Description
35 Ideas for Integrating Common Core Into Your Language Arts Curriculum
by Kenneth J. Smith, Ph.D. & Terri Zazove
Our students live in a fast-paced, high-tech world. If they aren’t motivated to learn, if they aren’t engaged, we lose them. Perhaps the worst part of this is that once they become disengaged, they will never achieve what they are capable of.
Engaging Gifted Readers & Writers… contains a balance of lessons—balanced in many ways. First, it contains an assortment of reading, writing and speaking lessons. These are further divided among expository, persuasive, informational, and poetry lesson. Some will take less than a class period; others can take a week. The longer lessons are designed to be flexible enough for you to adjust expectations to meet your time constraints. Regardless of time constraints you face, all lessons are written to be easy to implement. Finally we offer both collaborative and individual activities.
We want the lessons to engage students. This means students find them challenging, but not frustrating. They are open ended, allowing students to being their own voice to them, to express their own creative ideas. The lessons guide students to develop the skills needed to take their original ideas, develop them in depth, and articulate them in alignment with the Common Core Standards.
Sample Pages
sample lesson 1.pdf
sample lesson 2.pdf
Scott Chamberlin, Ph.D. –
The description of Ken Smith and Terri Zazove’s book entitled Engaging Gifted Readers and Writers on the Pieces of Learning website is an accurate one. In the description, their book is credited with having open-ended activities, easily implemented lessons, and activities that are engaging for students. Knowing a fair amount about student engagement, I can say with confidence that it is often overlooked in school settings, but absolutely crucial for productive output on behalf of students.
I highly recommend this book to individuals seeking literacy activities for gifted and talented learners. It is important to note that the book is written with gifted and talented learners in mind, but the activities are easily adaptable by a capable teacher to be used with general population students. This may be the best selling point of the book, that it can be used in the general and GT classroom.
Noreen Wessendorf –
The lessons in this book are hands on and easily adapted to not only language arts but to many other subjects as well. My interest lies in how to engage health education students and reinforce common core standards. There were several lessons that I know will enhance my units. One, for example, is the “Rhythm 1: Cheerleaders” lesson that can be used in the Nutrition Unit by having the students create cheers for healthy foods selected from the various food groups. This is just one example of how Kenneth Smith and Terri Zazove’s book can be easily adapted to another curriculum. I highly recommend this book to teachers who want to give students the chance to dive into fun, meaningful projects.
Susan Bethany –
Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Engaging Gifted Readers & Writers" is an ideal curriculum supplement to assist students in basic skills acquisition and preparing for Common Core based testing. Highly recommended for classroom teachers and would be appropriate for home schooling parents as well.