Common Core Standards for High School English Language Arts:
A Quick-Start Guide

Susan Ryan & Dana Frazee; edited by John Kendall

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About This Book

Smart implementation of the Common Core State Standards requires both an overall understanding of the standards and a grasp of their implications for planning, teaching, and learning. This Quick-Start Guide provides a succinct, all-in-one look at

• The content, structure, terminology, and emphases of the Common Core standards for English language arts and literacy at the high school level.
• The meaning of the individual standards within the four ELA strands—Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language.
• How the standards connect across strands, grade bands, and content areas to help students develop the communication and analytical skills essential for college and career readiness.
• The areas of the ELA standards that represent the most significant changes to business as usual.

Here, teachers and school leaders will find information they need to begin adapting their practices to ensure all students master the new and challenging material the standards present. A practical lesson planning process to use with the Common Core, based on Classroom Instruction That Works, 2nd Ed., is included, along with three sample lessons.

Learn the Essentials of the Common Core

The grade-level and subject-specific Quick-Start Guides in the Understanding the Common Core Standards series, edited by John Kendall, are designed to help school leaders and school staffs turn Common Core standards into coherent, content-rich curriculum and effective, classroom-level lessons.

See the book's table of contents and read excerpts.

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About the Authors

SUSAN RYAN is a senior consultant at Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL). She has reviewed, revised, and developed language arts standards documents for many districts, state agencies, and education organizations. Ms. Ryan has conducted alignment reviews on assessment items, instructional materials, and curriculum materials. Her work with the Common Core State Standards includes the production of gap analyses, crosswalks, transition documents, alignment reviews, and research support for state departments of education. Ms. Ryan has also facilitated teacher leaders in curriculum development and implementation of the Common Core. She was a consulting state content expert for English language arts during the development of the Common Core and a state consultant to the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC) consortium. A former high school language arts teacher, she holds a BA in English from the University of Colorado and a secondary teaching license through Metropolitan State University of Denver.

DANA FRAZEE is a principal consultant at McREL. She conducts workshops and training on curriculum and system improvement. She works with districts and teachers in North Dakota and Wyoming on the implementation of the Common Core English Language Arts standards. Ms. Frazee has been a middle school and high school teacher, a teacher leader, the principal of a K–8 charter school, and a K–12 educational consultant. She has facilitated numerous regional and national workshops on a variety of subjects, including data-based decision making, writing in the content area, formative assessment, continuous school improvement, and effective instructional strategies. Ms. Frazee coauthored Teaching Reading in the Content Area, 3rd edition (2012) and McREL’s Math in Afterschool: An Instructor’s Guide to the Afterschool Training Toolkit (2008). She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder and her master’s degree from Adams State College, Colorado.

JOHN KENDALL (Series Editor) is Senior Director in Research at McREL in Denver. Having joined McREL in 1988, Mr. Kendall conducts research and development activities related to academic standards. He directs a technical assistance unit that provides standards-related services to schools, districts, states, and national and international organizations. He is author of Understanding Common Core State Standards, senior author of Content Knowledge: A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K–12 Education, and the author or coauthor of numerous reports and guides related to standards-based systems. These works include High School Standards and Expectations for College and the Workplace, Essential Knowledge: The Debate over What American Students Should Know, and Finding the Time to Learn: A Guide. He holds an MA in Classics and a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder.