Practicing librarians and library educators demonstrate the power of inquiry to achieve the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and promote school librarians as key partners in implementing this type of critical teaching and learning in K–12 schools. • Features a foreword by Allison Zmuda, former public high school teacher, renowned education consultant, president of Competent Classroom, member of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), and author of numerous publications about learning, including Breaking Free from Myths about Teaching and Learning • Defines and elaborates on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) as they relate to inquiry learning • Describes the role of the school librarian in implementing the CCSS and inquiry learning in the school • Introduces examples of inquiry-focused learning approaches, including guided inquiry design and project-based learning • Provides lesson plans that will spark more practical ideas for inquiry-based instruction that address the CCSS

Providing clear explanations of inquiry-based learning in the light of the Common Core, this book is a practical and graphical guide that will serve as a much-needed primer for librarians and educators. Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are putting educators under pressure to examine what works and what doesn't. Even with the best efforts, integrating new strategies into daily practice in the classroom or library can be frustrating. This book will help. Providing a professional development toolkit that trains school librarians and teachers and enables them to train others, it presents a sequence of scaffolded essential questions that results in a customized blueprint for effective teaching. The book assembles background building blocks for inquiry and the Common Core, illustrates and connects key concepts on how to introduce inquiry-based learning, and provides effective tools for igniting the Common Core through inquiry-based learning methods. Developed from the crucible of six years of professional development to real-world audiences with deep experience in teaching and school librarianship, this book makes implementing inquiry learning and embracing the Common Core easier for classroom teachers and school librarians who understand the value of these teaching methods but are unsure of the best way to implement them.

Practicing librarians and library educators demonstrate the power of inquiry to achieve the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and promote school librarians as key partners in implementing this type of critical teaching and learning in K–12 schools. With the adoption of the CCSS in most of the nation's schools, educators and administrators at K–12 schools have a pressing need to find the best ways to implement these rigorous and comprehensive standards that challenge students to understand informational text and digital content at increasing levels of complexity. This text provides faculty with much-needed support in achieving this critical goal, thoroughly describing inquiry learning and how it links to the CCSS. The authors—nearly 30 contributors total, comprising librarians, library media specialists, educational leaders, teachers from the kindergarten level to college professors, and administrators, each with direct experience and knowledge regarding the subject matter—explain how the standards' emphasis on in-depth investigation and evidence-based reading and writing skills dovetail perfectly with inquiry-based learning initiatives. Acclaimed thought leaders such as Jean Donham, Kristin Fontischiaro, Leslie Maniotes, and Barbara Stripling clearly define and illuminate the librarian's role in school initiatives today and share lesson plans that have been proven effective in actual practice.

While the Common Core couldn't be clearer about what to teach, they never quite tackle how to teach. That's what makes Inquiring into the Common Core such an essential resource.

Common Core implementation begins with asking the right questions! While the Common Core couldn’t be clearer about what to teach, they never quite tackle how to teach. That’s what makes Inquiring into the Common Core such an essential resource. It offers teachers an inquiry-based professional development model for achieving greater understanding of the standards themselves, then determining best ways to realize desired outcomes. Posing questions to stimulate action and higher-level insight, teachers and students engage in a parallel process in service of the very same Common Core goals. The book is their guide, providing Tools to systematically study teaching effectiveness while adapting to new standards Classroom-ready, student inquiry techniques and strategies to apply within Common Core’s framework Real life inquiry-implementation examples from a high-need, high-poverty school

Timely, thoughtful, and comprehensive, this text directly supports pre-service and in-service teachers in developing curriculum and instruction that both addresses and exceeds the requirements of the Common Core State Standards. Adopting a critical inquiry approach, it demonstrates how the Standards’ highest and best intentions for student success can be implemented from a critical, culturally relevant perspective firmly grounded in current literacy learning theory and research. It provides specific examples of teachers using the critical inquiry curriculum framework of identifying problems and issues, adopting alternative perspectives, and entertaining change in their classrooms to illustrate how the Standards can not only be addressed but also surpassed through engaging instruction. The Second Edition provides new material on adopting a critical inquiry approach to enhance student engagement and critical thinking planning instruction to effectively implement the CCSS in the classroom fostering critical response to literary and informational texts using YA literature and literature by authors of color integrating drama activities into literature and speaking/listening instruction teaching informational, explanatory, argumentative, and narrative writing working with ELL students to address the language Standards using digital tools and apps to respond to and create digital texts employing formative assessment to provide supportive feedback preparing students for the PARCC and Smarter Balanced assessments using the book’s wiki site http://englishccss.pbworks.com for further resources

How the Common Core standardizes our kids’ education—and how it threatens our democracy. The Common Core State Standards Initiative is one of the most controversial pieces of education policy to emerge in decades. Detailing what and when K–12 students should be taught, it has led to expensive reforms and displaced other valuable ways to educate children. In this nuanced and provocative book, Nicholas Tampio argues that, though national standards can raise the education bar for some students, the democratic costs outweigh the benefits. To make his case, Tampio describes the history, philosophy, content, and controversy surrounding the Common Core standards for English language arts and math. He also explains and critiques the Next Generation Science Standards, the Advanced Placement US History curriculum framework, and the National Sexuality Education Standards. Though each set of standards has admirable elements, Tampio asserts that democracies should disperse education authority rather than entrust one political or pedagogical faction to decide the country’s entire philosophy of education. Ultimately, this lively and accessible book presents a compelling case that the greater threat to democratic education comes from centralized government control rather than from local education authorities.