Teaching Common Core English Language Arts Standards. Patricia M. Cunningham
studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has taught at the elementary and secondary levels and served as a consultant with schools, districts, and other education agencies in twenty-five states.
Dr. Cunningham has written books, book chapters, research articles, professional articles, and scholarly reviews. He has spoken at many U.S. and international conferences. He was a member of the Text Complexity Committee for the Common Core State Standards for English language arts. He is a member of the Reading Hall of Fame.
He earned a master’s degree and doctorate in reading education from the University of Georgia.
To book Patricia M. Cunningham or James W. Cunningham for professional development, contact [email protected].
Introduction
There are not enough hours in a day or days in a school year to teach the Common Core State Standards for English language arts (CCSS ELA) one at a time. And there is no reason to! The idea underlying this book is that many of these standards relate to and complement each other, and teachers can develop them simultaneously. An integrated lesson in which students gather information through listening or reading and communicate with each other by speaking or writing can help you work toward several of these goals at the same time, or as Pat’s mother would have put it, “Kill two (or more) birds with one stone!”
A Plethora of Standards
You may be familiar with the standards you are expected to teach in your grade. However, in many schools, teachers are less familiar with the standards in other grades. If the task of implementing the CCSS ELA feels overwhelming to you and your fellow elementary teachers, there are over 250 good reasons for that. Yes, there are thirty-two anchor standards and 250 grade-specific standards—250 standards that kindergarten through fifth-grade teachers are expected to implement and teach to their students (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices [NGA] & Council of Chief State School Officers [CCSSO], 2010). Skeptical about the mathematics? Table I.1 presents the breakdown.
Table I.1: K–5 CCSS ELA
* There is no literature standard for Reading standard eight (RL.8; see NGA & CCSSO, 2010, pp. 11–12).
Actually, even this count may underestimate the challenge. Yes, a second-grade teacher has forty separate English language arts standards to teach and assess this year. However, many of these standards have multiple goals! For example, Language standard four (L.2.4) requires second graders to:
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 2 reading and content, choosing flexibly from an array of strategies.
a.Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
b.Determine the meaning of the new word formed when a known prefix is added to a known word (e.g., happy/unhappy, tell/ retell).
c.Use a known root word as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word with the same root (e.g., addition, additional).
d.Use knowledge of the meaning of individual words to predict the meaning of compound words (e.g., birdhouse, lighthouse, housefly; bookshelf, notebook, bookmark).
e.Use glossaries and beginning dictionaries, both print and digital, to determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases. (NGA & CCSSO, 2010, p. 27)
Teachers have to teach these strategies to second graders. So, is Language standard four (L.2.4) one standard, or is it actually six?
A fifth-grade teacher has forty-three separate standards to teach and assess this year, and many of these standards also have multiple goals. For instance, Writing standard two (W.5.2) requires fifth graders to:
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
a.Introduce a topic clearly, provide a general observation and focus, and group related information logically; include formatting (e.g., headings), illustrations, and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
b.Develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples related to the topic.
c.Link ideas within and across categories of information using words, phrases, and clauses (e.g., in contrast, especially).
d.Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.
e.Provide a concluding statement or section related to the information or explanation presented. (NGA & CCSSO, 2010, p. 20)
If you teach second grade, there are sixty goals included in the forty standards. If you teach fifth grade, that number is eighty-five. Teachers of other grades are in a similar predicament. This analysis also assumes your students have all mastered the goals set for the previous grades. Is that a reasonable assumption? What about the struggling students in every school? What about the students who transfer into your school each year from somewhere else? Shouldn’t you expect to reteach or review at least a few of the standards from previous grades? How can you possibly teach this huge number of capabilities in a way that all your students will learn them?
Moreover, in order to teach the CCSS, you must understand the special terminology and dot notation used to distinguish them: strands, anchor standards, domains, grade-specific standards, and grade bands.
•Strands are the four main divisions for the standards: (1) Reading, (2) Writing, (3) Speaking and Listening, and (4) Language. The Reading strand has two parts: Reading Standards for Literature (RL) and Reading Standards for Informational Text (RI). Foundational Skills (RF) are a third part specific to grades K–5 (see NGA & CCSSO, 2010b, pp. 15–17).
•Anchor standards define general, cross-disciplinary expectations for college and career readiness (CCRA). The anchor standards are numbered consecutively for each strand. For example, CCSS ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.1 signifies college and career readiness anchor standard (CCRA), Reading strand (R), and anchor standard one (1). In this book, we use a simplified version of the standard designation—CCRA.R.1.
•Domains define categories of anchor standards for each of the strands. The domains are consistent across the grades and ensure continuity as the standards increase in rigor and complexity. The four domains in the Writing strand are (1) Text Types and Purposes, (2) Production and Distribution of Writing, (3) Research to Build and Present Knowledge, and (4) Range of Writing (see NGA & CCSSO, 2010, p. 18).
•Grade-specific standards define what students should understand and be able to do at the end of the year. These standards correspond to anchor standards with the same number designation. For example, RL.5.1 represents Reading Standards for Literature (RL), fifth grade (5), and standard one (1) in the domain Key Ideas and Details. Similarly, SL.3.1 represents Speaking and Listening (SL), third grade (3), and standard one (1) in the domain Comprehension and Collaboration. Additionally, we refer to standards that are applicable to all grades K–5 by the strand and standard number. For example, Reading for literature standard one, or just RL.1, and Language standard five, or just L.5, represent grades K–5.
•Grade levels and grade bands are groupings of standards