Pathways to the Common Core: Accelerating Achievement

by Lucy Calkins, Mary Ehrenworth, Christopher Lehman

Overview

“As challenging as it must have been to write and finesse the adoption of the Common Core State Standards, that accomplishment is nothing compared to the work of teaching in ways that bring all students to these ambitious expectations. The goal is clear. The pathway is not.”
—Lucy Calkins, Mary Ehrenworth, and Christopher Lehman

The Common Core is written, but the plan for implementing the Common Core is not.

Lucy Calkins and her colleagues at the Reading and Writing Project have helped thousands of educators design their own pathways to the Common Core. Now, with Pathways to the Common Core, they are ready to help you find your way.

Designed for teachers, school leaders, and professional learning communities looking to navigate the gap between their current literacy practices and the ideals of the Common Core, Pathways to the Common Core will help you:
   * understand what the standards say, suggest, and what they don’t say;
   * recognize the guiding principles that underpin the reading and writing standards;
   * identify how the Common Core’s infrastructure supports a spiraling K–12 literacy curriculum; and
   * scrutinize the context in which the CCSS were written and are being unrolled.

In addition to offering an analytical study of the standards, this guide will also help you and your colleagues implement the standards in ways that lift the level of teaching and learning throughout your school. Specifically, it will help you:
   * become a more critical consumer of the “standards-based” mandates that are flooding your desk;
   * craft instruction that supports students in reading more complex texts, developing higher level 
     comprehension skills, and writing at the ambitious levels of the CCSS;
   * develop performance assessments and other tools to propel Common Core reforms; and
   * create systems of continuous improvement that are transparent, collegial, and accountable.

Above all, this book will help you interpret the Common Core as a rallying cry that ignites deep, wide and lasting reforms and, most importantly, accelerates student achievement.

For more information, visit UnitsofStudy.com.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780325043555
Publisher:	Heinemann
Publication date:	03/29/2012
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 - 17 Years

About the Author

Mary Ehrenworth, Senior Deputy Director of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project and co-editor for the Units of Study for Teaching Reading, Middle School series, works with schools and districts around the globe, and is a frequent keynote speaker at Project events and national and international conferences. Mary’s interest in critical literacies, deep interpretation, and reading and writing for social justice all inform the books she has authored or co-authored in the Reading and Writing Units of Study series as well as her many articles and other books on instruction and leadership.

You can connect with her on Twitter @MaryEhrenworth.

Christopher
Lehman is the Founding Director of The Educator Collaborative, a K-12 Literacy think tank and professional development organization, working to innovate the ways educators learn together.

He is an international speaker, literacy consultant, and New York Times best-selling author. He holds degrees from
UW-Madison, NYU, and Teachers College, Columbia University. Chris has been a middle-school teacher, high-school teacher, literacy coach, and staff developer. He sits on the Board of Directors of the National Center for
Families Learning, is a past Chair of the NCTE Middle Level Section, and past member of the NCTE Executive Committee.

He has served as column editor for NCTE’s peer-reviewed journal, Voices from the Middle, and his articles and interviews have appeared in many journals and publications including the International Literacy
Association’s Reading Today,
in EdWeek, and in Education SmartBrief.
He has supported schools and districts across the United States and around the world in developing robust, research-based, effective literacy curricula and practices.

Now with The Educator Collaborative, he is working to innovate the ways literacy educators learn in-person and online, providing professional learning for teachers, coaches, and administrators so students can hold their brightest futures.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 An Introduction to the Common Core State Standards 1

Reading Standards

Chapter 2 Overview of the Reading Standards: What Do They Say and What Does This Mean for Us?' 22

Chapter 3 Literal Understanding and Text Complexity: Standards 1 and 10 32

Chapter 4 Reading Literature: Standards 2-9 52

Chapter 5 Reading Informational Texts: Standards 2-9 75

Writing Standards

Chapter 6 Overview of the Writing Standards: What Do They Say and What Does This Mean for Us? 102

Chapter 7 The CCSS and Composing Narrative Texts 713

Chapter 8 The CCSS and Composing Argument Texts 727

Chapter 9 The CCSS and Composing Informational Texts 142

Speaking/Listening and Language Standards

Chapter 10 Overview of the Speaking and Listening and of the Language Standards: What Do They Say and What Does This Mean for Us? 162

Chapter 11 CCSS-Aligned Assessments Fuel Whole-School Reform 180

References 199

Index 203