The Common Core English Language Arts (CCSS ELA) standards were developed to provide our kids a relevant, engaging, rigorous education. At the heart of the standards are three major shifts to the way we teach our students. This year I have been fortunate enough to have one of the bloggers on our state’s CoreLaborate blog.
I managed to write a complete series on the three shifts called for in the CCSS ELA thanks to a series of trainings I attended. I attended two trainings put together by my state’s teacher union, the Washington Education Association (WEA) and a similar training put together by Achieve the Core. I have to admit that it took me all three of those trainings before I actually started to get it because there’s so much there. I ended up writing two posts for the 1st shift, two posts for the second shift and one post for the third shift. Now I teach Science and I am working on wrapping my brain around the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and since Science includes reading, researching and writing, the CCSS ELA standards are appropriate for me too. Learning about the shifts was very helpful and I got a lot of great information and resources at the trainings that I share in my shift posts.
I’m going to link to all five shift posts here so they are in one place and easy to access (reading them in order will probably be the most helpful):
Shift 1, Regular practice with complex text and its academic language. Part 1 and Part 2
Shift 2, Reading, writing and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational. Part 1 and Part 2
Shift 3, Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction. Part 1
