In case you haven’t noticed, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for ELA and Content Area Literacy place a heavy emphasis on text complexity (R.CCR.10). In short, the developers of the CCSS believe that college and career ready (CCR) students are able to read and make use of complex texts independently. Why the Obsession with […]
Common Core State Standards Initiative
5 Principles in Developing the Common Core
If you’re wondering how the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were developed, this YouTube video featuring David Coleman begins to answer the question. It does not go into great depth, but it does provide some interesting food for thought. Principle #1: College-and-Career Readiness (CCR) When students aren’t ready for college-level work, colleges place them in […]
3 Ways to Start Implementing the Common Core Today
It’s not fun to learn that you’ll soon be expected to transform your curriculum to align with a 66-page document that you had no part in creating. And, although the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are a lot less unwieldy than the state standards I’ve taught under so far in my career, that doesn’t mean […]
Fahrenheit 451, the Butchery of Figurative Language, and the CCSS
Every time that I’ve taught Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, one of my opinions of the book remains the same: Bradbury horridly overuses figurative language. Once I finish reading Fahrenheit 451 each year, I don’t want to see another example of simile, metaphor, or personification for at least a few months. Why Teach a Book You […]
CCR Anchor Standards in Language: An Overview
Now, on to the final set of anchor standards in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) ELA document: the language standards. These are first found on page 25. The question these anchor standards seek to answer is, “What should a college- and career-ready (CCR) person be able to do with language, particularly in terms of conventions […]