Common Core

The topics and posts below are intended to make the work that I am facilitating relevant to Race to the the Top more transparent for others.

I am currently a Network Team Equivalent leader for Lockport City School District, and I provide curriculum, instruction, and assessment support to six other Western New York school districts as they strive to satisfy the demands of this initiative.

These posts do not provide a comprehensive portrait of all of the work that I am doing or all of the learning that is emerging from it. They do provide meaningful snapshots into my professional world, however. Sharing what I’m doing also helps me connect to those I can learn more from.

If you are approaching similar work in your role as a teacher or facilitator, I’m eager to connect with you! Over the last few years, I’ve received invitations to collaborate with others in spaces beyond this blog, and I’m learning a great deal as a result. Please let me know if you’d like to add your voice to this conversation. I will update this page frequently, so please stop by often to see what else I’m learning along the way.

Vision:

• Race to the Top: A Means, Not an End?
• Begin by Envisioning the Top
• What Conditions Create Productive Change?
• Strategically Planning to Realize Vision
• Planning for Sustainability

Unpacking the Common Core Learning Standards:

• Developing  Fluency with the CCLS
• Gap Analysis: A Perfunctory FIRST Step
• Unwrapping the CCLS

We Can Do This in Ways That Increase Job Satisfaction:

• How Can We Race to the Top in Ways that Increase Job Satisfaction?
• Aligning to the Indicators of Our Vision

Don’t Believe the Hype:

• Inspiring Teachers to Design Powerful Learning Experiences with the CCLS: Part I
• Inspiring Teachers to Design Powerful Learning Experiences with the CCLS: Part II
• Approaching the Six Shifts in ELA

Leveraging Lesson Study to Implement the 6 Shifts:

• Leaning Toward Lesson Study and the Six Instructional Shifts
• Learning What Works from Our Students
• Quelling the Common Core Crazy: The Lesson Study Protocol I’m Using

Data and Inquiry Teams:

• Initial Reflections on a Decade’s Worth of  “Data Dialogue” Part I
• Initial Reflections on a Decade’s Worth of “Data Dialogue” Part II
• Inquiry vs. Data Teams
• Inquiry Teams: Beginning Where You Are
• The Inquiring Writing Teacher

• Data-Driven Instruction: What if Your School is Making All of the 8 Mistakes that Matter?
• Team-Informed Data
• When Learners Inform the Data Team

Intervention:

• Approaching Complex Text with Struggling and Reluctant Readers: A Series of Posts