I recently did a guest webinar on text complexity and close reading that you may be interested in checking out for my friends at Teach N’Kids Learn, Inc. The webinar was recorded and can be accessed by clicking this link: Karen Tankersley on Text Complexity and Close Reading for Common Core. You will need to [...]

Let me begin this post by saying that I like the new Common Core standards and think that they can have a profound impact – for the better – on how reading is taught in this country.  I am a firm believer that lifting the expectations for  student performance and helping students be better readers [...]

One of the requirements of the new Common Core standards for secondary grades is teaching students how to write an argument paper. Many teachers think that persuasive writing is the same as argumentative writing however, there are differences – albeit subtle ones. In persuasive writing, the writer is trying to get the reader to agree [...]

The longer I review the learning expectations of the ELA Common Core standards, the more it becomes obvious to me how teachers will need to work collaboratively to help students learn reading and writing to the depths that will be needed to meet these new standards. Working collaboratively on the same topics across disciplines will [...]

One of the shifts that moving to the Common Core standards will require is asking students to have rich and rigorous conversations that are based on a common text that they have been reading. What does it mean to ask students to give a text-based answer? Let’s explore that concept and what it means to [...]