Common+Core+Assessment+Information

= Common Core State Standards Initiative website = = Common Core Standards = FREE Common Core Toolkit - []

Common Core Test Prep 3rd to 5th Grade!!!!!!!!!! - [|Click Here] [|Creating Comics and Common Core Standards] 2nd Grade Common Core Workbook - $39.99 - [|Click Here] coupon code CORE15 for 15% OFF. Preparing for Common Core - []

[|7 Recommendations for Successful Ingetration of the Common Core] 4 Tips to Make Your Assessments BYOD - []
 * NEWLY RELEASED COMMON CORE TESTING MATERIALS - **
 * [] **
 * HOW COMMON CORE CHANGES EVERYTHING** -[|http://www.edexcellence.net/commentary/education-gadfly-daily/flypaper/2012/how-the-common-core-changes-everything.html#.UGmr3R4B8sA.twitter]

The CORE of the Common Core Standards: [|Part 1 Reading] [|Part 2 Writing] [|Part 3 Speaking and Listening] 30 Awesome Interactive Websites for Elementary to Middle School Classrooms - [] [|Common Core Instruction, Like all good instruction, is not about Fish Tossing (Part 1)] 4 Emerging Trends in Common Core State Standards - [] Writing Tasks Aligned with Common Core Standards Presentation for this document - 6 Ways to Get Families on Board with the Common Core - []
 * [|Essential Questions]**
 * QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE FOR COMMON CORE -[| FREE from TeachersPayTeachers] **
 * $5 - [|Common Core Expository News Writing Tutorial and Activities]**

McGraw-Hill To Release Common Core Reading Program - []

Advance development of CC Assessment System - []

ASCD Launches FREE Common Core Resource Site ** [|More on the site] **

Nutmeg Education National Teaching Community - [] Resources for Understanding
 * 1 Cheer for Common Core** - []
 * How to adapt your lessons to Common Core Standards** - []

8 Helpful Tech Tools for the Common Core - [|__http://community.weareteachers.com/t5/WeAreTeachers-Blog/The-Teacher-Report-8-Helpful-Tech-Tools-for-the-Common-Core/ba-p/13821?wat_referer=Home__] 9 Ways Common Core Standards will Change Classroom Practice - [|http://www.hepg.org/hel/article/543#home]

How Common Core will Change Testing A must read!! Here are three big shifts that the Common Core standards bring to reading instruction from On Our Minds @Scholastic by Tyler: **1)** Knowledge-building through content-rich non-fiction and informational text. The Common Core says elementary students should be exposed to 50 percent non-fiction texts at school — and in high school that percentage goes up to 70 percent. (Note: A common misunderstanding is that these non-fiction percentages apply to English language arts classrooms only. That’s not true — they apply to texts students read across all subject areas as well.) **2)** Reading and writing grounded in evidence from text. You might hear the term “evidence-based questions” bandied about. The idea here is that in conversations and in writing about what they read, students should look to the text for answers first. Teachers are encouraged to ask students questions about what they read that provoke them to read closely and think critically about text. **3)** Regular practice with complex text and its academic vocabulary. Students (especially struggling students) need access to books written at their current reading levels so they can practice and build confidence. But they also need to have regular interactions with more difficult, “complex” texts that challenge than and give them a sense for what the should be working toward. Something to push them forward.

Assessment Clickers - 7 Clicker Tips for Teachers Stay up-to-date with any Common Core changes - [] Common Core Training Videos and Resources -
 * In Georgia 1 hour - []
 * []
 * []
 * []
 * []
 * In Illinois - []
 * []

5 Things Every Teacher Should be Doing to Meet Common Core Standards - []

Flip Charts on CCS and activities to complete them - Starting at $25 - []
 * Personalize Learning to Meet the Common Core -** **SchoolsMovingUp Webinar, June 5, 2012 ** - See resource list at bottom

iPAD APP - [] - Brain Dip Magazine is a magazine-style textbook with a multi-disciplinary, multi-level online study guide correlated to the Common Core State Standards. With the tap of your finger, unlock literacy, math, science, and social studies teaching materials...and it's all FREE. []

6 Apps for In-Class Assessment
A monthly showcase of the latest mobile apps for educators and students. This month's roundup features a selection of apps for creating tests and generating reports using mobile devices.
 * By [|Stephen Noonoo]
 * 07/11/12
 * The Socrative Teacher app lets teachers create quizzes and capture student results in real time and in a number of formats, including multiple choice and short answer. Activities can be modified to be either student- or teacher-paced. The app also allows for multiple students to answer individually but still contribute to a group score. A separate app is available for students. **Free;** **iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad**.
 * Three Ring allows users to snap mobile photos of student work and compile it into digital portfolios. Work is then organized by student and accessible via the app or online. In addition to photos, the app supports audio and video work as well. **Free;** **iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad**.
 * MyClassTalk can assist teachers in ranking students by participation levels. The app lets users create profiles for each student and award and subtract points for participation, either in general or by subject or assignment. Users can then compile reports and rank students by points earned. **Free;** **iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad**.
 * An alternative to classroom clickers, QuizCast by Dear Panda lets users create multiple-choice quizzes and push them out to multiple devices at once. Both questions and answers can include images and text. The app tracks student progress and generates reports. **Free-$49/month;** **iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad**.
 * Smarty Pants School focuses on building early reading skills, like sight words and phonics, in five different classes, each with multiple activities and games that increase in difficulty as students progress. When students complete all the levels in a class, they get a diploma. Teachers can add multiple students to the app, which tracks individual progress over the course of the school year. **$9.99; iPad.**
 * A+ Spelling Tests lets teachers and students create their own custom spelling tests and e-mail them to others. Students can listen to recordings of the word they need to spell out loud. The app includes multiple modes, including an unscored practice mode and a word scramble. A detailed report is generated whenever a test is completed. **Free;** **iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad**.

Data Collection - The Key to Effective Progress Monitoring Math and Common Core - MUST READ - [] Common Core Resources - [] Common Core Resources -[] SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium Common Core Assessment information Partnership of Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers Assessments for English and Math PARCC - PA site PARCC Classroom teacher site with sample assessment tasks [] - Assessment Resource Tool for Teachers - Math, Reading, Writing, Science [] - Download a free chapter on Common Formative Assessments Blog about assessments - [] [] - Polyvision's Learning Community
 * Implementing Common Core Standards in Math - This is a video of a webinar using Promethean Resources, but applies to all interactive software **

[|Education Week's blogs] > Curriculum Matters See our [|Curriculum and Instruction coverage] Catherine Gewertz Erik Robelen

Veteran //Education Week// reporters Catherine Gewertz and Erik Robelen bring you news and analysis of issues at the core of classroom learning.
=What Constitutes A Strong Common-Core Implementation Plan?= By [|Catherine Gewertz] on March 7, 2012 9:55 AM

States and districts are embarking on the work of turning the common standards into curriculum and instruction. But as researchers have documented, ([|here], [|here], and [|here]) many don't yet have fully formed, concrete plans for how to do that. To help move that process along, two groups have created a framework to help states think about what a solid plan should look like. Issued yesterday, the [|rubric and self-assessment tool] defines the ways states can be most effective in bringing common standards into classrooms, offers questions for them to consider when doing that, and looks at exemplary state work in two key implementation areas: curriculum materials and teacher professional development. [|Education First] and [|Achieve], which designed the document, said they deliberately set a high bar when thinking about what "exemplary," "strong," "emerging" and "inadequate" state plans would look like because they consider the state's role pivotal in how effective the common standards will be. The document outlines 16 areas in which states should play strong roles, such as outreach and providing supports to teachers. It also evaluates some of the states' current plans, and highlights "leading" work in two areas. Kentucky, New Jersey, and New Mexico are noted for their work in teacher professional development. Kentucky, for instance, is spotlighted for its statewide clusters of educator leader networks, which gather regularly to brainstorm and solve problems, then share what they learned at their schools back home. Colorado, Florida, and Indiana were noted for their work in curriculum resources. Achieve and Education First said in the rubric that they do not intend to rate or rank states. By outlining the essential steps they believe states must take, they hope to "push states toward coherent approaches" to common-standards implementation, they said. Education First analyzed the common-core implementation plans by examining states' Race to the Top plans and their applications for waivers from key provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act. It also drew on research conducted last fall on states' plans with the Research Center of Editorial Projects in Education, the nonprofit that publishes //Education Week.// To create the document, Education First worked closely with Achieve, the managing partner of [|PARCC], one of the two groups of states that are working to design assessments for the common standards. It was presented this week at a [|PARCC transition and implementation meeting]. Because of the timing of the meeting, the report currently focuses on PARCC states, Jennifer Vranek, a founder partner of Education First, told me. But the consulting group considers the rubric a "living tool" that will also include analysis of the plans of states in the other assessment group, [|SMARTER Balanced], in the coming months, she said. The rubric and self-assessment tool are a follow-up to a survey of state plans that Education First conducted with the EPE Research Center last fall. That [|survey found] states in widely varying stages of moving forward with the common standards.

6 Ways the Common Core Can Help you Return to Basic, Effective Teaching by WATstaff  yesterday You're busy. We get that. And as new standards and testing requirements are introduced, it's can be overwhelming to try to adapt your teaching to new ideas all while maintaining high expectations for achievement in your classroom. But, new standards can be a good thing—//really//—because with new standards comes an opportunity to grow, learn and even to return to the basics of effective teaching strategies that you know will drive student learning and achievement. Here are six ways that the Common Core standards can do just that.


 * 1) **Common core standards can help you focus on the future**. No longer is a test the end-all for education—but instead, college and career goals are integrated into the standards, so by teaching to the standards, you are teaching skills that will carry your students into their futures.
 * 2) **Common core can help you to rethink professional development.**The new standards give educators permission to step outside of a pre-conceived box and take risks in the classroom—learning and growing as a corporate professional network instead of as individual teachers working in isolation. That's a lot of creative leverage given directly to you as a teacher—leverage that can be combined with professional growth to assure success.
 * 3) **Common core standards can help you focus.** Instead of working to figure out how to teach to a particular test, teachers now have a clear, consistent understanding of what students are expected to learn long-term—so your focus can shift from teaching to a test to teaching students.
 * 4) **Common core standards can help you improve instruction**. You no longer have to create every lesson or teaching strategy in isolation, but instead, through common core, you belong to a huge network of teachers, all who are working towards a common goal. Great minds working together can accomplish great things.
 * 5) **Common core standards allow you to be flexible**. No one is telling you to teach a certain topic in a certain way—but instead, you have been given the opportunity to personalize your instruction to fit your students' individual needs within the boundaries of common high expectations.
 * 6) **Common core allows for formative assessment**. With the new standards, learning begins with assessment—which means you can allow assessments measure student learning instead of to drive your teaching. A big shift—but one that was much needed.
 * Question for you**: How do you assure student achievement regardless of standards or testing? Tell us and you could win $100, an iPod Touch, an iPad and the opportunity to participate in a professional development course about iPod/iPad teaching. **Click here to learn more.**

[]

[] - 40 Day Free Trial on this exam maker software




 * Personalize Learning to Meet the Common Core**
 * SchoolsMovingUp Webinar, June 5, 2012**
 * Resource List**

Personalization vs. Differentiation vs. Individualization Chart [|http][|://][|barbarabray][|.][|net][|/2012/01/22/][|personalization][|-][|vs][|-][|differentiation][|-][|vs][|-][|individualization][|-][|chart][|/]

Personalization vs. Differentiation vs. Individualization Report – The Chart Explained [|http][|://][|barbarabray][|.][|net][|/2012/03/05/][|freereport][|-][|explaining][|-][|the][|-][|chart][|-][|on][|-][|personalization][|/] You can download the chart and report from this URL.

UDL and Personalized Learning [|http][|://][|barbarabray][|.][|net][|/2012/01/20/][|udl][|-][|and][|-][|personalized][|-][|learning][|/] Barbara Bray interviews Kathleen McClaskey regarding Universal Design in Learning (UDL) and its importance in creating personalized learning environments.

Personal Learner Profiles and Common Core [|http][|://][|barbarabray][|.][|net][|/2012/04/02/][|personal][|-][|learner][|-][|profiles][|-][|and][|-][|common][|-][|core][|/] Using three third graders as examples, this resource shows how students with different learning profiles can meet one English/Language Arts Common Core Standard.

Personalized Learning Initiative in Wisconsin [|http][|://][|barbarabray][|.][|net][|/2012/02/27/][|personalized][|-][|learning][|-][|initiative][|-][|in][|-][|wisconsin][|/] Jim Rickabaugh, Director of the Institute @ CESA #1, shares their region’s journey for the Personalized Learning Initiative. Southeastern Wisconsin is mobilizing as a region to transform public education through personalized learning for all students.

Web literacy: Where the Common Core meets common sense

Posted By __Contributor__ On May 25, 2012 @ 8:41 pm In __Building Learning Communities,Curriculum,eClassroom News,Featured Building Learning Communities,Featured on eSchool News,Google__ | __No Comments__

"To ensure that students learn the grammar and strategies of the web, we believe it’s essential for every teacher to develop lessons that challenge students to learn how to verify sources," the authors write. (Editor’s note: This is Part Two of a series of articles on developing web literacy among students. To read Part One, click [|here] [2].) Are you as worried as we are that the overall impact of technology on our children’s ability to solve complex research problems is negative? Have you heard a child near you say, “Just Google it,” when asked to describe the meaning of life? Research shows that students primarily use one search engine and then only look at the first page of results. They can quickly give up or settle for something “close enough” when they don’t find the information they’re looking for. Huge amounts of time are being wasted in searches void of the rigor of research. A very depressing view of the state of American students’ approach to internet research comes from a [|recent op-ed piece] [3] in the //Wall Street Journal//. When challenged, Yale students in Mr. Brill’s advanced journalism class wrote essays describing that they would simply use Google to solve the Watergate scandal by keying in words such as “secret fund.” After New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen heard about this, he posted on Facebook, “I don’t believe this anecdote about moronic Yale students. … It sounds made-up or very, very distorted.” In other communications, Bob Woodward, one of the individuals who broke the Watergate story, wrote to Mr. Brill after reading the essays, “…your students have what I can only call a heart-stopping overconfidence in the quality of the information on the internet.” > Attend Alan November’s ed-tech conference and get $50 off the cost of registration! > For more information about Building Learning Communities 2012, to be held in Boston July 15-20, [|click here] [4]. Get $50 off the cost of registration when you enter the promo code **eSchoolMedia12**. Somehow, we do not think this problem is limited to the students admitted to Yale. We believe we have an endemic problem across the country, where our students have weaker research skills as a result of not being taught the rigor and discipline of using Google and other search tools across the curriculum in all grade levels. To paraphrase Marshall McLuhan, being an excellent researcher with print does not automatically make you thorough in a different medium, the web. The K-12 students we ask (and the majority of our doctoral students) confidently explain that they know how to use Google. Then we start giving them research questions, such as searching for teacher websites in England that cover the American Revolution. When they cannot generate a single teacher website from the U.K., they discover they really do not understand the architecture of information on the web. Our general analysis is that our students don’t know that they don’t know. We probably would be better off if they knew that they did not know. Then, at least, they might ask their teachers for help with their internet research skills. There are two driving forces that create an urgency to redefine what it means to be literate in today’s world: common sense and the Common Core. Common-sense observations demonstrate how students are misusing the web for their homework and everyday research. They typically do not realize why or how they are getting their results. As Woodward put it, they believed that “somehow the internet was a magic lantern that lit up all events.” The second driving force is the [|Common Core State Standards] [5]. Most states will have to rethink their approach to teaching critical analysis of all kinds of information, as the standards require that students be able to: In the interest of preparing for the Common Core and common sense, we will demonstrate an example of a research problem and a solution strategy. This example is guaranteed to grab your students’ attention and possibly elicit some gasps of astonishment. Visit [|Google] [6] and type in //ear mouse//. Then click on the “Images” tool in the left-hand margin and choose one of the photos that depicts a human ear growing out of the back of a lab mouse. Wait for the gasps. Now, challenge your students to use their research skills to determine how the ear ended up on the back of the mouse. > Attend Alan November’s ed-tech conference and get $50 off the cost of registration! > For more information about Building Learning Communities 2012, to be held in Boston July 15-20, [|click here] [4]. Get $50 off the cost of registration when you enter the promo code **eSchoolMedia12**. To help your students focus, have them begin by reading two sources with varying accounts of the ear. [|One] [7] of these articles was published by a trusted news source, the BBC. The [|second] [8] was written by a global team of individuals on Wikipedia. In reading both articles, your students probably will find some inconsistencies rather quickly. The BBC article opens with claims that a scientist was able to grow an ear on the back of a mouse. The Wikipedia article claims that cartilage was grown around an ear-shaped mold that was surgically implanted on the mouse’s back. Additionally, the BBC article explains that the scientist involved is a transplant surgeon named Dr. Jay Vacanti, while the Wikipedia article says that this scientist is an anesthesiologist named Dr. Charles Vacanti. Yet a [|third source] [9] from Australia explains, “In truth, the mouse was not genetically engineered, and the ‘ear’ had no human cells in it.” When we challenge students and teachers alike in our critical thinking workshops to determine which version is the most accurate, the response is almost always to find another source. But which other source is the most reliable? If the mouse could talk, we would ask! The next most logical source would be to find research labs where this kind of work is being done. It is essential to teach students to distinguish between a primary source such as a university lab and a secondary source such as an article in the BBC. In various articles, there are references to both the University of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Let’s use an advanced feature of Google, the “Site” command, to limit our results to those two universities. //Site:// will allow a researcher to narrow results to a specific domain or extension. Knowing that, we can begin with the following two separate queries. Search One: ear mouse vacanti site:umass.edu Search Two: ear mouse vacanti site:mit.edu (Please note: you cannot use the Site command twice in the design of one search.) The use of //site:// will limit results to one of these universities. Through continued investigation, we find even more connections to Harvard and Brown University. With enough digging, we learn that there were actually two doctors named Vacanti. They were brothers. We also learn much more about the research being done by these brothers in growing tissue around biodegradable molds. The essential lessons here that link to the Common Core (and common sense) include: We are not surprised by the Yale example that we referenced at the beginning of this article. Our experience in working with schools around the world has taught us that too many educators and students have a “magic lantern” approach to research on the web. > Attend Alan November’s ed-tech conference and get $50 off the cost of registration! > For more information about Building Learning Communities 2012, to be held in Boston July 15-20, [|click here] [4]. Get $50 off the cost of registration when you enter the promo code **eSchoolMedia12**. We believe there should be an urgency to teach students to think when they use the internet. This takes ongoing practice in many different research situations. To ensure that our students learn the grammar and strategies of the web, we believe it’s essential for every teacher to develop lessons that challenge students to learn how to verify sources. Through our [|resources] [11], you can find a list of sites that will be useful in developing these types of lessons, as well as a framework that students can be taught. It is not enough to learn how to do this in one class, or only in the library. It must be infused throughout the curriculum. We welcome the Common Core standards that will require this kind of skill set. We also welcome your ideas and strategies for teaching web literacy and critical thinking on the web. //Alan November is the founder and Brian Mull is the director of innovation at November Learning. They invite your questions through their website at// [|//http://www.novemberlearning.com//] [12]//.// //Join Alan, Brian, and other educators from around the world at the Building Learning Communities conference (BLC12) in Boston this July, where Eli Pariser, author of// The Filter Bubble//, will be one of the keynote speakers. Use the discount key **eSchoolMedia12** to get $50 off the cost of registration; go to// [|//http://blcconference.com//] [4]//.//
 * Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism;
 * Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research; and
 * Interpret mathematical results in the context of a situation and reflect on whether the results make sense, possibly improving the model if it has not served its purpose.
 * To understand the difference between primary and secondary sources.
 * To understand not to automatically trust so-called reliable sources such as the BBC.
 * To learn focused research with the tool that many students use every day, Google. To begin doing so, spend some time investigating Google’s [|advanced search tool] [10].

Article printed from eSchool News: **http://www.eschoolnews.com** URL to article: **http://www.eschoolnews.com/2012/05/25/web-literacy-where-the-common-core-meets-common-sense/**

URLs in this post: [2] here: **http://www.eschoolnews.com/2012/05/08/why-more-schools-arent-teaching-web-literacy-and-how-they-can-start/** [3] recent op-ed piece: **http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304356604577341883244096256.html** [4] click here: **http://www.eschoolnews.com/blc.html** [5] Common Core State Standards: **http://www.corestandards.org** [6] Google: **http://www.google.com** [7] One: **http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1949073.stm** [8] second: **http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacanti_mouse** [9] third source: **http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2006/06/02/1644154.htm** [10] advanced search tool: **http://www.google.com/advanced_search** [11] resources: **http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/** [12] //http://www.novemberlearning.com//: **[]**