Common Core, Unit by Unit

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION: Why Plan Differently for the Common Core?

  • Josh Needs to Read Better 
  • Teaching Josh Means Action Planning 
  • Why Plan Differently?
  • How to Read This “How To” Book

1. Articulate Long-Range Plans

  • Seeing the Need to Change
  • Change at Both the Classroom and System Level 
  • Surface Change vs. Substantive Change 
  • The Steps in Long-Range Planning
  • Keys to Help You Make This Critical Move

2. Envision Contextualized Content

  • How Will Andrew Respond? 
  • Walking a Mile in Boo Radley’s Shoes 
  • Planning a Compelling Context for Reading 
  • Using Intriguing Questions to Test Theories 
  • Investigating Local Issues 
  • Exploring Local History 
  • Examining Ideas from Multiple Perspectives 
  • Analyzing Mentor Texts 
  • The Challenge of Context plus Complexity 
  • Finding Complex Yet Compelling Texts 
  • Keys to Help You Make This Critical Move

3. Develop Student-Shared Goals

  • How Historians Read 
  • Where Student-Shared Learning Targets Come From 
  • Creating and Organizing a Variety of Targets 
  • Creating Targets and Matched Assessments 
  • Daily Structures to Ensure That Students Understand and Use the Targets 
  • Moving Beyond Tracking 
  • The Impact of Clear Targets and Assessments on Student Learning 
  • Keys to Help You Make This Critical Move

4. Select Strategies That Build Understanding

  • The Problem with Assigning and Assessing 
  • Shifting to Prepare-Process-Assess 
  • Foundational Strategies: Close Reading and Strategic Questioning 
  • Preparing Students for Close Reading 
  • A Close Look at Close Reading 
  • Strategies That Help Students Dig Even Deeper 
  • Assessing Students’ Reading Work 
  • Designing Close-Reading Lessons 
  • Designing Strategic Questions 
  • Selecting Additional Processing Strategies 
  • Keys to Help You Make This Critical Move 
  • Reproducible Classroom Tools

5. Purposefully Differentiate

  • Purposefully Meeting Students’ Readiness Needs
  • Purposeful Pre-assessment
  • An Essential Approach: Tiered Processing Activities
  • The Power of Choice
  • Choice by Learning Preference
  • It’s Planning Time Spent Now or Later
  • Keys to Help You Make This Critical Move

Parting Thoughts