Welcome to the best posts and videos here on the Teaching the Core blog.

I have over 150 posts that will help you understand, evaluate, and implement literacy, Common Core and otherwise, in your classroom. It’s pretty difficult to filter through and figure out what you should read, so I decided to do the hard work and organize my very best content for you below.

Find the topic or topics that interest you the most, and enjoy!

Non-Freaked Out Overviews of Each Common Core Anchor Standard

This is how the blog got started — I wanted to learn about the CCSS, so I got after it and wrote about them.

Here they are, organized by strand:

• The 10 anchor standards in reading
• The 10 anchor standards in writing
• The 6 anchor standards in speaking/listening
• The 6 anchor standards in language

And if you'd prefer a more convenient format (and a chance to support me, grab a copy of my first book 🙂

Common Core Questions Answered

Here are some posts I wrote to answer questions asked by readers:

• “What Parts of the CCSS are Social Studies Teachers Responsible For?”
• “Is the Common Core all about Technology?“
• “Does the Common Core Allow for Creative Writing?”
• “What Texts does the Common Core REQUIRE Students to Read?”
• “What’s the Big Deal about Text Complexity?”
• “What are the CCSS CCR Anchor Standards?”
• “What are the ‘Six Shifts'?”

The Non-Freaked Out Approach to Literacy

After blogging through each of the anchor standards, I realized that, though the Common Core were more focused than previous “wish list” standards, there were still too many of them, and not all of them were equally critical. Thus was born the Non-Freaked Out, Focused Approach.

If you'd prefer a more convenient format (and another chance to support this blog!), grab a copy of the ebook (coming Fall 2013):

• NFO Approach 01: An Overview of the Non-Freaked Out Approach
• NFO Approach 02: Complex Texts
• NFO Approach 03: Close Reading
• NFO Approach 04: Go Big on Argument
  • A First Day of School Activity that Teaches Argumentation
  • 8 Reasons I Embrace Arguments in my Classroom
  • 5 Ways to Make Rigorous Arguments Fun
  • 4 Ways to Screw Up (and Fix) In-Class Arguments
  • Starting the Year with Debate
  • Video: One Way to Rock Out CCSS-Friendly, In-Class Debates
• NFO Approach 05: Every Student Talks
  • Simple Rubrics for Common Core Speaking and Listening Standards
  • How to Get Students to Really Listen, Summarize/Paraphrase, and Respond to Peers
• NFO Approach 06: Write Like Crazy
• NFO Approach 07: Highly Predictive Character Strengths
• NFO Approach 08: A Balanced Approach to Grammar and Mechanics (coming soon)

A few more that fit right in this vein:

• What’s the C3 Framework, and How does it Affect Your Social Studies Class?
• A Helpful Guide to Common Core-Related Acronyms (and some other FAQs)
• 3 Ways to Start Implementing the Common Core Today

The Top 5 Teacher Books That Have Shaped Me

I'm not one of those teachers who can read 100 professional development books each year without having his brain literally ooze from his ears. It's just not me.

Instead, here are the top five books that have shaped my teaching — I mention them constantly throughout the blog because, well, they deserve credit for most of what I write here. I would recommend creating an argumentative resource request to get these.

    

Opinions on Policy, Standardized Tests, the Common Core, and more

Sometimes (well, a lot of times) I get fired up about something and just have to write about it. Here are some of the best posts in that vein:

• Why I Will and Won’t Care if Michigan Legislators Block Funding for CCSS Implementation
• Discussions that Promote Societal Belonging
• Will Common Core National Assessments Motivate Students to “Enjoy & Appreciate” School?
• Fahrenheit 451, the Butchery of Figurative Language, and the CCSS

Beyond literacy

Literacy is awesome because it's a cross-curricular push to help students flourish in the long-term. But once in a while, I write about aspects of teaching that don't fit into literacy. Here are some of the most popular examples of this:

• A Class Purpose and the Promotion of Student Flourishing
• Character Strengths — Beyond the Common Core

My first post 🙂

An oldie but a goodie! What do Demons have to do with the Common Core State Standards?