Zoom in on the academic skills students are required to learn in reading, writing, speaking/listening, and language! This book cuts through all of the Common Core jargon and gets right to the heart of what students need to learn now. Big Skills for the Common Core is packed with engaging strategies you can use immediately to improve your students' literacy skills and help them retain those skills. Special features include... Charts that break down the skills for each anchor standard and put them into teacher- friendly language. BONUS! The charts highlight the big shifts for teachers for discussion and sharing. Practical strategies to help students tackle and understand complex texts. Helpful ideas for teaching argument writing, plus writing rubrics and assessment strategies. Clear information on Tier II and Tier III words and how to teach them. In addition, each section of the book ends with "Classroom Close-Ups," which take you inside real classrooms that are implementing the Common Core. You'll see the standards in action across the curriculum and get takeaway tips you can use tomorrow in your own classroom!

What are "essential questions," and how do they differ from other kinds of questions? What's so great about them? Why should you design and use essential questions in your classroom? Essential questions (EQs) help target standards as you organize curriculum content into coherent units that yield focused and thoughtful learning. In the classroom, EQs are used to stimulate students' discussions and promote a deeper understanding of the content. Whether you are an Understanding by Design (UbD) devotee or are searching for ways to address standards—local or Common Core State Standards—in an engaging way, Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins provide practical guidance on how to design, initiate, and embed inquiry-based teaching and learning in your classroom. Offering dozens of examples, the authors explore the usefulness of EQs in all K-12 content areas, including skill-based areas such as math, PE, language instruction, and arts education. As an important element of their backward design approach to designing curriculum, instruction, and assessment, the authors *Give a comprehensive explanation of why EQs are so important; *Explore seven defining characteristics of EQs; *Distinguish between topical and overarching questions and their uses; *Outline the rationale for using EQs as the focal point in creating units of study; and *Show how to create effective EQs, working from sources including standards, desired understandings, and student misconceptions. Using essential questions can be challenging—for both teachers and students—and this book provides guidance through practical and proven processes, as well as suggested "response strategies" to encourage student engagement. Finally, you will learn how to create a culture of inquiry so that all members of the educational community—students, teachers, and administrators—benefit from the increased rigor and deepened understanding that emerge when essential questions become a guiding force for learners of all ages.

The ideal? Newly minted high school graduates all across the nation, each one a complex text genius, a writer and analytic thinker beyond compare. All on to glorious colleges and careers, thanks to the Common Core. The reality? The 1.3 million students who fail to graduate from high school each year and the hundreds of thousands more who either gave up or lost interest long ago . . . The reality is why Common Core CPR is needed. Urgently. Because if we continue to insist that all students meet expectations that are well beyond their abilities and mindsets, these kids will only decline faster. We must be brave enough-and trained enough-to cast aside what we know harms students and apply with renewed vigor the teaching methods we know work. Releah Lent and Barry Gilmore rise to the challenge, and there are no two authors better equipped to do so. They embrace what is best about the standards-their emphasis on active, authentic learning-and then explicitly show teachers how to connect these ideal outcomes to practical classroom strategies, detailing the day-to-day teaching that can coax reluctant learners into engagement and achievement. You'll learn how to: Consider choice and relevance in every assignment Plan and spot opportunities for success Scaffold students' comprehension of complex fiction and nonfiction texts Model close reading through thoughtful questioning Teach students to use evidence in reading, writing, speaking, and reflection . . . And so much more It's not the big sweeping formulas for achievement that will win the day; it's the incremental growth that teachers need to make happen: that one book, that one writing assignment, to help a student turn a corner. "If we can get that one transformational moment to occur, and follow it up by designing more opportunities for success, that's the ideal," say Lent and Gilmore.

Describes why secondary students don't read, and offers teachers practical advice and strategies for developing depth, stamina, and passion in adolescent readers.

Create programs that prepare students for college, careers, and the new and challenging assessments of the Common Core State Standards Written for all educators but with an emphasis on those at the secondary level, this important resource shows how to develop programs that truly prepare students for both the Common Core assessments and for college and career readiness. Based on multiple research studies conducted by Conley as well as experience he has gained from working with dozens of high schools that succeed with a wide range of students, the book provides specific strategies for teaching the CCSS in ways that improve readiness for college and careers for the full range of students. Draws from research-based models for creating programs for high school students that will ensure readiness for tests and for college and beyond Includes strategies and practices for teachers to help students develop postsecondary preparedness Is the third in a series of books on readiness written by David Conley, including College Knowledge and College and Career Ready Teachers can use this valuable resource to understand the "big picture" behind the Common Core State Standards, how to teach to them in ways that prepare students for new, challenging assessments being implemented over the next few years and, more importantly, how to help all students be ready for learning beyond high school.

Activities for 90 different children's books, covering time, art, cooking and snack time, creative dramatics, housekeeping and dress-up, music, movement, block building, science fun, nature study, library, mathematics (math fun).

Consistent with the philosophy of the Common Core State Standards and Standards for Mathematical Practice, the Big Ideas Math Student Edition provides students with diverse opportunities to develop problem-solving and communication skills through deductive reasoning and exploration. Students gain a deeper understanding of math concepts by narrowing their focus to fewer topics at each grade level. Students master content through inductive reasoning opportunities, engaging activites that provide deeper understanding, concise, stepped-out examples, rich, thought-provoking exercises, and a continual building on what has previously been taught.