Phil Daro, Bill McCallum, Jason Zimba
A Grecian urn
The Structure is the Standards
Standards
New initiative on implementing the standards, achievethecore.org
Student Achievement Partners has launched a major new initiative to help with implementation of the Common Core State Standards in both Mathematics and English Language Arts. Their website, achievethecore.org, already has some good resources, and no doubt will grow. Student Achievement Partners is a non-profit whose founding partners are David Coleman and Sue Pimentel, two of the lead writers for ELA, and Jason Zimba, one of the lead writers for Mathematics. The other two lead writers for Mathematics, myself and Phil Daro, are advisors for the project.
Visual Map of the Content Standards
New to the Tools section is this CCSSM Clickable Map. This is a resource that can be used to explain the streams within the content standards that flow across grade levels. Check it out and be sure to leave feedback to improve.
New Version of the CCSSM Clickable Map is now up on the Tools page!
Videos about the standards
The Hunt Institute has produced some videos featuring the lead writers (including me) talking about various aspects of the standards. Most readers of this blog probably already know everything that is in them, but you might find them useful in educating others about the standards.
Essay by Al Cuoco on choosing curriculum aligned to the practices
Here is a two-pager on benchmarks for choosing a curriculum attuned to the Standards for Mathematical Practice written by Al Cuoco of EDC that came out of a workshop they had. I thought it might be a good stimulus for discussions about how to implement the practice standards. Comment away!
Curriculum analysis tool
I mentioned the curriculum analysis project led by Bill Bush a while ago. Here is the final product. It provides analysis sheets to help school districts look at curriculum materials and decide how well they reflect the standards. There is also a powerpoint for professional development of evaluators. If you have any questions, send an email to Bill Bush.
Examples of structure in the content standards
Here is a draft of a document by Jason Zimba describing structures in the content standards: CCSS Atlas (in docx format, here is a pdf of the same document). It incorporates some of Jason’s writings that I have posted before (e.g. the stuff about pinnacles, and the graphic of flows leading to algebra), but has a lot of new material as well. Well worth reading for those thinking about assessment and curriculum based on the standards.
[Edited 2011/7/09 to add pdf file.
Documents Edited 2011/12/01]
Massachusetts resources to help teachers engage with the standards
The Massachusetts Department of Education has some activities to help teachers understand the focus, coherence, clarity and rigor of the standards. They are called Explorations and you can find them at http://www.doe.mass.edu/candi/commoncore/mathexplore/.
Essay by Jason Zimba on “pinnacle” standards
Here’s a short essay by Jason Zimba, Lasting achievements in K–8, that gives an example of a standard occupying a strategic position in the flow of the standards, serving as the culmination of many pathways and as the starting point for many more.
2010 CBMS white paper, “Common Standards and the Mathematical Education of Teachers”
I’m at a meeting of the APLU Science and Mathematics Teacher Imperative, where I was reminded of the 2010 CBMS Forum White Paper on educating teachers for the Common Core, which I think will be useful to people planning teacher preparation and professional development.
You must be logged in to post a comment.