Common Core English Language Arts in a PLC at Work, Grades 3-5

In this updated edition of the ASCD best-seller, Fisher and Frey dig deeper into the hows and whys of the gradual release of responsibility instructional framework. To gradually release responsibility is to equip students with what they need to be engaged and self-directed learners. On a day-to-day level, it means delivering lessons purposefully planned to incorporate four essential and interrelated instructional phases: (1) Focused Instruction: Preparing students for learning by establishing lesson purpose, modeling strategies and skills, thinking aloud, and noticing how students respond; (2) Guided Instruction: Strategically using prompts, cues, and questions to lead students to new understanding; (3) Collaborative Learning: Allowing students to consolidate their understanding through exploration, problem-solving, discussion, and thinking with their peers; and (4) Independent Learning: Requiring students to use the skills and knowledge they’ve acquired to create authentic products and ask new questions.

Learn new ways to help middle and high school students develop the habits necessary to read closely, take good notes, then analyze what they have read from multiple sources and synthesize information into effective discussion and, ultimately, solid writing.

Explore strategies for integrating the Common Core State Standards for English language arts for grades K-2 in this interdisciplinary resource, which focuses on areas of instruction, curriculum, assessment, and intervention. You’ll also learn how to implement the CCSS within the powerful PLC at Work process. Critical chapter-opening questions guide discussion and help you leverage the CCSS to optimize student learning.

What it really means to “read closely.” Call it close reading, call it deep reading, call it analytic reading — call it what you like. The point is, it’s a level of understanding that students of any age can achieve with the right kind of instruction. In Rigorous Reading, Fisher and Frey articulate an instructional plan so clearly, and so squarely built on research, that teachers, schools, and districts need look no further. Also included are illustrative classroom video and an online Facilitator’s Guide.

In this comprehensive guide, the authors explore the relationship between text, learner, and learning through discussion and rhetorical writing at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Prompt students to become the sophisticated readers, writers, and thinkers they need to be to achieve higher learning. Clearly defined strategies will drive discussion-based learning. Examine the hidden dangers of controlling classroom discourse, foster critical literacy through questioning and instructional routines, and encourage students to find meaning and cultivate thinking from expository texts, even the most challenging ones. Finally, because all students learn differently, you’ll explore new-media texts and the Web to accommodate learning differences among your students.

Fisher and Frey set the record straight about text-dependent questions. They demonstrate that text-dependent questions can address not only literal understanding but also understandings about what the text doesn’t say, how the text works, what the text means to and for the reader, how the text might be read in a specific discipline, and more. With specific prompts and concrete examples, Fisher and Frey show us how to use questioning as a central tool to address the Common Core State Standards.

In clear and accessible language, Fisher and Frey explain that efforts to improve teaching only work when we see our classrooms as systems: every person and process impacts all the others, and seemingly small changes can have large effects on learning. This book is full of practical suggestions and tools that empower teachers to design the whole system including peer and student-teacher relationships, learning and assessment tasks, and classroom routines to lead to better learning. Identify strategies and tools to create clear learning targets, prepare effective lessons, and successfully assess instruction.