The consensus among educators nationwide is that in-depth instruction paired with focused assessment of essential concepts and skills are far more effective than superficially covering every concept and skill in the standards. Educators are faced with the task of teaching all standards while meeting the extraordinary range of student learning needs. Prioritizing the Common Core offers common sense solutions to the dilemmas teachers face today in implementing the new, more rigorous national standards. Chapters present a rationale for prioritizing the Common Core, a step-by-step process for prioritizing standards in language arts and mathematics, strategies for soliciting feedback and input from everyone in the district or school prior to the final determination of the Priority Standards, and detailed summaries of the process schools in six different districts used to identify their Priority Standards, with accompanying commentary by those who directed the work.

"Unwrapping" the Common Core is a stand-alone, how-to guide for busy educators who need a proven way to work with the new standards. The process of "unwrapping" is a powerful tool for effectively deconstructing state standards. This easy-to-read format includes grade-specific examples of "unwrapped" standards, enabling educators to confidently apply this simple, proven technique for making rigorous new standards manageable. Part One describes the complete "unwrapping" process with examples in both English language arts and literacy and mathematics. Part Two contains 60 "unwrapped" Common Core English language arts and math examples, each specific to one of the four grade spans: K 2, 3 5, 6 8, and 9 12. Part Three illustrates where "unwrapping" fits in the big picture of an integrated standards-assessment-curriculum-instruction system."

The need for a cohesive and comprehensive curriculum that intentionally connects standards, instruction, and assessment has never been more pressing. For educators to meet the challenging learning needs of students they must have a clear road map to follow throughout the school year. Rigorous Curriculum Design presents a carefully sequenced, hands-on model that curriculum designers and educators in every school system can follow to create a progression of units of study that keeps all areas tightly focused and connected.

With the advent of the Common Core State Standards and high expectations with regard to content literacy, some secondary teachers are scrambling for what to do and how to do it. This book provides an accessible plan for implementing content literacy and offers 20 research-based literacy strategies designed to help students meet those standards and become expert readers.

Math lessons become more fun and engaging with animated PowerPoint lessons that teach key skills using easy-to-follow steps and repeated practice!

Common formative assessments—the centerpiece of an integrated, standards-based system! Now you have powerful means to closely align curriculum, instruction, and assessment to the standards essential for student success. This timely resource presents the "big picture" of an integrated, standards-based instruction and assessment system, and offers guidelines for: Aligning school-based common formative assessments with district benchmarks and large-scale summative assessments Predicting likely student performance on subsequent assessments in time to make instructional modifications Implementing and sustaining common formative assessments within the school’s or district’s culture

Assessments that improve the speed and quality of learning—fully updated for teacher teams! In this expanded, all-new edition, author Larry Ainsworth provides a system of intentionally aligned components (standards, instruction, assessments, and data analysis) that all work together to improve student learning. Readers will learn to: Build the “highway” to aligned assessments Decide the learning intentions and student success criteria for a unit of study Evaluate and revise assessment questions for quality Plan the learning progressions for students to attain the learning intentions Create quick progress checks to coincide with the learning progressions Use assessment results as feedback to adjust instruction and student learning strategies Upgrade your CFAs using CFA 2.0! CFA 2.0 is so much more than assessment design. It shows teachers how they can intentionally align standards, instruction, assessment, and data analysis in every unit of study.