Teaching the Common Core Literature Standards in Grades 2-5

Strategies, Mentor Texts, and Units of Study

Lisa Morris

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781138856165
• eBook ISBN: 9781317517238
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Shifting your literature instruction to meet the Common Core can be tricky. The standards are specific about how students should analyze characters, themes, point of view, and more. In this new book, Lisa Morris makes it easy by taking you through the standards and offering tons of practical strategies, tools, and mentor texts for grades 2-5. She shows you how to combine the standards into effective units of study so that you can teach with depth rather than worry about coverage. Topics covered include:

• Teaching questioning, inferring, and author's purpose;
• Guiding readers to look at themes and write summaries;
• Showing students how to recognize structural elements of literature;
• Teaching the craft of writing and vocabulary development; and
• Helping students analyse characters and character development.

Throughout this highly practical book, you'll find a variety of charts and other graphic organizers that can be easily adapted for classroom use. A list of suggested mentor texts is also available as a free eResource from our website, www.routledge.com/books/details/9781138856172.

Chapter 1

Embracing the Language of the Standards and Creating a Curriculum

“If you are going to get anywhere in life you have to read a lot of books.”

Roald Dahl

General Information about the Common Core State Standards

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are an effort by educators to define a base knowledge of skills that students should develop in grades K-12. The underlying goal of the standards is for students to graduate from high school prepared for college and careers. Additional information is available on the CCSS website (www.corestandards.org).

If you are an educator, principal, or other educational professional, you know about the Common Core State Standards. For the past 3 years, these standards have been the root of many a faculty meeting, collegial discussion, workshop, etc. It is my goal, with this book, not to teach teachers about the standards, but how to effectively use and understand the standards. Educators have a wide assortment of valuable lessons, resources, and activities that have been proven effective in teaching. This is not the time to reinvent the wheel, rather a time to dig a little deeper and with a confident conviction that the standards will not dominate teaching, rather enhance it.

The goals of this book are to:

1. review the standards and key shifts for ELA;

2. correlate the standards in grades 2–5 to create a spiral curriculum for Reading Literature;

3. show effective ways to organize teaching materials into units of study;

4. provide lessons, ideas, suggestions, mentor text lists, and activities that will help classroom teachers with prescriptive planning;

5. recognize the importance of the craft and structure of texts.

Key Shifts for English Language Arts and Literacy

• Shift 1: Balancing Informational & Literary Text

Students read a true balance of informational and literary texts.

• Shift 2: Knowledge in the Disciplines

Students build knowledge about the world (domains/content areas) through TEXT rather than solely by the teacher.

• Shift 3: Staircase of Complexity

Students read the central, grade-appropriate text around which instruction is centered. Teachers are patient, create more time and space and support in the curriculum for close reading.

• Shift 4: Text-based Answers

Students engage in rich and rigorous evidence-based conversations about text.

• Shift 5: Writing from Sources

Writing emphasizes use of evidence from sources to inform or make an argument.

• Shift 6: Academic Vocabulary

Students constantly build the transferable vocabulary they need to access grade-level complex texts. This can be done effectively by spiraling like content in increasingly complex texts.

Key Features of the Standards

• Reading: Text complexity and growth of comprehension

The reading standards place equal emphasis on the complexity of what students read and the skill with which they read.

• Writing: Text types, responding to reading, and research

The writing standards acknowledge the fact that while some writing skills (e.g., the ability to plan, revise, edit, and publish) apply to many types of writing, other skills relate to specific types of writing: arguments, informative/explanatory texts, and narratives.

• Speaking and listening: Flexible communication and collaboration

The speaking and listening standards require students to develop a range of broadly useful oral communication and interpersonal skills, not just skills needed for formal presentations.

• Language: Conventions (grammar), effective use, and vocabulary

The language standards include the essential “rules” of standard written and spoken English, but they also look at language as a matter of craft and making choices.

Common Concerns of the Standards

Let’s face it, when first introduced, the Common Core did not make educators feel warm and cozy. As time went by, more and more opposition seemed to surface. There was a good reason for the concerns. Change feels uncomfortable sometimes. After reading article after article on the pros and cons of this new educational movement, I found that a few common concerns among most of what I read were:

1. The CCSS would standardize instruction and eliminate creativity in the classrooms.

My Thoughts: Teachers are dedicated and we know that if a few guidelines are provided, we will add the essential creative components necessary to create thought-provoking lessons. The new CCSS do not take this away from us. They are standards, they will guide us. But in the end it is the teacher who is the facilitator and knows the needs of the students. We should never lose sight of this.

2. Educators and parents alike felt that the standards emphasized high-stakes exams and would cause undue stress in students.

My Thoughts: The “stress of the test” has been around longer than the CCSS. It is my opinion that other movements in education have more to do with this point rather than the Standards. Educators know that standardized tests are never going away, but, if teachers can find a balance between “Relax it is only a test” and “Let’s take this seriously,” then our focus remains on a positive classroom environment conducive to learning.

Reasons I Have Embraced the Standards

After I carefully studied the standards, I could see the validity of the objectives and the open-ended nature of the verbiage. I found several positive and innovative ways to look at our curriculum.

1. I feel that the CCSS have actually allowed creativity to be more present in the classrooms. Think about it for a minute. The standards have now become more streamlined in the amount of content we need to teach. This allows more time for the units of study and project-based curriculum that is essential to creativity.

2. “Depth, not just coverage” can be the new mantra in our classrooms; it has been mine for the past 15 years, regardless of a program, mandate, or new educational movement. The CCSS took a buffet of teaching objectives and removed some from our “plates”. Because of this, teachers can slow down and focus more on each standard. Do you want to have a choice of thirty objectives or nine standards?

3. I am very excited about the concept of pairing fiction and non-fiction texts and resources in my teaching. Blending genres in all subject areas requires more critical thinking and increases rigor. It (once again I repeat myself a bit) allows time for the creative juices to flow and the varying genres to be recognized. Let me give an example here. Imagine for a moment that I have asked my students to select a fictional chapter book, of their choice, to read. Afterwards I ask for them to look closer at the life of that author and research information about his/her life. Finally I show them how to locate quotes from famous people or song lyrics to help add details about the message of their book. Then, when a summary is written about their chapter book, my students have some very creative tools that can be used on many formative and summative written assessments.

The world of education is a definite balancing act. Year after year things seem to change. One thing that remains constant to me is that teachers work hard to get vital information and instruction across to their students—learning will take place. I also know that the information in this book can help teachers focus on teaching reading literature, and teach it well and with confidence.

An Overview of the Reading Standards for Literature

I am a pretty simple person and I like my home life and my classroom life to be the same. Too much chaos and my brain becomes overloaded and I become a “Jack of all trades but a master of none.” So a couple of years ago I did the best thing for myself and for my students, I slowed down. I know with the onset of the CCSS this notion sounds too simplistic and a little crazy … but it helped me become a better teacher. I am less stressed, I enjoy my job more and my students are excited to be in class. I do not want anyone to think I am teaching in “Edutopia” because that place does not exist. I am, however, embracing and understanding the CCSS by taking them one at a time. And because I am taking my time to embrace each opportunity the standards have to align my instructional objectives, my teaching has become one of depth and not coverage. And in the end, it is the students in my classroom who are benefiting the most.

When I first looked over the standards I was a touch baffled, even after 24 years of teaching, because of the wealth of information that was coming my way all at once. I barely had time to read the new standards when all of a sudden “the shifts” in ELA were provided to me combined with a mountain of websites of information and to top it off a brand new reading series was presented. I panicked. I could feel my brain going into overload so I took a deep breath and activated my prior knowledge and I slowly began breathe and take one standard for Reading Literature at a time.

One initial method that worked for me was to categorize the standards for Reading Literature. I took one standard at a time and I highlighted the key terms that I knew would turn into my objectives and essential questions. Then I began pulling my existing files and new information I had gathered and started organizing. I rummaged through my supply closet (literally) and found a crate with hanging file folders and went to work. I labeled each folder with the standard number and on sticky notes and notecards I documented all of the key teaching moments that became evident. In the end I had nine fo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Meet the Author
• 1 Embracing the Language of the Standards and Creating a Curriculum
• 2 Questioning, Inferring, and Author’s Purpose: A Likely Trio for Comprehension
• 3 Guiding Students to Write Sensational Summaries and Recognize Themes
• 4 Reading with Close Comprehension Through Character Analysis and Story Elements
• 5 Reading Closely to Recognize the Importance of Craft and Vocabulary Development
• 6 Recognizing the Structural Elements of Prose, Poetry, and Drama