Inquiring Into The Common Core

While the Common Core couldn't be clearer about what to teach, they never quite tackle how to teach. That's what makes Inquiring into the Common Core such an essential resource.

Providing clear explanations of inquiry-based learning in the light of the Common Core, this book is a practical and graphical guide that will serve as a much-needed primer for librarians and educators. Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are putting educators under pressure to examine what works and what doesn't. Even with the best efforts, integrating new strategies into daily practice in the classroom or library can be frustrating. This book will help. Providing a professional development toolkit that trains school librarians and teachers and enables them to train others, it presents a sequence of scaffolded essential questions that results in a customized blueprint for effective teaching. The book assembles background building blocks for inquiry and the Common Core, illustrates and connects key concepts on how to introduce inquiry-based learning, and provides effective tools for igniting the Common Core through inquiry-based learning methods. Developed from the crucible of six years of professional development to real-world audiences with deep experience in teaching and school librarianship, this book makes implementing inquiry learning and embracing the Common Core easier for classroom teachers and school librarians who understand the value of these teaching methods but are unsure of the best way to implement them.

Common Core implementation begins with asking the right questions! While the Common Core couldn’t be clearer about what to teach, they never quite tackle how to teach. That’s what makes Inquiring into the Common Core such an essential resource. It offers teachers an inquiry-based professional development model for achieving greater understanding of the standards themselves, then determining best ways to realize desired outcomes. How exactly does the model work? Teachers take charge of their own professional development by posing questions, or wonderings, to stimulate action and higher-level insight into the big ambitions of the Common Core. At the very same time, they engage in a parallel process of inquiry with their students in service of the very same goals. Assisting teachers along the ways, Inquiring into the Common Core provides tools to systematically study teaching effectiveness while adapting to new standards classroom-ready, student inquiry techniques and strategies to apply within Common Core’s framework real life inquiry-implementation examples from a high-need, high-poverty school Ideal for both teams or individual teachers, there’s no better resource for laying the groundwork for successful and thought-provoking classroom actualization amid shifting times.

Timely, thoughtful, and comprehensive, this text directly supports pre-service and in-service teachers in developing curriculum and instruction that both addresses and exceeds the requirements of the Common Core State Standards. Adopting a critical inquiry approach, it demonstrates how the Standards’ highest and best intentions for student success can be implemented from a critical, culturally relevant perspective firmly grounded in current literacy learning theory and research. It provides specific examples of teachers using the critical inquiry curriculum framework of identifying problems and issues, adopting alternative perspectives, and entertaining change in their classrooms to illustrate how the Standards can not only be addressed but also surpassed through engaging instruction. The Second Edition provides new material on adopting a critical inquiry approach to enhance student engagement and critical thinking planning instruction to effectively implement the CCSS in the classroom fostering critical response to literary and informational texts using YA literature and literature by authors of color integrating drama activities into literature and speaking/listening instruction teaching informational, explanatory, argumentative, and narrative writing working with ELL students to address the language Standards using digital tools and apps to respond to and create digital texts employing formative assessment to provide supportive feedback preparing students for the PARCC and Smarter Balanced assessments using the book’s wiki site http://englishccss.pbworks.com for further resources

Practicing librarians and library educators demonstrate the power of inquiry to achieve the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and promote school librarians as key partners in implementing this type of critical teaching and learning in K–12 schools. With the adoption of the CCSS in most of the nation's schools, educators and administrators at K–12 schools have a pressing need to find the best ways to implement these rigorous and comprehensive standards that challenge students to understand informational text and digital content at increasing levels of complexity. This text provides faculty with much-needed support in achieving this critical goal, thoroughly describing inquiry learning and how it links to the CCSS. The authors—nearly 30 contributors total, comprising librarians, library media specialists, educational leaders, teachers from the kindergarten level to college professors, and administrators, each with direct experience and knowledge regarding the subject matter—explain how the standards' emphasis on in-depth investigation and evidence-based reading and writing skills dovetail perfectly with inquiry-based learning initiatives. Acclaimed thought leaders such as Jean Donham, Kristin Fontischiaro, Leslie Maniotes, and Barbara Stripling clearly define and illuminate the librarian's role in school initiatives today and share lesson plans that have been proven effective in actual practice.

Providing clear explanations of inquiry-based learning in the light of the Common Core, this book is a practical and graphical guide that will serve as a much-needed primer for librarians and educators. Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are putting educators under pressure to examine what works and what doesn't. Even with the best efforts, integrating new strategies into daily practice in the classroom or library can be frustrating. This book will help. Providing a professional development toolkit that trains school librarians and teachers and enables them to train others, it presents a sequence of scaffolded essential questions that results in a customized blueprint for effective teaching. The book assembles background building blocks for inquiry and the Common Core, illustrates and connects key concepts on how to introduce inquiry-based learning, and provides effective tools for igniting the Common Core through inquiry-based learning methods. Developed from the crucible of six years of professional development to real-world audiences with deep experience in teaching and school librarianship, this book makes implementing inquiry learning and embracing the Common Core easier for classroom teachers and school librarians who understand the value of these teaching methods but are unsure of the best way to implement them.

Practicing librarians and library educators demonstrate the power of inquiry to achieve the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and promote school librarians as key partners in implementing this type of critical teaching and learning in K–12 schools. With the adoption of the CCSS in most of the nation's schools, educators and administrators at K–12 schools have a pressing need to find the best ways to implement these rigorous and comprehensive standards that challenge students to understand informational text and digital content at increasing levels of complexity. This text provides faculty with much-needed support in achieving this critical goal, thoroughly describing inquiry learning and how it links to the CCSS. The authors—nearly 30 contributors total, comprising librarians, library media specialists, educational leaders, teachers from the kindergarten level to college professors, and administrators, each with direct experience and knowledge regarding the subject matter—explain how the standards' emphasis on in-depth investigation and evidence-based reading and writing skills dovetail perfectly with inquiry-based learning initiatives. Acclaimed thought leaders such as Jean Donham, Kristin Fontischiaro, Leslie Maniotes, and Barbara Stripling clearly define and illuminate the librarian's role in school initiatives today and share lesson plans that have been proven effective in actual practice.

How to ensure your ELA teaching sticks How can you teach for understanding and meet Common Core standards at the same time? The answer: with a concept-based curriculum. Fusing Lynn Erickson's groundbreaking curriculum model with implementation guidelines and sample units, this book puts you on the fast track to using concept-based curriculum in your school or district. Lanning shows you how to design a curriculum that: Functions as a framework for lesson plans Unites the efforts of ELA teachers district-wide Addresses core standards while focusing on student understanding Creates a ripple effect helping to align curriculum, assessments, and instruction