Getting Ready for the Common Core

Tomorrow I am doing an in-service with another district instructional coach. This is the first of two workshops on the topic of Common Core State Standards: an Introduction.  We are starting the one hour session with an introduction to the standards. As we go over the purpose and goals of the standards along with how these standards are different from the old state standards, the teachers will be involved in the process by working through what they feel is important in this introduction.

The teachers will also investigate the bands of the standards and how the change over the grade levels. They will be grouped into multiple layers of grades. This gives them the opportunity to see and hear what their peers feel is important in their grade levels. It is a way to allow educators to get the "big picture" on what our goals are for children across their school years.

Next week we will take it to another level. This time we are using the book Pathways to the Common Core published by Heinemann.  In chapter five, the authors have shared a way for the teachers to actually feel what it would be like to walk through a unit of study in the reading informative pieces. The bar has been raised and the way we have been teaching just isn't going to cut it any more. We will go through the first three standards in the area. Teachers will talk with their partners and work through how reading at a deeper level actually looks.

Our in-service is to give teachers a taste of what is ahead for them. We will be also giving them the websites for our state DOE as well as the PARCC website. We hope by doing this work, they will be  encouraged to investigate what is ahead for them in the coming year!