that person will feel like the outsider they are. As Gerald Graff, author of Clueless in Academe (2003) puts it, “schooling takes students who are perfectly street-smart and exposes them to the life of the mind in ways that make them feel dumb” (p. 2).
This is precisely how I felt when I arrived at college. I lacked any understanding of the language. The culture of academics confused me. The conventions that governed students’ behaviors and habits were invisible to me. Those who thrived in school seemed to have been born into the culture, have heard the language all their life, and knew inherently what mattered, what was worth paying attention to, how much effort was appropriate. Teachers somehow seemed to expect that we all came equipped with the same luggage, all of which contained the necessary tools and strategies that would ensure our success in their classes and, ultimately, school. It wasn’t so. (p. 1)
When I enrolled in a community college all those years ago, I was placed in a remedial writing class, highlighted whole chapters of textbooks, and had no idea what to say or how to enter class discussions. School extended an invitation to me then that I did not know at first how to accept, so disoriented was I by its demands. Across the country, new state standards extend a similar invitation—and challenge—to us all, teachers and administrators, and all others engaged in the very serious business of educating middle and high school students. It is an invitation I have already accepted on behalf of my students and myself.
Reading these standards, I am reminded of a passage from a wonderful book by Magdalene Lampert (2001) titled Teaching Problems and the Problems of Teaching. In that book, she has a chapter titled “Teaching Students to Be People Who Study in School,” in which she says of students not unlike the one I was and many of those I teach:
Some students show up at school as “intentional learners”––people who are already interested in doing whatever they need to do to learn academic subjects––they are the exception rather than the rule. Even if they are disposed to study, they probably need to learn how. But more fundamental than knowing how is developing a sense of oneself as a learner that makes it socially acceptable to engage in academic work. The goal of school is not to turn all students into people who see themselves as professional academics, but to enable all of them to include a disposition toward productive study of academic subjects among the personality traits they exhibit while they are in the classroom. If the young people who come to school do not see themselves as learners, they are not going to act like learners even if that would help them to be successful in school. It is the teacher’s job to help them change their sense of themselves so that studying is not a self-contradictory activity. (p. 265)
Lampert’s statement goes to the core of our work as teachers and these standards, as well. The work ahead will be difficult, as nearly all important work is, because it often asks more of us than we knew we had to give, yet doing the work will give us the strength we need to succeed in the future we are called to create for ourselves and our country. The word “education” stems from the Latin word educare, meaning to draw out that which is within, to lead. This is what we must do. I offer you this book to help you do that work and wish you all the strength and patience your two hands can hold.
References
Applebee, A. (2013). Common Core State Standards: The promise and the peril in a national palimpsest. English Journal, 103(1), 25–33.
Burke, J. (2004). School smarts: The four Cs of academic success. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Burke, J. (2010). What’s the big idea? Question-driven units to motivate reading, writing, and thinking. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Calkins, L., Ehrenworth, M., & Lehman, C. (2012). Pathways to the common core: Accelerating achievement. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Graff, G. (2003). Clueless in academe: How schooling obscures the life of the mind. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Jago, C. (2005). Papers, papers, papers: An English teacher’s survival guide. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Kendall, J. (2011). Understanding common core state standards. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Lampert, M. (2001). Teaching problems and the problems of teaching. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Quick Reference: Common Core State Standards, 6–12 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 formats and media, 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 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*
* These broad types of writing include many subgenres. See Appendix A for definitions of key writing types.
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.
