Note: For the complete Common Core State Standards document, please visit corestandards.org.
Preface
Heading into each new school year, we face the same challenges: lots of kids, lots to learn, lots to teach, and the feeling that there is never enough time. Really, it’s so often about time — especially now, with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in place. I am sure you would agree with me that what we need most is time to decipher what the standards say, digest what they mean, and ultimately, figure out how to really use them thoughtfully when we are planning and teaching.
It was this lack of time, in fact, that moved me to create my own translation of the CCSS, one I could keep by my side for quick reference when designing a lesson, meeting with other teachers or the administrator evaluating me. You see, I like to tweak things to make them easier to use. So I reconfigured the layout of the standards in a way that everyone I showed it to found more intuitive, more efficient, and more conducive to the kinds of collaboration across grades that’s so critical to our work and our students’ success. The result was The Common Core Companion — one for grades 6–8 and another for grades 9–12.
I wanted my books to be schoolwide tools, making it easier for administrators and teachers to work together. Once the Companions were published, it was immediately obvious from teachers’ responses that they filled that need. It was also immediately obvious that intermediate elementary grade teachers were in search of the same kind of assistance. But I knew I would need not just a partner but my own mentor — someone who is a classroom teacher just as I am, but with an intimate understanding of grades 3–5 kids. Leslie Blauman was the logical choice. It is her wisdom and intelligence that fills these pages, for she is the one who helped me understand not only the meaning but the power and potential of the CCSS for grades 3–5.
While there is so much to recommend Leslie, especially her work as a literacy coordinator and a demonstration teacher at the Public Education & Business Coalition, it is her 30 years of hands-on experience in the classroom that make her uniquely qualified for this project—and her dedication to kids! This grades 3–5 version retains many of the formatting features that have worked so well with middle and high school teachers. But Leslie made it her own, pumping up the volume of teaching ideas and providing online resources, including graphic organizers, book lists, and a gallery of photos detailing CCSS- based teaching and learning. She knew what you would want, what you need.
This is the year we will all learn about the CCSS for real, in order to teach them so students will learn them. Thanks to Leslie, The Common Core Companion, Grades 3–5 provides you both a tool and a trustworthy friend to help you save time and teach even better what you have no doubt taught so well for so long.
—Jim Burke
Acknowledgments
When you get the opportunity to work with an editor like Wendy Murray, you jump at the chance. She has a way of drawing out authors’ ideas, giving them the courage to particularize what they do in the classroom, which is remarkable. And as if that isn’t lucky enough, Wendy introduced me to Corwin publisher Lisa Luedeke and brought me onto this project, and for that I am forever grateful. Both Lisa and Wendy worked their magic on this book, and I thank them. Maura Sullivan, another friend, is the marketing mastermind who was already devising how to get the book visibility before I typed a word. No one knows this field like Maura and no one cares about the big success of a book as much as she does. Then there is Jim Burke. No one cares about the success of adolescents and their engagement as much as he does. He has been a valued resource, offering guidance as only someone who created this Common Core Companion could. I am in awe of what he envisioned and designed, and I am honored to be a part of the series. A giant thank you to Sharon Taberski, a friend and mentor from the ground up. Reading drafts of her K-2 version helped spark ideas, and in “draft-swapping” we hope to create a seamless flow between the primary, intermediate, and upper/secondary grades as the Common Core is implemented.
In addition, there are many more talented people at Corwin that I need to thank. Julie Nemer, another of my editors on this project, was instrumental in getting me going, offering encouragement, and helping me learn the ropes. Thank you to Melanie Birdsall for tending to the smallest details in editing and preparing the manuscript. And many thanks to Amy Rosenstein for her exemplary editing of my manuscript. Francesca Dutra Africano has kept me on track, answering all my questions and providing me with everything I needed.
A huge thank you to my colleagues at Cherry Hills Village Elementary. Especially our principal, Molly Drvenkar, who would not so gently tell me “Get back to writing, Blauman—we need that book!” Her humor and guidance make coming to work every day a blessing. And then to teach on a team of tremendously talented teachers — Clay Borchert, Kristin Schultz, and Jessica Yoffe who model collegiality and best practice. We continue to learn (and laugh) with each other — especially as we dig into the standards! A huge note of gratitude to Nate Krulish, our technology teacher, who I constantly bombarded with questions, and he always had the answers. Sue Beman, an exceptional learning specialist and a dear friend, revised and tweaked the reading foundational standards and helped me dig deeper into how to reach our 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