Your Book and the CCSS

The adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) by all but four states presents an unprecedented opportunity for publishers and authors. For the first time, teachers across the nation are teaching the same English standards. 

What are the Common Core State Standards? The CCSS are specific benchmarks, divided by grade level, that students should master by the end of each year in a certain subject. At this point, there are only standards for Language Arts and Math.  The L.A. standards are divided into Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language.  They are pretty specific.  For instance, one of the Reading Standards for 8th grade reads:

                3. Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text. 

How do you align a book to the CCSS?   Provide teachers with a comprehensive curriculum guide that includes context vocabulary, spiraled chapter questions, short but engaging writing prompts, and related informational text.  A good portion of what is in the curriculum guide should reflect the CCSS.   An aligned curriculum guide is more than a few pages (ours are 30 + ) and provides the handouts, activity prompts, and specific lessons that teachers NEED to teach a novel.  For examples, check out the guide for Jill Corcoran’s  Dare to Dream . . . Change the World or Erin Fry’s  Losing It.

Why should publishers and authors provide a curriculum guide to teachers?  School districts, librarians, and teachers will be more apt to buy classroom sets of new books if they have the materials to teach them. Teachers love teaching new novels but they rarely do, because it takes many hours of preparation. If publishers or authors lift this burden from teachers, especially now with the adoption of the CCSS, those books are more likely to make their way into the hands of students and classrooms.

Don’t publishers already create curriculum guides?  Not really. Sometimes a publisher or author provides a page of discussion questions or general suggestions of things to do with students while reading a book. While these can be good starting points for teachers, they aren't usually standards-based, nor are they as valuable as a well-written curriculum guide that truly guides teachers through a book or novel.  

In future posts, we’ll look more closely at what exactly curriculum guide looks like and the steps it takes to create one.  A really good CG, like any solid curriculum, takes time to develop—as well as a working knowledge of the standards, how teachers teach, and how students learn.

Nicole and Erin feel passionately that standards-based curriculum can be teacher-friendly, engage students, AND be pedagogically sound.  Stick with us as we show you what that looks like.

Have No Fear . . . Common Core and Writers

Fiction writers have viewed the adoption of the Common Core standards with skepticism. And maybe with good reason. These new standards require teachers to focus much more time on Informational text. Staff lounges and department meetings across the country are also abuzz right now with what this means for curricula.

In actuality, the document and its standards are well organized, well-written, and a realistic interpretation of what we want kids to know and do at the end of each school year. For us, curriculum writers and teachers, the CCSS are refreshing. The adoption of the CCSS by all but 5 states is merely an outgrowth of a decades long push to incorporate standards-based teaching into schools. There were (and actually still are) 50 distinct state standards for major subject areas.

Now, we have ONE set of standards for math and English for most of the country. Finally, we in the education world can talk the same talk and collaborate on promoting best practices. But what does this mean for the Kid Lit writer? Should we all polish up our research skills and make the leap to nonfiction? Will kids even be reading literature in the classrooms anymore?

This is a wonderful opportunity for writers to create standards-based curriculum for their books that applies to a wide number of classrooms. Before the CCSS, it was kind of a toss-up whether to align to California or New York or maybe Texas or Massachusetts. Now, it's a one-size fits all deal.

In January, we'll take a “tour” of the CCSS through a series of blog posts. We’ll walk you through the main components of the document and point out ways that you can tie them into your novels.

Transition is always hard and always scary. Usually something is gained and lost as well. We won't really know until we have all officially transitioned, which is still a year away. But we don't think it's something we need to fear. We think it's something we need to embrace.

 

The Common Core and Children's Authors

With the adoption and transition to the common core standards, teachers across the country are going to be looking for new ways to cover these more detailed student learning objectives. This is an opportune time for authors to get their books in teachers' hands, which equates to greater sales, more opportunities for speaking engagements, and longevity. Having a curriculum guide that accompanies your book sweetens the deal for most teachers.

What is a curriculum guide? A solid curriculum guide includes all the necessary components for teaching a novel in an engaging way, while still reflecting the Common Core Standards. The most useful guides are those that are explicitly tied to the standards; pull out key, grade-appropriate vocabulary; offer a wide assortment of engaging activities for students to be involved in; contain thoughtful and spiraled discussion questions; and have at least one writing prompt. What's most helpful to a teacher--who is juggling so much already--is to give them handouts and activities they can plug directly into their curriculum.


Why is it important for an author? Teachers love teaching new novels, but any new work requires hours of preparation on the part of the teacher. A teacher has to divide up the reading of the chapters, create engaging chapter questions, uncover examples of various literary techniques, and develop at least one in depth, holistic assignment with a solid assessment. All of this work needs to reflect the standards (in most cases the Common Core Standards) and fit into a certain time period. Needless to say, teachers simply don't have the time to teach new novels too often.

How do I create one for my book? Starting in January 2013, Nicole and Erin will be doing a blog series where they will talk about the importance of the CCSS, and the basics of curriculum guides. You can check out some of their samples and model your guide after theirs. Or you can contact them and let them help you out.