The Common
Core Made Easy
A Collection of
Tips, Resources,
and Ideas
Part
One
by Lauren Davis
Eye On Education
6 Depot Way West
Larchmont, NY 10538
www.eyeoneducation.com
(888) 299-5350 phone
(914) 833-0761 fax
The Common Core Made Easy
A Collection of Tips,
Resources, and Ideas
By Lauren Davis
This eBook is adapted from Lauren Davis’ online blog series Comments
on the Common Core. In this bi-monthly series, Lauren shares her insights
and opinions on the Common Core State Standards and keeps readers
apprised of new developments. Readers are invited to provide their own
opinions and comments in the comments section of each blog post, which
goes live two Wednesdays a month.
Table of Contents
Why Computer-Based Scoring for the Common Core Makes Me Uneasy .............................................. 2
How to Shift From Teaching Persuasion to Teaching Argument ................................................................ 4
How to Design Text-Based Questions (and Teach Students to Answer Them!) ..................................... 6
Resources for Finding Informational and Nonfiction Texts .......................................................................... 7
Helping Students Navigate Informational Texts ............................................................................................... 9
How to Design Open-Ended Assignments to Meet the Common Core ................................................ 10
Teaching Opinion Writing in the Elementary Grades ................................................................................... 13
Assessing the PARCC Assessments ...................................................................................................................... 15
Moving Students Beyond Index Card Presentations .................................................................................... 17
10 Tips for Teaching Grammar According to the Common Core .............................................................. 19
10 Tips for Teaching Grammar According to the Common Core (Infographic) ................................... 21
1
Copyright © 2013 Eye On Education, Inc. Larchmont, NY. All rights reserved, www.eyeonducation.com.
The Common Core Made Easy
A Collection of Tips, Resources, and Ideas
Why Computer-Based
Scoring for the Common Core
Makes Me Uneasy
W
hen I was in high school, I was selected, along with two other students, to participate in a timed
writing contest for an organization whose name I can’t recall. On the day of the competition, my two
challengers (extremely intelligent and hard-working students) walked into the room each carrying a
thesaurus. During the contest, they furiously searched for
fancy and intelligent words to pepper into their writing.
I was totally intimidated. It hadn’t dawned on me to
bring a thesaurus, and it was too late for me to get one.
I figured that I was out of the running and that my essay
would sound dumb compared to theirs.
I was wrong—I actually won. The committee members
told me that I was selected in part because of my clear,
accessible language. They emphasized that the purpose
of writing is to communicate, not to try and sound smart.
It didn’t matter how fancy my competitors were with
their language if they weren’t getting their ideas across.
That was an important lesson for me, and I kept it in mind when I became a teacher. I made sure to show
students how to really use and understand new words, not just pluck them out of a thesaurus or dictionary,
memorize them, and throw them into a sentence. I also spent time on word choice. Sometimes you do need that
bigger word for conciseness and accuracy, but sometimes a few smaller words are better. Sometimes you need
to define terms for your reader, and sometimes you don’t. We must teach students to make conscious language
decisions based on audience and purpose.
But now I’m worried. Will these principles of effective communication get tossed out the window when the
Common Core assessments are released?
The Common Core State Standards do emphasize audience and word choice, but the new automated essay
scorers, which might be used for the CCSS assessments, seem to value long words—even if meaningless and
used incorrectly!—over shorter words.
2
Copyright © 2013 Eye On Education, Inc. Larchmont, NY. All rights reserved, www.eyeonducation.com.
The Common Core Made Easy
A Collection of Tips, Resources, and Ideas
For example, let’s look at the e-Rater, the new automated
scorer from Educational Testing Services (http://nyti.ms/
Jp2XmW). According to The New York Times, research from
MIT shows that the e-Rater prefers length over quality. “A
716-word essay… that was padded with more than a dozen
nonsensical sentences received a top score of 6; a wellargued, well-written essay of 567 words was scored a 5.” The
e-Rater also doesn’t like short sentences and sentences that
start with and or or. And the e-Rater doesn’t care about the
quality of evidence in your argument (all the facts could be
wrong) as long as you have evidence. (Did I lose points for
that sentence?) Students can make stuff up. Is that what we
want to teach them about good writing?
That being said, the two consortia working on Common
Core assessments (PARCC and SMARTER Balanced) are still
designing their systems, so it’s too soon to confirm whether
they’ll definitely use automated scorers, and if so, which kind
they’ll use. I’m just panicking because I don’t like the early
rumors! I will continue to follow the developments and keep
you posted as best I can.
The Common Core
State Standards do
emphasize audience
and word choice, but
the new automated
essay scorers, which
might be used for the
CCSS assessments,
seem to value long
words—even if
meaningless and used
incorrectly!—over
shorter words.
This post was originally published on August 15, 2012.
3
Copyright © 2013 Eye On Education, Inc. Larchmont, NY. All rights reserved, www.eyeonducation.com.
The Common Core Made Easy
A Collection of Tips, Resources, and Ideas
How to Shift From
Teaching Persuasion
to Teaching Argument
P
ersuasive writing has been very popular in ELA classrooms in recent years. During a persuasive writing unit,
students are typically asked to write a letter or essay convincing someone to do or believe something.
Students are taught persuasive techniques such as bandwagon, glittering generalities, and snob appeal.
Now the Common Core is moving teachers from persuasion to argument. This shift might be confusing to
people who see “persuasion” and “argument” as the same thing. However, the Common Core’s authors draw a
distinction between the terms.
When writing to persuade,… [one] common
strategy is an appeal to the credibility,
character, or authority of the writer… Another
is an appeal to the audience’s self-interest,
sense of identity, or emotions… A logical
argument, on the other hand, convinces the
audience because of the perceived merit
and reasonableness of the claims and proofs
offered rather than either the emotions the
writing evokes in the audience or the character
or credentials of the writer. (The Common Core
State Standards, p. 24)
Now, the Common
Core is emphasizing
the importance of
focused, text-based
questions over
personal opinionbased ones.
In other words, argument is about logic, not emotion. The Common Core authors also say that argument has a
“special place” in the standards, since it is a crucial genre for college and careers.
So how do teachers adjust their lessons to fit the new requirements? Here are some strategies for teaching
argument:
• Teach concession-refutation. Students should be aware of and address the other side of an issue, not
just their own side. You may need to give students sentence frames. You can find some on the website
of Eye On Education’s author Amy Benjamin. Go to http://www.amybenjamin.com and click on
4
Copyright © 2013 Eye On Education, Inc. Larchmont, NY. All rights reserved, www.eyeonducation.com.
The Common Core Made Easy
A Collection of Tips, Resources, and Ideas
•
•
•
•
“Writing” under Common Core—the sentence frames are part of that PowerPoint.
Show students how to avoid common logical errors. A list of common logical fallacies (with examples)
can be found at Purdue OWL (http://bit.ly/ZFrKLI). The site www.fallacyfiles.org contains additional
examples of logical fallacies in the world. Students can even contribute to the site.
Analyze mentor texts with students. For example,
students can look for examples of concessionrefutation in newspaper articles, and they can see
how an author supports his/her claims with logical
and clear evidence.
Teach students how to marshal facts. Effective
argumentation requires strong evidence. Students
need to learn how to gather that evidence and how
to incorporate it into their writing. Don’t just let
students go to Google and pick the first thing they
see. Teach students how to create focused search
terms; how to narrow their search results; how to
evaluate a website for reliability accuracy, currency,
and bias; how to incorporate information into their
essays (when to quote and when to paraphrase, and what constitutes a real paraphrase vs. plagiarism);
and how to cite sources.
Teach students some academic vocabulary involving argument writing—claim, evidence, marshal,
concession, refutation, etc.
And even though argumentation should be your main focus based on the Common Core’s requirements, I’m all
for throwing in some persuasive lessons if time permits. Teaching students to understand emotional appeals will
help them become more media literate and savvy about propaganda in the world around them. I’d hate to see
that left out completely. You could also do argument writing that includes elements of persuasion, since a lot of
authors combine facts and emotion.
This post was originally published on August 29, 2012.
5
Copyright © 2013 Eye On Education, Inc. Larchmont, NY. All rights reserved, www.eyeonducation.com.
The Common Core Made Easy
A Collection of Tips, Resources, and Ideas
How to Design Text-Based
Questions (and Teach Students
to Answer Them!)
W
hen I was a teacher, it was common practice to ask students for their personal responses to literature. I
did that a lot in my classroom as a way to engage reluctant readers in a story. Now, the Common Core is
emphasizing the importance of focused, text-based questions over personal opinion-based ones.
This shift is making some teachers uneasy. They’re wondering if they have to toss their provocative personalresponse questions out the window. My answer is no, they don’t. The CCSS aren’t outlawing such questions. But
they are saying that such questions should come later, once it’s clear that students understand the language of
the text. According to Common Core authors David Coleman and Susan Pimentel:
An effective set of discussion questions might begin with relatively simple questions requiring
attention to specific words, details, and arguments and then move on to explore the impact
of those specifics on the text as a whole. Good questions will often linger over specific
phrases and sentences to ensure careful comprehension… Often, curricula surrounding
texts leap too quickly into broad and wide-open questions of interpretation before
cultivating command of the details and specific ideas in the text. (Coleman and Pimentel, p. 7)
In other words, don’t ask broad or opinion-based questions until it’s clear students understand the work itself—
otherwise students will be able to answer from their own experiences and won’t be learning critical reading skills.
Begin by having students grapple with a text’s words, sentences, and paragraphs so they can create meaning
from the words on the page and not just from their own minds. For example, if you’re teaching Macbeth’s
soliloquy “Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow,” don’t start with general questions about the futility of life. First,
be sure that students understand the language of the soliloquy. Ask questions like, “How does the repetition of
‘tomorrow’ affect the tone?”
Make sure your questions require students to go back to the text and reread a word or passage in order to gather
evidence or construct a response. Spend time teaching students how to go back to the text. That skill might not
come easily to them. (Students like to be “quick”—they are often tempted to say the first thing that comes to
their minds and will forget to go back and gather evidence.)
• For a helpful lesson on teaching students to answer a text-based question step-by-step, check out
Common Core Literacy Lesson Plans: Ready-to-Use Resources, 6-8 (http://bit.ly/W2Uvzz).
This post was originally published on September 12, 2012.
6
Copyright © 2013 Eye On Education, Inc. Larchmont, NY. All rights reserved, www.eyeonducation.com.
The Common Core Made Easy
A Collection of Tips, Resources, and Ideas
Resources for Finding
Informational and
Nonfiction Texts
I
’ve heard some teachers say that it’s difficult and time-consuming to find
appropriate nonfiction and informational texts to meet the Common Core.
I’ve put together some resources below. I hope these are helpful:
1. News magazines for kids
• Check out Scholastic’s news magazines, including Scholastic News,
Storyworks, and Superscience— http://bit.ly/lOqVpD. (You can
subscribe to the print editions, and some articles are free online.)
Consider doing lessons that tie current events to past events in
history. English and social studies teachers can collaborate on
this. Note that many of Scholastic’s articles list the Lexile levels
and are correlated to the Common Core. Many of the articles are
informational and include charts, graphs, maps, and links to online
videos. Action magazine even has differentiated articles—one
article written at three different levels.
• Time For Kids (http://bit.ly/cLlFU) provides a variety of engaging
health, sports, science, news, and entertainment articles. Teacher’s
guides and worksheets are available.
2. Text sets
• The Reading and Writing Project has put together some lists
of text sets on science and history topics—http://bit.ly/LvecXJ.
The list includes links to the actual articles, not just bibliographic
information. You won’t have to spend time hunting down the
recommendations.
7
Copyright © 2013 Eye On Education, Inc. Larchmont, NY. All rights reserved, www.eyeonducation.com.
The Common Core Made Easy
A Collection of Tips, Resources, and Ideas
3. Opinion pieces
• I’m a big fan of The New York Times’ Room for Debate blog (http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate).
It is especially helpful with teaching argument writing. Yes, sometimes the articles are too difficult for
kids, but usually they are pretty short and accessible. You can often find two or more articles on the pro
side and two or more articles on the con side. I also love The New York Times’ The Learning Network
(http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/). The lesson plans often link to the newspaper’s more accessible
(but still complex and challenging) articles.
4. Newspaper and magazine articles
• Check to see if your school or public library subscribes to the searchable database EBSCO (http://www.
ebsco.com/). It includes articles from magazines and newspapers written at different reading levels, as
well as e-books and audio books.
5. Notable nonfiction books
• Go to the American Library Association’s website and look at the different book lists under Book, Print,
and Media Awards— http://bit.ly/WjXsgO.
Additional Tips
• Don’t forget to collaborate with teachers across the curriculum. An English teacher might want to use
something from the students’ social studies textbook and tie that to a novel students are reading in
class.
• The Common Core’s Appendix B includes a variety of exemplary texts. Some people have been
complaining that these recommendations are out of date, but remember that they’re just exemplars
to give you a sense of text complexity. You’re not required to teach those exact ones, though you may
want to teach some of them if they appeal to you.
• Don’t forget to include a wide variety of informational topics—not just the obvious ones like animals
and the weather. For examples, students might be interested in reading Chew On This about the fastfood industry, and older students might be interested in reading Outliers, about how people become
successful. In the elementary grades, the standards ask that students read informational texts to build
content knowledge, not just to gain reading skills, so think in terms of variety.
• If you’re not sure of a nonfiction book’s reading level, check out Lexile’s Find a Book Site (http://www.
lexile.com/fab/). Don’t forget that you shouldn’t rely on Lexiles alone. Use your own judgment and
consider the interest level, background knowledge required, etc.
This post was originally published on September 26, 2012.
8
Copyright © 2013 Eye On Education, Inc. Larchmont, NY. All rights reserved, www.eyeonducation.com.
The Common Core Made Easy
A Collection of Tips, Resources, and Ideas
Helping Students Navigate
Informational Texts
T
he Common Core State Standards call for big increase in the amount of time spent on informational texts.
This is a huge shift for teachers who are used to focusing on fiction. Here are some strategies for helping
students navigate those texts:
• Teach students to discover and understand a text’s structures and features. Ask students why an author
would use a certain element or visual. It’s not enough for students to understand the information
in a graph (e.g., the graph shows that 75% of students like chocolate ice cream). They should try to
determine why the graph is included in
the first place and how it helps support the
information in the text.
• When possible, incorporate academic
vocabulary into your lessons (along with
the content-area vocabulary). For example,
depending on the text and your students’
level, you might be able to introduce
academic terms such as bar graph, icons,
glossary, index, and subheading. Doing so will
teach students the material and also teach
them how to talk about the material in the
future.
• As you do with literary texts, teach students to do close readings, and show them that it’s okay to have
to reread something if they don’t understand it at first. Use think alouds to show how you question a
difficult text as you read.
• Teach students how to figure out the meanings of unknown words. Teach context clues, and help
students understand when they can and can’t use them. Sometimes, an author doesn’t provide
enough clues, and readers need to check word meanings in a dictionary. Sometimes the authors of
informational texts define words in a glossary.
• Use visuals. Graphic organizers such as Venn diagrams, cause-effect flow charts, and timelines will help
students analyze the information in a text and compare two texts.
• Teach the different organizational methods an author might use (cause-effect, problem-solution, etc.)
as well as the key words that help readers determine structure. For example, a time-order essay might
include sequencing words such as first, next, etc.
9
Copyright © 2013 Eye On Education, Inc. Larchmont, NY. All rights reserved, www.eyeonducation.com.
The Common Core Made Easy
A Collection of Tips, Resources, and Ideas
• Include prereading and scaffolding activities that help students with “words and concepts that are
essential to a basic understanding and that students are not likely to know or be able to determine
from context” (Coleman and Pimentel, Revised Publishers’ Criteria for the Common Core State
Standards in English Language Arts in Literacy, K–2, p. 8). However, be careful of prereading activities
that summarize the text or reveal the major ideas of the text. Such activities may make it harder for
students to discover ideas on their own.
• Have students discuss the text and write about it. Writing helps students work independently through
their thinking about a text (Coleman and Pimentel, p. 9).
• Ask text-based questions, and show students how to go back to the text for answers. When students
respond to a question, make sure they say how they got their answers. With elementary students, you
can ask, “How did you know that?” With older students, you can expect them to cite specific words
from the text to support their ideas.
This post was originally published on October 10, 2012.
10
Copyright © 2013 Eye On Education, Inc. Larchmont, NY. All rights reserved, www.eyeonducation.com.
The Common Core Made Easy
A Collection of Tips, Resources, and Ideas
How to Design Open-Ended
Assignments to Meet
the Common Core
T
he Common Core State Standards aim to help students become independent learners and thinkers.
Students should “become self-directed learners, effectively seeking out and using resources to assist them,
including teachers, peers, and print and digital reference materials” (The Common Core State Standards,
p. 7). Giving students questions with predetermined answers will not accomplish that goal. Instead, try to make
your writing and research assignments more authentic and open-ended, so students can discover information
on their own.
But what exactly is an open-ended assignment? It doesn’t mean
asking students a subjective question and accepting all of their
random opinions. In Students Taking Charge: Inside the LearnerActive, Technology-Infused Classroom (http://bit.ly/XLybda), Nancy
Sulla gives a great example of what an open-ended assignment
does and does not look like. First, she explains what an open-ended
assignment is not.
A typical assignment found in elementary classrooms
today is to write a report on dinosaurs. This simply
requires students to locate and report back information
with no open-ended aspect related to the content, and
very little to the product. (Sulla, p. 25)
Asking students to find and report back information might be useful
in some circumstances but will not promote students’ independent
thinking skills.
Open-ended
assignments are
trickier to create,
but they will lead
to higher levels of
learning, and they
will also increase
engagement since
students will feel
responsible for their
own learning.
Sulla then provides an example of a slightly better assignment that’s still not fully open-ended.
A teacher might assign a project in which students will create a dinosaur exhibit for a
local museum with information on the various dinosaurs that once walked the earth.
While this may sound like an engaging project, it is only slightly more open-ended than
the first, with the open-endedness related more to the product than the content. (Sulla,
11
Copyright © 2013 Eye On Education, Inc. Larchmont, NY. All rights reserved, www.eyeonducation.com.
The Common Core Made Easy
A Collection of Tips, Resources, and Ideas
p. 25)
In other words, that kind of project might seem fun for students because it involves art, but it’s not having them
discover and learn content on their own.
Finally, Sulla gives an example of a real open-ended assignment.
A more open-ended problem would be to ask students
to consider that scientists may be able to clone a
dinosaur from DNA and wish to create a habitat in
which it can live. The students would have to learn
about the dinosaur and make plans to accommodate
its needs, this providing a more open-ended challenge
than the other two. (Sulla, p. 25)
The cloning assignment challenges students to think about content
in different ways and apply knowledge, not just regurgitate it.
Open-ended assignments are trickier to create, but they will lead to
higher levels of learning, and they will also increase engagement
since students will feel responsible for their own learning.
This post was originally published on October 24, 2012.
12
Copyright © 2013 Eye On Education, Inc. Larchmont, NY. All rights reserved, www.eyeonducation.com.
The Common Core Made Easy
A Collection of Tips, Resources, and Ideas
Teaching Opinion Writing in
the Elementary Grades
E
veryone’s been buzzing about the Common Core’s emphasis on argument writing (called opinion writing
in the elementary grades). The standards are very specific about what aspects of this genre to teach at each
grade level, K–12. In the elementary grades, students have to learn the basics about facts and opinions.
This sets the foundation for the more sophisticated writing they’ll be required to do later. But how do we teach
students those basics? Here are some ideas, broken down by grade-level requirements. (Note that I’m focusing
on teaching opinions and evidence, but you’ll also need to teach paragraph format and organization.)
• Kindergarten: Students need to form an opinion.
Help students discover what an opinion is and how it differs from a fact. For example, ask students
to share their favorite color or what they think is the best flavor of ice cream. Write some of their
statements on the board. Show that favorite and best are opinion words. Emphasize that people in the
class have different opinions; there are no right or wrong answers. Then show how a fact is different.
For example, “I love chocolate ice cream” is a fact, not an opinion. Have students practice forming and
stating an opinion by writing a sentence and/or drawing a picture that represents their opinion. If you
want to use a text for this lesson, you can ask students which character is their favorite or what they
found most interesting about the text.
• Grade 1: Students need to include a reason for their opinion.
Ask students why they prefer a certain thing. You can provide students with sentence frames, such as,
“My favorite ______ is ______ because…” Emphasize that because is the connecting word that gives
their reason. Have students share their sentences orally and write them down. You can use mentor
texts for this lesson. For example, if a character puts on a red sweater because red is her favorite color,
remind students that it’s a fact that she put on the sweater, but it’s her opinion that red is the best
color.
• Grade 2: Students need to provide linking words to connect their opinion and reasons.
Teach students basic linking words such as and, also, and because. Help students discover what those
words mean by putting them in sentences and asking their purpose. Then have students use those
words in their own sentences. Note that at this grade level and beyond, students should provide more
than one reason for an opinion.
• Grade 3: Students need to use linking phrases, not just linking words.
Focus on more sophisticated linking words and also phrases. Teach terms such as because, therefore,
since, and for example.
13
Copyright © 2013 Eye On Education, Inc. Larchmont, NY. All rights reserved, www.eyeonducation.com.
The Common Core Made Easy
A Collection of Tips, Resources, and Ideas
• Grade 4: Students need to use reasons, information, and facts to support their opinion.
The previous grade-level standards require students to provide reasons. Once you get to grade 4, the
standards require reasons, information, and facts. Teach students how to understand and use these
different kinds of evidence. Show students basic ways to gather information and facts. Students can
pull information from an article you provide or conduct basic Internet research. At this grade, you
should also teach more sophisticated linking terms, such as for instance, in order to, and in addition.
• Grade 5: Students need to group their reasons in a logical way.
They need to use linking words, phrases, and clauses to tie their opinions to their reasons. Provide
graphic organizers to help students group their reasons. Teach more sophisticated linking terms, such
as consequently and specifically.
This post was originally published on November 7, 2012.
14
Copyright © 2013 Eye On Education, Inc. Larchmont, NY. All rights reserved, www.eyeonducation.com.
The Common Core Made Easy
A Collection of Tips, Resources, and Ideas
Assessing the PARCC
Assessments
D
uring the past two years, educators have been transitioning to the Common Core with a big question
looming over their heads: What will the assessments look like?
We’re finally starting to get at least a partial answer to that question. PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of
Readiness for College and Careers— http://www.parcconline.
org/), one of the two consortia working on the assessments, has
released some item and task prototypes to give us a sneak peek
The Common Core is
at what they are planning (http://bit.ly/TQ6NZ9).
Although the prototypes are in draft form (the assessments
won’t be finalized and administered until 2014–15), it’s still
helpful to study them to see where things are headed. I recently
spent some time examining them myself, and I recommend
that all educators do the same. Here’s a rundown of some of the
things I like and don’t like so far.
all about high-quality,
complext texts, and...
PARCC wants to stay
true to that on their
assessments.
Some of the things I find appealing
• The use of authentic texts. PARCC is using authentic texts, not “fake” texts that are commissioned solely
for the test. I’m glad to hear that. I spent some time as an editor of test-prep books, and I have read
plenty of dreadful, commissioned passages. The Common Core is all about high-quality, complex texts,
and I’m glad PARCC wants to stay true to that on their assessments.
• The new technology-based question format. PARCC has developed a few innovative item types. I
particularly like the item called Technology-Enhanced Constructed Response (TECR). This format allows
students to prove their comprehension and cite textual evidence by dragging and dropping, cutting
and pasting, shading text, etc. rather than having to choose one of four multiple-choice options.
For example, there might be a question asking students what word best describes a character’s
relationship with another character. Then, in a follow-up question, students drag and drop a sentence
from the text that supports their answer (http://bit.ly/WiDgG9). I love this format because it gives
students the ability to think on their own; they won’t be fooled by “distracters” and bad multiple-choice
writing. I was never great at taking multiple-choice tests because I second-guessed myself. I’d think, I
know C is right, but what if A is right, too, and I just don’t realize it? The new format allows students to
demonstrate their actual comprehension and not just their ability to answer multiple-choice questions.
15
Copyright © 2013 Eye On Education, Inc. Larchmont, NY. All rights reserved, www.eyeonducation.com.
The Common Core Made Easy
A Collection of Tips, Resources, and Ideas
• The added supports for students with special needs. PARCC promises to include different computer
supports to help students with disabilities during the assessment. I’m not sure what the supports will
look like, but this sounds promising.
What concerns me
• Students’ writing will be scored by people but also by computer, and I am very skeptical of computerbased scoring (see p. 2).
• I don’t know how some districts are going to be able to handle the technology requirements for these
tests. I know this is a huge issue right now.
This post was originally published on November 21, 2012.
16
Copyright © 2013 Eye On Education, Inc. Larchmont, NY. All rights reserved, www.eyeonducation.com.
The Common Core Made Easy
A Collection of Tips, Resources, and Ideas
Moving Students Beyond
Index Card Presentations
W
hen I was in middle school, I had to prepare an oral presentation on a famous woman in American
history. I remember sitting on my bedroom floor, surrounded by index cards. On each card, I wrote a
few sentences about the person’s life. A few days later, I read my index cards to the class. That was it—
that was my oral presentation. I don’t think I got much out of that assignment. I guess I learned details about a
famous person’s life (info I have since forgotten… I don’t even remember the person I did!), but I certainly didn’t
learn how to deliver an effective presentation and engage an audience. I didn’t learn those skills until much later,
when I started working in teaching and publishing.
I’m glad those kinds of “flat” index card presentations
are becoming a thing of the past. The Common
Core now requires that we teach students to
deliver much more engaging, effective, real-world
presentations using technology. According to the
standards, students in grades 6–12 must be able
to “make strategic use of digital media and visual
displays of data to express information and enhance
understanding of presentations” (CCSS Speaking and
Listening Anchor Standard 5). I like this requirement
because I think presenting information effectively is
something you should know for almost any career. So
how do teachers meet this requirement and equip
students with presentation skills? Here are some ideas:
• Before designing your lesson, consider why you want to have students use multimedia. Is it to clarify
something for an audience, or to highlight an important detail? Note that the standard changes
slightly for each grade level, 6–12. In grade 6, the standard says that students should use multimedia
components to “clarify information”; in grade 7, they should use multimedia components to “clarify
claims and findings and emphasize salient points”; in grade 8, they should use multimedia components
to “clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest”; and in grades 9–12, they
should use multimedia components to “enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence
and to add interest.”
• Don’t just make students use digital media; teach them why it matters. Ask students how different
forms of media and visual displays can help an audience to remember information. Have students
17
Copyright © 2013 Eye On Education, Inc. Larchmont, NY. All rights reserved, www.eyeonducation.com.
The Common Core Made Easy
A Collection of Tips, Resources, and Ideas
•
•
•
•
compare and contrast the benefits and drawbacks of different forms. Have students analyze model
presentations and decide which are effective and which aren’t, and why.
Don’t forget the importance of authenticity. Give students a real-world research question or topic on
which to present.
Involve students in the assessments. After analyzing sample presentations with students, ask them to
come up with their own rubrics for evaluating an effective presentation.
Allow time for peer review. Give students class time to workshop their slides or other presentation
components with partners.
Model speaking skills and let students practice those skills. Show students how to make eye contact,
adjust their stance and volume, etc. Then give them time to practice.
For more on teaching students to deliver effective presentations, check out these resources:
• Mike Splane, a professor at San José State University, offers this helpful page of presentation tips—
http://bit.ly/bqONoy.
• Ohio Wesleyan University’s Libraries & Research Center provides these presentation guidelines—
http://bit.ly/SzT5ZW.
• Each book in the Common Core Literacy Lesson Plans series (http://bit.ly/Zm8IGH) provides gradeappropriate lesson plans for teaching students to deliver authentic, oral presentations that use
multimedia.
This post was originally published on December 5, 2012.
18
Copyright © 2013 Eye On Education, Inc. Larchmont, NY. All rights reserved, www.eyeonducation.com.
The Common Core Made Easy
A Collection of Tips, Resources, and Ideas
10 Tips for Teaching Grammar
According to the Common Core
T
he Common Core State Standards stress the importance of teaching grammar. The standards lay out which
grammar rules should be taught at which grade levels. So you know what rules to teach… but how do you
teach them? Here are ten tips for teaching grammar according to the Common Core. (See the infographic
on page 21.)
1.Teach grammar in the context of writing.
Grammar shouldn’t be taught as a separate, isolated unit. Think of ways to incorporate grammar minilessons into your writing lessons. You may be doing this already. For example, in grade 7, students
are expected to correct misplaced and dangling modifiers (Language Standard 1c). Don’t just have
students practice with a bunch of random workbook sentences; have students check their own
use of modifiers in an essay they’re writing. And remind students that knowing grammar is not only
about making corrections; it is also about creating style. The CCSS state that students should “come to
appreciate that language is at least as much a matter of craft as of rules” (CCSS, p. 51). In Big Skills for
the Common Core, Benjamin and Hugelmeyer give this example: If you’re teaching coordinating and
subordinating conjunctions (grade 5), don’t just show students how they function in a sentence. Show
students how they can improve your writing by combining sentences to strengthen relationships and
by creating sentence variety. Grammar gives you tools to create your own writing style.
2.Teach grammar in the context of reading.
Use mentor texts. Show students how fiction and nonfiction writers use grammar to communicate
clearly and to create their own style. Have students find examples of a grammar rule, such as parallel
structure, in a text they are reading.
3.Help students figure out the grammar rule; don’t just give it to them to memorize.
For example, if you’re teaching concise language, give students a few wordy sentences and ask them
to remove the weeds from those sentences. Then ask students to come up with some general rules for
eliminating the wordiness from their writing. That approach can be more effective than starting with
the rules (e.g., “Eliminate wordiness by doing this, this, and this.”).
4.Teach students real-world grammar and not just textbook grammar.
In the real world, grammar rules can change over time and can be subjective or contested. In
grades 11–12, students are expected to “resolve issues of complex or contested usage, consulting
19
Copyright © 2013 Eye On Education, Inc. Larchmont, NY. All rights reserved, www.eyeonducation.com.
The Common Core Made Easy
A Collection of Tips, Resources, and Ideas
references… as needed” (Language Standard 1b). The serial comma is an example of grammar rule that
is contested. Some publications use the serial comma (also known as the Oxford comma) and some do
not. (We like it here at Eye On Education!)
5.Don’t just teach students grammar; teach them how to learn grammar.
The Common Core requires students to use reference materials. Students need to know how to be
independent learners who can figure things out on their own. After all, they won’t always have a
teacher telling them which part of speech to use.
6.Show students how grammar helps us communicate more clearly.
Give examples of how incorrect grammar can lead to miscommunication. Students will be more
motivated to learn grammar when they see its importance.
7.Show students how grammar can affect our impression of one another.
Have a discussion with students about grammar in the real world. If a fancy store has a mistake on its
sign, does the mistake affect your impression of the store? Why or why not?
8.Avoid negative modeling when possible.
Be careful not to spend too much time on the wrong way to write something. If you flood your
whiteboard with incorrect sentences (e.g., “Jessica and me went to the movies”), those sentences might
start sticking in students’ heads more, even though your intention was to break students of the habit.
9.Teach students the rules—and when to break them.
For example, sometimes it’s okay to end a sentence with a preposition. In some cases, adhering to a
grammar rule can make you sound stuffy or silly. As Churchill famously said, “There is some nonsense
up with which I will not put!” (My sixth-grade students loved that example.) Common Core Literacy
Lesson Plans (http://bit.ly/Zm8IGH) has another example of breaking the rules: Active voice is usually
preferred, but in scientific writing, you may want to use passive voice. That’s because in science,
sometimes the action is more important than the subject (e.g., “The chemical was added to the
mixture”).
10.Teach students the importance of audience and purpose when making language decisions.
Students need to make decisions about when to use formal or informal grammar. They should
consider audience and purpose. The CCSS require that students learn to apply grammar in increasingly
sophisticated contexts.
This post was originally published on December 19, 2012.
20
Copyright © 2013 Eye On Education, Inc. Larchmont, NY. All rights reserved, www.eyeonducation.com.
The Common Core Made Easy
A Collection of Tips, Resources, and Ideas
21
Copyright © 2013 Eye On Education, Inc. Larchmont, NY. All rights reserved, www.eyeonducation.com.
The Common Core Made Easy
A Collection of Tips, Resources, and Ideas
About the Author
Lauren Davis has been Senior Editor at Eye On
Education since May 2011. She is the author of the
popular white paper “5 Things Every Teacher Should Be
Doing to Meet the Common Core State Standards,” and
presented a well-attended webinar on the same topic in
May 2012.
Lauren is a regular blogger on Eye On Education’s blog
and writes a bi-monthly column called Comments on the
Common Core, which began in August 2012. Lauren was
one of three judges for Education World’s Community
Lesson Plan Contest and she recently published a blog
post for SmartBlog on Education called “Should I Teach
Problem-, Project-, or Inquiry-Based Learning?”
Previously, Lauren served as Senior Editor of Weekly
Reader’s Current Events, a classroom news magazine
for students in grades 6-12. She also spent five years as
Director of Language Arts at Amsco School Publications,
a publisher of workbooks and other resources for
secondary students.
Lauren began her career in the classroom. She taught sixth-grade ELA in Westchester, NY, and
she also taught seventh- and eleventh-grade English in New York City. She is passionate about
engaging students in learning. Her book series, Common Core Literacy Lesson Plans: Ready-to-Use
Resources (http://bit.ly/Zm8IGH), was published by Eye On Education in September 2012.
For information about permission to reproduce and distribute this eBook, please contact
Toby Gruber, Director, Professional Services, Eye On Education, at (914) 308-0520 or
tgruber@eyeoneducation.com.
22
Copyright © 2013 Eye On Education, Inc. Larchmont, NY. All rights reserved, www.eyeonducation.com.