10things to know about common core standards for ela

10
THINGS TO KNOW
ABOUT COMMON
CORE STANDARDS
FOR ELA
I’m not yet an expert in the Common Core Standards. But as editor
of Storyworks (and a language arts geek), I’ve been spending much
of my free time learning everything I can about them. Right now, I’m
in the process of developing a grade-level-specific guide to using
Storyworks for Common Core goals. In the meantime, I’ve created this
“cheat sheet” for myself, a list of ten major ways I think the standards
are going to impact upper-elementary students and teachers (and how
Storyworks will help!). –Lauren Tarshis, Editor, Storyworks
students will read many
1Your
genres.
Fifty percent will be “literary texts” like stories,
myths, poems, plays, and fables. Fifty percent will
be “informational texts,” such as literary nonfiction,
history, science, and biography.
(All of these genres are in Storyworks.)
Play
hugo
Hugo lead
Paris train s a lonely life
in the
together station—until
he
the piec
es of a puzputs
zle
adapte
d by spenCe
martin
r kayden
sCorse
, based
se,
on the
the inventthe sCreen
movie
play by
ion of
hugo CabretJohn logan, direCt ed by
and the
by brian
novel
selzniC
up
k
Close
the big
idea A theme
people,
like
Think about machines, can in this story is
that
be
this as
you read. broken—and
fixed.
g role
Poetry
16
UP
ClOSe
Aliteration
s t o
r y w
o r k
s
Notice anything about
the
words in this poem?
Why would the author
use so many words
that start with S?
this
movie
based is
one of on
our
favorite
books
!
look for
Word
8 Words
in bold nerd’s
Cha
raCter
*Narrators
s
1, 2, 3, 4
*Hugo:
a 12-year-old (N1, N2, N3, N4)
Father:
Hugo’s father boy
Claude:
Hugo’s uncle
*Georges:
a toy maker
Station
Inspector
*Isabelle:
a 13-year-old
Jeanne:
girl
Georges’s
wife
René Tabard
: a profess
*Indicates
or of cinema
large speakin
scen
N1: Bonjou
r, and welcome 1
1931.
e to Paris.
The year
N2: Hugo
is
and
home, admirihis father sit inside
their
ng a mecha
N3: The
nical man. cozy
rusted figure
is
made of
gears, levers, three feet tall and
Father: It’s
and clock
called an
parts.
autom
in the attic
of the museumaton. I found him
he’s broken
where I work.
hugo: What .
But
Father: You is he supposed to
do?
wind him
up and he
writes.
Sneaker
Snakes
Poem and Art
by Carin Berger
Slippery, slidey
Sneak-around snakes
Wish they had sneakers
But make no mistake
With swirly green eyes
And slithery tongues
It’s a very good thing
They can’t lace up and
run
FPO…From DARK
EMPEROR AND
OTHER POEMS
by Joyce Sidman.
Text copyright ©
2010 by Joyce
Sidman. Reprinted
by permission of
Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt Publishing
Company. All rights
reserved.
FIND AN
ACTIVITY
ONlINe
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hugo: Can
we
Father (smilin fix him?
clockmakers, g): We’re
N4: Father aren’t we? But .
..
points to
heart-shaped
a
automaton’s keyhole at the
Father: We back.
need to find
N1: Every
night, Hugo its key.
father work
and
on the automa his
N2: They
ton.
replace old
polish the
parts and
metal until
N3: One
night, when it gleams.
alone, a
Hugo is
Hugo and
large man
his father
barges
Why do
Hugo (surpris
they enjoy work on the
ed): Uncle in.
automa
working
claude:
ton.
Claude?
on it?
There was
a fire
museum.
Your father’s at the
scene 3
N2: One
Pack your
dead.
morning,
things. You’re
Hugo
shop. It is
to live with
coming
full of fancifuspies the station’s
me.
toy
flip, and
N4: Hugo
l toys that
fly.
is devast
skitter,
N3: George
ated.
s, the
Hugo wonde owner, is a grim
scene 2
old man.
make such rs how such a sad
N1: Claude
person can
takes Hugo
N4: George magical toys.
with him
s naps at
in a hidden to live
N1: Hugo
the
inside the
apartment
tiptoes over counter.
Paris train
and reache
mechanical
claude:
station.
You’ll
s for a small
N2: George mouse.
hugo: What be my assistan
s’s eyes snap
about school t.
wrist.
claude:
open. He
?
You’re done
grabs Hugo’s
Georges:
school. All
with
Got
you
the
at last, you
Empty your
station must clocks in the
little thief!
pockets,
Inspector!
or I’ll call
and adjuste be cranked, oiled,
the Station
d. The Station
N3: Hugo
Inspector
empties his
always checks
pockets of
and other
N2: Hugo
maintain
screws, springs
tiny metal
learns how them.
all
Georges:
pieces he
to
,
And the
He also learnsthe clocks in the
other pocket has stolen.
train station
hugo: It’s
tunnels inside to navigate the
empty.
?
.
maze of
Georges
the station
N3: One
(shouting):
walls.
day, Claude
Station Inspec
N4: Hugo
disappears.
seems that
empties his
tor!
Days
Claude has
last pocket
reluctantly
totally alone.
left for good. go by. It
N1: George gives up his father’s and
Hugo is
N4: Hugo
s flips throug
old
fears
finds drawin
h the notebo notebook.
But as long he will be put in
ok. He
an
N2: George gs of the automa
as
no one will he keeps the clocks orphanage.
ton.
s’s face turns
George
notice that
working,
pale.
s: Where
N1: The
Claude is
did
one thing
hugo: I
gone.
that
didn’t! Give you steal this?
working
on the automacomforts Hugo is
Georges:
me my notebo
It’s
of his father.
ton. It’s all
ok!
hugo: No! mine now.
he has left
Georges:
Then tell
me who
N3: Hugo
did
sees the
Station Inspecthese drawings.
www
tor coming
.sch
olas
.
tic.c
om/s
t o ry
wor
ks • a
Pri
l/ma
y 201
2
17
Lauren,
ELA nerd
students will be challenged
2Your
in their reading.
The emphasis on texts of all kinds that will stretch
your students’ abilities is one of the most challenging
aspects of the Common Core. It’s all about “text
complexity” and teaching students to navigate many
different types of content.
(Storyworks’s high-interest topics will help students
make that stretch by engaging them from the outset.)
All answers need to be
3
backed up with “text
evidence.”
When responding to questions about a text,
students will need to use examples or details from
what they’ve read to back up their answers. Older
students will have to quote directly from the text.
(All Storyworks writing prompts and quizzes require text
evidence.)
4
You will get to know
Norm Webb.
He’s a University of Wisconsin
education professor. He created
a “depth of knowledge” (DOK)
m
Nor
framework for developing assessment
questions that require increasing levels of reasoning.
The bottom line: students must be “close readers,”
achieving a deep understanding of a text. To do
well on CC tests, students will have to become
experts on making inferences, analyzing
information, and drawing conclusions.
(Don’t blame Norm for all this fuss—my
son Leo goes to UW and says he is a very
smart and nice man.)
Bucky
the UW,
masco
t.
(Storyworks article structures help students
develop close-reading skills; our activities and
quizzes require higher-level reasoning skills.)
all skills
5Not
are created equal.
Most likely you’re already covering all of the
Common Core skills in some way. But Common
Core turns some skills into superstars, including:
Themes (identifying, comparing, always while
showing which details support the theme)
Comparing and Contrasting (within a text, across
texts and genres)
Main Idea and Supporting Details (Older students
need to find at least two main ideas in nonfiction
texts.)
Summarizing (not only entire texts, but paragraphs,
events, and procedures described within them)
Text structures (cause/effect, problem/solution,
chronological, compare/contrast; students must
identify these structures and evaluate their
effectiveness in organizing information)
Text features (intepreting photos, captions,
headings, graphs, timelines, maps)
(These skills are already front and center in Storyworks)
ready for
6 Get
more vocabulary.
The standards demand that students
be able to navigate texts with
challenging vocabulary. There’s also an
emphasis on “domain specific” vocabulary—words
relating to content in specific fields such as science,
social studies, and the arts.
(Storyworks emphasizes these skills in both in the
magazine and throughout our support materials.)
writing takes
7Opinion
center stage.
Common Core places special emphasis on
developing logical arguments in writing. You’ll be
asking students to defend their interpretations of a
poem, take stands on a current issue, or support their
claims about a scientific development, all by drawing
on text evidence.
(Storyworks debates and writing prompts offer ample
practice in opinion writing. Our persuasive-writing
essay kit guides them step by step.)
You will be connecting
8
ELA to science and
social studies.
Common Core emphasizes core
knowledge in science and social
studies, so you will be looking
for reading content in these areas.
(Storyworks nonfiction articles are almost
always drawn from social studies and
science.)
9
Grammar and usage are
spelled out.
The Standards specify grade by grade the
conventional language skills that students need to
master, from verb tenses to quotation marks.
(Our Wordworks and Grammar Cop features reinforce
language skills, and our activity sheets provide even
more practice.)
10 You can get started
There are some simple ways
to start preparing yourself and your
students. The most important, in my
opinion, is getting kids used to finding
text evidence. When you ask a question
about a story or article, follow up with “how do you
know?” Always have them point to examples and
details from the text.
We’re continuing to explore the
Standards and will be sharing our
insights. If you’d like to talk to me
directly about the Standards, I’d love
to connect any time.
[email protected]