Author Monographs

TheCommonCoreStateStandards(CCSS,orCommonCore)haveusheredinanewerainthefieldofliteracy.Thisnewerahasthepotentialforimprovingeducationinthiscountry.Alternatively,theeracouldendwithaquietthud.Whathappensdependsonmanythings,themostimportantofwhichishowteacherswillcometoknow,understandandimplementtheCommonCoresuccessfully.Withoutteachers’knowledgeandexpertiseabouttheCommonCoreandhowtheycanimplementthemintheirclassrooms,theCCSShavelittlechanceofsuccess.

AsteacherslearnabouttheCCSS,theyarefilledwithquestions.“Doesthismeanwehavetothrowouteverythingwehavebeendoing?”“Arewebacktowholelanguage?”“Arewejustaddingmoretoourplate?”“Didn’twedothistwentyyearsago?”“Whataboutmystudentswhocan’tread?”“Dowenowhavetomakeupourwholecurriculum?”“Dowehavetofindallnewmaterialsforourstudentstoread?”“Whataboutstrategies?”“Arewesupposedtostopteachingthem?”

Thus,professionaldevelopmenthasneverbeenmoreimportantintheliteracyfieldthanitisnow.

WhileteachereducationinstitutionscanbegintoassistteachersinunderstandingtheStandards,itwillultimatelybelefttotheschooldistrictsthemselvestoeducatethealmostthreemillionelementaryteacherscurrentlyworkinginAmericanschools.

Schooldistrictswillneedhelp.ThathelpandassistancecancomefrommaterialsandreadingprogramsthatteachersusetoorganizetheirliteracyblocksaroundtheCCSS.Thereisno

inherentexpectationintheCommonCorethatteacherscreatetheirowncurriculum.Further,itisunrealisticandunfairtoexpectteacherstodeveloptheirowncurriculumaroundtheCommonCore.Teachershaveneitherthetimenorenergy,andmanydonothavetheexpertise,todevelopanewreadingcurriculumfromscratch.Besides,therearemanypositiveandevidence-basedpracticesincurrentusebyteachersandrecommendedinreadingprograms—thesepracticesneedtocontinue.

Inaddition,noinstructionalrecommendationsshouldbeinferredfromtheCommonCore.TheCCSSexplainonlywhatstudentshavetoknowandbeabletodo.Howteachersteachstudentstoknowandbeableto

Common Core Standards and Reading Programs at the Elementary

School LevelBy

Dr. Janice A. Dole

Professor, University of UtahDirector, Utah Center for Reading and Literacy

Content Facilitator, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)CCSS Consultant to Literacy Coaches, Salt Lake City School District, Utah

dowhatisrequiredintheCCSSisuptothemasliteracyprofessionals.HereiswherereadingprogramscanassistdistrictsandteachersintheireffortstosuccessfullyimplementtheCCSSinschoolsandclassrooms.

Thepurposeofthiswhitepaperistoassistadministrators,literacycoachesandteachersinhowtheycanassurethatthematerialsandprogramstheypurchasewill,infact,supportteachersinmeetingtheCommonCore. ThispaperbeginswithanexplanationofsomebasicprinciplesbehindtheStandards,andthendiscusseswhatprofessionalsinliteracyshouldlookforinareadingprogramtomakesureithasthequalitiesthatsupportteachersastheyteachtomeettheCCSS.

Basic Principles Behind the Common CoreImpliedbytheCommonCoreareseveralprinciplesthatarecentraltothemissionoftheCCSS.TheseprinciplesunderliethestandardsandwillneedtobecomearegularpartofclassroominstructioniftheCCSSaretobemet.Thislistisnotmeanttobeanexhaustiveone;readerscaninferotherprinciplesthatarenotmentionedhere.

Strong Foundational Skills.ThecriticalbeginningreadingskillsthatprovidetheunderlyingfoundationforteachingchildrentoreadremainstronginthenewCCSS.Fortunatelyforusall,nothinghaschangedintheearlyfoundationalskillsthatchildrenhavedevelopedtolearntoreadsuccessfully.AnowlargebodyofresearchsupportstheexplicitteachingoftheseskillstoallchildrenatgradesKindergartenthrough2(NICHD,2000;Snow,Burns,&Griffin,1998;Stanovich,2000).Threeofthe“bigfive”thattheNationalReadingPanel(NICHD,2000)identified—phonemicawareness,phonicsandfluency—allcontinuetobetaughtasteachersimplementtheCCSSintheirclassrooms.Themasteryoftheseskillsiscriticalforchildrentobeabletoreadcriticallyandanalyticallyinlatergrades.

Writing about Reading/Argumentative Writing.OneimportantprinciplethatcomesoutloudandclearintheCCSSisthefocusonwritingaboutwhatstudentsarereading.Theimportanceofwriting

ingeneral,andwritinginresponsetoreading,hasneverbeenclearer.

AcoreprincipleintheCCSSisthatstudentswriteconsistentlyabouttopicsandideasrelatedtotheirreadingandprovidetextevidencetosupporttheirideas.Thereisextensiveresearchthatconfirmstheimportanceofwritingtosupportreading.Inhisreviewoftheresearchonwritingtolearn,Newell(2006)

citedseveralstudiesthatdemonstratethatstudentscomprehendtextatadeeperlevelwhentheyhaveopportunitiestowriteaboutwhattheyread.

Inaddition,argumentativewritingtakespriorityinthenewCCSS.Writingstoriesisnolongerenough.TheCCSSexpectsstudentstoproducemoreinformativeandpersuasivewriting.TomeetthenewCCSS,studentswillneedtobeabletodrawonevidencefromthetextstodescribe,analyze,andreflectonwhattheyhaveread.

Importance of Vocabulary.AnotherfocusoftheCCSSistheintegrationofvocabularyintotheComprehensionStandards.WhilevocabularyhasitsownspaceintheCommonCore,itisalsointegratedintotheReadingStandards.Theunderlyingassumptionisthatvocabularyandcomprehensionareintricatelyrelated.Historically,readingresearchershavealwaysknownthestrongrelationshipbetweenvocabularyandcomprehension(Anderson&Freebody,1979;Anderson&Nagy,1991).Itisalsointuitivelyobvious—themorewordsweknow,thebetterourcomprehensionisgoingtobe.TheCCSSrequirestudentstomeetbenchmarksinvocabularyknowledgeandtousethatknowledgetocomprehendbetter.

TherearetwokindsofvocabularythattheCCSSaddress.First,generalTier2wordsaretargetedforstudentstolearn.Forexample,theReadingforInformationStandardsforGrade4askstudentsto“determinethemeaningofgeneralacademicanddomain-specificwordsorphrasesinatextrelevanttoaGrade4topicorsubjectarea.”Tier2wordsarewordsthatmature,adultlearnersknowanduseaspartoftheireverydayvocabulary(Beck,McKeown,&Kucan,2002).Forliteratureselections,Tier2wordscanbetargetedforinstruction,e.g.,acharactermaybeirascibleorpetulant.Forinformationaltexts,domain-specificwords

“Fortunately for us all, nothing has changed in these

early foundational skills that children

have to learn to read successfully.”

Common Core Standards and Reading Programs

centraltothetextcanbetargetedforinstruction,e.g..independence,Constitution.

Asecondkindofvocabularyisacademicvocabulary.Academicvocabularyconsistsofwordsthatareneededtounderstandtheacademiclanguageusedinliteracyclassrooms,e.g.,wordslikerealisticfiction,confirm,predict,andsummarize.ItisimportanttoteachTier2wordsaswellasacademicvocabularytohelpstudentsaccomplishtheiracademictasksproficiently.

Focus on Informational Texts.Researchhasdemonstratedthatnarrativetextsareeasiertoreadthaninformationaltexts.Thisholdstrueforadultsaswellaschildren(Graesser,Golding,&Long,1991).Thereissomethingaboutthepowerofastorythatresonateswithallhumanbeings,andthereforestoriesarerelativelyeasytoprocesscomparedtoinformationaltexts.Ingeneral,researchershavefoundthatadultstakelongertoreadandprocesstheinformationininformationaltextsandthattheyrecallandretainlessinformationfrominformationaltextsthantheydofromnarrativetexts.Thisislargelyduetothemoreoftenthannotwell-formedstorystructureofnarrativetextsandthemoreoftenthannotill-structurednatureofinformationaltexts.

However,learninghowtoreadinformationaltextsmustbecomeapriorityforstudents.Afterall,muchofwhatadultreadersreadisinformationalratherthannarrative.Untilfairlyrecently,though,mostelementaryteacherstaughtreadingwithnarrativetexts.Thatbegantochangeinthereadingprogramsoftheearly2000s.Slowly,moreinformationaltextshavebeenaddedtoreadingprogramsandmaterials.WiththenewCCSS,thechangefromreadingmostlynarrativetoreadingacombinationofnarrativeandinformationaltextwillcontinueandaccelerate.Thisisbecauseresearchershavebeguntoacknowledgetheimportantrolethatinformationaltextplaysinadults’livesandtheimportanceofteachingstudentstoreadthesetypesoftextsfromanearlyageon(Duke,2000;2004).

Access to Complex Text.AnothercriticallyimportantunderlyingassumptionoftheCCSSisthatstudentsneedtolearnhowtoreadmorecomplextextsthantheycurrentlyread.TheCCSSciteresearchonhighschoolstudentsthatshowsthat,astheyexithighschool,twelfth-gradersarenotreadyfortheleveloftextcomplexityofcollegeandcareertexts(ACT,2006;2009;

Adams,2010–2011).Therefore,studentsneedaccesstomorecomplextextearlierintheirschoolyears.

Textcomplexityhasbeencharacterizedinthreedifferentways.First,textcomplexitycanbecharacterizedquantitativelyasvocabularydifficultyandsentencelengthincrease.Textwithlongersentencesandlow-frequencyormultisyllabicwordsisgenerallyconsideredtobemoredifficultthantextwithshortersentencesandhigh-frequencyormonosyllabicwords.ExamplesofquantitativemeasuresareseenintheoldFryandDale-ChallreadabilityformulasaswellasthenowcommonLexilelevels.

Second,textcomplexitycanbedefinedqualitativelyalonganumberofdifferentdimensions.Anauthor’spurposecanmakeatextcomplex,suchaswhenanauthorusesironyorsarcasm.Thegenreofatextcanmakeitcomplex;aninformationaltext,suchasaproceduretooperateatoy,isoftenmorecomplexthananarrativetextrelatedtoafolktale.Theorganizationofatextcanleadtodifficultyinunderstandingatext;flashbacksinnarrativestypicallygiveyoungreadersdifficultywhenfirstencounteredintexts.Thespecificvocabularywithinatextcanmakeitcomplex;atypicaldomain-specifictextbooklikechemistryorphysicsisextremelycomplextoreadandunderstand.Theamountofpriorknowledgeneededtounderstandatextcanmakeitcomplex;ifauthorsassumetoomuchpriorknowledgeonthepartoftheirreaders,thencomprehensionsuffers.Howideasandconceptsareconnectedcanmakeatextcomplex;evenifreadersunderstandtheideasandconcepts,theymaynotunderstandtheirrelationshipsandhowtheyareconnected.Thiscanleadtocomprehensionbreakdowns.Finally,thesentencestructureswithinatextcanmakeitcomplex.Forexample,compound,complexsentencesaremoredifficulttounderstandthansimplesentences.Ingeneral,sentencesinnovelsforolderreadersthataretentofifteenlineslongarehardertounderstandthanshortersentences;paragraphsthataretwopageslongarehardertounderstandthanshorterparagraphs.

Last,complextextcanbecharacterizedbyreaderandtaskconditions.Theamountofpriorknowledgeandinterestreadershaveforagiventopicwillinfluencehowcomplexatextmaybeforthosereaders.Inaddition,thetasksassignedtoreaderscanrenderatextmoreorlesscomplex.Forexample,assignmentsthatrequire

Common Core Standards and Reading Programs

1)Strongfoundationalskills.Readingprogramsshouldcontinuetoassistteachersinteachingthestrongbeginningreadingskillsthatsupportchildrenlearningtoread.Theseincludephonemicawareness,phonics,andfluencyskills.Questionseducatorsshouldaskinclude:Doestheprogramteachphonemicawarenessandphonicsskills,especiallythoseimportantblendingskills,atearlygradelevels?Doestheprogramcontainearlydecodabletextssochildrencanpracticethephonicsskillstheylearninthetextstheyread?Doestheprogramteachfluencyskillsthroughmodelingandrepeatedreading?

2)WritingaboutReading/ArgumentativeWriting.Readingprogramsshouldassistteachersinassignmentsthataskstudentstowriteaboutwhattheyread.Questionseducatorsshouldaskinclude:Doestheprogramaskstudentstowriteaboutwhattheyhaveread?Doestheprogramaskstudentstoconductresearchbyreadingandwritingabouttopics?Doestheprogramaskstudentstospeakandwriteusingevidencefromatexttheyhavejustread?Doestheprogramshowstudentshowtomakeanargumentanddefenditwithideasandexamplesfromthetextstheyread?

3)ImportanceofVocabulary.Readingprogramshavecomealongwayintheirtreatmentofvocabularyinstructionbasedonestablishedandnewresearchonvocabularyteachingandlearning.Educatorsshouldask:DoestheprogramdirectlyteachTier2vocabularywordsthatwillbeusefulinstudents’comprehensionofthetexttheyread?Doestheprogramteachacademicwordsaswell?Doestheprogramusemorethanoneapproachforvocabularyinstruction?Istheresufficientrepetitionforvocabularyreviewandpractice?

4)FocusonInformationalTexts.Informationaltextshaveincreasedsignificantlyinnumbersintradebooksaswellasreadingprogramsoverthelastdozenorsoyears.Educatorsshouldask:Doestheprogramprovideanincreasingnumberofinformationaltextsasstudentsmovethroughthegradelevels?Doestheprogramassistteachersinteachingstudentsthedifferencesbetweennarrativeandinformationaltexts?Doestheprogramassistteachersinshowingstudentshowtoreadthosetexts?

readerstocompareandcontrastideasfromtwotextswillrenderthosetextsmorecomplexthanassignmentsthatrequirereaderstosummarizeeachtext.

Thesevariablesallcontributetomakingonetextsimpleandeasytounderstand,whilemakinganotheronecomplexandthereforedifficulttounderstand.HelpingteachersunderstandtextcomplexityisanimportantgoalforCCSSprofessionaldevelopers.

Close Reads.AfinalprincipleofthenewCCSSis“closereads.”Closereadingisareadingandrereadingofsegmentsoftextinordertodiscoverwhattheauthorsays,howtheauthorsaysit,andwhytheauthorsaysit.Closereadingdependscriticallyonprovidingevidencefromthetexttosupportwhatreaderssayaboutatext.Readersareexpectedtoprovideexamplesofkeyideasanddetailswithinatext.Readersareexpectedtoprovideinformationabouttheauthor’scraftandstructure.Finally,readersareexpectedtointegrateknowledgeandideaswithinandacrossthetextstheyread.Overarchingthesethreekeyskillsandunderstandingsistheideathatstudentsareabletoprovideevidencefromthetexttosupporttheirargumentsandideas.

Reading Programs that Address the Common CoreWhatdoalltheseunderlyingprinciplesandassumptionsmeanforthosewhoareinvolvedintheselectionandimplementationofnewreadingprograms?Shouldeducatorsexpecttheseprogramstochangecompletely?ShouldtheyexpectreadingprogramstodropeverythingtheycurrentlydoandreplacethosepracticeswithnewonesthatmirrortheCCSS?Theanswertoallthesequestionsisaresounding“No!”Therearemanyexcellentfeaturesofreadingprogramsthatneedtostayinplace.Thesefeaturesappearinreadingprogramsbecauseofyearsofbasicandappliedresearchinthefieldofreadingthatrecommendtheiruse.Thesefeaturesshouldnotbethrownout—itcanbelikenedto“throwingoutthebabywiththebathwater.”

Atthesametime,thereareimportantchangesthateducatorsshouldlookforinnewreadingprogramssothattheskillsandstrategiesneededtomeetthestandardsoftheCommonCorewillbecovered.ThesechangesmirrortheprinciplesoftheCCSSlaidoutearlierinthispaper.

Common Core Standards and Reading Programs

5)AccesstoComplexTexts.TheexpectationthatteachersaskstudentstoreadincreasinglycomplextextsisacriticalpartoftheCCSS.Educatorsneedtoask:DoestheprogramprovideinformationaboutLexilelevels?Doestheprogramassistteachersinteachingcriticalcomponentsofcomplextext,suchasdifferentpurposes,genres,organization,andstructuresoftexts?Doestheprogramdiscusshowtoassiststudentsinaccessingmorecomplextext?

6)CloseReads.Finally,readingprogramsshouldassistteachersinconducting“closereads”ofsegmentsoftext.Educatorsshouldask:Doestheprogramassistteachersinaskingquestionsthatrequirestudentstoprovideevidenceandsupportfromthetext?Doestheprogramaskstudentstoanswermostlytext-dependentquestions?Doestheprogramaskstudentstointegrateknowledgeandideasfromdifferentpartsofatextandacrossmorethanonetext?

ConclusionTheReadingCommonCorehasthepotentialtochangehowreadingistaughtinmanypositiveways.Butteacherswillneedprofessionaldevelopmentaswellasreadingprogramsandmaterialsthatcanhelpthem.IftheseprogramsandmaterialsadheretotheprinciplesoftheCCSS,teacherswillhavethetextstheirstudentsneedandthetoolstohelpstudentslearntoreadthosetexts.ThatwillgoalongwaytowardsassistingstudentsinmeetingthehighbarsetbytheCCSS.

ReferencesACT(2006).Reading Between the Lines: What the ACT

Reveals About College Readiness in Reading.Retrievedfromwww.act.org/research/policymakers/pdf/reading_report.pdf.May25,2012.

ACT(2009).HowCollegeReadyaretheACT-tested2009HighSchoolGraduates?Retrievedfromwww.act.org/research/policymakers/cccr09/index.html.May25,2012.

Adams,M.J.(2010–2011).AdvancingOurStudents’LanguageandLiteracy:TheChallengeofComplexTexts.American Educator.34(4),3-11.

Anderson,R.C.,&Freebody,P.(1979).Vocabulary Knowledge.WashingtonDC:NationalInstituteofEducation.

Anderson,R.C.,&Nagy,W.E.(1991).WordMeanings.InR.

Barr,M.L.Kamil,P.Mosenthal,&P.D.Pearson(Eds.),Handbook of Reading ResearchVol.II(pp.690-724).Mahwah,NJ:Erlbaum.

Beck,I.L.,McKeown,M.G.,&Kucan,L.(2002).Bringing Words to Life.NY:Guilford.

Duke,N.K.(2000).3.6MinutesPerDay:TheScarcityofInformationalTextsinFirstGrade.Reading Research Quarterly.35(2),202-224.

Duke,N.K.(2004).TheCaseforInformationalText.Educational Leadership.61(6),40-44.

Graesser,A.,Golding,J.M.,&Long,D.L.(1991).NarrativeRepresentationandComprehension.InR.Barr,M.L.Kamil,P.Mosenthal,&P.D.Pearson(Eds.),Handbook of Reading ResearchVol.II(pp.171-205).Mahwah,NJ:Erlbaum.

NationalInstituteofChildHealthandHumanDevelopment(2000).Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction.WashingtonDC:NationalInstituteofChildHealthandHumanDevelopment.

Newell,G.E.(2006).WritingtoLearn.InC.A.MacArthur,S.Graham,&J.Fitzgerald(Eds.),Handbook of Writing Research(pp.235-247).NY:Guilford.

Snow,C.E.,Burns,M.S.,&Griffin,P.(1998).Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children.WashingtonDC:NationalAcademyPress.

Stanovich,K.E.(2000).Progress in Understanding Reading: Scientific Foundations and New Frontiers.NY:Guilford.

Common Core Standards and Reading Programs

RD 12 W 9428

Common Core Standards and Reading Programs