CCSS+Documents



The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects (“the Standards”) are the culmination of an extended, broad-based effort to fulfill the charge issued by the states to create the next generation of K–12 standards in order to help ensure that all students are college and career ready in literacy no later than the end of high school. The Standards set requirements not only for English language arts (ELA) but also for literacy in History/Social studies, Science, and Technical Subjects. Just as students must learn to read, write, speak, listen, and use language effectively in a variety of content areas, so too must the Standards specify the literacy skills and understanding required for college and career readiness in multiple disciplines. Literacy standards for Grade 6 and above are predicated on teachers of ELA, history/social studies, science, and technical subjects using their content area expertise to help students meet the particular challenges of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language in their respective fields. It is important to note that the 6–12 literacy standards in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects are not meant to replace content standards in those areas but rather to supplement them. States may incorporate these standards into their standards for those subjects or adopt them as content area literacy standards. As a natural outgrowth of meeting the charge to define college and career readiness, the Standards also lay out a vision of what it means to be a literate person in the twenty-first century. Indeed, the skills and understandings students are expected to demonstrate have wide applicability outside the classroom or workplace. Students who meet the Standards readily undertake the close, attentive reading that is at the heart of understanding and enjoying complex works of literature. They habitually perform the critical reading necessary to pick carefully through the staggering amount of information available today, both print and digitally. They actively seek the wide, deep, and thoughtful engagement with high-quality literary and informational texts that builds knowledge, enlarges experience, and broadens worldviews. They reflexively demonstrate the cogent reasoning and use of evidence that is essential to both private deliberation and responsible citizenship in a democratic republic. In short, students who meet the Standards develop the skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening that are the foundation for any creative and purposeful expression in language.

Common Core Cards

__//**Appendix A**//__ One of the key requirements of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Reading is that all students must be able to comprehend texts of steadily increasing complexity as they progress through school. The first part of this section makes a research-based case for why the complexity of what students read matters. The second part of this section addresses how text complexity can be measured and made a regular part of instruction.

__//**Apendix B**//__ The following text samples exemplify the level of complexity and quality that the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) require all students in a given grade band to engage with. The samples are suggestive of the breadth of texts that students should encounter in the text types required by the Standards. While the choices serve as guideposts in helping educators select texts of similar complexity, quality, and range for their own classrooms, they do not represent a partial or complete reading list.

[|Appendix C] The following writing samples have been annotated to illustrate the criteria required to meet the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for particular types of writing in Grades K-12. Each of the samples exhibits the level of quality required to meet the Writing standards for that grade.