2012-2013 School Year - @Pinterest style

It's that time again! Time to start thinking about NEXT school year. Time to start reflecting on this year - what worked, what didn't, what needs tweeking, and what should be dumped altogether.  To help with this, I created a Pinterest board that my best bud/colleague and I can collaborate on. I pin stuff to it and know that she'll see it at some point. I don't have to remember to tell her - fantastic.  Here are some of my ideas so far...

Source: katielately1.blogspot.com via Beth on Pinterest

I am hoping our team will do all our doors this way - one for each subject, show of "team spirit" and a good overview for the kids and parents of what they'll learn.

Source: themiddleschoolmouth.blogspot.com via Beth on Pinterest

This site has some AWESOME resources for interactive notebooks for ELA (English Language Arts.) Since I'll be teaching the Common Core next year, I REALLY want to do a better job with this. I expect to spend most of the summer planning what the notebooks will look like.

Source: Uploaded by user via Beth on Pinterest

The pin above and below go together. I love the idea of posting an interactive bulletin board that is curriculum related - offering challenges of various types for the kids. I'd consider offering extra credit to kids who completed a certain number of items. Definitely something to consider this summer!

Source: msnoblesclass.webs.com via Beth on Pinterest

Source: conversationsinliteracy.blogspot.com via Beth on Pinterest

I cannot say how much I LOVE THIS BB!!! It is hard to see, but there is a picture of each teacher and then their favorite book when they were a child. For our school, I'd like to see this put into the display case in the front entryway. That could be an all year display - possibly extended to include all staff - teacher assistants, office staff, even regular subs. We could possibly pull parents in as well. The whole idea being to show our kids that we LOVE books!

6th Grade ELA CCSS - #commoncore #ccchat #6thchat

This year has flown by so fast! I just can't adjust to the fact that it is already May - EOG time in fact!

Throughout the year, our district has provided cross grade level meetings to go through the Common Core State Standards. I'm fortunate that I only had to attend ELA meetings. Most K-5 folks had half days on all the subjects - ELA & Math CCSS, then Science and Social Studies Essential Standards. In my meetings and my own learning/research, I've collected the beginnings of a batch of resources. I thought I'd post them here for others to use - it is the time of year when I start heavy-duty reflecting and prepping for next year.

My Resources (collected from across the web)

1. Common Core - NC SCOS Crosswalks - these docs give a side by side comparison of the two curriculums. This is useful for me - I can see when things have simply moved or been re-worded as well as new items. All grade levels are available here in both Math and ELA.
2. Unpacking the Standards - this doc begins to translate the "education speak" into more understandable language. All grade levels are available here in both Math and ELA.
3. General Support Tools - there are many other things on this page - graphic organizers, exemplar text lists, and the two items listed above. (This page is one huge list, so I chunked it.)
4. Common Core Curriculum Maps for ELA Grade 6 - This originally came from the Common Core mapping folks. But, as seems to always happen, they came out with a new version that you need to pay to access. I have not seen the "new" version, but I can't imagine it being much different. I love this doc. It has everything I could possibly need to springboard into a new curriculum. The best news is that by using the Internet Archive: Wayback Machine, you can access almost anything they used to have posted. That is how I got my version. Very helpful!
5. Common Core Pacing Guide for ELA Grade 6 - I used the curriculum map above to create a pacing guide. My district likes the maps (and has apparently purchased them for review) but we do not have many of the texts referenced. Therefore, I took all the texts and activities OUT of the doc to leave just the CCSS divided into 6 units. By removing the activities, I did loose some reference to a few standards. I may go back and update this at some point. However, I felt the end result (dividing that huge new curriculum into manageable chunks) was worth a bit of loss.
6. Common Core Book List for ELA Grade 6 - I went back to the curriculum maps again. This time I removed all the standards and activities and left only the recommended texts. I want to go through my class library and other resources (textbooks, school library, public library, thrift stores) and see what I can collect. If need be, I plan to implement some of the texts as read alouds - which I feel is a good compromise to beginning a new curriculum.

There are LOTS of other resources out there - I've seen items on Teachers Pay Teachers (both pay and free) and of course there are resources and info at the CCSSI website: http://corestandards.org.

I hope this post is helpful! If you've founds great (preferably FREE) CCSS resources, please share them in the comments!