Mapping Comprehensive Units to the ELA Common Core Standards, 6–12

Your blueprint for skilled Common Core literacy alignment! Learn to artfully navigate Common Core - or any state/province - standards with concrete, step-by-step instruction from master teacher and curriculum specialist, Kathy Tuchman Glass.  Confidently map a unit of study aligned to Common Core’s rigorous, evidence-based writing and reading requirements.  Dive into in-depth analyses of informational text with supporting essential questions.  Glass walks you through the entire process with manageable chunks that eliminate overwhelm. Chapters include thorough explanations, step-by-step exercises, and detailed templates, assessments, charts, tips, and prompts centered around key CCCS concepts for grades 6–12. Teachers, curriculum committees, grade level teams, and professional development leaders will learn to: Challenge and engage students in all content areas using the CCCS ELA framework Use existing curriculum and materials to design new, CCCS-aligned units of study Identify mandatory CCCS ELA essential understandings for informational text, evidence-based writing and other critical competencies Conduct resource-rich workshops and professional development This all-in-one instructional guide, with a companion website for extra help, improves your professional capacity to create, revise, or critique quality-driven units and lessons aligned to the ELA Common Core. Get this essential blueprint to building high quality 6–12 grade-level curriculum for skilled CCCS literacy-aligned success! "Like them or hate them, the Common Core Standards represent one of the most significant opportunities for improvement schools have faced in decades. This book will be a great help to anyone engaged in the act of translating the Common Core into actual teaching practices." --Jim Knight, Author of High-Impact Instruction

Table of Contents:
List of Figures Foreword Acknowledgments About the Author Introduction Chapter 1: Standards and Knowledge The Purpose of Standards Key Areas of Emphasis in the ELA Common Core Standards Understanding Fiction and Nonfiction Characteristics Definitions of the Common Core Text Types and Sample Prompts What Do Argument Texts Entail? What Do Informative/Explanatory Texts Entail? What Do Narrative Texts Entail? A Closer Look at Appendix C: Samples of Student Writing Identifying and Articulating the Language Standards Across Grades Exercise 1: What Is the Best Way to Group Standards? Unit Focus and Template Considerations for Grouping Standards Grouping Standards: Two Approaches Definition and Examples for Knowledge Exercise 2: How Are Standards Used to Determine What Students Should Know? Looking Ahead Chapter 2: Essential Understandings The Nature and Critical Importance of Essential (or Enduring) Understandings Essential Understandings as Statements of Conceptual Intent Examples of Essential Understandings Aligned to the Anchor Standards for Reading Special Considerations: Time, Intellectual Growth, Clustering Constructing Your Own Essential Understandings Exercise 3: How Do Educators Create (or Revise) Essential Understandings? Sharing Essential Understandings With Your Students Looking Ahead Chapter 3: Guiding Questions The Importance of Guiding Questions Sharing Guiding Questions With Your Students The Differences Between Essential Unit and Lesson Guiding Questions Designing Text-Dependent Questions for Complex Text How Do Teachers Facilitate Close Reading of Complex Texts? Examples of Essential Unit and Lesson Guiding Questions for Grammar and Conventions Constructing Your Own Essential Unit and Lesson Guiding Questions Exercise 4: How Do Educators Create (or Revise) Essential Unit and Lesson Guiding Questions? Looking Ahead Chapter 4: Unit Map Template and Example Customizing and Adapting the Unit Map to Fit Your Needs Organizing Unit Maps and Student Work Looking Ahead Chapter 5: Summative Assessments and Preassessments Types of Assessments Summative (Culminating) Assessments Rubrics Checklists Preassessments Constructing Your Own Summative Assessment Exercise 5: How Do Educators Determine an Appropriate Summative Assessment? Looking Ahead Chapter 6: Skills, Activities, Formative Assessments, and Resources Skills Teaching Strategies and Learning Activities Formative Assessments Resources Identifying Skills and Constructing Activities, Evidence of Assessment, and Resources for Your Targeted Unit Exercise 6: What Targeted Skills With Associated Activities, Evidence of Assessment, and Resources Can Educators Design (and Find) for a Targeted Unit? Looking Ahead Chapter 7: Differentiated Instruction Content, Process, and Product Readiness, Learning Profile, and Interest Instructional Strategy: Rolling Dice or Cubes Instructional Strategy: Using Manipulatives Constructing Your Own Differentiated Instructional Strategies Exercise 7: How Can You Indicate Differentiation on Your Unit Map? Looking Ahead Chapter 8: Lesson Design Lesson Components Sample Lessons Next Steps After Designing Lessons A Final Note Lesson 1: What Are Inferences? How Do I Make Inferences About This Text? Lesson 2: What Is Characterization? How Do Authors Use Characterization to Create and Develop Characters? Lesson 3: What Factors Help Me to Evaluate the Credibility of Sources? Lesson 4: What Are Elements of an Argument Paper? What Are the Expectations for My Finished Argument? Resource: A Brief Primer on the ELA Common Core Standards Creation and Purpose of the Common Core Standards Who Led the Standards Initiative, and What Is the Goal? Who Are the CCSSO and NGA? Content and Structure of the Common Core Standards Research Highlights for the Reading Strand Logistics Can States Add to the Standards? How Can Standards Be Identified? Collaboration, Limitations, and Assessment Who Uses These Standards Besides the ELA Teacher? What Aspects Are Not Covered in the Common Core Standards Document? What to Look for When Aligning Existing Standards With the Common Core Assessments Closing 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. Herarticulation of the new ELA standards combined with templates, rubrics, and samples of formative and interim task assessments will guide teachers through successful implementation."--Tracy A. Huebner, Senior Research Associate "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."--Diane McIver, Principal 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. --Rochelle DeMuccio, Coordinator, English Language Arts and Reading " 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. "--Alesha M. Moreno-Ramirez, K-6 Literacy Consultant "This book is a rich anddetailed 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."--Diane McIver, Principal "This book is a rich, detailed, 'spot-on' guide for mapping comprehensive units to the ELA CCSS. With a laser focus, Kathy Glass cuts to the heart of what we need to know and do as administrators and teachers. She validates and provides rationale for best instructional practices and provides a wealth of detailed examples for better understanding CCSS and how to align comprehensive units to them."--Diane McIver, Principal 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. --Lori Musso, Curriculum Services Administrator 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. --Johnna Becker, 4th Grade Teacher and District Beginning Teachers Support and Assessment Support Provider