An open challenge to Common Core’s drive for uniformity Nicholas Tampio watched as his kindergartner’s class shifted from one where teachers, aides, parents, and students worked hard to create a rewarding educational experience to one in which teachers delivered hours-long lectures using packaged lesson plans. Learning versus the Common Core explains how standards-based education reform is transforming nearly every aspect of public education by looking closely at the standards, the agenda of people pushing standards-based reform, and how these fit within a global pattern of education reform. With a nod to the philosophy of John Dewey, Tampio concludes with a vision of what democratic education can look like today—and how people can form rhizomatic alliances across different political and ethical backgrounds to fight the Common Core. Forerunners: Ideas First Short books of thought-in-process scholarship, where intense analysis, questioning, and speculation take the lead

This fascinating volume compares the experience of young learners in England, France and Denmark in order to examine the relationship between national educational cultures, individual biographies and classroom practices in creating the context for learning. It explores how secondary schools in three very different education systems work to develop the aptitudes and attitudes conducive to lifelong learning in conditions of complexity, uncertainty and multiple change.

The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts created new challenges for teachers and pre-service instructors. Self-regulated learning, using one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to reach goals, can help students become independent, self-directed learners. This book provides educators the support they need to apply the principles of self-regulated learning in their teaching for success with the Common Core. In this book, Marie C. White and Maria K. DiBenedetto present information on how to apply academic self-regulation by integrating two models: one which addresses how students develop self-regulatory competence, the other which focuses on the various processes within the three phases of self-regulated learning. In addition, Self-Regulation and the Common Core provides specific lesson plans for grades K-12, using the standards and the integrated framework to promote higher order thinking and problem-solving activities.

The ideal? Newly minted high school graduates all across the nation, each one a complex text genius, a writer and analytic thinker beyond compare. All on to glorious colleges and careers, thanks to the Common Core. The reality? The 1.3 million students who fail to graduate from high school each year and the hundreds of thousands more who either gave up or lost interest long ago . . . The reality is why Common Core CPR is needed. Urgently. Because if we continue to insist that all students meet expectations that are well beyond their abilities and mindsets, these kids will only decline faster. We must be brave enough—and trained enough—to cast aside what we know harms students and apply with renewed vigor the teaching methods we know work. Releah Lent and Barry Gilmore rise to the challenge, and there are no two authors better equipped to do so. They embrace what is best about the standards—their emphasis on active, authentic learning—and then explicitly show teachers how to connect these ideal outcomes to practical classroom strategies, detailing the day-to-day teaching that can coax reluctant learners into engagement and achievement. You’ll learn how to: Consider choice and relevance in every assignment Plan and spot opportunities for success Scaffold students’ comprehension of complex fiction and nonfiction texts Model close reading through thoughtful questioning Teach students to use evidence in reading, writing, speaking, and reflection . . . And so much more It’s not the big sweeping formulas for achievement that will win the day; it’s the incremental growth that teachers need to make happen: that one book, that one writing assignment, to help a student turn a corner. "If we can get that one transformational moment to occur, and follow it up by designing more opportunities for success, that’s the ideal," say Lent and Gilmore.

This leader companion to the grade-level teacher guides illustrates how to sustain successful implementation of the Common Core State Standards for mathematics. Discover what students should learn and how they should learn it. Comprehensive research-affirmed analysis tools and strategies will help collaborative teams develop and assess student demonstrations of deep conceptual understanding and procedural fluency.

Your blueprint for skilled Common Core literacy alignment! This all-in-one instructional resource is your best guide to building high quality, CCCS-aligned curriculum units across Grades 6–12 easily, manageably, and effectively. Master teacher Kathy Tuchman Glass provides thorough explanations and step-by-step exercises and templates centered around key CCCS ELA concepts to help you Challenge and engage students in all content areas using the CCCS ELA framework Use existing curriculum and materials to design new, CCCS-aligned units of study Identify CCCS ELA essential understandings for informational text, evidence-based writing, and other critical competencies Conduct resource-rich workshops and professional development

The Common Core is requiring literacy across the curriculum, but what does that mean for teachers of subjects like math, science, and social studies who have a lot of content to cover? In this essential book, author Jessica Bennett reassures you that you don’t have to abandon all of your great content lessons and start from scratch. Instead, you can reflect on what you‘re already doing well and make adjustments and enhancements as necessary. Bennett starts with a clear breakdown of the Common Core ELA Social Studies/History and Science and Technical Subjects Standards for Grades 7-12 and what they actually look like. She provides a variety of practical strategies and scaffolds that you can use immediately to enhance your curriculum and meet the standards. You will learn how to... Incorporate a wider variey of texts into your currciulum Teach students to use each text with purpose, whether it is for close reading, support, argumentation, or research Assign meaningful group work and projects without feeling that they have to take up your whole curriculum Help students navigate their textbooks more effectively and read for information Use the Common Core to meet the needs of diverse learners Implement the four As strategy in which students absorb content, analyze information, argue reasons, and apply knowledge Use writing tasks to strengthen student comprehension of content Teach various forms of writing and the importance of text citations And more! Throughout the book, you’ll find tools such as unit planning sheets, daily lesson plan sheets, classroom handouts, sentence starters, and more. If you teach a content area, this must-have resource will help you meet the Common Core with ease!

Timely, thoughtful, and comprehensive, this text directly supports pre-service and in-service teachers in developing curriculum and instruction that both addresses and exceeds the requirements of the Common Core State Standards. Adopting a critical inquiry approach, it demonstrates how the Standards’ highest and best intentions for student success can be implemented from a critical, culturally relevant perspective firmly grounded in current literacy learning theory and research. It provides specific examples of teachers using the critical inquiry curriculum framework of identifying problems and issues, adopting alternative perspectives, and entertaining change in their classrooms to illustrate how the Standards can not only be addressed but also surpassed through engaging instruction. The Second Edition provides new material on adopting a critical inquiry approach to enhance student engagement and critical thinking planning instruction to effectively implement the CCSS in the classroom fostering critical response to literary and informational texts using YA literature and literature by authors of color integrating drama activities into literature and speaking/listening instruction teaching informational, explanatory, argumentative, and narrative writing working with ELL students to address the language Standards using digital tools and apps to respond to and create digital texts employing formative assessment to provide supportive feedback preparing students for the PARCC and Smarter Balanced assessments using the book’s wiki site http://englishccss.pbworks.com for further resources

This book guides teachers in grades 6-12 to strategically combine a variety of texts--including literature, informational texts, and digital sources--to meet their content-area goals and the demands of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). It presents clear-cut ways to analyze text complexity, design challenging text sets, and help students get the most out of what they read. Provided are practical instructional ideas for building background knowledge, promoting engagement, incorporating discussion and text-based writing, and teaching research skills. Appendices offer sample unit plans for English language arts, history/social studies, and science classrooms. More than 20 reproducible coaching templates and other tools can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size.

The Fifth Edition of Joel Spring’s ongoing documentation and analysis of political agendas for education reflects the major political issues in education since 2008. This edition focuses on the education sections of the 2012 Republican, Democratic, Green, and Libertarian Party platforms. Taking a fresh look at the social and political forces, educational research, and ideologies shaping the educational agendas of these political parties and a comparative approach, the book stimulates reflection and discussion. New coverage in the Fifth Edition includes: • The political coup called Race to the Top • Common Core State Standards and national testing based on the Standards • Explosion of online instruction • Debates about teacher evaluations and merit pay • Growing for-profit education industry • New agenda for American Education: Constitutional amendment; long life and happiness; environmental education Political Agendas for Education is essential reading for courses dealing with the politics of education, foundations of education, educational leadership, and curriculum studies, and for educational scholars, professionals, policymakers, and all those concerned with the politics of education in the U.S. and its consequences for schools and society.