Students need to determine if fractions are the same as whole numbers by answering several questions and providing evidence and explaining their reasoning.

Thorough explanation of the how and why of text-dependent questions for close, analytic reading. Includes examples.

The Common Core State Standards for reading strongly focus on students gathering evidence, knowledge, and insight from what they read. Indeed, eighty to ninety percent of the Reading Standards in each grade require text dependent analysis; accordingly, aligned curriculum materials should have a similar percentage of text dependent questions.

As the name suggests, a text dependent question specifically asks a question that can only be answered by referring explicitly back to the text being read. It does not rely on any particular background information extraneous to the text nor depend on students having other experiences or knowledge; instead it privileges the text itself and what students can extract from what is before them.

This unit has been developed to guide students and instructors in a close reading of Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address.” The activities and actions described below follow a carefully developed set of steps that assist students in increasing their familiarity and understanding of Lincoln’s speech through a series of text dependent tasks and questions that ultimately develop college and career ready skills identified in the Common Core State Standards.

This 1-2 hour module provides participants with an introduction to the key shifts required by the Common Core State Standards for ELA / Literacy.

This 1-2 hour module provides participants with an introduction to the key shifts required by the Common Core State Standards for ELA / Literacy.

This 1-2 hour module provides an introduction to the key shifts required by the CCSS for Literacy in the content areas: history / social studies, science, and technical subjects.

At JA BizTown, students operate banks, manage restaurants, write checks, use debit cards, and vote for a mayor. They connect the dots between what they learn in school and the real world.

At JA Finance Park, students act as adults and make personal financial decisions in a realistic facility, mobile unit or virtual community. They develop lifelong financial skills through in-class and simulated experiences.

Rather than focusing exclusively on literacy skills, the Common Core State Standards set expectations for the complexity of texts students need to be able to read to be ready for college and careers.

This resource outlines three steps that will help teachers choose texts that are on grade level for the CCSS.

Achieve, the organization that coordinated the development of the Next Generation Science Standards, has released sample classroom assessments for middle and high school. In this particular assessment students use their understanding of natural selection to explain the change in frequencies of a trait in a bacterial population over time when an antibiotic has been introduced. This assessment bundles Common Core math and ELA/Literacy standards with the Next Generation Science Standards.

Open Educational Resources (OER) offer opportunities for increasing equity and access to high-quality K–12 education. Many state education agencies now have offices devoted to identifying and using OERs and other digital resources in their states. To help states, districts, teachers, and other users determine the degree of alignment of OERs to the Common Core State Standards, and to determine aspects of quality of OERs, Achieve has developed eight rubrics in collaboration with leaders from the OER community.

This task shows three equivalent expressions and requires that students understand the structure and purpose of each one. This is a critical aspect of Seeing Structure in Expressions. 
The primary purpose of this task is to assess students' knowledge of certain aspects of the mathematics described in the High School domain A-SSE: Seeing Structure in Expressions. Specifically, standard A-SSE.3 reads A-SSE.3: Choose and produce an equivalent form of an expression to reveal and explain properties of the quantity represented by the expression. a. Factor a quadratic expression to reveal the zeros of the function it defines. b. Complete the square in a quadratic expression to reveal the maximum or minimum value of the function it defines.
The Standards avoid the term "simplify" as there isn't always an obvious simplest form. The emphasis instead is on, "purposeful transformation of expressions into equivalent forms that are suitable for the purpose at hand." This task shows three equivalent expressions and requires that students understand the structure and purpose of each one. This is a critical aspect of Seeing Structure in Expressions. 
Mathematically this task:
• Prompts students to analyze three equivalent quadratic expressions • Allows students to focus on the structure of the expressions without focusing on the procedural skill of factoring or expanding the expressions • Gives a real-world context for students to interpret the properties of quadratic expressions • Requires students to look for and make use of structure (MP.7)
In the classroom: • Offers students and teachers an opportunity to see an assessment-type task with two response types • Allows teachers to target specific student misunderstandings for reteaching • With follow-up questions, teachers can prompt students to share their thinking about the concepts in this task

Riding at a Constant Speed focuses primarily on application of ratio and rate reasoning to solve problems. The problem presents Lin riding a bike at a constant speed: 20 miles in 150 minutes. The resource uses students' apply their initial understanding of ratios and rates to solve a real-life problem. The task uses friendly numbers so students can easily develop different solution strategies (unit rate, double number line, table, graph) to solve the problem. While the resource does not explicitly mention it, this task has potential to discuss the different representations and have students make connections among them.

Through close examination of the Publishers’ Criteria in ELA / Literacy for Grades 3-12, this 1-2 hour module intends to give teachers and administrators a deeper understanding of the Standards and their implication for instructional resources. This information will help educators judge classroom materials and reflect on the appropriate use of existing resources and strategies.