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Introduction

Getting to the Core of the Curriculum

Thank you for making me go to school.

—August Pullman (Wonder, Palacio, 2012)

An excellent education should not be an accident; it should be a right, though nowhere in the United States Constitution or any of our founding documents do we find that right listed. The Common Core State Standards address that omission and challenge us all—administrators and teachers, parents and children, politicians and the public at large, professors and student teachers—to commit ourselves anew to the success of our children and our country.

This is how Jim Burke opens the secondary versions of The Common Core Companion, the four-volume series he conceived for Corwin Literacy. It makes for a compelling entrance for this volume, too, for excellent education is a right.

I’m joining Jim in “committing ourselves anew” to helping our students thrive, bringing to this book my expertise as an intermediate-grade teacher who has also worn the other hats of district literacy coordinator, PEBC (Public Education and Business Coalition) Lab teacher, and literacy consultant, spending time in classrooms in just about all 50 states. I am a full-time fourth-grade teacher, so I can look down the hall at third grade, and up the hall to fifth grade, to help you know and name what the standards are asking of intermediate-grade teachers in particular.

This book focuses on the English Language Arts Common Core Standards for grades 3–5. In the quickest, broadest sweep of the brush, I think it’s fair to assert that the standards back map from secondary education. The standards’ ambitious intellectual vision—the deep comprehension, sharp analysis, and honed compositions described in the anchor standards — fit the academic and social maturity of adolescents — even in the grades 3–5 standards. This is not to say that it will be cakewalk for middle and high school students to meet the standards, but more to express to you, dear reader, that my job in authoring this volume is to show you that your students are readier than you think to become accomplished readers, writers, and thinkers. Yes, even the squirmiest, sneaker-and-tee-shirt wearing 10-year-old reader, still living on a diet of macaroni and cheese and rereadings of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, is going to astound you with his grasp of The Tiger Rising.

One of the many things I love about the teaching profession is the number of teachers who think that the grade they teach is, hands down, “the best … when children are the most enthusiastic and inquisitive.” Well, from where I currently sit as a fourth-grade teacher, 9 and 10 year olds are tops. But when I look at grades 3 and 5, I liken our collective place in teaching the standards to the bullpen in baseball, where pitchers warm up, so they can be at peak readiness out on the field. In grades 3, 4, and 5, we get our students ready for the rigor of middle school and the big leagues of academic growth that flourishes in high school. It’s in grades 3–5 that we can truly push students toward independent owning of literacy skills and lots of practice—that eyes-on-text, pen-on-paper time that the standards emphasize. It’s the pitcher in the bullpen, alone, honing her skills. It’s Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours. It’s your student, reading independently, using comprehension strategies to make sense of text, conversing with peers about engaging content, and writing for a variety of purposes.

Now a confession: Having taught for more than 30 years, I admit, I’ve been there, done that with reforms. Whole language, Back to Basics, outcome-based education, portfolios, proficiencies … the list goes on. So what could I say in this Introduction and in this book to convince fellow veteran teachers and colleagues that this reform is different? That the CCSS are worth taking on and fighting for? As Jim Burke points out, “They come with a level of support, a degree of commitment from all leaders at all levels of government and business, and a sense of national urgency that the other efforts could not or cannot claim.”

And from researcher P. David Pearson:

These deep concerns and misgivings notwithstanding, I have supported and will continue to support the CCSS movement. Why? For three reasons. First, compared to the alternative—the confusing and conflicting world of 50 versions of state Standards—the CCSS are clearly the best game in town. Second, with any luck, these will prove to be “living Standards” that will be revised regularly so that they are always based on the most current knowledge. Third—and most important—my reading of the theoretical and empirical scholarship on reading comprehension and learning lead me to conclude that these Standards are definitely a move in the right direction—toward (a) deeper learning, (b) greater accountability to careful reading and the use of evidence to support claims and reasoning in both reading and writing, and (c) applying the fruits of our learning to improve the world beyond schooling and text. (Pearson, 2013, pp. 258–259)

For me, the Common Core is different because for all their specificity in defining the goals, the authors of the CCSS wisely leave it to the practitioners to design the teaching and learning that will get students to the goals:

By emphasizing required achievements, the Standards leave room for teachers, curriculum developers, and states to determine how those goals should be reached and what additional topics should be addressed. Thus, the Standards do not mandate such things as a particular writing process or the full range of metacognitive strategies that students may need to monitor and direct their thinking and learning. Teachers are thus free to provide students with whatever tools and knowledge their professional judgment and experience identify as most helpful for meeting the goals set out in the Standards. (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices [NGA Center] & Council of Chief State School Officers [CCSSO], 2010)

The standards also uphold and advance the strong research base for how learners learn and progress. Students become better readers when they read. They become better writers when they write. Digging into the CCSS you find that Reading Standard 10 requires that students read. Writing Standard 10 stipulates that students write for a variety of purposes over an extended time period. And don’t we want our students — of all ages — doing lots of actual reading and writing and thinking? Here are a few sentences from the standards that should woo any of us:

Students who meet the Standards readily undertake close, attentive reading that is at the heart of understanding and enjoying complex works of literature. They habitually perform the critical reading necessary to pick carefully through the staggering amount of information available today in print and digitally. They actively seek the wide, deep, and thoughtful engagement with high quality literary and informational texts that builds knowledge, enlarges experience, and broadens worldviews. (NGA Center & CCSSO, 2010, p. 3)

And you know what? This is what students want, too! They don’t want canned lessons, teachers reading from scripts, random worksheets tied to a commercial program or downloaded off the Internet. They want to engage. It doesn’t matter about socioeconomics, or race, or whatever factors you want to insert here: kids of all ages want, almost clamor for, the same thing. They want rigor and choice and someone that helps them to think and to learn and communicate with others. They want someone who listens to them, validates where they are, and then moves them forward.

Our students want us teachers to bring texts, rich discussions, complex ideas and emotions into their lives in the safety of the classroom culture. Last year I read R. J. Palacio’s novel Wonder aloud to the class. I looked up after I’d read the final sentence in one of the last chapters to see more than half the class in tears. Then the tears turned to cheers at how the protagonist overcame such incredible odds. This is a book that unfolds gradually, but without spoiling it, the main character, August, is unlike any other children and my students empathize with him as he’s ostracized because of genetics giving him the short straw. The principal is presenting year-end awards and uses Henry Ward Beecher’s words on greatness. “‘Greatness,’ wrote Beecher, ‘lies not in being strong, but in the right using of strength … He is the greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts.’” As the principal finishes, the last sentence reads, “So will August Pullman please come up here to receive this award?” My students understood—Auggie’s quiet greatness, his outlook on life, his perseverance all prevailed. And they had lived with August throughout the adversity.

This book will stay with my students. The story, the lessons, the empathy. This is one of many powerful books we read, in a list that could go on and on. But they will remember Auggie Pullman perhaps most of all. “Thank you for making me go to school,” Auggie said.

I want all our students to say that—every day! And I believe that the Common Core Standards can create the kind of conditions in our classrooms that lead students to say that, to revere school. The standards are “bookish,” “intellectual” and despite or because of their rigor, they’re about ensuring students’ engagement.

So before I move on to an overview of how this book is organized, I want to give you a metaphor of how I envision this book serving you. Jim Burke uses a metaphor of a compass in his introduction of The Common Core Companion, a wonderful metaphor.

For this book, I offer you this image:

The image was sent by a friend of mine as I was working on the final section of this book, with a brief note, “The silhouetted hands made me think of students leaning in with raised hands. With the standards, aren’t all students supposed to be thinking and participating?”

Bingo. I had my metaphor. The standards and in turn the suggestions in this book are a mere outline of how you might begin. The book allows you to color, contour, and add texture to the teaching and learning that I charcoal-outlined in these pages.

A Brief Orientation to The Common Core Companion: The Standards Decoded, Grades 3–5

When I was asked to write The Common Core Companion: The Standards Decoded, Grades 3–5, I was thrilled to follow Jim Burke’s design and the standard his first two books set. He envisioned this series and blazed the trail, with the help of teachers, curriculum supervisors, and superintendents who he has worked with around the country.

Jim’s words in his orientation are applicable to the elementary setting, too:

As is true for all of us, administrators have come to the job of leading with their sense of what their role is or should be; past experience, along with their training and education, has given them this orientation. Now administrators and teachers such as yourself find their role being redefined, the demands on them and their time being dramatically restructured, often in ways that cause some sense of disorientation, as if all your previous experience, all your knowledge, was suddenly suspect, leaving you to navigate this new era without a working compass. Eventually, as we know, we get our bearings, find the star by which we might chart our course, and realize that much of what we already know and value does still, in fact, apply to the task at hand, that it certainly need not be tossed overboard.

So, in other words “we don’t toss out the baby with the bathwater.” This book is for you, whether you are an administrator or teacher, district curriculum supervisor, a professor or a student teacher training to join in the education field. The goal is to understand and make better use of the standards themselves, and to plan for how to implement them in the classroom using best instructional practices.

Key features include the following:

A one-page overview of all the anchor standards. Designed for quick reference or selfassessment, this one-page document offers a one-stop place to see all the English Language Arts Common Core Standards. In addition to using this to quickly check the Common Core anchor standards, grade-level teachers or the whole faculty might use them to evaluate which standards they know and are addressing effectively and which ones they need to learn and teach.

Side-by-side anchor standards translation. The CCSS College Readiness anchor standards for each category—reading, foundational skills, writing, speaking and listening, and language—appear in a two-page spread with the original Common Core anchor standards on the left and, on the right, their matching translations in language that is more accessible to those on the run or new to literacy instruction.

A new user-friendly format for each standard. Instead of the two reading standard domains—literature and informational text—spread throughout the CCSS document, here you will find the first reading standard for grades 3–5 and the two different domains all on one page. This allows you to use The Common Core Companion to see at a glance what Reading Standard 1 looks like in grades 3–5 across literature and informational texts. The design makes it easy to look at how the standard plays out across grade levels, so you can plan with teachers just how to increase complexity as students move from grade to grade.

Parallel translation/what the student does. Each standard opens to a two-page spread that has the original Common Core standards on the left and a parallel translation of each standard mirrored on the right-hand page in more accessible language (referred to as the “Gist”) so you can concentrate on how to teach in ways that meet the CCSS instead of how to understand them. These Gist pages align themselves with the original Common Core, so you can move between the two without turning a page as you think about what they mean and how to teach them. Also, beneath each translation of a standard appears a list of They Consider. These are brief practical questions that will help students “crack open” the thinking and comprehension skills being asked of them. Ultimately, students pose these questions for themselves—both unconsciously and deliberately—as they engage in the endeavor. But because metacognition is something children grow into, you can use these questions as comprehension questions to pose to students after you model how to approach them. The goal is to provide ample practice with these questions so that students internalize them, and own them as readers, writers, and thinkers. So be sure to incorporate them into the fabric of your instruction each and every day, having students talking, listening, and writing off of them.

Instructional techniques/what the teacher does. In the “What the Teacher Does” pages you will find a great many suggestions. Although I don’t always say “Put your students in groups” or “Put your students in pairs,” I can’t emphasize enough that the goal is to demonstrate less, and have students do — more. Periodically you will see references to online resources that provide graphic organizers, visuals, book lists, and other tools that support the teaching of the standard.

Preparing to teach templates. These templates serve as reminders, too, that teachers should be considering all these kinds of work every day when they plan. This page is divided into five sections—a place for you to plan, make notes, and so on. Examples of how it might look are shown in the beginning of the book. The sections are as follows:

• Preparing the Classroom: Where you can consider room arrangement (e.g., Will the students be working in groups? Do you have an area where you can meet with a group of students? A place for large group activities?) and the physical tools and materials you will need. For example, chart paper, graphic organizers, or multiple copies of material.

• Preparing the Mindset: Here is where you brainstorm ways to intellectually ready and engage your students for the standard.

• Preparing the Texts to Use: A place to think about books (or book bundles), magazines, short passages or mentor texts, online resources, and so on that you could use for this standard.

• Preparing to Differentiate: This is for you to think about your learners who need additional support. You might consider texts that are accessible, different supplies, differentiation. You may choose to differentiate and include how you will extend the lesson for students working at the upper level.

• Connections to Other Standards: A place to draw your own connections between the standard in question and other standards.

As you use these pages, they should become a resource for future lessons and a record of instruction. They are also beneficial for collaboration with colleagues.

Academic vocabulary: Key words and phrases. Each standard comes with a unique glossary since words used in more than one standard have a unique meaning in each. Any word or phrase that seemed a source of possible confusion is defined in detail.

Planning to teach templates. This is another template for you to record your notes and your planning. This page is divided into three sections: Whole Class, Small Group, and Individual Practice/Conferring. These templates serve as reminders that you should be considering these kinds of work every day when you plan.

Online resources. The intent was to keep this book lean; however, actually seeing examples of charts, student work, and books helps tremendously—both with planning and delivering instruction. Access to organizers, rubrics, and so on is also important. Therefore, you can go to www.corwin.com/thecommoncorecompanion as an online resource for many of the examples I provide in “What the Teacher Does” and additional resources that you can view and download for your own classroom.

How to Use This Book

Every school, district, instructional team, or teacher will pick up The Common Core Companion and have different ideas about how to use it as a tool. And of course there is no one right way to use it. Here are some possible ways, which you should adapt, adopt, or avoid as you see fit:

• Provide all teachers on a grade-level team or school with a copy to establish a common text to work from throughout your Common Core planning work and instructional design work.

• Use it in tandem with the K-2 version by Sharon Taberski to dig into the standards in a whole-school initiative.

• Use it along with the K-2, 6–8, and 9–12 volumes for district-level planning and professional development work.

• Bring your Common Core Companion to all meetings for quick reference or planning with colleagues in your school or on your grade-level team.

• Use your Companion to aid in the transition from what you were doing to what you will be doing, treating the planning pages that accompany each standard as a place to note what you do or which Common Core State Standard corresponds with one of your district or state standards you are trying to adapt to the Common Core.

• Use your Companion as a resource for revisiting your curriculum plans in year two (or beyond!) of implementing the standards to help you develop, refine, and deepen instruction.

• Begin or end meetings with a brief but carefully planned sample lesson based on a teaching idea in this book. Ask one or more colleagues in the school to present at the next meeting on how it might apply to other grade levels.

• Use the Companion in conjunction with your professional learning community to add further cohesion and consistency between all your ideas and plans.

• And of course, access all the accompanying materials and resources from the book’s companion website, www.corwin.com/thecommoncorecompanion.

12 Recommended Common Core Resources

1. The Common Core State Standards Home Page http://www.corestandards.org

2. Council of Chief State School Officers http://www.ccsso.org

3. Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers http://www.parcconline.org

4. Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium http://www.smarterbalanced.org/k-12-education/common-core-state-standards-tools-resources

5. National Association of Secondary School Principals http://www.nassp.org/knowledge-center/topics-of-interest/common-core-state-standards

6. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development http://www.ascd.org/common-core-state-standards/common-core.aspx

7. engageny (New York State Department of Education) http://engageny.org

8. California Department of Education Resources for Teachers and Administrators http://www.cde.ca.gov/re/cc

9. National Dissemination Center for Children With Disabilities http://nichcy.org/schools-administrators/commoncore

10. Edutopia Resources for Understanding the Common Core http://www.edutopia.org/common-core-state-standards-resources

11. Common Core Curriculum Maps http://commoncore.org/maps

12. Teach Thought: 50 Common Core Resources for Administrators and Teachers http://www.teachthought.com/teaching/50-common-core-resources-for-teachers

Teachers Are the Designers of “the How”

P. David Pearson, in his chapter for Quality Reading Instruction in the Age of Common Core State Standards, asks us to be vigilant about how the powers behind the Common Core behave in the months and years to come:

The question for the CCSS is whether they will deliver on their promise to cede to teachers the authority (or at least some of the authority) to determine how they will help their students meet the CCSS within their school settings. The standards say “yes, they will.” But a recent document coming out of the CCSS movement says, “maybe not.”

The publication of a recent document on the CCSS website, Revised Publishers’ Criteria for the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts and Literacy, Grades 3–12 (Coleman & Pimentel, 2012) leads me to wonder whether the letter and spirit of the Standards document has been sacrificed in the service of influencing published programs and materials.

… If publishers are persuaded to follow these criteria, they will turn out scripts, not broad options. Unless teachers reject materials from the marketplace, teacher and school choice about how to ‘deliver the curriculum’ will be markedly reduced, perhaps to the point that there is no real choice among the commercial alternatives. (pp. 247–248)

I think of Pearson’s warning, and I’m struck by what Jim Burke started. These books — and the one you hold in your hand — make the standards understandable and accessible, but also stay true to the original promise of the standards — that you determine how they are taught to your students. We know where we have to go, but we have ownership and choice of how we get there. I hope this book provides you with that power. Remember, it’s a silhouette — you fill it in. And use those hands to raise questions and push back if you need to.

References

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers. (2010). Common Core State Standards English language arts & literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. Washington, DC: Authors.

Palacio, R. J. (2012). Wonder. New York, NY: Random House.

Pearson, P. D. (2013). Research foundations of the Common Core State Standards in English language arts. In S. Neuman & L. Gambrell (Eds.), Quality reading instruction in the age of Common Core Standards (pp. 237–262). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Key Principles and Additional Teaching Strategies for English Language Learners 3—5

You may have students who are English language learners in your classroom. Some of these students may be new to English, having just emigrated from another country where English is not the primary language, and others may have started learning English in kindergarten and first grade. Whether the English language learners have just started learning English or have developed some proficiency in English, they have unique needs from native English speakers.

To help you meet their needs, you’ll find suggestions for each standard at the end of the “What the Teacher Does” pages. Here, I supplement these instructional ideas with additional background, the stages of language acquisition, and the implications for differentiated scaffolding that will be most effective.

Focus on Acquisition

The students in our grades 3–5 classrooms, both native-English-speaking students and English language learners (ELLs), are learning language. In many respects they are remarkably the same in their quest and language acquisition. Both groups of children are rapidly developing their vocabularies, using language to communicate, and learning about academic language and formal English.

However, there is a difference between native-English-speaking students and ELLs. ELLs are acquiring a second language when they learn English at school; they already have their primary language, with which they communicate at home and in the community. Thus, many of these children are fluent in their first language, an important point to remember so that our mindset as teachers isn’t that all these kids are struggling learners overall.

We learn language through two processes. One process is called acquisition and the other process is called language learning. Language acquisition is “picking up” a language. Language learning is what we experience when we take a class in a foreign language.

In our classrooms, we want to focus on the natural process of “picking up” a language. Thus, for both native-English-speaking students and ELL students, this book is filled with strategies and lessons to teach the standards through natural, motivating, and supportive teaching.

Consider the Five Stages

To understand the best ways to help your ELLs and to differentiate instruction based on their language acquisition needs, it is important to understand that not all children learning English need the same scaffolds, the same types of instruction, or the same performance tasks. What they need depends on which stage of language acquisition they are in. While people don’t fit into boxes and language learning is a fluid process, it truly helps to understand the five stages of language acquisition and assess where your students are so you can tailor instruction based on their language needs. These five stages, as described in the following chart, are preproduction, early production, speech emergence, intermediate fluency, and advanced fluency (Haynes & Zacarian, 2010; Krashen, 1982/2009, 2003; Krashen & Terrell, 1983).

It is also important to note that students acquire language in a natural order (Krashen, 1982/2009, 2003; Peregoy & Boyle, 1997). The key idea behind this natural order idea is that students won’t learn English in the order that you teach it, but rather in the natural way that the brain learns language. In other words, you can’t force students to learn a grammar rule by teaching it explicitly, but you can ensure students acquire English rapidly by providing engaging, language-rich, supportive, culturally respectful, and meaningful classroom experiences in English (Akhavan, 2006; Hoover & Patton, 2005).

Understand the Needs of Long-Term ELLs

The general amount of time it takes to become proficient in a second language is about four to seven years; for some students it takes longer (up to 10 years) and for others, they never reach proficiency (Hakuta, 2000). Students who enter upper grades, middle school, and high school having started learning English in kindergarten or first grade—but not reaching proficiency—are considered long-term English learners. Long-term English learners comprise those students who are designated as still learning English after five or more years of enrollment in U.S. schools (Callahan, 2005). It is important to understand the different needs of the students in your classroom learning English. If a student has been learning English for more than five years and is not making progress in English proficiency, he needs continued support and scaffolded language and content lessons. Often, it is hard to discern that these students are not making progress in language acquisition because they may speak English well. Speaking English well, and having good interpersonal communication skills, doesn’t mean that the student has academic language skills.

Offer Collaborative Activities

To support language acquisition, it is important to provide learning activities that encourage ELLs to work together with native English speakers to give them opportunities to talk, think, read, and write in English. It is also important to take into consideration the prior knowledge of the ELLs and preview, or frontload, information, ideas, and activities with them in small groups before they join the whole group for a lesson in English. This frontloading in small-group discussion gives ELLs the opportunity to develop knowledge about a subject, discuss the topic in a “safe” setting where they can question, and even use their primary language to discuss the lesson so that they have a foundation before receiving the main lesson in English.

Check the Clarity of Your Lessons

Making your lessons understandable to ELLs is the most important thing you can do to help these students be successful in your classroom. Making “input” comprehensible will help your students participate in lessons, help them understand what is going on in the classroom, and encourage them to speak in English, as appropriate (Krashen, 2003). You need to provide comprehensible lessons that scaffold the language learner. Scaffolds can include pictures, objects, media from the Internet, and other realia, as they powerfully contextualize what you are saying, making it comprehensible and concrete.

Speak Clearly and at an Appropriate Pace

It also helps to slow down your speech rate and to repeat what you are saying to give students learning English “clues” about what you are teaching and time to process. This is not only true for students new to English; it is also true for students who seem to be proficient because they can speak well in English but who may not have yet developed academic language.

Attune Your Teaching and Learning Expectations to the Stages of Language Acquisition

Language-appropriate, culturally relevant instruction and instruction with high expectations for learning can support students as they learn English. This chart explains the five stages of language acquisition and highlights learner characteristics at each stage. You can best support language acquisition by matching your expectations for student production and interaction in English with the stages that your students are in as evidenced by their oral and written work.

Unfortunately, many students remain in the Intermediate and Early Advanced stages for their entire school careers, never reaching full English proficiency. These students are considered long-term English learners and struggle in content-area classes. This is why it is so important to know and understand the five stages of language acquisition so you can differentiate instruction based on students’ needs.

The Five Stages of Language Acquisition: What to Expect of Students

References

Akhavan, N. (2006). Help! My kids don’t all speak English: How to set up a language workshop in your linguistically diverse classroom. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Callahan, R. M. (2005). Tracking and high school English learners: Limiting opportunity to learn. American Educational Research Journal, 42(2), 305–328. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/200368076?accountid=10349.

Hakuta, K. (2000). How long does it take English learners to attain proficiency? Berkeley: University of California Linguistic Minority Research Institute. Retrieved from http://escholarship.org/uc/item/13w7m06g.

Haynes, J., & Zacarian, D. (2010). Teaching English language learners: Across the content areas. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Hoover, J., & Patton, J. (2005). Differentiating curriculum and instruction for English-language learners with special needs. Intervention in School and Clinic, 40(4), 231–235.

Krashen, S. D. (1982/2009). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Retrieved from http://www.sdkrashen.com/content/books/principles_and_practice.pdf.

Krashen, S. (2003). Explorations in language acquisition and use: The Taipei lectures. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Krashen, S. D., & Terrell, D. (1983). The natural approach: Language acquisition in the classroom. Hayward, CA: Alemany Press.

Peregoy, S. F., & Boyle O. F. (1997). Reading, writing and learning in ESL: A resource book for K-12 teachers (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Longman.

Quick Reference: Common Core State Standards, K-12 English Language Arts

Reading

Key Ideas and Details

1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.

Craft and Structure

4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.

6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.

8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.

9. Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity

10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

Writing

Text Types and Purposes*

1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

Production and Distribution of Writing

4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.

6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.

Research to Build and Present Knowledge

7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.

9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

Range of Writing

10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.

Speaking and Listening

Comprehension and Collaboration

1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

2. Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

3. Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric.

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

5. Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations.

6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

Language

Conventions of Standard English

1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

Knowledge of Language

3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.

Vocabulary Acquisition and Use

4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general and specialized reference materials, as appropriate.

5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

6. Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain- specific words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when encountering an unknown term important to comprehension or expression.

Source: Designed by Jim Burke. Visit www.englishcompanion.com for more information.

Note: For the complete Common Core State Standards document, please visit corestandards.org.

* These broad types of writing include many subgenres. See Appendix A in the Common Core State Standards for definitions of key writing types.