Read Cynthia Peters’ article originally published in World Education’s E-newsletter on this topic: Using the Technology Issue of The Change Agent to Teach to the College and Career Readiness (CCR) Standards

College and Career Readiness Standards and The Change Agent

The Change Agent has a long history of using socially relevant material to teach reading, writing, and math. Our lesson plans and extensions help students distinguish fact from opinion, build their knowledge, assess the author’s point of view, analyze evidence, and build math skills based on real-world problems. These skills represent some of the key shifts in the new College and Career Readiness Standards (see the Key Shifts below), so if you’re already using The Change Agent, you’re a step ahead when it comes to teaching to these standards.

Key Shifts in English Language Arts

  1. Complexity: regular practice with complex text and its academic language; includes a staircase of increasing complexity for students to read independently and proficiently + attention to academic vocabulary.
  2. Evidence: reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational; for reading – to present careful analysis; for writing – analyzing sources; for speaking and listening – purposeful academic talk in which students contribute accurate, relevant information about a multitude of ideas they have studied or researched in various domains.
  3. Knowledge: building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction – science, history, and technical subject areas.

Key Shifts in Mathematics

  1. Focus: instructors need to narrow and deepen their teaching; this shift finds expression in clearer understanding of place value, properties of operations, and the application of properties in a variety of situations.
  2. Coherence: refers to the idea that standards at higher levels become extensions of previous learning rather than discrete new lessons. One example of this: connection between properties of operations (eg., multiplication) and geometric applications (eg., area).
  3. Rigor: conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency, and rigorous application of mathematics in real-world contexts. Know more than “how to get the answer.” Real world applications for calculating probabilities as fractions, decimals or percent; statistical analysis of rational data.

Adapted from “College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education,” Susan Pimentel, 2013; and with thanks to www.teachingthecore.com.

To see exactly which articles and lesson plans are aligned with which standards, a chart is available for each recent issue of The Change Agent. Charts are available for the following issues:

Sample Standards Chart: Use the Technology issue of The Change Agent to teach College and Career Readiness (CCR) Standards

The following chart is also available as a printable PDF.

THE 10 ANCHOR STANDARDS FOR READING CAN BE BROKEN UP INTO 4 GROUPS
Anchor Standards In Everyday English TCA Excerpts
Key Ideas and Details (R.CCR.1-3) What does the text say? What does it not say? What does it mean? How can you prove it? pp. 3, 6-7, 10, 16, 23, 37, 44, 46, 47, 52-53
Craft & Structure (R.CCR.4-6) How does author use language to commu-nicate? How is the text organized? Who wrote this and how/why does that matter? pp. 22-23
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas (R.CCR.7-9) How does this connect with other sources? Does it measure up? Is it valid? pp. 36, 42-43, 45, 50-51
Range and Level of Text Complexity (R.CCR.10) Can students read widely and deeply from a broad range of high-quality texts? pp. 8-9, 24-25

THE 9 ANCHOR STANDARDS FOR WRITING CAN BE BROKEN UP INTO 3 GROUPS
Text Types and Purposes (W.CCR.1-3) Write arguments. Write explanatory texts. Write narratives. Stress complexity, reasoning, evidence, and details. pp. 14, 18, 38-39, 46
Production and Distribution of Writing (W.CCR4-6) Know your audience. Speak clearly to them. Plan, revise, re-write. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to collaborate and interact. pp. 14-15, 27
Research to Build and Present Knowledge (W.CCR.7-9) Research. Gather information from various sources. Assess credibility of those sources. DO NOT plagiarize. pp. 14-15, 27

THE 6 ANCHOR STANDARDS FOR SPEAKING AND LISTENING CAN BE BROKEN UP INTO 2 GROUPS
Comprehension and Collaboration (SL.CCR.1-3) Be able to converse by expressing yourself and building on others’ ideas. Integrate information from diverse formats. Be able to evaluate a speaker’s point of view. pp. 6-7, 8-9, 10, 16, 18, 28-30, 46
Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas (SL.CCR. 4-6) Present information in an organized way. Use various media in your presentations. Use formal English when necessary. p. 10

THE 6 ANCHOR STANDARDS FOR LANGUAGE CAN BE BROKEN UP INTO 3 GROUPS
Conventions of Standard English (L.CCR.1-2) Get that grammar down! And spelling and punctuation too!
Knowledge of Language (L.CCR.3) Choose words, phrases, and punctuation for effect. Vary sentence patterns. Notice how language is used in poetry, drama, etc. pp. 4-5, 12, 35, 43
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use (L.CCR4-6) Use context clues to determine meaning. Use a dictionary. Understand figurative language and nuance. Use academic and domain-specific words. Be able to independently acquire new vocabulary. pp. 26-27, 43

KEY MATH SHIFT: RIGOROUS APPLICATION OF MATHEMATICS IN REAL-WORLD CONTEXTS.
Real world applications for calculating probabilities as fractions, decimals or percent; statistical analysis of rational data. pp. 11, 13, 21, 22, 25, 29, 42-43