Your Literacy Standards Companion, Grades K-2. Jim Burke
With an all too keen sense of my own limited time, I began to create a version of the Common Core State Standards that better met my needs, one I could keep by my side and reference quickly when planning, writing, or participating in meetings related to the Common Core standards. When teachers saw it, they wanted their own copies, and the result was The Common Core Companion—one for grades 6–8 and another for 9–12, which were both published in 2013.
What’s the big idea behind Your Literacy Standards Companion? It’s inefficient for us all across the nation to spend time deciphering what our specific state standards say and digesting what they mean for teaching and learning, so I wrote the Companion to do that for you. With this book at your side, you can reclaim hours of time to do the most important work: develop your instructional ideas (and the standards themselves) into rich, engaging learning experiences for our students that meet the standards’ higher expectations.
Because I often work with literacy coordinators who are responsible for all students in their district, I wanted these Companion books to be K–12, districtwide, and school-wide tools. That way teachers and administrators could hit the ground running as they implemented the standards and envisioned professional development that would support all teachers. But I had one problem: I was not an elementary school teacher. For teachers in grades 3–5, I thought of Leslie Blauman, an exemplary teacher and guide to teachers around the country.
When it came to someone in grades K–2, I did not have to think long about whom to ask, for in those grades, all roads lead to Sharon Taberski, whose books Comprehension From the Ground Up and On Solid Ground did for K–3 instruction what Julia Child did for French cooking. She’s that good. And she is also a wise, patient, and generous friend and mentor to any who know her.
More important than her landmark books is the fact that Sharon taught in her own classroom for 28 years and still works in classrooms, now in her role as a coach for teachers. She brings to this K–2 volume what I hoped she would: the ability to carefully balance the high demands of the standards with the developmental needs of young children.
So without further ado, and with deepest gratitude for all she has taught me through the process of writing this book, I introduce you to Your Literacy Standards Companion, Grades K–2. If you’re looking for someone to help you understand and, more important, use the state standards in your classroom, you have come to the right place, for with Sharon Taberski, you are in good hands. Trust her to help you create exemplary standards-aligned K–2 literacy instruction that will allow you to be the teacher you have been and are capable of becoming.
Jim Burke
Introduction: Turning Standards Into Daily Teaching
Every time we experience a problem, we have the opportunity to gather new resources, think about it, frame it, and take action.
—Renate N. Caine and Geoffrey Caine, Natural Learning for a Connected World
An excellent education should not be an accident; it should be a right, though nowhere in the United States Constitution or any of our other founding documents do we find that right listed. The Common Core State Standards address that omission and challenge us all—administrators and teachers, parents and children, politicians and the public at large, professors and student teachers—to commit ourselves anew to the success of our children and our country.
This is how Jim Burke opened grades 6–8 and 9–12 of The Common Core Companion, the four-volume ELA series he conceived of for Corwin Literacy in 2013. In the 3 years since, these books and the volumes for K–2 and grades 3–5 have been so-called “evergreen” bestsellers, because they help educators everywhere get the important work done of transforming standards into daily learning outcomes. A series for Common Core Mathematics Companion also thrives. Here’s the interesting thing: Corwin sales data showed robust book sales even in states that never adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS)—educators were purchasing the books to help them refresh or reimagine their own state standards. When Leslie Blauman, the author of the grades 3–5 version, and I heard of these sales, it made great sense: educators are brilliant at adapting resources to suit their needs. Yet maybe more important, it underscored for us that while the politics and assessments tied to the CCSS are fraught—and Leslie and I knew from the get-go of the CCSS adoption that they would be—the standards themselves are timeless and true to what we want our students to be able to do.
It also didn’t surprise Leslie, Jim, and me when Corwin Literacy saw this market need and decided to issue this new version, Your Literacy Standards Companion, with indexes for each state that opted out of the CCSS, to make it easier for users to go right to the pages most aligned to their state’s standards. The following states have indexes in this book:
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
Colorado
Florida
Georgia
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Louisiana
Maryland
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Nebraska
New Jersey
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Tennessee
Utah
Virginia
West Virginia
As I write this revised introduction and reflect on how any standards are best put into practice, my advice to you on how to use this resource is twofold: first, overall I would use the “What to Teach” pages as springboards to planning curriculum and deciding upon instructional methods you want each grade level teacher to use. The authors of the CCSS shared the “what,” but it’s up to us to understand the “why” and provide the “how.” Second, I would recommend that you view the standards and this companion from the vantage point of your students’ needs and readiness and make adjustments accordingly. For example, there may be times when you should refer to the standards for an earlier grade because your students are more aligned with those skills and behaviors. At other times, you’ll feel the need to advance instruction and look at the grade level ahead of the grade you teach. Both decisions are yours to make. The CCSS are guidelines and a wonderful resource for teachers whether or not your state has formally adopted them. It’s we educators, assigned with the responsibility of making the day-to-day decisions regarding what to teach, who get to plan the teaching and learning experiences that bring any standard to life.
What the Standards Expect of Us
I cannot emphasize enough that the principles of the Common Core document leave it up to us, the practitioners, to design the teaching and learning that will get students to the goals, and so we need to rise to this challenge and not let others define teaching and learning for us. As the document states,
by emphasizing required achievements, the Standards leave room for teachers, curriculum developers, and states to determine how those goals should be reached and what additional topics should be addressed. Thus, the Standards do not mandate such things as a particular writing process or the full range of metacognitive strategies that students may need to monitor and direct their thinking and learning. Teachers are thus free to provide students with whatever tools and knowledge their professional judgment and experience identify as most helpful for meeting the goals set out in the Standards. (CCSS, 2010, p. 4)
The