A Close Read of a Close Reading Video

by Tim Shanahan

My daughters are Erin and Meagan. When they were little, Meagan would get upset because we always “ran Erins,” but never “ran Meagans.”

That’s cute when a little one doesn’t know the meaning of a word. But such miscommunication can be a real problem in Common Core State Standards implementation.

It’s getting so that I […]

• Articles
• Common Core
• Comprehension
• Literacy
• Reading
• Teaching

8 Traps to Avoid with the Common Core and Your Reading Program

By Jill Jackson

Think about it…you go to your Common Core-aligned curriculum and you plan to teach what it tells you to teach for tomorrow.  It’s not that you’re not engaged in the curriculum, but you are trusting that what it tells you it will do (teach the kids to master the Common Core standards for […]

• Articles
• Common Core

Teaching: A last-resort college major or a highly respected profession?

According to Amanda Ripley’s article, “Higher Calling: To improve our schools, we need to make it harder to become a teacher,” some American universities are beginning to treat teacher preparation like that of training physicians, pharmacists, pilots, and other professions by increasing the rigor of teacher preparation and making it harder to become teachers. Maybe […]

• Articles
• Common Core
• Leadership
• Professional Development/Learning
• Teaching

When Will We Ever Learn

Dissecting The Common Core State Standards with Dr. Louisa Moats

Dr. Louisa Moats, the nationally-renowned teacher, psychologist, researcher and author, was one of the contributing writers of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The CCSS initiative is an attempt to deal with inconsistent academic expectations from state-to-state and an increasing number of inadequately prepared high school […]

• Articles
• Common Core
• Literacy

How to Organize Daily Literacy Instruction

By Tim Shanahan

Twice this week—from a NY teacher and an Illinois school administrator—I’ve been asked how to organize instructional time for literacy with Common Core. One was an email inquiry, the other face-to-face, but both noted my earlier concerns about Daily 5 and CAFE. 

In both cases, they were right that I am not a big […]

• Articles
• Common Core
• Literacy
• Professional Development/Learning

Typing: 21st Century Handwriting

As Louisiana continues to implement more rigorous academic standards, students are required to exhibit higher level, critical thinking skills. Upon full implementation of these standards, Louisiana students in grades 3-8 will no longer take the current state standardized test, known as the LEAP; rather, they will take the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College […]

• Common Core
• Testing

Message to Principals: What Scattered Professional Development Does To Teachers

By Jill Jackson

What I heard on no less than four new client calls last week was this: “We’re just kinda all over the place with the Common Core.”  Welp.  I would agree.

Schools are all over the place with providing support to teachers as they implement the Common Core…a little bit of this, a little bit […]

• Common Core
• Leadership
• Professional Development/Learning

Testing or teaching: Are we focusing on the wrong drivers?

Nola.com published the article, “Louisiana ranked second in country for teacher evaluations, new report says,” on January 30, 2014.  The article touts that Louisiana ranks 2nd in the country for both evaluating teachers and creating well-prepared teachers based on the National Council of Teacher Quality 2013 State Teacher Policy Yearbook. However, the full report shows a different […]

• Articles
• Common Core

Letter to the Editor: Common Core Will Improve Cooperation, Collaboration

By Keisha Dubuclet

To the Editor:

After seeing the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, scores in “Global Test Shows U.S. Stagnating” (Dec. 11, 2013), I was both disheartened and encouraged.

It’s disheartening to see a country that at one time put men on the moon score below the international average in math and average in science […]

• Articles
• Common Core

How Publishers Can Mess Up the Common Core

By Tim Shanahan

Lexiles and other readability measures are criticized these days about as much as Congress. But unlike Congress they don’t deserve it.

Everyone knows Grapes of Wrath is harder to read than predicted. But for every book with a hinky readability score many others are placed just right.

These formulas certainly are not perfect, but they […]

• Articles
• Common Core