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What are the best nonfiction Common Core books to stock with your shelves with? DK Publishing, Teacher Created Materials, Lerner Publishing and ReferencePoint Press are here to help fill your library’s nonfiction section by presenting their upcoming titles that fit perfectly into the new standards. This is a must-see resource for Common Core, featuring forthcoming books, nonfiction trends,  and answers to your questions!

Panelists
Jaimie Cona – Children’s Marketing Manager, DK Publishing
Susan Copeland – Director of Education, Teacher Created Materials
Terri Lynn Soutor – Vice President, Marketing & Digital Products, Lerner Publishing Group 
Chris Nasso -  Marketing Director, ReferencePoint Press

Moderator
John Peters - reviewer, School Library Journal

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Common Curriculum

Ready or not, here they come. Currently adopted in part or in full by 45 states, the Common Core (CC) standards are seemingly on everyone’s mind. At almost every school I visited this year, teachers asked me to address the Common Core in my workshops. Planning lessons with CC in mind presents a challenge, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. New sites and services are popping up on the Web every day with the express purpose of helping plan lessons around Common Core. Let’s take a look at some of them.

Online resource Common Curriculum is designed to help educators align their lesson plans with CC standards. Common Curriculum provides an online plan book, which enables you to keep track of your class schedules and write your lesson plans. Enter a lesson into your Common Curriculum planner, then click “search for standard” to find a match for your lesson plan. Including more text in your lesson will improve search results, I’ve found.

A free application, Common Curriculum also enables users to attach files and links to their lesson plans, which really makes it easy to organize those digital materials in one place. Common Curriculum also has a built-in blogging feature. Once activated, the blog option will automatically post your lesson plans for you.

The heart of the Mastery Connect (see screencast below) service is an assessment tracker in which teachers and administrators can monitor each student’s progress toward meeting specifically selected Common Core standards. That data can be extremely useful in planning lessons. In an especially nice feature, Mastery Connect offers an app for iOS and Android that makes all of the Common Core standards available for immediate access from a smartphone. The app has been used by teachers more than 5.6 million times, according to the company. And you needn’t go it alone when planning your lessons. Mastery Connect offers an online network in which teachers across the country can connect to share ideas and lessons planned around the Common Core.

Need some inspiration for planning a Common Core-related lesson? There are a couple of places to start your search. The One Laptop Per Child project (one.laptop.org) recently created a wiki of elementary school lesson plans aligned to Common Core standards, XO Plans For You. Select your grade level, then a content area to find sample lesson plans. The lessons are archived as Google Documents, which you can download and or save onto your Google Drive account.

Popular virtual penpal service ePals has recently launched its own Common Core standards resource. The ePals Common Core Implementation Center is a bank of free project plans created by teachers and ePals staff. Search for projects by grade level and content area—currently limited to ELA and science. Many of the projects, though not all, involve using ePals. There are alternatives, if you don’t choose to use the service, but it might take a bit more creative effort on your part to make those particular lessons work.

As you plan your lessons in the new year, remember these free resources and take some of the stress out of aligning your plans to Common Core standards.

Richard Byrne (richardbyrne@freetech4teachers.com), a high school social studies teacher, writes the award-winning blog “Free Technology for Teachers.”

Scholastic

During the webcast—which will be globally accessible—Baldacci will present some of the most fascinating artifacts in the Smithsonian’s national collections, including the Lewis and Clark compass (which is featured in Baldacci’s 39 Clues book), Abraham Lincoln’s pocket watch, and the original Star-Spangled Banner, the flag that inspired Frances Scott Key to compose our national anthem. Viewers will also “meet” renowned museum curators and explore some of the most mysterious moments in American history.

“I’m thrilled to be part of the joint program between the powerhouse combination of Scholastic and the Smithsonian,” Baldacci says. “History and books, what could be better? Each entertains and educates. And The 39 Clues series and the Smithsonian do both, splendidly.”

Day of Doom will be the sixth and final book in the multi-platform series of books, collectible cards, and an online game that debuted in September 2008 for ages 8-12.

Prolific and bestselling author David Baldacci‘s first book, Absolute Power, was published 1996; he has since written more than 25 novels, plus two titles for young readers in the Freddy and the French Fries series. He was inducted into the International Crime Writing Hall of Fame in 2011.

David Baldacci. Credit: Travis Riggs, Creative Edge Studios.

“Scholastic is honored to have author David Baldacci as part of our groundbreaking and innovative 39 Clues team and we couldn’t be more excited that he has agreed to lead our exclusive webcast,” says Ellie Berger, President, Scholastic Trade. “We are also thrilled to collaborate with the renowned institution, Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, on this unique and educational virtual tour that will reach countless classrooms and libraries around the globe and is a perfect way to merge history, mystery, and storytelling.”

According to the company, the webcast will help teachers meet the “Speaking & Listening” Common Core Standards for English and Language Arts. There are currently more than 15 million copies in print worldwide of the series and more than 2 million registered users for the online game.

A movie is currently in development with Dreamworks.

First, a tangent: anyone who has spent time grappling with the Common Core (CC) English Language Arts standards knows that they have significantly raised the stakes on text complexity. Books that, say, we once thought were a challenging choice for fifth graders are now considered appropriate for fourth graders.

Why has the bar been raised, even though, just a few years ago, No Child Left Behind focused on kids who read below the old, less demanding, grade-level standards?

A key reason is that the metrics for upper YA titles—the types of books that teens have been assigned as the ultimate high school challenge—are 200 Lexile points below what high school seniors will be facing the following year in college. If K–12 education is a fire truck ladder, then we’ve built it too short to reach the escape window. In order to make sure that students are prepared for college, we needed to add more rungs to the ladder.

CC increases the text complexity so much that by kids’ final year in high school there are, as far as I know, no YA nonfiction books that meet the new education guidelines. To remedy that situation, students must necessarily read adult books, primary sources, or academic books. Fine. So if that’s where we’re leading students, how do we get them there?

An adult history book assumes that the reader already knows—or can know, or should know—something about the topic. If, for instance, a writer talks about the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts in a biography of John Adams, he assumes that the reader has studied them in school or can quickly Google them. The author’s job is to give an engaging take on what the passage of those bills tell us about Adams, and how this fresh perspective helps us see Adam’s time, and perhaps our own, in a new light. Since the reader knows the basic information, the originality is in the author’s thinking and presentation, and a source note may simply list where he got the primary source.

YA and academic books, though, have different goals. Books for young readers don’t presume our audience already knows the story. Indeed, even as we’re presenting what we hope is an enticing view of either an unfamiliar event (such as the race to make the first atom bomb or the outbreak of an 18th-century Yellow Fever epidemic in Philadelphia), or a familiar one (like the Great Depression or the 1963 March on Washington), we need to make sure that our readers understand both the basics and our new take. We have to treat the information itself as potentially new to them. This puts those of us who write for young adults in the same place as an academic historian, since he or she is presenting original research that’s aimed at shifting how we view the past.

Thus we, like the academic historian, need to let our readers into the process: Where does our information come from? Are there other perspectives? Are our sources reliable? We can’t presume that our readers have the necessary background, so we need to provide them with it; that’s why our citations need to be annotated. We need to show kids how our claims, our knowledge, are cooked.

Authors who merely cite sources without discussing them are seeing YA history as using a story to pass along settled information. This is appealing to fiction fans, who enjoy the narrative flow of a nonfiction book (and are thrilled that it doesn’t resemble a textbook), but for whom the information is the medicine which the spoonful of narrative sugar makes palatable. Not being familiar with either the content or the way that historians construct knowledge, they don’t miss what they don’t know. Those who question, discuss, and compare their sources see YA history as using a story to acquaint readers with the process of how knowledge is created. This is at the heart of historical writing, but may be totally unfamiliar to fiction readers, who often enjoy speculating about character and motivation in novels, but may have never learned that the same kind of thinking must be applied to our understanding of the real world.

I think annotated citations are great even for kids in the youngest grades, because we want them to be pestering us, demanding that we explain “How do you know that?” But by the upper-middle grades and certainly by high school this is no longer a choice. Our books are always as much about the construction of knowledge as about the information itself. To put it a different way, our highest goal isn’t merely that history should read like a novel, but that it should be as much of a puzzle as a math problem and as open to interpretation as a poem.

“Well-written” in nonfiction necessarily means “well-considered.” History is, ultimately, an invitation to the reader to participate in the process of thinking about, and thus re-imagining, who we are and how we got that way. That is what college offers. We can only make the link by sharing our process of discovery with our younger readers.

Coda: Right now, a related debate is going on among prominent historians and history educators. Stanford’s Sam Wineburg recently wrote a marvelous critique of Howard Zinn’s work—featuring his poor use of sources, which was then criticized by NYU’s Robert Cohen. For my take on the debate, with links to the Wineburg essay, see http://nonfictionandthecommoncore.blogspot.com/2013_01_01_archive.html; and for Cohen’s critique, visit http://hnn.us/articles/when-assessing-zinn-listen-voices-teachers-and-students.

SPONSORED BY: Follett, Lerner Digital, Norwood House, Rosen Publishing, Gareth Stevens Publishing, Scholastic Library Publishing, Junior Library Guild, ABDO Publishing Group and School Library Journal

EVENT DATE AND TIME: Thursday, January 17, 2013, 3:00 – 4:00 PM ET/12:00 – 1:00 PM PT

Register now!

With nonfiction and informational text at the forefront of the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS), there are new demands and opportunities for reading, writing, speaking and listening for students.

Here’s what Sarah had to say about page four of my book: “There are two paragraphs here, which begin with the sentence, ‘There are two ways to tell the story of America.’ Again I was pulled to an abrupt halt. Really? (I thought) There are two ways to tell the story of America? Two? Not three or six or twenty.’”

Obviously, I don’t agree, and I look forward to a lively discussion with the Flowers team at some future gathering. But I’m restating my point here not to wrangle over my book’s language, but rather to reflect on the recent presidential election and some of the post-election analysis and complaints.

As the New York Times reported, some Republican voters in, for example, Wyoming are discouraged by the election’s outcome. Those businesspeople see what they term “dependency” on the government as “unsustainable” and directly counter to what they’re certain is our nation’s can-do, self-reliant, and individualist core. Of course, it was precisely this split between the 47 percent of takers and, implicitly, the 53 percent of doers that Governor Romney spoke of in that captured video—a split echoed by Bill O’Reilly and many others after the election.

From the Colonial days, when Pennsylvania’s rich lands were called the “best poor-man’s country,” through Emerson’s canonical essay on self-reliance, through the generations of graduation speakers who have used his words as their guide and inspiration, America has stood as a land where an individual has a chance to make good. Our emphasis on the individual as an individual was in stark contrast to the rest of the world, where a nation or empire generally embraced an established religion. In those societies, one was defined as belonging to the prevailing faith or viewed as an outsider. There was also a set class system in which your expectations were defined by your birth—and a strong sense of national heritage in which to be English, or Chinese, or Zulu was defined by not being something else. Of course, this made it difficult to figure out what rights to grant minorities, such as Jews, Quakers, Uighurs (Muslim Chinese), Koreans in Japan, etc.

No wonder the Wyoming voters are angry and feel as if the America they know, love, and believe in is slipping away and joining the muck of the world that their ancestors left behind. But there’s one key flaw in that narrative of American history. When Congress first set rules for how an immigrant could be become a naturalized citizen, it faced a major dilemma. Should just anyone be allowed to come here and join the American experiment, including Jews who could not vote or hold office in England and Catholics who might be beholden to the Pope? In 1790, Congress decided that religion would not be a barrier. Indeed, any free white person was eligible for citizenship. (The rule was amended to include Africans after the Civil War—and thus specifically excluded Asians and later Hispanics; the law was not fully replaced until 1952.)

For some Americans, being an individual has always been trumped by being part of a group: African Americans, Native Americans, LGBT Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Jewish, Catholic, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist Americans, and even female Americans have always been aware of their group identity—once considered a demerit, now often a source of pride. Here’s the second narrative of American history: no matter who you were as an individual, the shadow of your group defined how others perceived you, and it greatly influenced your prospects. If you identify with any of these groups, American history has only fractionally been a story of individual effort. Rather, it has always been a matter of collective profile.

In the recent election, members of precisely these same groups tended to side with President Obama, and all of the post-election demographic analysis has been about their rising power. One narrative of America’s history that emphasizes collective experience is edging past another that emphasizes that individuals are free to seek their own destinies. But there are, as I said at the beginning, two narratives of our past. Both are, in their own way, true. Indeed, it’s the weave, the intersection, of belief in the individual and the assumption that that individual is white and male, that’s our national story. Both of these stories, taken together, subvert and enhance one another and make up the real pageant of our past.

What a perfect Common Core topic: present your students with a cluster of resources, some that focus on America as the land of the individual and others that focus on our nation as the land of group prejudice and collective experience. Soon, I hope, your libraries will be alive with sound of the resulting questions, comments, and debates. I can hardly wait.

Downed tree on the way to New Canaan Library, CT.

The day after Hurricane Sandy, my wife and I walked around our town. We’d been fortunate. Even though a fallen tree blocked our street, with every sort of power line beneath it, we had power and water and even TV and Internet. Our house was filled with neighbors charging their cell phones and craving hot coffee.

As we picked our way past trees and police tape and fallen wires, we saw home after home darkened, trees upended across yards, porches, and roofs. We finally reached my 92-year-old mother, who was trapped in her cold, powerless home, and my mother-in-law, who was even more imprisoned in an apartment with neither power nor running water. I’m sure you’ve all had similar experiences or have seen images such as these, and far worse.

The storm brought change. We all also saw President Obama and New Jersey Governor Christie work together—an image of what our nation could be and should be. And that brings me to the main point of this column. I believe that students in every school in America should address the following question: Are human actions changing our climate? And if they are, how? What can we do about it?

We’re living amidst wild nature. Is that due to climate change? What could be a more perfect Common Core question? What could be more central to our lives, and our students’ futures? To address these questions, kids need to use science, history, economics, ecology, biology, math, and social action—they can read dystopian novels such as Paolo Bacigalupi’s Ship Breaker (Little, Brown, 2010) or M. T. Anderson’s Feed (Candlewick, 2002). These are questions on which experts disagree. That’s perfect. We’re not preaching to our students, we are engaging them in answering a question that’s as central to their generation as civil rights was to mine. Why should schools focus on anything else? Students will learn every required skill, but not as textbook abstractions, rather as the central issues facing us, all of us, right now and in the future.

I urge you, readers, make the case to your school. Or, if the teachers and administration are too pressed by tests to add a new unit, start a display in your library: Is human-induced climate change leading to catastrophic weather? Include books, print-outs from websites and magazines, and ads. (The New York Times has a fine set of learning resources about Sandy.) Then invite kids to add their notes, comments, and questions. Build it and they will come—and you’ll be the agent asking the key questions that must be asked… and answered.

Author interviews: “Writers Speak to Kids” is a free series of 17 videos from NBC Learn that features interviews with popular and award-winning children’s books creators. The authors, responding to questions posed by NBC News correspondent Jenna Bush Hager, talk about their writing process and experiences. The series launched on September 17, with interviews of Peter Brown, Doreen Cronin, Jeff Kinney, Daniel Kirk, and Mo Willems. Gordon Korman, Ridley Pearson, Laura Vaccaro Seeger, Philip Stead, Rebecca Stead, Clare Vanderpool, and Jacqueline Woodson are among the other authors that will be interviewed during the fall. The program is intended to inspire students and help them learn about creative writing techniques.

Mora Award Winner

Día celebration: The Lynden Public Library of the Whatcom County Library System in Washington has won the 2012 Estela and Raúl Mora Award for exemplary efforts promoting El día de los niños, El día de los libros (Children’s Day, Book Day). More than 250 people attended the festivities, and each child was given a book. The event featured craft activities led by bilingual teen volunteers, and had several storytimes that ended with a game of lotería (Mexican bingo) with books given as prizes. There was also a disc jockey, a piñata, and other games. The Lynden Public Library will receive $1,000 and a special plaque. “What resonated with the committee was the grassroots involvement of Lynden’s Día,” said Beatriz Pascual Wallace, Mora Award chair. “There was a strong sense of community connection with this event, of everyone coming together to plan, celebrate, and share.”

For the first time, three honor awards were given: the District of Columbia Public Library, King County (WA) Library System, and Sacramento (CA) Public Library each received $300. The award, presented annually in partnership with REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish speaking, was established in 2000 by author/poet Pat Mora and her siblings to honor their parents. The award will be presented during the American Library Association’s (ALA) Midwinter meeting in January 2013 in Seattle.

Common Core

Free writing rubrics: Turnitin, in partnership with the English Professional Learning Council, has made writing rubrics developed to align with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) available free to educators. The rubrics for argumentative, narrative, and informative essay assignments for 9th and 10th graders and 11th and 12th graders help instructors explain to students what is expected of them, assess student work, and track their progress. You can also watch a free video on the Common Core writing rubrics.

Early Learning

Digital content: Capstone’s myOn reader has expanded its collection of early childhood reading content with the inclusion of hundreds of enhanced digital titles from eight additional publishers: Bellwether, August House, Little Folk, August House Story Cove, Orca, Rourke, Speakaboos, and Sylvan Dell.

Launched in 2011, myOn reader is a personalized literacy program that offers access to an integrated library of digital books with reading supports, customized to a student’s interest and reading abilities. Teachers can monitor, track, and measure student reading growth. To date, myOn reader offers more than 2,500 books. These titles include reading supports such as an embedded dictionary, highlighting, and audio. “Reading proficiency is the foundational aspect of learning, so building students’ literacy skills early is critical to putting them on the path to success throughout school and beyond,” said Todd Brekhus, president of Capstone Digital. “The expanded collection of early childhood content available on myON reader combines a student’s love of technology with their innate curiosity and interest in learning.”

A Booklist for Teens

Best books: Sixteen school and public libraries have been selected by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), as official book groups for their Teens’ Top Ten, a booklist created by and for teens. Groups of young adults from these libraries nominate titles published during the 2013-2014 calendar year to create the Teens’ Top Ten nominations. Then, it’s up to teens across the country to vote for their three favorites. When the ballots are tallied, the Top Ten list is created. And that’s not the only job for these teen book groups. They also evaluate books for more than 30 publishers. New groups are chosen every two years.

The libraries that have been selected are: BHS Book Club, Barrington (IL) High School; Book Hook, Cecil County Public Library, Elkton, MD; Bookhype, Perry Branch Library/Perry High School, Gilbert, AZ; Bookmarked, Patrick F. Taylor Science & Technology Academy, Jefferson, LA; CCHS YA Galley Group, Concord-Carlisle (MA) Regional High School; Greene Teens Review Board, Springfield-Greene (MO) County Library; HCRHS Bookworms, Hunterdon Central Regional High School, Flemington, NJ; Interesting Reader Society, Poudre River Public Library District, Fort Collins, CO; McReaders, Oakridge Middle School, Clover, SC; Mount Carmel Academy Book Club, Mount Carmel Academy, New Orleans, LA; PPL Teen Book Club, Prescott (AZ) Public Library; Read, Read, and Read Some More, Milton (VT) Middle School and High School; The TABbler, La Vista (NE) Public Library; Teen Book Posse, TAB, and Q Club, Kitsap Regional Library, WA; Teens Know Best, Metropolitan State University and St. Paul (MN) Public Library; Young Adult Advisory Councils, Johnson County Library, Shawnee Mission, KS.

Granted

Literacy skills: Want to help teens in grades 10–12 learn news literacy skills like distinguishing between fact, and opinion and between propaganda and news? Public libraries and library consortia can apply for more than $50,000 in grant money from the News Know-how initiative. Funded by the Open Society Foundations and administered by the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom (OIF), students get training and support from librarians, journalists, and news ethicists.

Participating libraries select 12–15 diverse students from the 10–12 grades from their community. The students must attend about 25 hours of training during the summer 2013 and complete a team project that requires about 25 hours of outside work. All students who complete the project receive a stipend. Make sure to apply by December 8.

Book donations: Three Coretta Scott King Book Donation Grants are available for underfunded libraries, schools, and non-traditional organizations that provide educational services to children. Recipients of the grants will receive more than 100 titles submitted for consideration for the 2013 Coretta Scott King Book Awards as well as all the winning books. You have until January 31 to apply for the grant (make sure you click on Book Donation Grant after you log on). Winners will be notified in February.

The Coretta Scott King Book Awards are presented each year by the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Committee of the American Library Association’s Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT) “to encourage the artistic expression of the African-American experience via literature and the graphic arts.”

Elementary teachers often feel that it is impossible to meet all the literacy, math, science, and social studies benchmarks for which they are accountable. Middle and secondary content specialists lament the lack of time they have to delve into specific moments in history, concepts in economics, or specialized topics in the sciences that can serve as a catalyst for understanding essential concepts. As a result, students sprint through the content standards, with no time to rest, breathe deeply, or examine closely.

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English Language Arts and Content Literacy, on the other hand, are process-oriented. Teachers have an opportunity to choose broadly the content to examine, and can view the CCSS as a toolkit to explore topics, themes, and genres.

There are practical ways to teach for content over coverage. Primary teachers will want to integrate their teaching and create multidisciplinary curriculum units. Secondary science and social studies teachers can use the CCSS as a vehicle for exploring important topics within their required state content standards at a greater depth and model the ways in which professionals approach their disciplines, as they equip students with some of “the tools of the trade.”

Such work begins with selecting a range of materials for units of study, material beyond traditional basal readers and textbooks. If the educators in your school must use required texts, they can incorporate these resources into a larger curriculum text set. Librarians can help them find books and materials outside the same old parade of facts, and lead them to a variety of fiction and nonfiction genres when possible and appropriate. You can also assist them in locating relevant newspaper and magazine articles in digital databases, and point to museum, library, and research-based websites for examples of available primary and secondary sources. As much as possible, encourage teachers to rely upon a number of formats, so that students can read, listen to, and view texts in more than one modality.

After selecting material for content study, we need to consider approach. One misconception our students often have is that all nonfiction should be read in the same way. They are unaware that historians and scientists approach content differently. We can teach students to read as these professionals do by modeling and allowing them to try out these processes. The CCSS foster disciplinary literacy, recognizing that each field of study has its own framework for asking questions, considering evidence, and creating new content to communicate knowledge.

As educator Sam Wineburg has explained, historians rigorously question what they read. The questions they raise about historical sources are the same questions that our students should be asking. Who wrote it? Why? What do they want me to know? Historians also compare different accounts of the same events.  Do my sources agree on the facts? If not, why not? How do they differ? And finally, they ask about the unique conditions of the era they are examining and consider how these conditions influenced people’s behavior. What is distinctive about the period I am studying? What is familiar? What is unfamiliar? Encourage your students to use these frameworks referred to as sourcing, corroborating, and contextualizing.

Scientists also question rigorously. They evaluate claims being made by others to see if they come from carefully planned observations, and try to determine if inferences are justified. When our students are reading nonfiction accounts of scientists engaged in inquiry, they, too, can pose questions: What is the problem the scientists are trying to solve? Are they collaborating with others? How? Is there evidence that they are willing to reconsider previous conclusions in the face of new evidence? Are the investigative methods they are using creative and imaginative? What have they learned? What else do they want to know?

These queries will move conversations about nonfiction sources well beyond factual recall and remembering. Instead, students will begin to think about how knowledge is created and how scientists and historians continue to refine their understandings. In other words, your discussion will present science and history as subjects that are vibrant and alive.

As we introduce more nonfiction, let’s keep in mind that to engage in critical thinking, we need a robust and varied collection of material to investigate. These clusters of information sources are the foundation of critical conversations.

This list of tools and resources from SLJ staff, bloggers, and contributors will enrich your understanding of the national initiative to implement new standards of language arts, information literacy, and mathematics for grades K–12.

SLJ 3-Part Webcast Series: On Common Core

We kicked off a 3-part free webcast series last week on the on how the new Common Core education standards are impacting your library, your school, and your students. You still have time to register for the next session, Librarians, the Secret Weapon, being held on November 20. In these three (3) one-hour webcasts, library, literacy, and education experts from across the country will explore how to effectively implement this nationwide initiative.

All Aboard!: Implementing Common Core offers school librarians an opportunity to take the lead.
By Rebecca Hill

Understanding the Common Core State Standards : A review of John Kendall’s book, a primer on CCSS
By Alicia Eames

CCSS and us: a video Q&A with John Kendall
By Joyce Valenza

Librarian Creates Guide to the Common Core Standards 
By SLJ Staff

Editorials by SLJ  Editor-in-Chief, Rebecca T. Miller on Librarians and the Common Core

‘I Can Help You With That’: Providing solutions puts librarians at the center of Common Core | SLJ June 2012 Editorial

What Creativity Looks Like: Put a Bunch of Librarians in a Room, and Great Ideas Fly | Editorial
Entries from SLJ’s “On Common Core” column by various experts in the education and library fields

By Olga Nesi
The New Standards Dovetail Elegantly with Inquiry, and We Know Inquiry
The Question of Text Complexity: Reader and task trump traditional measures

By Paige Jaeger
Is a Picture Worth $2,500?: Understanding Facts Visually

By Melissa Jacobs-Israel
A Sticker Won’t Do the Job: We need appealing nonfiction that will engage students and build rigor
Making the Parent Connection

By Mary Ann Cappiello, Myra Zarnowski, and Marc Aronson
Cultivating Collaboration
Creating Community

Installments from Christopher Harris’s “The Next Big Thing” column

The End of Nonfiction: Common Core standards force us to rethink categorization
A Librarian’s Tricks for Finding Those ‘Complex Texts’ Cited in the Common Core
We Could Be Heroes: Research plus tech skills are a hot commodity
A Video Hosting Solution for Schools

Related entries from “Consider the Source” blog by author and educator Marc Aronson

The Problem with Common Core’s ‘Appendix B’
The Reign in Spain
The issues and questions raised by Common Core come up abroad as well.
Convergence
Discusses a set of books that looks at one moment in history from three different angles.
Shuffling Off to Buffalo
The role of the librarian in teaching students about “guided inquiry.”

Tools profiled in Joyce Valenza’s column, “Neverending Search”

New from AASL: Best Websites for Teaching and Learning
New Google Education Search Hub
You’re gonna want to share ShareMyLesson

Informational texts, novels, ideas, and websites that align with the Common Core

The Wild World of Steve Jenkins | An Author Study
By Barbara Auerbach

On the Radar—Top Picks from the Editors at Junior Library Guild: New Science Nonfiction Supports Common Core
By Deborah B. Ford

To Infinity and Beyond | New Sci-Fi Titles for Teens
By Joyce Adams Burner

Underneath the glitz of spaceships, extraterrestrials, and techno bling, these young adult sci-fi novels feature complex characters exploring the question of what it means to be human. Incorporate them into social studies, technology, and literature classes, and blast off into discussions touching on politics, culture, science, the environment. The possibilities are limitless!

Afghan Days, Afghan Dreams
By Daryl Grabarek

The resources are ideal for teachers looking to educate students about Afghanistan while also embracing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

Kno Launches K–12 E-Textbooks, Geared Toward Parents, Home Use
By Kathy Ishizuka

Education software outfit Kno has partnered with publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to offer interactive textbooks for K–12 students. The digital titles, which align with Common Core subjects, are available for $9.99 or less for a one-year rental.

At the Core: Audiobooks Promote Critical Reading Habits | Listen In
By Sharon Grover and Lizette Hannegan

Finding a Voice | Writers’ Guides
By Vicki Reutter
These three guides make the often daunting task of writing a little easier by instructing students how to write in a variety of genres, including journalism, poetry, humor, and more.

Libraries, Ebooks and Beyond: Library “Makers” Share How It’s Done
By The Digital Shift

Searching for some great ways to get kids hooked on creating digital content? Attendees at the October 17 Digital Shift event got some great tips from Wes Fryer, Melissa Techman, Liz Castro and Erin Daly, all participants in a panel on “Makers in the Library.”

Get Kids Designing with Student-Created Games | The Gaming Life
By Brian Mayer
A program that gives students a new avenue to display mastery-level understanding of the curriculum while incorporating 21st-century skills as well as the Common Core Standards.

What Is the Future of Reference?
By Henrietta Thornton-Verma

Christopher Harris, of New York’s Genesee Valley Educational Partnership, and Wendy Stephens, of New Market, Alabama’s Buckhorn High School led a spirited discussion of the merits of print vs. digital learning, the impact of those Common Core guidelines on publishers’ plans, and other timely and vexing topics.

News Bites: Support Common Core with a New Nonfiction Program from Scholastic
By Phyllis Levy Mandell

Wii Learn: Surprise elementary grade students with a fun way to learn math
By Matthew C. Winner and Meghan Hearn

Viewing the video game console through the eyes of an educator opens up a world of mathematical applications through which students can master concepts, teachers can align with the Common Core Standards, and classrooms can reflect students’ experiences and interests.

Common Core in the news:

Romney Doesn’t Support Fed Dollars for Common Core
By Rocco Staino

Study: Teacher Support for Common Core Standards Growing; Public Awareness Still Lags
By Debra Lau Whelan

Kentucky First to Adopt Common Core State Standards Initiative
By Lauren Barack

SPONSORED BY: Follett, Lerner Digital, Rosen Publishing, Scholastic Library Publishing, Junior Library Guild and School Library Journal
EVENT DATE AND TIME: Tuesday, November 20, 2012, 3:00 – 4:00 PM ET/12:00 – 1:00 PM PT

Archive is now available!

The New York City Department of Education Office of Library Services is at the forefront of a movement to clarify the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for the profession. Olga Nesi, a regional coordinator at the NYC DOE Library Services, will lead a discussion on the challenges and opportunities the CCSS present for librarians, the role of the profession in supporting the goals of the initiative, and the workshops she and her colleagues have been conducting around the state.

Panelist:

Olga Nesi – Library Coordinator, New York City Office of Library Services of the Department of Education

Click here to register for Part 1 of this series: Getting Real: Marc Aronson and Sue Bartle
Click here to register for Part 3 of this series: Making the Text Connection

Can’t make it on November 20? No problem! Register now and you will get an email reminder from School Library Journal post-live event when the webcast is archived and available for on-demand viewing at your convenience!

Follow us on Twitter! @SLJEvent  #SLJcommoncore

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Watch Steve Jenkins in his studio »»»

The idea came to me last fall as I sat in a high school auditorium in Brooklyn, New York listening to award-winning author Marc Aronson address a group of school librarians on the Common Core and its emphasis on nonfiction—not the “safely bland” texts that so many teachers seem to favor for their brevity or simplicity, but well-crafted “literary” nonfiction that engages and offers a point of view. He explained that as information specialists it was our job to provide teachers with the resources they would need to support this new curriculum.

I started thinking about my nonfiction collection and all of the authors that embody the qualities Aronson had described. How could I sell these more complex, nonfiction picture books to the teachers and students I served? Traditionally, elementary author studies invoked names such as Eric Carle, Leo Lionni, or Patricia Polacco. Why not broaden the practice to include nonfiction writers with a significant body of work? Since most teachers at my school tend to assign animal research reports to introduce nonfiction, I chose Steve Jenkins for my first nonfiction author study—a writer whose books can be found in most classrooms and libraries.

Not unlike Leo Lionni, Jenkins grew up with a menagerie at home—lizards, mice, insects—“My father was a scientist and encouraged my interest in the natural world.” Jenkins also loved to draw and paint; his signature cut-and-torn paper collages make his books easily identifiable to young readers. The author collects handmade papers from around the world, and even makes his own. He has written and/or illustrated dozens of award-winning books, many with his wife, Robin Page.

While the average Lexile level of his books falls in the mid-800s—around a 4th grade level—the copious illustrations and clear, straightforward text make them accessible to students in the 2nd and 3rd grades as well. In addition, many titles offer “…two levels of text, one that can be managed by a beginning reader and a second that can be read by a more proficient reader, or aloud, by an adult if a younger child is interested in finding out more.” Teaching vocabulary and assigning and modeling clearly defined tasks render the texts even more accessible. Visit Jenkins’s website for biographical information, a gallery of his work, and an excellent slideshow titled “Making Books.”

Prehistoric Actual Size (Houghton Mifflin, 2005) presents young readers with striking images of 18 creatures. Single- and double-page spreads, including two dramatic gatefolds, portray all or part of the animal, depending on its true size. Images include one or two sentences about the creature along with information about when it lived and its length in standard and metric measure. One or two paragraphs with a small picture of the complete animal appear at the back.

Introduce the book by passing around a variety of small plastic dinosaurs for students to examine and identify. Explain that these toys do not represent the relative or actual size of these prehistoric creatures. Ask students how we know the size of animals that no longer exist (vocabulary: archaeologist, fossil, skeleton). Read the book, ask “What did you notice? Turn and talk to your neighbor about something that surprised you…Why do you think the illustrator sometimes shows only part of the animal?”

As a follow-up activity, groups of students can choose one animal from the book to research. With a roll of brown kraft paper, they might like to sketch and color the entire animal or an impressive part …actual size. They can label their drawings with the creature’s name and measure and add a short description of when and where it lived, what it ate, and any other facts they would like to include.

Though dinosaurs are gone forever, Almost Gone: The World’s Rarest Animals (HarperCollins, 2006) introduces the concept of endangered species. Single- or double-page spreads offer a textured collage of the animal accompanied by its name, where it lives, and the number left—from as few as one (the Abington Island tortoise) to nearly 500 (Bactrian camel). A large-print paragraph describes the species and what threatens its survival. An introduction explains the consequences of extinction: “Every living thing is connected to many other living things, often in ways we don’t understand or even suspect. And once an animal or plant is gone, it can never come back. All the living things that interact with it will never be the same….”

Before reading the book, have students name one animal that is extinct. Introduce vocabulary such as  “endangered” and “rare.” Ask the class why they think a species becomes endangered. Present a short slideshow of photographs of some of the animals mentioned in the book such as the California condor, Yangtze River dolphin, or Miami blue butterfly. Explain that these species are headed toward extinction like the dinosaurs. As you read, ask students to record at least one cause of endangerment in their notebooks or on a post-it; create a list of these causes including items such as overhunting, loss of habitat, pollution, etc. Query  students about how we can protect animals and why it is important to do so.

Living Color (Houghton Mifflin, 2007) explores the vibrant hues of the animal kingdom. The introduction explains that, “If an animal is very colorful, it is likely that its brilliant skin, scales, or feathers somehow help it stay alive.” Each color is allotted one or two full spreads with five to seven monochromatic images of creatures with a paragraph about each. As there are two levels of text here, teachers can read the simpler, more provocative text to prompt discussion. “Blue says …Don’t touch! Look at me! Don’t eat me…I’m here to help. I’m a mystery. Now you see me, now you don’t.”

Children can guess what each message means. Back matter thumbnail illustrations of each animal accompany information about size, habitat, diet, and more. Introduce the book by asking students their favorite color. Challenge them to think of an animal that is that color. After sharing the simple text, divide the class into seven groups: red, blue, green, yellow, orange, purple, and pink). Each group is responsible for reading and reporting on the different ways their color helps animals survive. Watch the video “Steve Jenkins on creating Living Color” on TeachingBooks.net. In their color groups, have each student choose an animal and create a collage illustration in the way that Jenkins does. Include a caption with the creature’s name and what purpose its color serves. Your bulletin board will be a rainbow of the natural world.

In I See a Kookaburra!: Discovering Animal Habitats Around the World (Houghton Mifflin, 2005) Jenkins and co-author Robin Page introduce children to six habitats. They explain that living things “…thrive in all these habitats because, over many generations, animals adapt. They change their size, shape, and habits to fit different conditions.”

Each environment considered opens with an “I Spy” spread featuring eight partially hidden animals. “In the desert I see…” Students can first locate the living things on the page and describe what they see using adjectives and prepositions: “I see an orange-and black-striped creature hiding behind some rocks and cactus on the right.” Have children guess what the animal might be. Then turn the page to view each one featured with its name and a descriptive phrase such as “…a stinging anemone hitching a ride.”

More details about each creature are available at the back of the book. Divide students into six groups and assign each a different habitat. Have them create a group mural with each student responsible for drawing or creating a paper collage representation of one animal from the designated locale. They can write a brief riddle to help viewers identify each species: “Though I am only two or three inches long, my big red eyes scare off predators. I like to hop from tree to tree. Can you find me?”

Another husband-wife collaboration, sisters & brothers (Houghton Mifflin, 2008), examines animal siblings. Once again there are two levels of text: a header or footer offers a word or phrase that characterizes the relationship such as “quadruplets,” “sibling rivalry,” or “stepsisters and stepbrothers.”

Bold images of the young animals pop against the white background of the pages. The short cryptic captions in large print such as “Exactly alike,” “Girls rule!,” “I’m having my family for dinner…,” or “Friends for life” are great conversation starters. Before reading the book aloud ask youngsters, “How many brothers or sisters or cousins do you live with? How do you get along? Turn and talk to your neighbor about something you enjoy doing together and something you fight about.” Introduce the word “sibling” and explain that animals have brothers and sisters too—sometimes just one and sometimes thousands! After reading the book, have students work with a partner or in a group to either write or improvise a skit about animal siblings that captures and reveals their special relationship. Beforehand, distribute the longer explanation that also appears on each spread. They can make masks or puppets to enhance their skits.

Jenkins says, “I believe we should teach science as a process…not just a collection of facts. It’s a tool that allows children to test their own theories and to trust their own conclusions.” This is just what the Common Core dictates; children need to learn to think for themselves and process new ideas, not simply to summarize them. The books and activities mentioned above do just that.

Many of the ELA reading, writing, speaking and listening standards for K-5 informational texts are incorporated into the lessons described. The titles and activities suggested above reference the following Common Core State Standards:

RI.2.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
RI.2.6 Identify the main purpose of a text, including what the author wants to answer, explain, or describe.
W. 2.2 Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section.
W. 2.7  Participate in shared research and writing projects.
SL. 2.2 Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud.
RI. 3.5 Use text features and search tools (e.g., keywords, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently.
RI. 3.7 Use information gained from illustrations…and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text.
W. 3.1 Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting appoint of view with reasons.

Related TeachingBooks.net resources »»»

Watch Steve Jenkins in his studio »»»

It may seem obvious to you, dear reader, but not everyone knows that the library is the heart of the school community, the place where student and faculty life converge—where children race to reserve the latest installment in that must-read series, to find that just-right book, to explore online resources, to work and collaborate on research projects, to reread a favorite fiction title before the movie is released, and to talk about the books they love with people who care. It’s the place where teachers discover new resources to incorporate into lesson plans, gather to discuss and map curriculum, and to attend professional development workshops after school hours.

As the center of the school, the library is also the logical place to educate teachers, parents, and students about the quality materials available for children and young adults, and to develop a culture of nonfiction within your school. While many librarians already offer breakfast booktalks, provide curriculum-related booklists, and brief teachers on the latest reference materials, we would like to add a few of our suggestions for creating a community around nonfiction.

Consider kicking off the year with a “Nonfiction Tasting” one day at lunch or before or after school. Think of this as the equivalent to a wine tasting or a chocolate sampling. The goal is not to determine the best chocolate, but to taste the range of differences between milk and dark, 50 percent cacao versus 80 percent. You might want to introduce your tasting menu with a chocolate menu to take advantage of this metaphor. After sampling the treats, have teachers explore several informational picture books on the same subject. (It’s helpful to have multiple copies of each book on hand. Think interlibrary loan, if necessary.)

Again, the object is not to select the best of the group, but to expose teachers to the variety of texts available on a topic, and to begin a conversation about scope and approach: narrow versus broad, narrative versus expository. What media is used to illustrate the works: reproductions of oil paintings, photography, sketches, diagrams, or a combination of these styles? What points-of-view are explored?

You might want to follow up your “Nonfiction Tasting” with a “Nonfiction Book Club” for staff. Start small, offering a club that meets three times during the first quarter. To capitalize on the work that you started, continue to look at multiple titles on the same subject as a way of furthering teachers’ knowledge of nonfiction. Once the first group is launched, you can be more strategic about how future groups can operate. Plan with grade-level teams to run a nonfiction book club during team meetings once a month, or, combine your nonfiction club with a monthly vertical subject area team meeting. Because you know your school, you’re aware of the best ways to increase both interest and expertise in nonfiction by using time that is already set aside before, during, or after school.

Once teacher book clubs have been established, you might want to gather a group of avid nonfiction readers of different ages together to create “Team Nonfiction.” You probably already know many of those students because they return to the library again and again looking for books. How can they help you spread the word among students? Team Nonfiction can create book displays based on milestone anniversaries of major events or school-wide activities, and recommend nonfiction authors to spotlight for others. Members of the group can help you design an interest inventory. Once the inventory is complete, you’ll have information on the personal interests and hobbies of your school population—a useful tool for both reader’s advisory and collection development.

Finally, the students can help you develop a community of nonfiction book recommendations. Start your own school version of Goodreads by creating a review site on your school webpage and/or a bulletin of student-authored book reviews within the library itself. A number of online catalogs have this capability built right into them. The concept of Team Nonfiction can be modified to work with single grades (one per month of the school year), to sponsor events, to curate displays, and to write reviews.

In January, when the American Library Association and the National Council of Teachers of English both announce their annual nonfiction award winners, host a “Mock Orbis Pictus/Sibert/YALSA Nonfiction Award” program, working with grade-level teams on book selection. If you’ve created a book review culture in your school, you can start the selection process by returning to the titles already recommended by students.

Sometime during the academic year host a “Nonfiction Family Night.” Parents want to support their children’s reading, but they often don’t know where to begin, and most know very little about children’s and young adult nonfiction. They assume that they should be reading fiction aloud to their children, because that’s what they’ve traditionally done. But for many school-aged children, and their parents, nonfiction is what they prefer. By organizing an event for families, you can capitalize on their interests in hobbies or seasonal activities, and show them how they can spend time together as a family reading, and connect to their life and interests outside of school. It might be helpful to invite local experts from science and nature centers, history museums, construction trades, and restaurants to share their expertise on a topic about which you have a great collection.

Once you have established a community around nonfiction, you can begin to help groups of teachers think more strategically about the ways in which the Common Core State Standards challenge all of us to think deeply about content over coverage and the resulting curricular implications.

EVENT DATE AND TIME: Thursday, October 18, 2012, 3:00 – 4:00 PM ET/12:00 – 1:00 PM PT
SPONSORED BY: Follett, Lerner Digital, Rosen Publishing, Scholastic Library Publishing, Junior Library Guild and School Library Journal

Archive now available!

How do the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) impact you, your library, and your teachers?  Marc Aronson and Sue Bartle will discuss how perspective, multi-modality, and transliteracy will help you build a foundation as you implement CCSS. Take home a few concrete examples to successfully adjust to the instructional shifts in CCSS.

Panelists:

Marc Aronson – Professor, Rutgers School of Communication & Information
Susan M. Bartle – School Library System Director, Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES

Click here to register for Part 2 of this series: Librarians, the Secret Weapon
Click here to register for Part 3 of this series: Making the Text Connection

Can’t make it on October 18? No problem! Register now and you will get an email reminder from School Library Journal post-live event when the webcast is archived and available for on-demand viewing at your convenience!

Follow us on Twitter! @SLJEvent  #SLJcommoncore

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Cultivating Collaboration: The First “C”

The Common Core (CCSS) has arrived. We’ve had time to study the standards, peruse the list of recommended materials, and explore the suggested curriculum maps and assessments. Now, how do we begin to put this nationwide initiative into operation? What meaningful steps forward can we take? In this column, we’ll focus on the ideas that shape our approach to the standards. All start with the letter “C”—we call them “The 10 C’s.” We begin with the concept that holds all the others together: collaboration.

Librarians, teachers, administrators, parents, and children must work in concert. Why? Because we bring different strengths, abilities, and interests to the conversation. Teachers are familiar with grade-level curricula, and they get to know their students’ needs and interests early in the year. Librarians are adept at finding the best resources, whatever the subject matter, or reading ability of the student. Administrators understand the importance of librarian-teacher collaboration and can provide common planning time and guidance. Add the enthusiasm and support of parents and children for a rigorous curriculum and all the stakeholders have entered the picture.

The best place for the collaboration to begin is around the topic of quality nonfiction. Under the Common Core, the expectation is that 50 percent of elementary grade reading is in informational texts; at the high school level, the percentage increases to 70 percent. That’s a challenge, but it also offers educators an opportunity to launch a conversation in their school communities. Begin with these two essential questions: What is quality nonfiction? Where can I find it?

Identifying Quality Nonfiction Literature
While there are no hard and fast rules on what constitutes quality nonfiction, there is consensus on some basics. Begin the dialogue by sharing the criteria used by award and book selection committees. How do they go about selecting the titles? What do articles and reviews in journals such as School Library Journal, The Horn Book Magazine, Journal of Children’s Literature, Reading Teacher, and Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy contribute to this discussion? For starters, consider accuracy, organization, style of writing, visual material, documentation, and connections to the curriculum in relation to specific titles.

Finding Quality Nonfiction Literature
Educators have an immediate need to identify quality nonfiction literature in all the content areas. Lean on your librarians. As one colleague put it, librarians “have the keys to the castle.” They know good literature and they know how to find it. We suggest that together teachers and librarians begin by examining yearly professional book lists to see which books fit either established curriculum or current topics of interest.

Here is our starter list and a brief description of what each offers.

NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children
Each year, one nonfiction title and up to five honor books in any content area are recognized. The website lists titles selected each year since 1990.

Notable Social Studies Trade Books For Young People A list of K-8 titles of recommended books for teaching social studies. The website lists titles selected each year since 2000.

Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K–12
Lists recommended science books since 1996. Since 2010, the list contains links to activities related to selected books.

Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal
Lists winners and honor books since 2001. Books are selected for their engaging, distinctive language, visual presentation, documentation, and being “respectful and of interest to children.”

As this school year begins, collaborating with colleagues to identify nonfiction that supports a content-rich curriculum is essential to the success of the CCSS. Working together we can identify the raw materials we need to support teaching and learning. From there, we can decide on the best  use these resources. As we take these steps together, we work towards building an effective school community, whose hub should clearly be the school library.

In last month’s issue of Curriculum Connections the authors of On Common Core introduced themselves and the series.

My daughter’s first project was a fact-finding assignment where she was instructed to “go on the Internet with a parent and find out information about the Solar System.” As I read the instructions, my school librarian blood began to simmer. It boiled when I read, “do a Google search.” I wondered what my daughter would possibly learn. Was there any expectation of her developing critical thinking skills? What questions was she answering? How do you find facts without answering a question? What context will five facts have in my five-year-old’s world? Googling Solar System returns 177,000,000 results; how can she possibly narrow the search without keywords teased from a concept map? Okay, maybe I was carried away, because this is was kindergarten, but I have standards: Common Core Learning Standards.

As I helped my daughter finish the assignment, I was left with nagging questions as a parent and as an educator. My distress was weighed down by my knowledge that so many of our nation’s educators now need training on Common Core. This project—while it did not reflect the great teaching and instruction my daughter’s teacher did provide—was representative of the homework teachers are used to assigning and parents are used to seeing.

It reinforced my belief that educators need strong support, training, and guidance, and considerable time to reframe and rethink their teaching methods, assignments, unit plans, and lesson plans. They need to become fluent in the new standards and proficient in scaffolding the skills necessary for their students’ success.

Bringing parents along

Throughout the last two years, the Common Core has been a hot topic among us educators, but what do parents really understand of it? Are parents aware that for the first time in history there is a national movement towards a commonality in educational methods? A lot of new catchphrases are circulating in education and publishing circles, but are they also making the rounds in parenting circles, PTA meetings, public libraries, community meetings, board meetings, parenting blogs, or parenting magazines? Are parents ready for a new type of homework?

Enter school librarians. We have the tools to help parents engage in the Common Core. We are adept at sharing information fluency skills and the need for information literacy, critical thinking skills, and project-based learning with parents. We build and maintain diverse collections of nonfiction materials and can help parents become familiar with the narrative texts that build rigor and engage kids. We also offer online databases and tools that provide access to vetted resources that trump any “Googling.”

We can help parents remain informed and positive about the educational shifts by providing informational brochures and links to Common Core resources, developing a school library parenting blog or newsletter, and makings sure they are familiar with the library’s catalog. We can support teacher professional development and assist parents in understanding the need for change and the time required to make the shift.

Our common project

As a parent, between my two daughters I have another 15 years in the K–12 realm. I often wonder what it will be like. I understand it is beyond my personal capacity to influence every teacher my children encounter, but I can lend my professional insight. We all need to respect and support one another’s role in the Common Core.

Together, administrators, teachers, librarians, and parents will help students reach their final destination of being career and college ready in our global society. Together, we need to challenge their growing minds, encourage their curiosity, move beyond teaching-to-the-test, and more deeply involve ourselves in their education.

Melissa Jacobs-Israel (Mjacobs7@schools.nyc.gov) is Coordinator, NYC School Library System, NYC Department of Education, Office of Library Services. To submit an On Common Core o pinion piece, please contact Rebecca T. Miller at rmiller@mediasourceinc.com.

]]> http://www.slj.com/2012/09/opinion/on-common-core/making-the-parent-connection-on-common-core/feed/ 2 http://www.slj.com/2012/08/opinion/on-common-core/is-a-picture-worth-2500-understanding-facts-visually-on-common-core/ http://www.slj.com/2012/08/opinion/on-common-core/is-a-picture-worth-2500-understanding-facts-visually-on-common-core/#comments Wed, 01 Aug 2012 05:05:52 +0000 SLJ http://www.bookverdictk12.com/?p=10992

A picture has always been worth a thousand words, but now they are worth $2,500 or more a pop. According to marketingtechblog.com, “infographics agencies charge between $2,000 to $5,000 to research, design, and promote a fantastic infographic.”

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) ask students to research to build and present knowledge. For years, this knowledge was shared in written form—reports, essays, projects, and concluding paragraphs. Then came technology. The written format was then superseded by interviews, moviemaker clips, wikis, blogs, Animoto flashy packaged images, Vokis, Crazytalk movies, PowerPoints, Museum Boxes, Prezi’s, and more. We have mapped knowledge, created knowledge products, and delivered other educational messages with engaging technology and Web tools.

Deeper comprehension

Now, the newest buzz is about infographics. Infographics, which have been around for years in many formats from graphs to subway maps, are visual images that display information along with a message. Sometimes the message is subtle, while at other times it is stark and compelling. Infographics are easy to read and easy to digest—and the technology to create one is relatively easy to learn. I love them because the level of understanding it takes to condense a vast amount of researched information takes the creator to a new level of comprehension. It’s easy to create a PowerPoint and recall information, but it takes a deep understanding to synthesize and summarize those same facts visually in a graph, image, flowchart, poster, or combination of the above.

We live in a visually dominant society, and research shows that eyes gravitate to images over text. Therefore, any information we can present in picture form is more appealing and more likely to be read. Although infographics are easier to read than text, they are not simple to plan. These images actually hit the top of Bloom’s triangle: build, create, design, develop, devise, generate, compose, construct, adapt, imagine, compile, convince, express, and more! Infographics require deep understanding of the subject, the ability to summarize details and synthesize knowledge, and the creative spirit to wrap that knowledge up in an appealing way.

Strong writing skills required

Please note that as inviting as infographics are. the ability to make them does not replace strong reading and writing skills. The objective of the CCSS is to graduate College and Career Ready (CCR) students, and most students currently lag behind in reading and writing skills upon graduation. Hence the CCSS focus on close reading and writing “drawing evidence from the text.” In our copy and paste world, any assignment that requires students to move away from recall, retell, and rewrite (copy and paste), and instead challenges them to think, is worthwhile. Wrap that up in technology, and you get engagement. One could argue that “drawing evidence from the text” to support a position or point is only slightly better than aggregating facts and rote recall, but, nevertheless, students need to write well.

According to communications scholar Sandra Braman, this hyperconnected generation is losing “the skills associated with print literacy, including the ability to organize complex processes….” Creating infographics gives students the valuable purpose to read closely—to be able to deeply understand the material to represent it differently—visually. When CCSS-aligned lessons are being designed, there must be that element of close reading and research to gather the facts, data, and “evidence from the text” to obtain the substance necessary to plan the visual message.

Venturing down this path of creating an infographic genuinely supports the Common Core Standards for writing 6–10. Not only does it give the students an opportunity to “Research to Build and Present Knowledge,” but it is also challenging in the right way. Students have an easy time drawing that evidence from the text. Placing that evidence into a bigger picture to support a larger cause to convince, debate, or consolidate is the difficult task.

(There are many free and fee-paid tools to create infographics, but two to start with are Piktochart and http://infogr.am/. Piktochart gives 501(c)3 organizations a free account.)

When delivering professional development, encourage teachers to include an infographic in addition to the writing assignments. They each accomplish different CCSS objectives. The writing assignment covers writing standards 1–5 and 7–10. The Infographic will use writing standard six to wrap it up in a nice impressive package–20th-century style.

Jaeger (pjaeger@WSWHEBOCES.org) is coordinator for school library services, Washington Saratoga Warren Hamilton Essex BOCES, Saratoga Springs, NY. To submit an On Common Core opinion piece, please contact Rebecca T. Miller at rmiller@mediasourceinc.com.

A whopping 79 percent of the voting public say they’ve heard nothing or not much about the standards in math and English, developed through a multi-state initiative led by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, according to a report by the DC-based Achieve called, “Growing Awareness, Growing Support: Teacher and Voter Understanding of the Common Core State Standards & Assessments.”

With the new standards and assessments affecting more than 42 million K-12 students and 2.7 million educators nationwide, it’s not surprising that there’s been a significant rise—from 68 percent in August 2011 to 87 percent today—in the number of teachers who say they know about the CCSS, the report says.

But both educators and the public—regardless of age, education level, race, ethnicity, or party affiliation—strongly support the standards and assessments once they understand its goals.

Survey respondents were read this brief description: “These new standards have been set to internationally competitive levels in English and math. This means that students may be more challenged by the material they study, and the tests they take will measure more advanced concepts and require students to show their work.”

When provided this information, 77 percent of voters say they support implementing them, which the report says, further reinforces “the conclusion that more knowledge about the CCSS leads to a more positive view of the standards.”

Meanwhile, an overwhelming majority of teachers, 72 percent, support the standards.

“The more teachers know about the Common Core State Standards, the more positive their impression, with the highest favorability ratings among those educators who know ‘a lot’ about the CCSS,” the report says. “The data also suggest that opposition among teachers is somewhat concentrated among those with the least amount of knowledge about the standards.”

As a result, the report says, it’s critical to “sustain and even ramp up” efforts to inform educators about the details of state implementation plans and what teachers can expect in terms of professional development, aligned instructional materials, and opportunities for cross-state collaboration.

It also an opportunity for school librarians to step up and be noticed. Since reading is at the core of the CCSS, media specialists are in the perfect position to collaborate with teachers to identify literature and texts for students to read in the content areas. And since the standards are interdisciplinary, librarians can help teachers make connections across various subjects.

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) encourages its members to study the standards to determine how library programs support students in meeting the CCSS.

“As students strive to meet the rigor of the standards, certified school librarians will play an essential part in ensuring that 21st-century information literacy skills, dispositions, responsibilities and assessments are integrated throughout all curriculum areas,” AASL says. “The school library professional as leader, instructional partner, information specialist, teacher, and program administrator is critical for teaching and learning in today’s schools.”

The more teachers know about the CCSS, the more supportive they were of implementing the standards, including new assessments, says Sandy Boyd, Achieve’s senior vice president of strategic initiatives. “These findings demonstrate the importance of communicating with educators, especially as the task at hand moves from broad awareness of the standards to the deep understanding necessary for the CCSS to be taught in every classroom. Ongoing professional learning opportunities and support will be key.” Of the teachers who have seen, read, or heard about the CCSS, 68 percent currently have a favorable impression of them, up from 59 percent in August 2011.

More voter awareness about CCSS and what it means for students and parents also are key, the report adds. These include knowing how will these expectations change and what kind of supportl struggling students will receive, as well as how will these changes fit into the broader educational reform agenda, why it’s important, and what value will the new standards have on our education system, economy, and country.

“Voters support the implementation of the CCSS, but they, too, will need more information about the CCSS and what it means as the standards move from being an idea to a reality in schools,” says Boyd.

The national study is based on surveys with 1,000 registered voters and 500 K-12 teachers from May 6-10, 2012. The poll has a margin of error of +3.1 percent among voters and +4.4 percent among teachers.

The best nonfiction books also aren’t afraid to show a strong point of view, says author-editor Marc Aronson, another member of the panel on “Dynamic Nonfiction for Kids and Teens: Exploring informational books that spark curiosity and stimulate inquiry.” In fact, “the key to the Common Core is the idea that all nonfiction inherently has a point of view,” says Aronson, referring to our nation’s new education standards, which will require young learners to read 55 percent informational texts by the time they reach eighth grade and 70 percent nonfiction texts as high school seniors.

So do kids’ book authors ever write nonfiction that’s aimed at plugging holes in K-12 schools’ curriculums? asked panel moderator, Susan Marston, editorial director of Junior Library Guild, a collection development service that’s owned by SLJ‘s parent company, Media Source. “I don’t worry about the curriculum,” says Fleming. Instead, she concentrates on finding stories that kids will find genuinely interesting.

That’s also Sue Macy’s approach. “If it’s a good story, it’s a good story,” says Macy, a panelist and the author of Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (National Geographic, 2011). “I write about topics that aren’t in history books, aren’t in the textbooks, topics that I wish were in them,” says Macy, who drew the biggest laugh of the session when she explained how people once worried that the shape of a bicycle seat might cause a woman to have an orgasm.

As for those conventional textbooks, Aronson would love to get rid of the ones that target state histories: “It’s the worst idea ever,” he explains. As nonfiction writers, “our goal is to create an immersive experience” for young readers and offer them stories that that they will truly care about.

One way of doing that is by giving students both print and digital content, says Brenda Murray, Scholastic’s senior editor for nonfiction and Discover More, a series that pairs traditional books with specially developed digital titles. “Nonfiction, and especially, digital materials are important for kids,” says Murray, and “help motivate readers, especially reluctant readers.”

That’s a message that Aronson can get behind. “This is a revival tent, and I want you to be my apostles,” he told the crowd of hundreds of librarians, publishers, and other children’s book lovers. “Please put nonfiction books into digital form. If we want kids to have the best in nonfiction with a point of view, those books must be available in either paper or digital. Amen!”