Library of Congress - Resources for the Common Core

 

The Library of Congress is a truly amazing resource for teachers, with collections that boggle the mind. Click on Digital Collections and have a look!

I'll write about various collections and their usefulness for you later, but today's post is about the Teaching with Primary Sources Program at the Library, and specifically, the current issue of The Teaching with Primary Sources Journal: Primary Sources and the Common Core State Standards, Vol. 1, No. 2, Fall 2012. You can download the entire journal in PDF and print it if you would like to have a hard copy.

Rich Cairn's feature article, Primary Sources: At the Heart of the Common Core State Standards, describes what using primary sources to achieve the CCSS looks like in practice. It concludes: "Primary sources can provide the raw materials teachers need to support student achievement in the CCSS. Primary source-based learning is at the heart of the standards. Using photographs, maps, manuscripts, and other primary sources to engage students in learning and building critical thinking and constructing knowledge will help prepare students for success in school and beyond."

The issue includes links to Research and Current Thinking and a Teacher Spotlight, both important and read-worthy. Perhaps the most useful, however, are two complete Learning Activities:

• Determining Point of View: Paul Revere and the Boston Massacre is suggested for 5th and 6th grades. The CCSS targeted are RI.5.6., RI.6.6., RI.6.7., and RI.6.8. Download the entire activity here.
• Teaching Speaking & Listening Skills with Primary Sources is recommended for grades 9 though 12 and targets the College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening. Download it in its entirety here.

If you'd like to view previous issues of the TPS Journal, which was formerly known as the Teaching with Primary Sources Quarterly, go to the archive page. These are devoted to topics such as Critical Thinking, Differentiated Instruction, English Language Learners, Inquiry Learning, Literacy Integration, Project-Based Learning, and Science. 

What fantastic resources, for you and your implementation of the Common Core. Hurry over to see what you can use!

Weekly Common Core Practice Prompts at The New York Times

Four days ago, The Learning Network at The New York Times announced what they are calling an experiment: "Beginning Sept. 21, each Friday you’ll find three quick, classroom-tested tasks that ask students to do Common Core-focused work with that week’s Times."

The picture below shows teachers Jonathan Olsen and Sarah Gross, with their freshman humanities classes at High Technology High School in Lincroft, N.J. According to TLN blogger Katherine Schulten, Jonathan and Sarah, who co-teach history and English, last year began creating "short daily reading and writing prompts for their students to use with that day’s Times." 

In June, Sarah wrote in her blog The Reading Zone about TLN's Summer Reading Contest, saying that she and Jonathan believed that using The Times in their classes had "revolutionized" the way they taught.

"By reading the newspaper daily and writing in response to the paper’s content, our students greatly improved both their critical thinking and writing ability. Using The Times to teach history and literacy this past year forever changed our approach to education. We are now able to meet all Common Core State Standards for writing and reading informational text, while preserving the literature curriculum already studied in English class. As a result of our daily inclusion of The Times, our redesigned classroom is now filled with topical writing, lively debate and students making connections between what they are learning in their classrooms (and) what is happening throughout the world around them."

Starting next week, Sarah and Jonathan will send the prompts they create, and that they and their students believe worked best, to TLN bloggers, former teachers themselves, who will "add some scaffolding or other kinds of small changes to help make the questions more accessible for a range of learners."

The plan is that each Friday, you will find at least one of the prompts aligned to the Common Core standards for reading and writing about informational text appropriate to use with YOUR students. Please try them, and let the writers at The Times (and me) know how it goes!

Reading Rockets

Reading Rockets is a national multimedia literacy initiative offering information and resources on how young kids learn to read, why so many struggle, and how caring adults can help.               

What does this website offer you and your students? Honestly, it should become one of your go-to sites for all things reading! It's jam-packed with a vast library of information for the most discriminating educator among us!

Selecting the For Teachers tab, here's an overview of SOME of the resources, with links intact:

Children's books & authors

• Author video interviews
• Author study toolkit
• Writing prompts inspired by children's authors and illustrators
• Themed booklists
• Poetry
• Multicultural books
• Award-winning books

How to...

• Do an effective read-aloud
• Find the right book level
• Find great informational books
• Set up a classroom library
• Find free or low-cost books

Professional development resources

• Professional development webcasts
• Reading 101: First Year Teacher 
• Launching Young Readers series

Struggling readers

• Reading Rocks! 
• Target the Problem!
• Put Downs & Comebacks
• LD resources
• ELL resources
• Tutoring
• More resources to help struggling readers

Impressed? I thought so. But that's just a taste of what's in store for you. Let's look specifically at Classroom Strategies, 54 of them in the areas of:

• Print awareness
• Phonological awareness
• Phonics
• Fluency
• Vocabulary
• Comprehension
• Writing

Each includes:

• Instructions on how to use the strategy
• Downloadable templates
• Examples
• Recommended children's books to use with the strategy
• Differentiation for second language learners, students of varying reading skill, students with learning disabilities, and younger learners
• Supporting research

There's even a chart that tells you when to use each strategy - before, during, or after reading.

My favorite thing about the strategies? That each one has recommended books to be used when teaching the strategy. Not dull, low-level textbook stories. Not excerpts. Not paraphrased sections of a piece that is age or reading level inappropriate. Real books that your kiddos can hold in their hands, read for themselves, and understand. I couldn't ask for more, and I don't believe you could, either!

So. Bookmark Reading Rockets (or just go ahead and put a link on your desktop!) Read a section every chance you get. Choose resources that fit your needs in making your class the best it can be for your students. Enjoy this fabulous, FREE site and all that you can find within it! 

And have a great week!

Science NetLinks - Lessons for the Common Core

Science Netlinks is a project of the Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Like EDSITEment!, it is a member of the Thinkfinity Consortium. You can find plenty of good information and links galore here. Unfortunately, I didn't find that the lessons and activities supported a high level of inquiry. Most were didactic, though thorough.  

I am, however, excited that one of the lessons led me to a real discovery: the work of Vicki Cobb, the Education World Science Editor. You can read her philosophy of teaching science and find her Show-Biz Science activities archive on EW's website. They are great!

Vicki is the winner of the 2012 AAAS/Subaru Science Books and Films’s Lifetime Achievement Award for more than 85 nonfiction books for children. Her books would be wonderful to add to your classroom library, in light of the emphasis on reading informational text in addition to literature in the CCSS. The added benefit? Many are books that contain embedded investigations for your kiddos to carry out.

BTW, the SB&F Best Books of 2011 special issue is available for download for a limited time with full text of reviews. Included in this guide are all of the finalists and winners of the 2012 AAAS/Subaru Book Prizes - great guidance for books to use DURING your reading/language block for both science and reading instruction!

I also discovered a link to more than thirty first-person accounts of the 1906 Fan Francisco Earthquake and Fire, located at the Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco. These accounts would be perfect primary sources to use for developing close reading skills as per the CCSS.

The Science NetLinks site is divided into five sections:

• Afterschool - informal, often hands-on, science activities. Each one includes a facilitator page, as well as online and printable pages for kids. 
• Collections - groupings of lessons, tools, Science Updates, and other resources relating to a single topic
• Lessons - can be filtered and searched by grade and theme: astronomy, biology, careers, chemistry, earth science, engineering, health/medicine, math/statistics, nature of science, physics, social sciences, and technology
• Science News - up-to-date science Facts, Updates, and Educator Blog. Includes a monthly newsletter. 
• Tools - provide descriptions of online resources in four categories—hands-on activities, interactives, teaching aids, and websites— with tips to integrate them into your classroom.

I urge you to go look around. You will, no doubt, discover other gems available to help you align your teaching of science with inquiry and with the literacy goals of the Common Core.

The Common Core - Fine Arts (AND Science, History, & Geography) Connection - Part 2

After writing this morning's post about The Common Core - Fine Arts Connection, I read the final entry in the ARTSblog "Blog Salon" that marked National Arts in Education Week. In that post, Kristen Engebretsen referenced a panel discussion that was hosted in March by Common Core, an organization that is actually older than the CCSS, but supports them. 

The panel, titled Truant From School: History, Science, and Art, was composed of "experts who discussed the implications of curriculum narrowing and explored how the new Common Core State Standards might serve as a vehicle for addressing the problem."

The experts included:

David Coleman* - Founding partner of Student Achievement Partners and a lead writer of the CCSS in ELA. He will become president and chief executive officer of the College Board  in October. 

Lewis Huffman - Education Associate for Social Studies at the South Carolina Department of Education.

Carol Jago - A 32-year veteran teacher of English in middle and high school and director of the California Reading and Literature Project at UCLA. She is past president of the National Council of Teachers of English.

Lynne Munson - President and Executive Director of Common Core

If you are a teacher, a principal, a curriculum specialist, or a instructional supervisor, it is VERY IMPORTANT that you watch the video below. Implementation of the Common Core State Standards MUST be done with the understanding that their intent is NOT to narrow the public school curriculum.

 

*David Coleman forcefully says, "It is utterly clear if there is not an equal balance of high quality informational and literary text in kindergarten through fifth grade, with the specific declaration that informational text richly covers science, history/social studies, and the arts, it does not meet the requirements of the core standards, either in assessment or curricular terms. Period."  And: "There is no such thing as doing the nuts and bolts of reading in kindergarten through fifth grade without coherently developing knowledge in science and history and the arts. Period. It is false. It is a fiction."

If you only have ten minutes, PLEASE at least watch this clip of David Coleman's address:

Having knowledge of the intent of CCSS ELA writers is invaluable, in my opinion. Watching the entire video has been mind-changing for me, and I hope you will find it just as beneficial. 

Have a wonderful September weekend!

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!