Great Minds - Common Core Curriculum: English, Grades K-5

Common Core Curriculum: English, Grades 68, Second Edition

Common Core Curriculum: English, Grades 912, Second Edition

Common Core Curriculum: United States History, Grades K12

Common Core Curriculum: World History, Grades K12

Common Core Curriculum: United States History, Grades 35

Common Core Curriculum: World History, Grades 35

Common Core Mathematics, A Story of Units: Grades K5

Common Core Mathematics, A Story of Ratios: Grades 68

Common Core Mathematics, A Story of Functions: Grades 912

Second Edition

Cover design: Chris Clary
Cover image: Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), The Great Wave, 183133, Japanese color woodblock print. Photo: V&A Images, London/Art Resource, NY

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Common core curriculum: English, grades K-5 Second edition.
pagescm. (Common core english language arts)
Includes index.
Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN 978-1-118-81135-1 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-1-118-81249-5 (ebk.)
ISBN 978-1-118-81265-5 (ebk.)
1. Language arts (ElementaryCurriculaUnited StatesCase studies.2. Language arts (Elementary) StandardsUnited StatesStates.
LB1576.C5785 2014
372.6dc23

2013045493

Three hundred years ago Cotton Mather preached, A Good School deserves to be calld the very Salt of the Town that hath it. Without a school wherein the Youth may by able Masters be Taught the Things that are necessary to qualify them for future Serviceableness, a community will founder. Mathers advice to townspeople in Puritan New England reflects one of the philosophical underpinnings of the Common Core Curriculum in English Language Arts: Schools matter. Curriculum matters. Teachers matter.

In order to determine which things should be taught, we must of course first define what it means to be serviceable in a twenty-first-century democratic society. To ensure a capable workforce and build a strong economy, high levels of literacy and numeracy are obviously essential. But what about the need for students to develop empathy and thoughtfulness? It is shortsighted to equate the value of education with economic growth. Like salt, good schools with rich curricula enhance the community by adding depthand piquancy. Like salt, they are a preservative, ensuring that a societys values endure.

Many of the benefits weve come to demand as our rights in a modern society depend on high levels of employment, but if we shift the discussion of the purpose of school from job training to preparing Americas children to lead a worthwhile life, the calculus changes. Is simply working nine to five for forty years what you most aspire to for your children? Or do you want them to have an education that invites exploration of essential questions, inspires challenges to the status quo, and somehow prepares them for what we cannot yet know? Most parents want both.

The conundrum for curriculum developers is to avoid becoming so caught up in preparing students to make a livingwhich starts with paying attention in kindergarten; earning good grades through elementary school, middle school, and high school; achieving competitive SAT and ACT scores; and winning a place in college or in the workplacethat we lose sight of educating students to enrich their lives.

In Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities, philosopher Martha Nussbaum warns that, With the rush to profitability in the global market, values precious for the future of democracy, especially in an era of religious and economic anxiety, are in danger of getting lost. One means of learning about the problems that have beset and continue to bedevil humanity is through the study of the humanitiesliterature and art, history and philosophy. This is the kind of education the Common Core Curriculum offers. I believe it is the education that every generation of citizens needs.

Unit 3 of grade 1, Life Lessons, offers young children opportunities to explore the kind of education Martha Nussbaum recommends. As they work through the unit, Students read and listen to fables with morals. They also learn about rules for life in a book of manners. Reading the life story of George Washington Carver, students learn about a man who had to overcome obstacles in life to make important contributions to science and agriculture. Students also learn about Thomas Edisons work with electricity and the rules for its safe use. Students write narratives focused on life lessons and create informative/explanatory posters about electricity. Finally, students focus on descriptive words while studying the artwork of Georgia OKeeffe. This interdisciplinary approach integrates the study of science and builds students background knowledge. In so doing, it strengthens their reading comprehension and develops their facility with reading informational textsa key expectation of the Common Core State Standards. It also invites children to investigate Georgia OKeeffes paintings and build their cultural literacy.