faulker035

As an author, you might be either a) tired of hearing about the Common Core or b) still thinking, "What is it and what should I be doing about it?" Well, you're not alone. I'm both a middle school teacher AND a middle grade author.  Nothing haunts me right now like the CCSS. But as an author--especially if you write picture books, nonfiction, or middle grade fiction--the Common Core can be an opening for you.  First of all, teachers are LOOKING for new resources. And for the first time in years, there are funds to buy them. One of the buzzwords associated with the Common Core Language Arts standards is the concept of "anchor texts."  An anchor text is a rich piece of literature or an engaging piece of text that a teacher can use as the centerpiece for bringing in other related resources (called text sets ), which students then read, analyze or synthesize to create something else:  a piece of writing, a debate speech, a Socratic discussion, a PowerPoint pres...

I love teaching novels. Probably because I love reading novels.  So there is nothing more rewarding than exposing my students to good literature and being a part of the magic that happens when a whole room full of kids exhales after a tense scene or laughs or groans when we end a chapter and I say that's it for the day. But preparing to teach a novel?  It's a ton of work. I begged my principal a few months ago to let me teach this amazing book called MOON OVER MANIFEST.  It won the Newbery a year or two ago and quite simply, it's brilliant.  Because I have a great administrator, he dug up a few hundred bucks somehow and I got a class set. Then, the work began. First, I had to cull through that puppy and find all the words that kids in sixth grade may or may not know. Then, I had to write good, solid, context clues-type activities for those words, because that's what our standards call for. Then, I had to decide how to introduce the novel.  And since it takes pla...

A few weeks ago, I hit that time of year in my sixth grade classroom I usually dread.  Poetry.  I've never been a big fan of poetry myself. Teaching poetry to sixth graders usually feels to me like trying to make a trip to the dentist sound fun.  They don't buy it.  So we slog through two weeks of rhyming couplets, dubious metaphors, and allusive symbolism before we all breathe a huge sigh of relief. This year I wised up.  Wrote a grant that got me a class set of Dare to Dream . . . Change the World books.  This collection of poems edited by Jill Corcoran features writing by some of today's top KidLit writers and poets.  Each spread couples a biography of someone who has made an impact in some way with two poems that relate to that person. Nicole and I (well, mostly Nicole) had the pleasure of putting together a Teacher's Guide for Jill.  We honed in on as many of the Common Core Standards for grades 6 through 8 as we cou...

Where do I begin? Your Common Core State Standards (CCSS) document—get to know the standards for your target age group.  Note that the standards range from basic understanding to deep analysis (purposely reflecting Bloom's Taxonomy).  Pick 5-8 standards that you think you can cover in your curriculum guide - you don't need to touch on ALL the standards as students have the entire year to meet their grade-level CCSS. Get organized! Figure out what sections to include in your curriculum guide.  As a teacher, here's what is most useful:   - a Prior Knowledge section with discussion or writing prompts that students complete BEFORE they begin reading.  A good prompt relates students' prior experiences to themes in the book, and gets them excited and motivated to read.  For Dare to Dream . . . Change the World,  a poetry anthology, we have students find examples of poetry in commercials, songs, greeting cards, and nursery rhymes so they realize poetry...

The adoption  of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) by all but four states presents an unprecedented opportunity for publishers and authors. For the first time, teachers across the nation are teaching the same English standards.  What are the Common Core State Standards?  The CCSS are specific benchmarks, divided by grade level, that students should master by the end of each year in a certain subject. At this point, there are only standards for Language Arts and Math.  The L.A. standards are divided into Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language.  They are pretty specific.  For instance, one of the Reading Standards for 8th grade reads:                 3. Determine a theme or central idea of a text and  analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of ...

Fiction writers have viewed the adoption of the Common Core standards with skepticism. And maybe with good reason. These new standards require teachers to focus much more time on Informational text. Staff lounges and department meetings across the country are also abuzz right now with what this means for curricula. In actuality, the document and its standards are well organized, well-written, and a realistic interpretation of what we want kids to know and do at the end of each school year. For us, curriculum writers and teachers, the CCSS are refreshing. The adoption of the CCSS by all but 5 states is merely an outgrowth of a decades long push to incorporate standards-based teaching into schools. There were (and actually still are) 50 distinct state standards for major subject areas. Now, we have ONE set of standards for math and English for most of the country. Finally, we in the education world can talk the same talk and collaborate on promoting best practices. But what does th...