Common Core and Literature Chart

Anchor Standards	Grade Level	Common Core State Standards for Literature	Standard Details
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.1 Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.	1	CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.1	Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
	2	CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.1	Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text
	3	CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.3.1	Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.

            At first I was confused about what our task for this assignment was. After completing the activity, I was glad I did. Of course, I have read over the common core many times, but never have I read the anchor standards or looked at instructional shifts. The following standards offer a focus for instruction each year and help ensure that students gain adequate exposure to a range of texts and tasks. I picked grades 1, 2 and 3 because those are the grades that interest me most and the grades I would hope to teach. I found it interesting to see how much more in depth the standard goes when going up in grade levels. I feel that this shows that students are making growth and are able to work on a task they already learned the previous year and then build off of it.

            In grade one, students are asked to answer questions about key details in a text. This is a very broad statement. It doesn’t really narrow in on what the students should be particularly asking. I would assume the goal is for students to start off by practicing this task and then add in specifics as the get older. The same standard for second graders goes more in depth. Now the CCSS wants second graders to be able to answer questions using the words, who, what, where, when and why. In addition, students now have to demonstrate understanding  of what they read. Now in grade three you have to be able to do both of those tasks, as well as refer back to the text. You are now asked to recall the information you learned and show where you found it back in the text.

            The three instructional shifts of the common core are regular practice with complex texts and their academic language, reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from texts, both literary and informational and building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction. For the standards I talked about I would use reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from texts, both literary and informational. I decided to talk about this shift because the three standards I chose talk about, deal with reading a text and then going back to think about what you have read. They want you to recall information and think about key details of the story. For example, where the story takes place or the main characters. The reading standards focus on students’ ability to read carefully and grasp information, arguments, ideas, and details based on evidence in the text. Students should be able to answer a range of text-dependent questions, whose answers require inferences based on careful attention to the text. I think this instructional shift could be taught a bunch of different ways. For younger grades one thing I would do would be to follow the “I do, we do, you do” model. I would read a story allowed and then pause frequently to ask the children questions about the text. I would pick out the most important details to see if they can recall the information. Then the students would pick a book of their choice and answer a series of questions after they finish reading. The questions would be questions that deal strictly with the text so that the students cannot recall prior knowledge to answer them.