If you’re an ELA teacher, all of this talk about THE three forms of writing in the Common Core State Standards (argumentative, informative/explanatory, and narrative) and about the importance of college/career readiness might be a bit unnerving. After all, where is the love for the creative writing that led many of us (including me) to […]
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Common Core W.CCR.2 Explained
W.CCR.2 — that’s the 2nd College/Career Readiness anchor standard within the Writing strand of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for ELA/Literacy — reads as follows: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. As far as importance goes, informative/explanatory writing […]
8 Reasons I Embrace Arguments in my Classroom
While writing yesterday’s post about the first writing anchor standard (W.CCR.1), I began to list some reasons why arguments really were a highlight of my past school year’s English and world history classes. I didn’t think I’d do anything with the list so soon… Until today. While I was outside in the driveway cutting some […]
Common Core W.CCR.1 Explained
W.CCR.1 — that’s the 1st College/Career Readiness anchor standard within the Writing strand of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for ELA/Literacy — reads as follows: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. Before exploring the actual standard, let’s discuss the “specialness” […]
What Texts does the Common Core REQUIRE Students to Read?
Although the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are rife with suggested texts and text types, there are several parenthetical remarks within the grade-specific reading standards that aren’t examples; they are to be included. Required titles RI.11-12.9 — that is, the ninth standard within the Reading Informational texts strand for grades 11 and 12 — is an example of what I’m talking about: Analyze […]