Prepare for and participate in . . . conversations and collaborations2. Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats3. Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoricPresentation of Knowledge and Ideas4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence5. Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts . . . demonstrating command of formal English
10 Part 4. LanguageConventions of Standard English1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English . . . capitalization, punctuation, and spellingKnowledge of Language3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functionsVocabulary Acquisition and Use4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown . . . words and phrases5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships . . . nuances6. Acquire and use . . . general academic and domain-specific words and phrases
11 Part 5. Reading Standards: Foundational SkillsPhonics and Word Recognition3. Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding wordsFluency4. Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension
12 ResourcesResource A. Common Core Recommended Reading ListsResource B. Text Complexity ToolResource C. Planning Calendar Templates
Preface
The standards offer us all a tremendous opportunity to help our students learn what they need to know for success in school and life, but using them requires a lot of something we as teachers have very little of: time. Standards demand that we find more time for students to learn in school—more time to think, practice, collaborate, and reflect. And we have to find more time as teachers to plan and teach, to learn the related language and instructional moves implicit in the standards.
With an all too keen sense of my own limited time, I began to create a version of the Common Core State Standards that better met my needs, one I could keep by my side and reference quickly when planning, writing, or participating in meetings related to the Common Core standards. When teachers saw it, they wanted their own copies, and the result was The Common Core Companion—one for grades 6–8 and another for 9–12, which were both published in 2013.
What’s the big idea behind Your Literacy Standards Companion? It’s inefficient for us all across the nation to spend time deciphering what our specific state standards say and digesting what they mean for teaching and learning, so I created the Companion to do that for you. With this book at your side, you can reclaim hours of time to do the most important work: develop your instructional ideas (and the standards themselves) into rich, engaging learning experiences for our students that meet the standards’ higher expectations.
Because I often work with literacy coordinators who are responsible for all students in their district, I wanted these Companion books to be K–12, districtwide, and school-wide tools. That way teachers and administrators could hit the ground running as they implemented the standards and envisioned professional development that would support all teachers. But I had one problem: I was not an elementary school teacher. For teachers in grades K–2, I thought of Sharon Taberski, an exemplary teacher and guide to teachers around the country.
When it came to someone in grades 3–5, I did not have to think long about whom to ask, for in those grades, all roads lead to Leslie Blauman. 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. She knew what you would want, what you need.
So without further ado, and with deepest gratitude for all she has taught me through the process of writing this book, I introduce you to Your Literacy Standards Companion, Grades 3–5. If you’re looking for someone to help you understand and, more important, use the state standards in your classroom, you have come to the right place, for with Leslie Blauman, you are in good hands. Trust her to help you create exemplary standards-aligned 3–5 literacy instruction that will allow you to be the teacher you have been and are capable of becoming.
—Jim Burke
Introduction: Turning Standards Into Daily Teaching
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 other 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 opened the grades 6–12 and 9–12 versions of The Common Core Companion, the four-volume ELA series he conceived of for Corwin Literacy in 2013. In the 3 years since these books were published, they have been so-called “evergreen” bestsellers, selling more copies each year, because they help educators everywhere get the important work done of transforming standards into daily learning outcomes. A series for Common Core Mathematics Companion also thrives. Here’s the interesting thing: Corwin sales data showed robust book sales in states that never even adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which means educators were purchasing the CCSS books to help them refresh or reimagine their own state standards. As a teacher, this doesn’t surprise me, because we educators are an enterprising lot, forever rolling up our sleeves and adapting things to suit our needs. Perhaps more important, it speaks to the nature of well-thought-out standards.
Corwin Literacy saw this market need and decided to issue this new version, Your Literacy Standards Companion, complete with indexes for each state that opted out of the CCSS, to make it easier for users to go right to the pages most aligned to their state’s standards. The following states have indexes beginning on page I-1:
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
Colorado
Florida
Georgia
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Louisiana
Maryland
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Nebraska
New Jersey
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Tennessee
Utah
Virginia
West Virginia
I am a full-time fourth-grade teacher and bring to this book my expertise as an intermediate-grade teacher who has also worn other hats of