Common Core Standards for Middle School English Language Arts: A Quick-Start Guide

by Susan Ryan, Dana Frazee, John Kendall

Overview

Smart implementation of the Common Core State Standards requires both an overall understanding of the standards and a grasp of their implications for planning, teaching, and learning. This Quick-Start Guide provides a succinct, all-in-one look at

* The content, structure, terminology, and emphases of the Common Core standards for English language arts at the middle school level.

* The meaning of the individual standards within the four ELA strands—Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language, with an emphasis on areas that represent the most significant changes to business as usual.

* How the standards connect across strands, domains, and grade levels to build on prior learning and prepare students for the nuanced communication and analytical work they will encounter in high school.

Here, middle school ELA teachers and school leaders will find information they need to begin adapting their practices to ensure that all students master the new and challenging material contained in the standards. A practical lesson planning process to use with the Common Core, based on Classroom Instruction That Works, 2nd Ed., is included, along with three sample lessons.

LEARN THE ESSENTIALS OF THE COMMON CORE

The grade-level and subject-specific Quick-Start Guides in the Understanding the Common Core Standards series, edited by John Kendall, are designed to help school leaders and school staffs turn Common Core standards into coherent, content-rich curriculum and effective, classroom-level lessons.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416614630
Publisher:	ASCD
Publication date:	11/16/2012
Pages:	120
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.30(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: About the Common Core English Language Arts Standards for Middle School

Chapter 2: Reading

Chapter 3: Writing

Chapter 4: Speaking and Listening

Chapter 5: Language

Chapter 6: Guidance for Instructional Planning

Sample Lesson 1: Reading, Listening, and Seeing to Understand Poetry (ELA Grade 6)

Sample Lesson 2: Exploring the Development of the Central Ideas of Churchill's "Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat (ELA Grade 7)

Sample Lesson 3: Playing with Words (ELA Grade 8)

References

About the Authors