The Common Core - Fine Arts Connection

"I will let you in on a secret: CCSS presents a teaching philosophy closely aligned with most fine arts classrooms. The methods of CCSS rely on teachers working as facilitators as opposed to lecturers, stress the value of modeling over telling, and emphasizes valuable learning occurs when subjects are interrelated and meaningful connections are made."

Amen, Amy Johnson!

Amy teaches in Austell, GA, and blogs at Artful Artsy Amy. Today, I want to point you to her post on the Arts Education section of ARTSblog: Common Core Collaboration Key for Fine Arts and Classroom Teachers. 

Here's a shot of Amy's classroom, with her students engaged in, yes, collaborative learning:

I'm SO impressed at the way Amy and the teachers at her middle school have collaborated to create meaningful cross-curricular connections! She offers an editable collaborative framework for FREE, and provides this example of her work with a seventh grade Math teacher for a unit on tessellations:

Amy says, "Instead of demanding core subject teachers to make connections to the arts, we should ask them to share their units and work together to make meaningful connections. In this manner, both teachers are able to rely on their strengths."

Again, amen!

Amy is only one contributor to the conversation about arts education and the common core on ARTSblog. I found fifteen posts in the past five days (National Arts in Education Week) that discuss many aspects of the impact each has on the other. Please look them over and check out the links each provides. Some are cautionary, but others provide concrete curriculum links that you can use in your classroom, whether you teach art or a core subject.

A great example: Lynne Munson, in her post How Vincent van Gogh Can Help You Teach to the Common Core Standards, says that "the CCSS present an exciting opportunity for elementary school teachers (who teach all subjects), grades 6-12 ELA teachers, and arts teachers to utilize the arts to teach the literacy skills outlined by the new standards." She links to The Arts and the Common Core Curriculum Mapping Project and its 179 arts activities.

You can also follow the related Twitter discussion. (And if you're a Twitter newbie, here's a great intro from Allison Boyer’s article on Blog World: A Beginner’s Guide to Twitter Basics)

If you fear, as I do, the loss of funding for arts education with a misguided implementation of the CCSS, you can demonstrate its necessity by developing a robust collaboration in your school. Here's to your efforts, and to your enjoyment of connecting and collaborating!

UPDATE: Please go to The Common Core - Fine Arts (AND Science, History, & Geography) Connection - Part 2 for more information.

Hispanic Heritage Month - Resources for Every Content Area

Hispanic Heritage Month is September 15 - October 15, and the resources available for you to integrate its celebration into your curriculum are MANY!

The official web portal for the month-long observance is a collaborative project of the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. The site is chock-full of links to Exhibits and Collections in these categories:

                

                        

           Art and Architecture                         The Era of Exploration                           Culture and Ethnography

                              

                           Economics                                      Government, Politics, and Law            Poetry and Literature

  

                                                          History                                                                          Music

Are you a science teacher? Here's a great site for you: Latinos in Math & Science: Resources for kids, young adults and teachers. Check out the hotlinks for biographies of Hispanic scientists, etc.

Do you teach math? Go to the Smithsonian's Hispanic Heritage Cultural Tour and choose Resources. Select NMAH’s “Sports: Breaking Records, Breaking Barriers” website article on Roberto Clemente as a "hook" for a lesson on mean, median, mode, and range. Or graph his hits over a span of years. Or...

The Smithsonian's HHCT is amazing in so many other ways. Click over and check out all of the Objects, the Timeline, and the Quizzes and Activities there. 

Enjoy all the possibilities of the next month. November is American Indian Heritage Month, so I'll be searching out good resources for your observance of the First People's heritage!

EDSITEment! - Lessons for the Common Core

Close reading. Citing evidence. Making logical inferences. Analyzing. Summarizing. Interpreting. Evaluating and differentiating primary and secondary sources. Where does a busy teacher find appropriate lessons and activities to guide students in developing these required CCSS English Language Arts skills?

In this first post of a series about the fantastic Thinkfinity Consortium gateway, we're looking at EDSITEment, a partnership among the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Verizon Foundation, and the National Trust for the Humanities.

"All websites linked to EDSITEment have been reviewed for content, design, and educational impact in the classroom. They cover a wide range of humanities subjects, from American history to literature, world history and culture, language, art, and archaeology, and have been judged by humanities specialists to be of high intellectual quality."

EDSITEment truly is a treasure trove, with lesson plans searchable by subject, theme, and grade level. As examples, I want to point you to two of these: Anne Frank: One of Hundreds of Thousands and Anne Frank: Writer. These lessons provide a means for you to "supplement your students' reading of The Diary of a Young Girl by connecting the diary to the study of history and to honor the legacy of Anne Frank, the writer, as she inspires your students to use writing to deepen their insights into their own experiences and the experiences of others."

The skills listed for the lessons are:

• Critical analysis
• Critical thinking
• Historical analysis
• Textual analysis
• Using primary sources

Here are two of the learning objectives:

• Use specific examples from first-hand accounts to draw conclusions about one aspect of human behavior.
• Students will read the diary in search of quotes that indicate Anne's reflections on different feelings, relationships and behaviors that she noted while her family was in hiding. 

Below is the first page of The Diary of Anne Frank: A Changing Record, which you can use as a guide for close reading. Students are asked to cite entry date and quote for emotions, relationships, and behaviors they find in Anne's diary.

There are hundreds more wonderful lessons in EDSITEment's library - lessons for the Common Core, at your service from this amazing resource, for FREE. Enjoy!

Zygote Body™ & 3D Science - Check it out, Biology teachers!

Teachers of Life Science and Biology, today's post is for you!

Zygote Body™, the new incarnation of Google Body, is gorgeous, three-dimensional human anatomy at your fingertips. Just choose gender and go! By manipulating the controls, you can reveal layers, rotate the image vertically and horizontally, change systems, select for labels...it is phenomenal! And FREE!

Here's a screenshot that shows the controls on the left:

And that's not all that's available from Zygote: 3D Science provides a selection of beautiful clipart from its commercial images that can be used in presentations and educational handouts. How about this image of a constellation of neuron cells?

Go over to their site and look around to see everything. What an incredible resource from a classy company, all FREE for you!

Teaching About September 11

I have to share this blog post with you today, from the The Learning Network at The New York Times. It is the first post of the 2012-2013 school year in their series Great Ideas from Readers. 

You'll find two lesson plans there, one by teachers Bev Berns, Shaelynn Farnsworth, Shawn Hyer, Erin Olson and Todd Vogts from schools in Iowa and Kansas, and another by Rachelle Lamoureux of North Dakota. Please read the post, and then watch the video.

Shannon Doyne, who wrote the post, says: "Shaelynn Farnsworth and Erin Olson, along with other teachers...used our collection of 9/11 resources as the foundation for research for the video (below), which was created by students at multiple high schools."

Ms. Doyne continues, "Rachelle Lamoureux...used front-page Times articles from the first 10 days after the attacks as readings to which her “current generation” students responded, then contributed a word for a group collage that captured their reactions." (Lamoureux is a middle school teacher.)

In addition to these two lesson plans, you will find many links to additional teacher resources on the website.

Flashcards, Flashcards, Flashcards!

Five of my best friends and I left early the morning after Labor Day for North Myrtle Beach, SC, to spend the rest of the week relaxing! It was absolutely fabulous, but I did miss you, and I'm ready to get back in the swing of researching and sharing.

Today's post is about a site whose name is a little deceptive. Free ESL Flashcards has 968 images, each of which is available for download in three different sizes! Why three sizes? Here's their answer: "The Big set is great for vocabulary presentation, the Medium set is good for teaching small groups of students and playing language learning games. The Small sets of pictures are great for ESL games..."

But who says they're only great for ESL? You be the judge - categories include:

• Actions (3 sets, one is shown to the right)
• Adjectives (opposites)
• Adjectives (2 sets)
• Alphabet (2 sets)
• Animals
• Body parts (3 sets)
• Christmas
• Clothes
• Colors (2 sets)
• Daily Activities (2 sets)
• Emotions (3 sets)
• Family
• Food (plurals)
• Food (uncountable)
• Halloween
• Health (2 sets)
• Numbers
• Occupations and jobs (3 sets)
• Places (2 sets)
• Prepositions
• Rooms in a house
• School objects
• Seasons and Weather
• Sports
• Sports actions
• Sports equipment
• Sports vocabulary
• St. Patrick's Day
• Thanksgiving
• Time
• Valentine's Day

There are also coloring picture sets for Christmas, Easter, St. Patrick's Day, and Thanksgiving that your kiddos could use to make greeting cards or to decorate the classroom.

All of these could be printed on card stock and laminated to be used over and over. My teaching partner and I often printed manipulatives like this on plain paper and mounted them on construction paper before laminating. It's a little more time-consuming, but cheaper.

Which ones can YOU use, and how can you use them? I'm sure you'll find great ways!

Teaching Science Through Inquiry - Last in the Series

If you teach science and are just now joining the blog, PLEASE go back and read these August 20th & 21st posts before reading this one - A Private Universe - It will change your life! (be SURE to watch the video) and A Private Universe - Second in a Series.

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Here's the thing, and oh, my goodness, do you hear Common Core goals of rigor and relevance in every phrase?

"Students at all grade levels and in every domain of science should have the opportunity to use scientific inquiry and develop the ability to think and act in ways associated with inquiry, including asking questions, planning and conducting investigations, using appropriate tools and techniques to gather data, thinking critically and logically about relationships between evidence and explanations, constructing and analyzing alternative explanations, and communicating scientific arguments." 

From the National Science Education Standards

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As promised, in this final post connected to A Private Universe, here is an annotated list of fabulous resources for teaching kids through inquiry:

1. Education.com is dedicated to parents, but who says teachers aren't parents (and parents teachers)? Many of the ideas on the site would be great in a classroom. There are 626 activities and hundreds of ideas for science fair projects, but again, who says they only belong in science fairs?

2. To Exploratorium, I say (with a smile): "There's NO reason these After School Activities have to be done after school!" 

3. Exploratorium's Explore tab takes you to 528 things to make and do, and links to 152 science learning websites!

4. How to Smile is the project of a group of science museums: Lawrence Hall of Science, Exploratorium, New York Hall of Science, Science Museum of Minnesota, and Children's Museum of Houston. Their focus is on science for children in non-classroom settings. I call that a challenge that teachers can meet with non-traditional equipment!!! There are 3,287 math and science activities on this site...need we say more?

5. Inquiry in Action  - The American Chemical Society offers a FREE download of the book Inquiry in Action. It has 7 chapters with 43 hands-on activities PLUS a review of Chemistry Fundamentals with molecular animations for teachers (we all need a refresher from time to time)!

6. The Inquiry Project "takes a unique approach to a study of matter for grades 3-5, bringing together mathematics, science content, and inquiry." The entire curriculum is presented on the website. You can purchase some investigation kits from Sempco, Inc., but most of the items needed can be found easily, and detailed specs for developing your own kits are coming soon. In the Library of Resources, there are very short videos that explain ideas and strategies that will hone YOUR skills in teaching with inquiry. This site is a treasure!

7. Science Buddies has more than 1000 Project Ideas focused on science fairs, but who says that's their only place? While these are not open-ended, there is a "Make it Your Own" section for each that could lead to a higher level of inquiry.

8. The Science Museum was founded in 1857 as part of the South Kensington Museum in the U.K., and gained independence in 1909. Most of us can't take a field trip there, but we can make use of their great Classroom Resources.

9. 24/7 Science is a product of The Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley. It is simply fantastic. Go. Click on the array of resources. Please. You and your kiddos will be glad.

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If, as I hope, you are seeking to raise the level of inquiry in YOUR science class, I highly recommend Simpifying Inquiry Instruction, by Bell, Smetana, and Binns, an article that appeared in The Science Teacher. You will find there a modified version of the four-level model of inquiry, with suggestions for raising the level of a science activity. It is a valuable tool! 

And because I MUST make a reading connection :) - I know that time is at a premium in your classrooms. With that in mind, please consider using some of your reading/language arts block (which, with the implementation of CCSS, must include a large amount of informational text) to integrate science, which should not be left by the wayside!  NSTA, the National Science Teachers Association, has done the research for you. They have, for the past 11 years, compiled lists of Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K–12. Could you ask for more?

              

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One final note: Please consider joining your state Science Teachers Association, if you haven't already. I was a member of TSTA for years as a science teacher, and I can attest that their annual conference is a wonderful professional development experience. This year's theme is Framing the Common Core. You will make friends and professional connections, and have great resources at your fingertips. Here's an example: an air pressure lesson posted on the website by my friend, Barry Farris. 

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 P.S. I hope you're all enjoying your long weekend! I'm leaving tomorrow morning for a relaxing beach trip with 5 of my best girlfriends (one of whom is my only sister, Carole). I may not be posting again until I return, which is why I wanted to get this looong one up before I left. Happy September!

Books Should Be Free

When I posted about Common Core online text exemplars, I had never seen this site, and I couldn't wait to share it on the blog today:

Books Should Be Free has both ebooks and audiobooks on their site...yes, for FREE! You can search by title, author, or keyword, and there are books of all genres, not just for children. It goes without saying that these are not new books, but many are classics and I saw several of my favorite books from childhood there.

Examples?

  

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
• Just So Stories
• Little Women
• Peter Pan
• The Scarlet Letter
• The Secret Garden
• The Swiss Family Robinson
• The Velveteen Rabbit
• The Wind in the Willows

Most of the audiobooks can be streamed or downloaded in several formats. They are also available as eBooks for Kindle, etc., or you can read them in your browser.

One note of caution - there is an advertisement in the center of each page, once you have clicked on a book. Many of them look like this

Download a Free Audiobook

100,000+ Titles. Download Now. 

Listen on Your iPod or MP3 Player!

Audible.com

This is not the free download you want. (It is a 30 day trial for Audible.com, which is a great site, but not free.) Instead of clicking on this ad, scroll down to Audiobook Downloads, Stream, and eBook Downloads to make your choice.

I hope you find many, many books that you and your kiddos will enjoy!

Annotated Common Core Standards...and More

With Blogger's statistics page, I'm able to see exactly which learning twice posts are being read most often. When I mentioned to my daughter that the most popular posts were Common Core related, her answer was a polite, "Well, duh." What she actually said was something like, "Of course! It's what everyone is most concerned about this year," but I get it.

Since some of the CCSS are, shall we say, a bit dense, it might help to have them broken down into chunks à la Marcia Tate for your planning and for your students' learning.

If you would like to go from this:

RL.5.2. Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.

to this:

RL.5.2. Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.

• Students should demonstrate the ability to articulate the theme or central idea of a fictional text, providing specifics from the text to support the response.
• Students should be able to respond to questions about a character’s motivations and conflicts.
• Students should be able to articulate how the speaker or narrator’s point of view reveals the theme or central idea of a text.
• Students should be able to write a summary of the text.

click on over to Kristen Bowers' Teachers Pay Teachers page and download Annotated Common Core Standards for Grades 3 - 12...for FREE!

PLEASE, if you download, leave Kristen a comment thanking her for her work and generosity, and visit her website to see what else she has to offer. She does have items for sale both there and on her TPT page.

Charity Preston, who is recommended by Kristen, also has some amazing Common Core Lesson Planning Packs with cute themes for K though 5th grade for only $5.95 each on her TPT page. They include annotated CCSS, templates for lesson planning, student checklists, "I Can" statements and posters, etc...upwards of 150 pages each...so affordable!

I hope this helps, and I especially wish for you all a wonderful Labor Day weekend - try to rest a little from your dedicated labor, in and out of the classroom, for your kiddos!

Common Core Standards Checklists

When I find a resource that looks good for middle school ELA, I run it by my daughter, who teaches 7th & 8th grade Reading & Language Arts. Yesterday, she told me she needed checklists that would allow her to note the dates when she taught skills for a particular Common Core standard.

Here's what I found for her, for FREE, at Tori Gorosave's Teachers Pay Teachers page: Common Core Checklist ELA Grade 7, and for $1.00, Common Core Checklist ELA Grade 8.

Though Joanna won't use this, Tori also has a Common Core Checklist ELA Grade 6 for only $1.50.

For YOU, I searched for checklists for younger grades too, and here's what I found:

Fonda Jones, on her TPT page, offers a FREE class checklist for 1st grade ELA. Her other ELA and math checklists, each of which has space for 24 students, are $1.50 each.

Anne Wheeler also has ELA Checklists for K-5th grade for $1 - $1.50, which are not set up as class lists. Her checklists for K-5th math are $1.50 each at TPT.

When you consider the time these teachers have spent putting the documents together, this nominal amount is a real deal. Hope you find just what will work best for you!

Common Core: Text Exemplar Activities

I'm so excited to share a fellow Tennessee teacher's fabulous work with you this morning!

Mary P. teaches in Shelbyville, TN, and not only is she a class act, she is willing to share her act with you - activities she has created for these eight of the 2nd and 3rd grade Common Core Text Exemplars!

     

   

             

  

The activities range from analyzing to discussing to predicting to sequencing to task cards, and SO much more. They would be great to use in literacy stations as well as in small groups and whole class meetings.

Mary offers these FREE downloads at  Pitner's Potpourri, but that's not all! Quick, click over to read her entire blog for other great ideas and more freebies!

I'll let her know I linked to her blog today, and if you download from it, please leave a comment thanking HER. Also, if you know of other folks who are sharing activities for CC exemplars, please let ME know so I can spread the good word!