Document Publishers’ Criteria for the CCSS in ELA/Literacy for Grades K-8 Provides criteria for publishers and curriculum developers as they work to ensure alignment of materials in grades K-8 with the Common Core State Standards in English language arts and literacy for history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. 9-pg PDF.
Material Type: Reading
The Compare & Contrast Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to organize and outline their ideas for different kinds of comparison essays.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Interactive
Students become familiar with the similarities and differences between electronic and printed text by comparing the textual aids included in a textbook with those of an educational website.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
Using picture books as mentor texts, students learn effective strategies for organizing information that compares and contrasts. Students can then apply appropriate organizational strategies to their own papers.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
The Comparison and Contrast Guide outlines the characteristics of the genre and provides direct instruction on the methods of organizing, gathering ideas, and writing comparison and contrast essays.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Interactive
Thorough explanation of the how and why of text-dependent questions for close, analytic reading. Includes examples. The Common Core State Standards for reading strongly focus on students gathering evidence, knowledge, and insight from what they read. Indeed, eighty to ninety percent of the Reading Standards in each grade require text dependent analysis; accordingly, aligned curriculum materials should have a similar percentage of text dependent questions. As the name suggests, a text dependent question specifically asks a question that can only be answered by referring explicitly back to the text being read. It does not rely on any particular background information extraneous to the text nor depend on students having other experiences or knowledge; instead it privileges the text itself and what students can extract from what is before them.
Material Type: Reading, Teaching/Learning Strategy
Schoolhouse Rock: Conjunction Junction
Material Type: Lecture
In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students learn how the theory that explains the position of Earth's continents was established and later modified, and gain important insights into how science and the scientific community operate.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Students explore the menu genre by analyzing existing menus from local restaurants. They review adjectives and descriptive writing and then work in groups to create their own custom menus.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
Students investigate how and why copyright law has changed over time, and apply this information to recent copyright issues, creating persuasive arguments based on the perspective of a particular group.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
Students will eat up this lesson about oranges as they practice the skills that help them investigate and make detailed observations for descriptive purposes.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
Students compare and analyze novels and the movies adapted from them. They design new DVD covers and a related insert for the movies, reflecting their response to the movie version.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan, Unit of Study
What if students could see the relevance of their school curriculum to real-world, interesting, STEM-related careers? Let's help them create a great future!
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
Students view examples of blogs, learn the basic elements of blog creation, and then create a blog from the perspective of a fictional character.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
Students are more likely to meet Common Core expectations for reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language if they are working with texts on a regular basis. Organizing a curriculum around a series of text sets can provide those opportunities for students. This organization is supported by the PARCC Model Content Frameworks.
Material Type: Teaching/Learning Strategy
This lesson teaches intermediate students to "use the experts" to learn how to revise to create sharp, sensory-rich experiences for their readers.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
Students learn how to get their voice out on the web when they research issues important to them and compose a persuasive podcast to post online.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
Students are exposed to wordless picture books and begin developing story lines, both orally and in writing, using an online, interactive story map.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
Students practice writing detailed, sensory-rich descriptions by framing a small piece of nature and freewriting about it. From this minilesson, students can develop a variety of types of writing.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
Students take their ideas from the classroom page to the community pavement when they participate in a service-learning project based on their multimedia presentations.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan, Unit of Study
