Teaching the Standards: How to Blend Common Core State Standards into Secondary Instruction

Mrs. Porton provides secondary educators with the kind of one-to-one professional development that school systems pay enormous amounts for and yet often fail to deliver. The reflective activities and assigned tasks that are required of readers are challenging, thought-provoking and essential if secondary educators are to truly understand, plan, implement and assess the CCSS. — Gary Thrift, Chair Education Department, Notre Dame of Maryland University

One of the heartbreaks of teaching is the knowledge that, no matter how dedicated the teacher, all students in the classroom are not learning. For years, we have rewritten curriculum, experimented with teaching strategies, bought new computer programs, implemented high stakes assessments, studied adolescent psychology, and attended numerous staff development sessions and conferences. Finally, here at last, is an educational text, thoroughly researched and annotated with interesting anecdotes, which unites our efforts to bring all students to success in academics. Using the Common Core State Standards as a foundation, Harriet Porton gives us the history of recent educational movements, provides us with a user-friendly explanation of how children learn, describes cooperative learning strategies that build student confidence and provide safe learning environments, and―best of all―models the use of the CCSS in practical content lesson plans. This is a text that is inclusive, inspirational, and indispensable for all stakeholders in the education of children. — Mary Ann Crimi, Liaison Professional Development Schools, Lecturer, Towson University

For veteran and pre-service teachers alike, this book provides both a clear picture of the common core standards and a practical framework for implementing these skills with students across various subject matters. As a former high school science teacher, I struggled with ways to develop literacy skills in my lesson planning. Now practitioners and administrators alike have a great resource in this book! — Karen Cifranick, Retired science teacher, Joppatowne High School