at-risk learners—thank you so much. I can’t forget my muse, how I thank you—through all my writing, you have been the constant. I thank you for the metaphor—and for carrying me when I needed it. And then to all my friends who have supported me, another heartfelt thank you.
My students—all my students—are the ones that deserve the greatest thanks — not just the students in my classroom this year, but in past years, who have contributed so much to the content of this book. Their work and thinking is evident, and they constantly surprise me with their brilliance. Also, a thank you to the teachers and students in classrooms across the country that I have worked with. Students always provide the energy and reason to bring about change. They are the reason that I love getting up every morning and heading into school. Finally, the children I love so much — my own — Carolynn (and my soon to be son-in-law, Justin) and John. They have become used to having a “writing mom”—and they are always there to support and encourage me. In turn, I couldn’t be prouder of their accomplishments and the people they have become. You truly are magic!
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
