Big Skills for the Common Core

After enjoying a long and rewarding career as an English teacher in the Hendrick Hudson School District in Montrose, New York, Amy Benjamin now works as a national consultant. Her goal is to improve education by helping teachers recognize the role that language plays in learning. As such, the Common Core State Standards, with their emphasis on literacy as a foundational skill across all subject areas, fits perfectly into her vision of education reform. Amy has been honored for excellence in teaching by Tufts University, Union College, and the New York State English Council. Her classroom was used as a model for standards-based teaching by the New York State Education Department. Amy lives in Dutchess County, New York, with her husband, Howard. Their son, Mitchell, lives in California and works in the television industry. This is the eleventh book that she has written for Eye On Education.Author Michael Hugelmeyer is in his tenth year in the field of education, working as the Assistant Principal at Riverhead High School on Long Island, New York. Before becoming an administrator, he was a social studies teacher and an athletic coach at Glen Cove High School in Glen Cove, New York. Michael began his preparatory work in education as an undergraduate and graduate student at Villanova University. He currently lives on Long Island’s East End and is very happily married to Alexis, his wife of six years. They have two beautiful children, Isabella and Lance. This is the first book Michael has written.

"The authors do a wonderful job of putting the Common Core State Standards into teacher-friendly language. They make a huge document more palatable and highlight the large shifts for teachers. There are very few books that tackle this in such a complete, yet simple way."—Jessica Schmettan, Administrator for Instructional Support, Sachem CSD, NY

• Part 1 Reading; Chapter 1 Reading and the Common Core; Chapter 2 Meticulous Reading; Chapter 3 Recreational Reading: The Missing Ingredient; CLASSROOM CLOSE-UPS; Part 2 Writing; Chapter 4 Writing and the Common Core; Chapter 5 Creating a Writing Culture: What Do Students Need?; Chapter 6 Writing to Learn: Science, Meet Syntax. Syntax, This Is Science; Chapter 7 Writing a Cogent Argument; Chapter 8 Formative and Summative Assessments; CLASSROOM CLOSE-UPS; Part 3 Speaking and Listening; Chapter 9 Speaking and Listening and the Common Core; Chapter 10 Traditional Classroom Discourse: The Recitation Script; Chapter 11 Moving Toward Socratic Dialogue; Chapter 12 Developing Social Competencies; Chapter 13 Whiteboarding; CLASSROOM CLOSE-UPS; Part 4 Language; Chapter 14 Language and the Common Core; Chapter 15 Grammar and the Common Core; Chapter 16 Teaching Vocabulary; Chapter 17 Spelling as Word Study; CLASSROOM CLOSE-UPS;