Along with all of the other challenges we face in the classroom each day, we have the constant reminder of our state's adoption of the "Common Core" and the promise of standardized tests which are expected to reflect achievement of these standards each spring. Over the past three years, curriculum has been updated and modified accordingly and efforts have been made to assist in "unpacking" the standards to ensure educators understand specifically what the new
standards mean, and what a student must know, understand and be able to do. This year, in the area of ELA, our teacher toolbox expanded to include more resources for informational text, defined by the CCSS as a broad category of nonfiction
resources, including: biographies; autobiographies; books about history, social
studies, science, and the arts; technical texts (including how-to books and
procedural books); and literary nonfiction.
