Mo Willems and The Common Core

Maine has joined 47 other states and "signed on" to the Common Core, a set of national standards that are being used by teachers and administrators nationwide to help prepare children for college and careers.  This means that if you should move from Maine to Mississippi, your child's end of year reading goals should look the same in both states.   Today I was at the Samoset Resort in Rockport, Maine, attending a workshop titled "Linking Classroom Planning and the Common Core" with Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan, authors of Assessment:  Finding the Stories of Our Students.

In a nutshell, the heart of the workshop was dedicated to looking deeply at the Common Core's ten anchor standards for reading and aligning them with the planning, instruction, and assessment cycle of teaching.  Because there were two presenters and only eight attendees for this particular session,  I was able to further differentiate by grade level, which means that there was time to ask and receive answers specific to first grade. 

How does this connect with Mo Willems and what we are doing in school today?  The standards address what "the average first grader in the United States" should know about reading.  I was able to plan the linking of what to teach and how to teach it with our current favorite books,  Mo Willems' Knuffle Bunny,  Don't Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus, and We Are In A Book in mind.  The professional development will help immeasurably for all of my future instruction.  

In addition to the training, we were each given copies (to keep!) of all of the childrens' books that we used throughout the conference as text models for teaching the standards.  Brenda Power, the owner of Choice Literacy, a literacy website with 55,000 subscribers, and the conference hostess, gave us each many other gifts to take home (including a free subscription to her website and a $199.00 Demonstration DVD!).

Best.  Workshop.  Ever.