Easy Transitions into the Common Core

The Common Core Standards, addresses the specific goals of helping students actively seek the wide, deep, and thoughtful engagement with high-quality literary and informational texts that builds knowledge, enlarges experience, and broadens worldviews." Drs. Irene C. Fountas & Gay Su Pinnell

As some are teaching the Common Core Way and others are soon transitioning here are a few simple strategies that you can easily make in the classroom now:

• Asking "So What?" when summarizing a non-fiction text.
• Ask for text-based evidence to support their justifications.
• Students should be reading and rereading to analyze the author's choice of  words. Asking students to dig deeper and ponder "why do you think the author include this or decided to leave this out."
• Teaching Text to Text Connections
• Real World Connections: How is this relevant to My Life?
• Analysis and Close reading of the standards to see what has changed (by quarter) to make adjustments.
• Lead High-Level, Text-Based Discussions
• Focus on the Process not just the Content
• Teach Argument rather than Persuasion
• Increase Text Complexity