Project-Based Learning Tasks for Common Core State Standards is designed to help middle-school students use research skills, teamwork, communication, and critical thinking to solve real-life problems. Includes a Common Core State Standards matrix. --Mark Twain Media Publishing Company specializes in providing captivating, supplemental books and decorative resources to complement middle- and upper-grade classrooms. Designed by leading educators, the product line covers a range of subjects including mathematics, sciences, language arts, social studies, history, government, fine arts, and character. Mark Twain Media also provides innovative classroom solutions for bulletin boards and interactive whiteboards. Since 1977, Mark Twain Media has remained a reliable source for a wide variety of engaging classroom resources.

Using a rich array of research-based practices, this book will help teachers improve the academic writing of English learners. It provides specific teaching strategies, activities, and extended lessons to develop EL students’ narrative, informational, and argumentative writing, emphasized in the Common Core State Standards. It also explores the challenges each of these genres pose for ELs and suggests ways to scaffold instruction to help students become confident and competent academic writers. Showcasing the work of exemplary school teachers who have devoted time and expertise to creating rich learning environments for the secondary classroom, Helping English Learners to Write includes artifacts and written work produced by students with varying levels of language proficiency as models of what students can accomplish. Each chapter begins with a brief overview and ends with a short summary of the key points. “These authors are at the very forefront of scientifically testing and validating instructional practices for improving the writing and reading of adolescents who are English learners. Why is their research so good? It is informed by years of experience in the classroom and working with hundreds of teachers across California. What a powerful combination. My advice: ingest, consider, and employ the strategies described here. Your students will become better writers if you do.” —From the Foreword by Steve Graham, Warner Professor of Educational Leadership & Innovation, Arizona State University “This book is a tour de force. It’s up-to-the-minute in offering what teachers and administrators need, and what parents want. With examples of classrooms in action, it incorporates what research tells us about effective teaching and learning, and what the Common Core Standards and related policy are demanding, into successful and engaging activities that the authors' extensive research shows works. Helping English Learners to Write is a must-read. You will dog ear many pages for future use.” —Judith A. Langer, Vincent O’Leary Distinguished Research Professor, Director, Center on English Learning & Achievement, University at Albany

"The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are the first academic standards to be independently adopted by almost every state in the country. The purpose and intent of the Common Core standards for English Language Arts (ELA), as well as Literacy in History/Social Studies and Science Education, are the focus of this book. Each of the chapters addresses one of the major English Language Arts domains: literature, informational texts, foundational skills, writing, speaking and listening, language, technology, and assessment. The objective of the chapters is twofold: to provide a theoretical background and detailed explanation of each of the CCSS/ELA standards, as well as practical suggestions, classroom vignettes, models, instructional resources, and unit ideas to implement the standards"--

Centered around Common Core State Standards, Common Core: Elements of Literature is designed to help students understand such complex elements of literature as irony and symbolism. Practice pages, student charts, graphic organizers, research challenges, discussion starters, writing prompts, games, group activities, and recommended reading lists enable students to practice: Pinpointing character, setting, plot, and theme; uncovering common symbols in fiction; detecting similes, metaphors, and other figures of speech; spotting verbal, situational, and dramatic irony; and recognizing allegory, parody, and satire. Mark Twain Media Publishing Company specializes in providing captivating, supplemental books and decorative resources to complement middle- and upper-grade classrooms. Designed by leading educators, the product line covers a range of subjects including mathematics, sciences, language arts, social studies, history, government, fine arts, and character. Mark Twain Media also provides innovative classroom solutions for bulletin boards and interactive whiteboards. Since 1977, Mark Twain Media has remained a reliable source for a wide variety of engaging classroom resources.

Presents lesson plans, classroom activities, and worksheets for teachers of English Language Arts to help them meet the Common Core State Standards in their English curriculum.