Common Core Literacy for ELA, History/Social Studies, and the Humanities: Strategies to Deepen Content Knowledge (Grades 6-12)

More Praise for Common Core Literacy for ELA, History/Social Studies, and the Humanities

This practical book thoroughly explains how to navigate the Common Core State Standards at the secondary level. As a dyed-in-the-wool teacher of adolescents,McKnight guides the reader through the complexities of literacy development with useful, leveled strategies. She eloquently dispels much of the mythology surrounding the new standards, and explains how to help students find success. You'll find this engaging book your ‘go-to’ resource for implementing the Common Core!

—Richard M. Cash, EdD, educational consultant; author, Advancing Differentiation: Thinking and Learning for the 21st Century

As educators across the country make the shift to the Common Core, McKnight's work will undoubtedly become a ‘go-to’ resource, as it provides the support teachers need to deliver the high-level learning experiences demanded of the CCSS. The graphic organizers, hands-on activities, and authentic examples will promote development of an integrated approach to the new standards. Dr. McKnight has a proven track record of delivering material that has practical applicability for all teachers-novice, veteran, and everyone in between.

—Susan Hughes, English language arts supervisor, Allegany (Maryland) Public Schools

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for and is on file with the Library of Congress.

ISBN 978-1-118-71015-9 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-71026-5 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-71018-0 (ebk)

Tables and Figures

Tables

2.1 Distribution of Literary and Informational Passages by Grade in the 2009 NAEP Reading Framework

2.2 CCSS Text Categories

3.1 RAFT Roles and Suggestions

5.1 Language Standards, Grades

5.2 Language Standards, Grades

6.1 Suggested Number and Types of Centers

6.2 Suggested Centers for Larger Classes

7.1 Anchor Reading Standard 7 as Articulated for Each Grade Level for English Language Arts

7.2 Anchor Reading Standard 7 as Articulated for Each Grade Level for Literacy in History/Social Studies

7.3 Anchor Writing Standard 6 as Articulated for Each Grade Level for English Language Arts

7.4 Anchor Writing Standard 6 as Articulated for Each Grade Level for Literacy in History/Social Studies

7.5 Anchor Speaking and Listening Standard 5 as Articulated for Each Grade Level for English Language Arts

B.1 Compare Myself to a Character

B.2 Scheduling Guidelines for Literature Circles

B.3 Sample Schedule for a First Week of Literature Circles

B.4 Sample Rubric for Project Assessment

Figures

1.1 Anchor Standards and Grade-Level Articulations of Those Standards

2.1 Anticipation Guide

2.22.2 GIST Template

2.3 Cornell Notes Template

2.4 Cornell Notes Student Sample

2.5 Questioning the Author Template

2.6 SQ4R Template

2.7 Question-Answer Relationship Template

2.8 Story Trails Template

2.9 Fix It Up Strategy Chart

2.10 Close Reading Template

2.11 Measuring Text Complexity: Three Factors

3.1 Stop and Write Student Sample (a Seventh-Grade Student Reading The Book Thief)

3.2 Stop and Write Student Sample (Chart Form, Farewell to Manzanar)

3.3 RAFT Template

3.4 Bloom's Taxonomy and RAFT

3.5 Historical Bio Poem Template

3.6 Writing Anchor Standard 1

5.1 Knowing Nouns and Venturing about Verbs Handout

5.2 Defragging Sentence Fragments: Phrase Slips

5.3 Defragging Sentence Fragments: Part 1

5.4 What a Sentence Needs

5.5 Defragging Sentence Fragments: Part 2

5.6 Vocabulary Slides Template

5.7 Vocabulary Organizer Template

5.8 List-Group-Label Template

6.1 Sample Learning Centers

6.2 Learning Center Stations

7.1 Evaluating Websites

7.2 Evaluating Web-Based Resources for Content Information

8.1 Bloom's Taxonomy

B.1 Student Sample Stop and Write

B.2 Student Sample Letter to Teacher

B.3 Student Sample Story Trail

B.4 Student Sample Newspaper Story

About the Author

Katherine S. McKnight, PhD, began her career as a high school English teacher in the Chicago public school system. She currently serves as a professor of secondary education at National Louis University and travels worldwide as a professional development consultant. She lives in Chicago with her family. To learn more, go to www.katherinemcknight.com.

About Staff Development for Educators

Providing educators with sustained professional development that is research-based, rigorous, and innovative, as well as practical, motivating, and fun, Staff Development for Educators' (SDE) mission is to create meaningful improvement in student attainment, teacher fulfillment, and school success.

Dedicated to helping build classrooms where all students can succeed, SDE's foundational work in the area of Differentiated Instruction and early advocacy of Singapore Math Strategies have helped it gain recognition as one of the nation's leading providers of professional development in education. SDE's Crystal Springs Books imprint exemplifies these same attributes to deliver important and timely resources right to the educator's desk.

For Jim, Ellie, and Colin, who bring joy to my life

Preface

It was more than twenty-five years ago that I first became interested in adolescent literacy. As a college senior, I finally made the decision to become a high school English and social studies teacher. In my first position as a high school educator, I taught my subjects passionately, but I knew that I lacked the knowledge to support struggling readers in my content area. It's often assumed that English teachers know how to teach reading and remediate students who struggle; yet this is one of the greatest educational myths. My teacher education program did not require any courses on teaching reading, and I did not know how to help my students. Furthermore, I was constantly given the message and expectation that all teachers are teachers of reading and writing. As a high school educator I knew how to teach my content areas—English and social studies—but I was truly at a loss for strategies to support all kinds of readers.

During my years in the classroom, I earned my master's degree and eventually my PhD in reading and literacy. Both degrees broadened my professional knowledge of reading and literacy methods and of strategies that could support all kinds of learners. I learned how to use reading and writing strategies as pedagogies to develop my students' literacy skills while also developing their content knowledge.

Fast forward to twenty-five years later: I am relieved to witness the renewed interest in developing the literacy skills of our middle and high school students. I envision the Common Core State Standards as a vehicle to reemphasize the development of literacy skills and content knowledge. This book is a response to this reality.

Many teachers contributed to this book. In particular, I want to thank Bradley Berlage for his mathematics and English language arts content expertise. I also want to thank the following teachers from George Washington Community School, Indianapolis, Indiana; their professional input and copious student samples were invaluable to the development of this book:

Michael Anderson

Deboarah Aquino

Andrew Gatza

Rhonda Jennings

Brooke McCray

April Partee

George Simms

My teacher friends, Deanna Gallagher and Warren Thomas Rocco, read multiple versions of this text.

I am also grateful to my professional friends at Jossey-Bass: Dimi Berkner and Tracy Gallagher. My Jossey-Bass editor Margie McAneny's professional knowledge is a gift. Margie and I have worked on eight publications together. In addition to having a tremendous skill set in publishing, she is a dear friend who makes me laugh and supports me when I am plagued by those author demons.

Without the support of my husband, Jim, and my children, Ellie and Colin, these books would not have been written. Finally, I want to thank the other teachers in my family, including my sister, Mary Scruggs (1964–2011), a writing teacher at the famous Second City in Chicago, who inspired a generation of writers to find their voice and conquer their own writing demons, and my mom, Patricia Siewert (1934–2008), a Chicago public school teacher for more than thirty-five years. I can still hear her whisper to me her mantra: Teaching is an act of love and social justice.

Chapter One

Why Does Content Literacy Matter?

I have a confession to make. When the Common Core State Standards were first introduced in 2010, I was skeptical. Actually, I was more than skeptical—I wanted to find every reason I could to hate the new standards.

I was coming from the point of view that the state standards developed ten years previously, during the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) movement, were reductive and that the corresponding overemphasis (and overspending) on standardized testing was horribly misguided. In the classrooms that I worked in as a literacy consultant all over the United States, I saw the same pattern during the NCLB decade: more focus on test prep and less focus on research-based teaching methods. As a career-long educator I found this terribly disheartening, and I shared my frustration with my teacher colleagues and students alike.

So when the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were first introduced, I was poised to attack and rip the CCSS to shreds; I felt certain that they were going to be yet another nail in the coffin of research-based, effective teaching methods. I had only made it to page 4 when I had a Jerry McGuire moment. I realized that the Common Core standards were nothing like the No Child Left Behind nonsense. Here's the part that had me at hello:

A focus on results rather than means. By emphasizing required achievements, the Standards leave room for teachers, curriculum developers, and states to determine how those goals should be reached and what additional topics should be addressed. Thus, the Standards do not mandate such things as a particular writing process or the full range of metacognitive strategies that students