Common Core Resources

I think a lot of people are spending their time this summer trying to get ready for the Common Core.  I know that every state has their own implementation plan so everyone is at different levels of comfort and understanding.  Here in Indiana, kindergarten implemented the CCSS last year and 1st grade will implement them this year.  All of the other grades are supposed to be working on beginning to major concepts as they are still teaching the state standards.

I compiled some places you can look to for help with implementing the standards.

First and foremost, you should familiarize yourself with the standards.  If you are looking for just the standard itself, look it up here.  Go straight to the source, rather than another site which may or not be correct.  I prefer to look at the standards on the site, rather than opening the pdfs.  The site is easy to use and I like to look at the transgression of the standards just by changing grade levels on the side.

North Carolina offers some great tools to help you understand what each standard means.  I've used their resources for unpacking the standards in helping me develop my daily math warm ups.  While I use them as a resource, and think they are great, they are someone's interpretation of the standard.  At this point, we don't know exactly what the assessments for the CCSS will be, so there is some risk that their interpretation won't exactly match the formal assessments.  Only time will tell.





    The Common Core Reading Lessons and Common Core Math Lessons sites are great sites if you are looking for resources that can be implemented in your classroom.  Each site begins with the user selecting their appropriate grade level.  Then the user is brought to a page that lists general resources that cover that grade level's standard, or resources that are broken down by individual standards.  As you are beginning to teach the standards, these sites will be so helpful in your lesson planning.  I do urge a bit of discretion.  These resources are user submitted by their creators.  Always verify that the resource you find is teaching the standard to the appropriate level.  Click on either of the images above to head to that site.

   These two new blogs are designed just for the CCSS.  They are collaborative blogs with the writers posting articles and resources that they think will help you in your implementation.  I have signed up to be a collaborator on these blogs and I can't wait to see the great resources everyone starts sending out.  You can click the buttons above to send you to the sites to check them out.
I hope I've been able to show you a few new resources to help you with your Common Core implementation.  Do you have a resource that you've found helpful that I haven't included?  Share it in the comments below for us all to benefit from!