Common Core Lesson Planning and Implementation Is Much Simplier Than It Seems

Common Core Lesson Planning and Implementation Is Much Simplier Than It Seems

Common Core Lesson Planning and Implementation Is Much Simplier Than It Seems

Many districts are now aligning their curriculum to the Common Core State Standards. Teachers are the ones on the frontline and must be equipped with the tools needed to prepare their own classrooms as well. The success of students depends on the ability of teachers to effectively utilize their instructional materials to meet the standards set forth in the common core.

Many teachers, especially those in low performing school districts serving more than 90% minority and economically disadvantaged students are concerned that the adaption of the Common Core and accompanying assessments are purposely designed to set their students up for automatic failure. It is understandable for teachers to be apprehensive about the uncertainty of their students ability to meet the new expectations. But, assuming that this must be some kind of conspiracy is unfortunately the kind of misconception and attitude that will cause many schools to fail before they even have a chance to get started.

The new standards focus on the end result of what students should know by the end of the school year. They do not tell you which standards to use to drive your instruction and obtain a successful end result. It is now left to classroom teachers to use their best professional judgment to figure out the most feasible pathway to lead students to success with the common core. Utilizing Common Core Lesson Plan Templates that have the new standards embedded in drop down menus within the lesson plans and are customizable for differentiated instruction is by far the better choice for many very important reasons. First, using these kind of templates give teachers the freedom to teach at their own pace. Secondly, it encourages collaboration with teachers from other subjects (i.e. History, Science, ELA) during lesson development. Third, it helps keep all teachers on track with the common core implementation. Fourth, it gives teachers the flexibility to use their own creativity when developing lessons. And finally, it is the most cost effective option for Common Core implementation that every teacher can use regardless of their technical skill level.

Collaboration among teachers from various subjects during lesson plan development is especially important in English Language Arts because of the increased focused on informational text reading in the new standards. This increased focus makes it even more important for teachers to be able to easily collaborate during lesson plan development. Computerized application systems which automatically generate lesson plans can never replace the professional knowledge and expertise of a highly qualified teacher. After all, teachers are there to teach students, not robots. No one knows about a students learning style and abilities better than their teacher. It is imperative to use lesson plan templates that allow teachers to target instruction and develop lessons that are related to the expectations set forth in the common core.

Despite all the hype, Teacher's really don't need to spend hundreds of dollars on curriculum materials just because they have the title "Common Core" on the cover. There are hundreds of resources available online for FREE. Creating lessons for the new standards will require teachers to put more thought into their lessons regardless of rather they buy additional CCSS materials, create their own lessons and/or utilize free CCSS resources available online. There are a lot of theories on how to best prepare students for the new standards. Teachers are the best decision makers when it comes to how to best prepare their students. According to the Common Core Standards Website, "Teachers should continue to devise lesson plans and tailor instruction to the individual needs of the students in their classrooms." Furthermore, the CCSS website states that it is the responsibility of teachers and administrators to decide how the standards will be met, and speaks nothing about the need to spend thousands of additional dollars to implement the common core.

Stars Educational Consortium is the publisher of great Common Core Templates for Lesson Plan Development at http://www.CCSS123.com
These templates have all of the great features discussed in this article.

Create Rich Lesson Plans Using Common Core Standards with LearnBoost FREE!

This is a really great find! LearnBoost. I was completely amazed at how useful this is to schools in need of resources for the Common Core. LearnBoost’s free, all-in-one solution empowers teachers in managing their classrooms. Teachers use the intuitive gradebook software to track student progress and generate beautiful reports and analytics in real time. Plus, you can create rich lesson plans, track attendance, maintain schedules, integrate Google Apps and tag Common Core State Standards.

Common Core 360 Free Resources

This video is a look at all of the valuable free resources offered by Common Core 360. 

ELA Common Core Activities for Teachers

Looking for Common Core ELA Activities for your students? Visit my Pinterest page. This is where I list ALL of the CCSS and College Readiness Resources I find as I search the web for resources that will help me in developing activities for Stars Educational Consortium programs.

First step to improving achievement at a low performing school

First steps in improving achievement at a low performing school, so that it becomes a 90/90/90 school is not to fire everybody all at once then create chaos when re-calling them back. Stirring up anger among teachers is definitely not the right way to start a school district on a path to success, that's the path to bitterness and resentment and who suffers the butt of this resentment...the kids of course.

The first step to improving academic achievement in low performing schools should be to put in place a teacher evaluation system that is fair, unbiased and accurate. Evaluation of teachers should be based on rather or not their students are improving on interim/benchmark assessments or getting worse. After all, the students are the number one reason why teachers are there. According to DPS assessment data, academic achievement has stayed the same or in many cases gotten worse. DPS has had the lowest test scores in the nation in recent years and it does not seem to be getting better, but I am hopeful that it will get better soon with the new leadership coming in.

In order to have a fair and accurate system of evaluating teachers based on student performance, students should be assessed weekly district wide using computer adaptive testing applications from company's such as Renaissance Learning and Plato Learning. These are two of the best that I have found. This will enable Principals to better monitor and get a clearer sense of rather or not students are improving and ultimately show teacher effectiveness. I know a lot of teachers (and students) complain about too much testing, but if you put a fun little spin to the testing then it's not as stressful for the kids or the teacher. First of all, don't call it a test, call it something like, Super Star Showtime! A time for students to show what they've learned and give them a star for completing the test, regardless of rather or not they got a high score. Maybe give gold stars only to those that have shown improvement and silver to all other students. You have to be creative. I don't like tests myself, so I feel their pain. But it is undeniable that consistent and organized assessing helps to monitor student progress. No matter what kind of goal you are trying to reach you have to stop an check yourself along the way just to make sure you're still on the right track and the same is true for our kids.

You'll notice that in every blog I post I usually refer back to the Common Core Lesson Plan Templates and it's more than simply to sell. I can not stress enough how helpful these are in keeping teachers on track as they prepare their students for the CCSS assessments coming in the 2013-2014 school year. Each lesson plan has the standards within drop down menus for a different strand and domain. The lesson plans a set up so that if your students are performing at only a 3rd grade level, but are actually in the 5th grade, then you would start by using a lesson plan that has the 3rd grade CCSS in the drop down menus and work your way up until students are ready to use the 5th grade CCSS lesson plans. The main objective is for teachers to raise the % of Students At or Above Grade Level with each lesson plan. The performance data would come from the weekly assessments. I would recommend that the lesson plan be handed in each week and attached to a printed classroom data analysis report generated by the chosen assessment program (i.e. Renaissance Learning or Plato Learning).

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