Mapping Comprehensive Units to the ELA Common Core Standards, K–5

Translating the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) into an effective curriculum is at the top of many educators′ to-do lists, and this book shows you how. Master teacher and curriculum specialist Kathy T. Glass familiarizes teachers and curriculum designers with the key points of the ELA Common Core Standards and demonstrates how to design effective curriculum units to align with them. She provides practical and accessible tools for developing a unit map and for making the important connections among all map components, including differentiated instruction. Also included are: A rationale for each component of unit and lesson design Practical, quality instruments to plan exciting, content-rich units of study aligned to the CCSS Reproducible templates and examples of unit curriculum maps and sample lessons In addition, this practitioner-friendly guide provides templates, exercises, rubrics, and assessment tools and instructional strategies. A companion website offers helpful online resources that readers can download and use. Teachers, curriculum designers or directors, administrators, PLC members, and others who plan to use the Common Core State Standards to write meaningful and effective curriculum will find valuable navigational assistance from a skilled and experienced professional throughout these pages.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures Foreword by Cindy A. Strickland Acknowledgments About the Author Introduction 1. Standards and Knowledge 2. Essential Understandings and Guiding Questions 3. Unit Template With Examples 4. Assessments 5. Skills, Activities, Formative Assessments, and Resources 6. Differentiated Instruction 7. Lesson Design Resource: A Brief Primer on the ELA Common Core Standards References Index

About the Author :
Consulting Description Kathy Glass is a former teacher who consults and presents nationally with K-12 teachers and administrators at schools, districts, conferences, and county offices of education. She offers a blend of professional development (PD) topics to target audiences in areas affecting curriculum and instruction. To deliver customized PD, she assists educators with strategic planning to determine objectives. Then she tailors PD based on requested topics such as, but not limited to: · highlights of the ELA Common Core Standards · implementation of the ELA Common Core or other standards-based curriculum using a backward design approach · essential understandings and guiding questions to frame curriculum and instruction · differentiated tools and instructional strategies · pre-, formative, summative, and self-assessments · alignment of six-traits writing instruction and assessment to curriculum goals · unit and yearlong curriculum maps · text-dependent questions to facilitate close reading, and more. To help educators directly translate what she presents into effective classroom practice that impacts students, Kathy can provide a variety of PD opportunities (e.g., presentations, lesson demonstrations and modeling, coaching, collaborative unit design, etc.). She is the author of six books: Mapping Comprehensive Units to the English Language (ELA) Arts Common Core Standards, 6-12 (May, 2013); Mapping Comprehensive Units to the ELA Common Core Standards, K-5 (© 2012); Lesson Design for Differentiated Instruction, Grades 4-9 (©2009); Staff Development Guide for the Parallel Curriculum (©2009); Curriculum Mapping: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Curriculum Year Overviews (©2007); and Curriculum Design for Writing Instruction: Creating Standards-Based Lesson Plans and Rubrics (©2005). In addition, Glass has served as a reader and reviewer for Reader’s Handbook: A Student Guide for Reading and Learning (2002, Great Source Education Group) and as a contributing writer and consultant for the Heath Middle Level Literature series (1995, DC Heath and Co). Website: www.kathyglassconsulting.com; email: kathy@kathyglassconsulting.com

Review :
"Kathy′s book is relevant for teachers, administrators and policymakers as we ramp up to the implementation of Common Core State Standards. Kathy Glass takes the daunting task of reorganizing curriculum and assessments to the new English Language Arts standards and provides clear strategies to make the instructional shift. Her articulation of the new ELA standards combined with templates, rubrics, and samples of formative and interim task assessments will guide teachers through successful implementation." “This book is accessible, easy to follow, and has practical application. The author merges the practices of backward design, curriculum mapping, differentiating instruction, and standards-driven teaching into one usable tool.” "This book is a rich and detailed guide for mapping comprehensive units to the ELA CSS. With a laser focus, the author cuts to the heart of what we need to know, understand, and do, while validating best instructional practices we may already be using. She provides a wealth of examples for better understanding CCSS and aligning comprehensive units to them." “This easy-to-use, step by step guide really makes the process of mapping and curriculum development using the ELA Common Core Standards accessible and seamless. It is an excellent tool for a Professional Learning Community and for new and veteran teachers.” “This book is a rich resource that immerses teachers in the new ELA Common Core Standards, providing them with a practical, quality instrument to plan exciting, content-rich units of study. With effective tools, examples and processes to plan, assess and differentiate instruction, she enables teachers to design lessons and units so that all students achieve to their highest potential.” “This practical and timely book prepares the practitioner to take concrete steps to align curriculum with the CCSS. This resource provides a lot of practical tools and advice for stepping up our work in the elementary grades.”