Claim 1: Students can read closely and analytically to comprehend a range of increasingly complex literary and informational text.

Learn About Claim 1

• What is the rationale for Claim 1?
  At the heart of the Common Core State standards is a focus on literacy instruction that centers on careful examination of texts – reading closely and drawing evidence from the text to support inferences and judgments made (Coleman & Pimentel, 2011). The ability to read a variety of text types, including increasingly complex texts, is a key cornerstone of being college and career ready. Read more.
  

• What does sufficient evidence looks like for Claim 1?
  At each grade level, students will engage with a variety of literary and informational texts, including literary nonfiction and texts covering science, social studies, and technical topics. Students are expected to answer questions that range from demonstrating the ability to locate key details and summarize central ideas to using textual evidence to analyze and support judgements made about the ideas presented. Read more.
  
  

• What are the assessment targets for Claim 1?
  The targets that are provided are for grades 4, 8, and 11, serving as elementary, middle, and high school examples of the targets that the Consortium will be developed for grades 3-11. Each assessment target is accompanied by the related standard(s) in the CCSS from which it is drawn, and by the intended cognitive rigor/depth-of-knowledge (DOK) required by the assessment target. Read more.

Unit/Lesson Planning

Tools

• Understanding the Standards
• Study the Standards at Your Grade - ELA & Literacy    
  Explore the CCSS ELA concept organizers and unpacked content for your grade or subject developed by other CCSS states.
• Expanded Definitions for CCSS in ELA & Literacy    
  This document, created by the Rhode Island Department of Education provides additional information to help expand understanding of the Critical Areas of Focus for ELA & Literacy.

• Text Complexity
• CCSS Text Complexity Tools (PowerPoint)   06/04/2012 (2.09 MB)
  This PowerPoint, part of a webinar hosted by CCSSO, summarizes the components of text complexity and describes several tools that teachers can use to help select texts with an appropriate level of rigor.
• Text Complexity: Informational Text Qualitative Rubric    
  The rubric for informational text allows educators to evaluate the important elements of informational text.
• Suggested Considerations for Reader and Task    
  The questions provided in this resource are meant to spur teacher thought and reflection upon the text, students, and any tasks associated with the text.

• Planning Templates
• Quality Review Rubric for Units and Lessons    
  The Tri-State Collaborative (composed of educational leaders from Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island and facilitated by Achieve) has developed criterion-based rubrics and review processes to evaluate the quality of lessons and units intended to address the Common Core State Standards for ELA & Literacy.

Teaching & Learning

Tools

• Instructional Strategies
  It seems simple. Read a chapter. Write a summary. We are asking students to extract the important elements from a piece of text. We want them to get at the heart of the matter, and we want them to do it in as few words as possible. Unfortunately, we sometimes forget that they need to be taught “how” to break down a larger piece of text into a short, concise summary. It’s not easy. Writing summaries requires students to apply higher-level thinking skills. For example, students must analyze the information and synthesize it before they can condense it. They must recognize what is important, and what isn’t, and how the concepts are related and organized.
  
  The following activities are designed to help students comprehend content readings of various levels and in multiple situations.
• Cornell Notes   12/28/2012 (40.50 KB)
  Cornell Notes improves organization, study skills and summarization.
• Stump the Teacher   01/02/2013 (35.50 KB)
  Stump the Teacher improves close reading by creating a competition of students against teacher.
• Directed Reading Thinking Activity   01/02/2013 (40 KB)
  Directed Reading Thinking Activity provides background knowledge and prepares students for reading.
• Gist   01/02/2013 (33.50 KB)
  GIST uses a collaborative framework for summarization.
• SQ3R   01/02/2013 (37 KB)
  SQ3R helps students to successfully read and retain information contained in their text by using important literacy skills.

Additional Resources

• Videos of instruction
• Inquiry-Based Teaching: Discussing Non-Fiction (9-12)    
  A lesson in leading an inquiry-based discussion based on primary historical sources.
• Text Graffiti: Previewing Challenging Text (Grade 8)    
  Preview a topic and make predictions based on textual evidence
• Pre-Reading for Challenging Texts (9-12)    
  Students make predictions from quotes to prepare for a challenging text.

• Differentiating for individual student needs
• Meeting the Needs of English Language Learners    
  The documents on this page provide all educators with resources that focus on the needs of English language learners. Educators should continue to reference the resources available on other CCSS pages for content-specific information.
• Meeting the Needs of Students with Disabilities and Diverse Learners    
  The documents on these pages provide all educators with resources that focus on the differentiated instruction of students with special needs. Educators should continue to reference the resources available on other CCSS pages for content-specific information.
• Differentiation Training Module    
  This site contains 10 training modules on differentiation, developed as part of the Oregon DATA Project. GET PASSWORD
• Practical Strategies to Improve Academic Discussions in Mixed Ability Secondary Content Area Classrooms   07/25/2012 (129.30 KB)
  This article by Kevin Feldman and Kate Kinsella outlines 5 key principles to structuring academic discussions so that all students are productively engaged.
• Structuring Active Learning   07/25/2012 (101.41 KB)
  Thie one page document offers suggestions from Kevin Feldman on structuring active learning to increase student engagement.
• Partnering Recommendations   07/25/2012 (81.96 KB)
  This one page document from Kinsella and Feldman offers pragmatic suggestions for partnering.
• Content Literacy Strategies    
  This website, from the St. Clair County Regional Education Service Agency, contains one page summaries of a wide variety of instructional strategies.
• Sample Questions Reflecting the CCSS for Reading    
  This document from the Delaware Department of Education offers suggestions for the types of questions that might be asked for each of the reading standards for literature and informational text for grades 2- 10.
• Strategy Bank (West Virginia Department of Education)    
  The Teach 21 Strategy Bank from the West Virginia DOE provides templates and examples of research-based strategies including: Activiating Prior Knowledge, Vocabulary Development, Comprehension, Summarization Techniques, Writing Across the Curriculum, and others.

• Lessons
  Note: The inclusion of links to these sites does not constitute an endorsement by ODE.
• EduCore: Literacy Tools    
  Understand the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) framework, learn how to use the templates to create reading/writing assignments, and view sample modules for ELA, social studies and science developed by teachers.
• Open Education Resources (OER) Commons    
  A collection of open education resources (OER) including Common Core implementation plans, transition guides, assessment tasks, exemplars and curriculum.

Assessment

• Smarter Balanced Sample Summative Items for Teachers
  Covering all possible item types (selected response, constructed response, extended response, technology enhanced, and performance tasks), these samples include student items, as well as sample student responses and evaluation rubrics where appropriate. Educators can use these items to get an idea of how to design classroom tasks that will prepare students for the Smarter Balanced Assessment.
• Grades 6-8    
• Grades 9-11    
  
• Sample Items and Tasks for Students    
  The items on these sites include a combination of computer adaptive items (selected response, constructed response, extended response) and performance tasks. Items can be scored using sample student responses and their accompanying scores as reference for reviewing your answer.
• Smarter Balanced Training Tests    
  Training tests for each grade level and subject area have been released to assist students with becoming familiar with the new item types that are present on the Smarter Balanced Pilot Test. NOTE: The training tests and online calculators can only be accessed on Mozilla Firefox.
• Guide to Creating Questions for Close Analytic Reading (CCSS)    
  Educators can start by learning how to distinguish between text dependent and non-text dependent, between quality and trivial questions, and by crafting their own text dependent questions.

• Karin Moscon     (503) 947-5706
  Secondary/Post Secondary Transitions - Education Program Specialist, CTE Civil Rights