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!