Literacy

Key Features of the ELA Common Core Standards

Highlights of Literacy Resources

KEY FEATURES OF THE ELA COMMON CORE STANDARDS

Reading: Text complexity and the growth of comprehension

The Reading standards place equal emphasis on the sophistication of what students read and the skill with which they read. Standard 10 defines a grade-by-grade “staircase” of increasing text complexity that rises from beginning reading to the college and career readiness level. Whatever they are reading, students must also show a steadily growing ability to discern more from and make fuller use of text, including making an increasing number of connections among ideas and between texts, considering a wider range of textual evidence, and becoming more sensitive to inconsistencies, ambiguities, and poor reasoning in texts.

Writing: Text types, responding to reading, and research

The Standards acknowledge the fact that whereas some writing skills, such as the ability to plan, revise, edit, and publish, are applicable to many types of writing; other skills are more properly defined in terms of specific writing types: arguments, informative/explanatory texts, and narratives. Standard 9 stresses the importance of the writing-reading connection by requiring students to draw upon and write about evidence from literary and informational texts. Because of the centrality of writing to most forms of inquiry, research standards are prominently included in this strand, though skills important to research are infused throughout the document.

Speaking and Listening: Flexible communication and collaboration

Including but not limited to skills necessary for formal presentations, the Speaking and Listening standards require students to develop a range of broadly useful oral communication and interpersonal skills. Students must learn to work together, express and listen carefully to ideas, integrate information from oral, visual, quantitative, and media sources, evaluate what they hear, use media and visual displays strategically to help achieve communicative purposes, and adapt speech to context and task.

Language: Conventions, effective use, and vocabulary

The Language standards include the essential “rules” of standard written and spoken English, but they also approach language as a matter of craft and informed choice among alternatives. The vocabulary standards focus on understanding words and phrases, their relationships, and their nuances and on acquiring new vocabulary, particularly general academic and domain-specific words and phrases.

HIGHLIGHTS OF LITERACY RESOURCES

Continuum of Literacy Learning

This resource provides curriculum coherence within and across grade levels as it names and categorizes what students, kindergarten through 5th grade can be expected to demonstrate in language and literacy learning. The Continuum includes seven instructional contexts: interactive read aloud and literature discussion; shared and performance reading; writing about reading; writing; oral, visual and technological communication; phonics, spelling and word study; and guided reading. These aspects of language and literacy learning contribute substantially, in different but complementary ways, to children’s development of reading, writing and language processes. The Guided Reading Section identifies behaviors to notice, teach, and support at each text level. These behaviors are organized by thinking within the text, beyond the text, and about the text and the strategies aligned with each. The Continuum can be used as a guide to:

  • Provide a foundation for teaching for individual, small-group and whole-group instruction.
  • Support PLC planning and identifying goals and expectations.
  • Evaluate student progress over time.
  • Communicate the kind of information you need to provide to parents.
  • Bridge assessment data and the specific teaching that children need and next steps.

Units of Study in Opinion, Information and Narrative Writing

These Units of Study, developed by Lucy Calkins' and team at Columbia's Teachers' College, provide a coherent, yearlong writing curriculum founded on the expectations of the Common Core State Standards for Kindergarten through 8th Grade. A part of this resource is the assessment system, Writing Pathways, which includes on-demand prompts, language progressions, rubrics and student checklists for each of the three types of writing. Professional development and support for PLC work is provided through A Guide to the Common Core Writing Workshop, Writing Pathways and the IF…Then…Curriculum which supports differentiated instruction.

Writing Strategies

This resource, by Jennifer Serravallo, provides 300 strategies for writing with skill and craft across ten goals. The resource can serve to introduce a strategy to the whole class, differentiate in small groups, and provide instruction to meet individual needs and goals through one-to-one writing conferences.

Reading Strategies

This resource, by Jennifer Serravallo, provides 300 strategies for skilled reading across thirteen goals. The resource can serve to introduce a strategy to the whole class, support small group/guided reading instruction, and provide instruction to meet individual needs and goals through one-to-one reading conferences.

Comprehension Toolkits

The Comprehension Toolkit (3-6) and the Primary Comprehension Toolkit (K-2), by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Godvis, address the six strategy clusters that form the foundation of comprehension: Monitoring; Activating and Connecting; Asking Questions; Inferring Meaning; Determining Importance; and Summarizing and Synthesizing. Workshop Lessons to model and teach these strategies as well as assessment supports are included.

Phonics Lessons: Letters, words and how they work (K-2) and Word Study Lessons (3)

The Phonics and Word Study resource, by Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell, provides a comprehensive framework comprised of nine categories of foundational Language and Literacy Learning: Early Literacy Concepts, Phonological and Phonemic Awareness, Letter Knowledge, Letter/Sound Relationships, Spelling Patterns, High Frequency Words, Word Meaning, Word Structure and Word-Solving Actions. The resource provides mini-lessons and assessment supports.

Spelling Patterns and Strategies (4-5)

This resource, by Sandra provides an inquiry-based approach to spelling instruction that engages students in exploring the spelling patterns they are already starting to internalize and developing the strategies and spelling consciousness that will help them fine-tune their spelling.