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.