I’d like to second  Don H. Bialostosky’s request that session papers be linked to this discussion group.

I hope session papers will be linked to this discussion group.  Can’t attend but very interested in furthering this discussion,  “Close reading” as well as complexity is a topic that warrants our attention.  A colleague and I have begun planning a book for teachers that makes a rich and accessible version of that practice available for the sc…[Read more]

Found via Twitter: Doug Hesse’s Powerpoint presentation on the Common Core from a recent conference at the University of Maryland: http://portfolio.du.edu/dhesse

I believe the link to Hillis’ comment in Margie’s most recent post may be truncated (and hence not work properly). Members of this group can reach Hillis’ comment by going to the “files” area of this group, where the PDF resides at the top of the list. I am also inserting a link to the PDF of Hillis’ comment here.

Professor J. Hillis Miller sent me the comment for posting on this thread; it’s a response to the comments by Mike Holquist and me on teaching “complexity” in a work of literature.  Since “complexity” is stressed but not very precisely defined in the CCSS English Language Arts document, we are hoping to prepare a statement from the MLA on what…[Read more]

Closely associated with the Common Core State Standards are two test-development consortia, the Partnership for Assessment of College and Career Readiness (often referred to as PARCC) and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC). PARCC and SBAC are in the midst of field testing assessments designed to track and inform students of their…[Read more]

As a faculty member (and parent) in Washington State, which has recently become the first state to have its federal waiver of No Child Left Behind revoked by the Department of Education, I find this a particularly important issue. I appreciate the challenge Margaret poses–especially if it’s communicated to faculty at R1 universities, who may more…[Read more]

Those following this Commons group may find useful as an introduction to the Common Core Standards the first chapter of Pathways to the Common Core: Accelerating Achievement, by Lucy Calkins and her colleagues Mary Ehrenworth and Christopher Lehman. The chapter is available to download free from the Web site of the Reading and Writing Project that…[Read more]

Looking forward to hearing more about successful collaborations between HS and college instructors.  I’m finding that such collaborations are often challenging because of the following barriers, so would love to see the MLA, or any organization, come up with strategies to address them:

1. HS  instructors do not get release time to work on c…[Read more]

In response to Rosemary Feal’s post, I’d like to call your attention to Elizabeth Phillips’ op ed. in today’s New York Times, “We Need to Talk About the Test”: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/opinion/the-problem-with-the-common-core.html?_r=0

Again, as at previous stages of the CCSSI process, the great potential of the educational reforms is…[Read more]

Thank you, David, for the link to Elfrieda H. Hiebert’s research report and for the Text Project Web page link too.

Participants in this discussion of text complexity may be interested in a research report, Using Multiple Sources of Information in Establishing Text Complexity, by Elfrieda H. Hiebert of TextProject, Inc. University of California, Santa Cruz.

The TextProject also has a Web page devoted to the topic of text complexity in the context of the Common…[Read more]

It seems I am hearing a lot on NPR etc, about the move to Common Core. One  issue that seem to get a lot of attention are the various testing platforms and how a state opts in or out (or pays for) these.   I think that the perceptions differ from teachers and administrators who–though cautious and all too familiar with having to adapt to the “…[Read more]