From the desk of Carol C…

“The Common Core is here. Now what do we do?” When I first read that quote I thought , “You got that right sister.  What are we gonna do?”

In no time, well meaning supervisors started giving me suggestions.  “Look on Cleveland County’s website. Try the NYC website.  Have you looked at Promethean Planet?  How about Learn 360?  Learning Village?  DPI resources?  Pinterest?  Teacher Tube?  I began to feel like I was in a house of mirrors, and I couldn’t find my way out.  Sooo…I fell back on my “I’m overwhelmed” mentality and put all of the information I had about the CC and put it in a file cabinet and shut the drawer.  Such a mature professional way to handle this wouldn’t ‘ya say?

As I continued on this path of avoidance, I was hit with the news that every teacher must attend 3000 hours  (Okay, I exaggerated)  of CC training in a specific subject and then go back to their home schools and impart what they learned.  Are you kidding me?  Well, I find it hard to believe, but this turned out to be just what I needed.  Not only did I learn a tremendous amount about the new standards, but just as helpful, or maybe more so, this mandatory training started me and my fellow teachers talking about the CC.  What a lifesaver this was!

The teachers and I set up meeting times, decided what we would discuss at each meeting, and met once or twice a week.  We learned oodles about the standards and expectations in each subject area.  This was wonderful, but something just as important came out of these meetings and that was the sense that we were all in the same boat.  I had to laugh when one of my friends said,  “I may be heading over the waterfall, but at least I have a boatful of people with me.”  How true.  I urge you to find your own group of teachers who will think, talk, question, and share.  Find those great resources just down the hall from you.

Despite information overload at the beginning, I’ve now found a few websites and books that I like.  This is just the beginning, so let me know what other resources you are finding helpful!

1. http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards  This website provides helpful material for ELA, Math, Science, and Social Studies for grades K-12.  Under ELA Appendix B you will find text exemplars and sample performance tasks including literacy in the content areas.  It is so beneficial to see these as they spell out the expectations at each grade level. ELA Appendix C has writing exemplars for each grade level.  Eye opening!  They provide concrete examples of standards expectations.  Math has two sections.  The first section shows the domains, standards, and clusters, for every grade level.  Appendix A goes through the process of designing high school math courses based on the common core standards.

2.  http://www.uen.org/k12educator/  This site is from the Utah Education Network.  While Utah has not formally adopted the Common Core there is a plethora of excellent resources to use for grades K-12.  Lesson plans, student resources, and more can be found here for every subject taught.  Surf around the page and be sure to look at the links on the right side of the screen.

3.  Common Core Curriculum Maps in English Language Arts   Let me start out by saying this series greatly appeals to me.  I bought the K-5 book the first time I saw it.  In this series there is, also,  a book for grades 6-8 and one for 9-12.  For each grade level there are 6 different thematic units which may be used across the year.  These units address every ELA standard in the Common Core Curriculum.  They provide sample activities, suggested works, lesson plans, and assessments for each unit.  These theme units can be followed as written or can provide ideas that you may tweak to make them fit your class or teaching style.  If you go to Amazon, you are able to look inside part of each book to get an idea of whether or not it would help you.

4.  Pathways to the Common Core:  How to Accelerate Achievement   This book is by Lucy Calkins, et. al, and I have to admit that I am a Lucy Calkins devotee.  I read a bit of this before I loaned it to someone who has yet to return it.  Tsk, tsk, tsk.  Oh, maybe that’s a sign that it was helpful!  I do remember there were writing samples from students across grade levels that centered around the same prompt.  These sample exemplars left me feeling both excited and scared.  It was so exciting to see the growth from second grade writing through that of high schoolers.  It was scary because it hit me how much my students will suffer in the long run if I don’t teach the curriculum and maintain high expectations.  Yikes!  On the bright side I like how the authors of the book take each ELA category (reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language) and explain what the standard means.  Additionally, they show how to go about implementing these standards in the classroom.  Take a look at the table of contents, and see if it looks like something that you could use.

A last note…a teacher friend of mine and fellow Calkins devotee told me recently that she bought the Units of Study for Reading that Lucy wrote.  (First name basis you see)  My friend feels that these reading units and the Units of Study for Writing align perfectly with the Common Core Curriculum.  These units are excellent, but they really need to be pored over before you commit to buying a package.   You’ll either love ‘em or see that they’re not for you.  (Also, they’re very expensive.)  FYI, I love ‘em, too.

Well, you’ve read my pearls of wisdom.  Let me know what you would add to this collection!