students taking Common Core test will depend on which consortium is creating the tests. The rules regarding these accommodations are complex. Elementary students who are taking tests developed by the PARCC consortium will be allowed to have the tests read aloud to them if they have a documented need for this. If the tests are read aloud this will be noted with the test results. The standards required by the Smarter Balanced consortium are more stringent and somewhat controversial. For grades 3-5, students will not be permitted to have the tests read aloud to them even if they are blind and do not know braille! Am I the only one who thinks that Smarter Balanced has gone off the deep end on this issue?

What Do Parents Know About Common Core?

With all the talk of Common Core is the education world, it's easy to imagine that everybody knows about the Common Core Standards. Not so...

Happy Grandparent's Day

Today is Grandparent's Day. It's not too late to have your students make a card or write a letter for their grandparents. I believe strongly in the importance of this special day. That's why I have kept the cost of my Grandparent's Day packet so low. It's just $2.99. Even if you don't use the packet, be sure to have your students do something for the older people in their lives. I really want this holiday to catch on.

PARCC Sample Items

The PARCC consortium has released sample items. It is useful to compare these to the Smarter Balanced online practice tests. As you would expect, they are actually fairly similar because they are aligned to the same standards..

It is important to note that the final version of the Smarter Balanced tests will be computer adaptive. This means that the test will respond to the answers given by the student and will present high achieving students with more difficult questions. The currently available practice tests do not have this feature.

There will be two expectations that will be very different from what has been expected of students in the past. In math, it will be important for students to be able to explain how they got their answer. For English Language Arts, students will be expected to use two or more texts to write a multiple paragraph essay.

Calculators and Common Core

The use of calculators during math instruction has long been a contentious issue. Some educators have suggested that using calculators can free students from the drudgery of basic facts and allow them to focus on gaining a deeper understanding. Other educators have argued that using calculators, especially in the early grades, interferes with the development of fluency in calculation.

The Common Core State Standards do not prescribe any particular type of classroom practice. However the Common Core tests will not allow 3-5 students to use calculators during the actual tests. Some sections of the tests for older students may allow for the use of calculators.

This will mean that primary teachers will need to make sure that their students are fluent in their basic facts.