Jim Averbeck and Ed Porter: Positioning Your Work For The Common Core

Jim Averbeck is an author, illustrator and author/illustrator of picture books (including the Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book, In a Blue Room) and novels. His first novel is just out, A Hitch at the Fairmont, and it has been positioned for use with Core Curriculum State Standards.

Ed Porter is a former superintendent of schools in Long Island. Currently, he is an educational consultant who, among other things, coaches schools in understanding and implementing the Common Core Standards.

Jim Averbeck (left) and Ed Porter

Ed and Jim start with explaining that The Common Core is evolving. "Call it Common Core 1.0"

You can check the standards out at corestandards.org

The handout packet is hefty, and its cover is a map of which U.S. states have adopted Common Core (most), which have similar standards (a handful), and which have rejected it (four.)

Ed gives us an overview of the evolution of Common Core so far.

Today, we're asking students to have skills and attributes beyond what the old K-12 standards could offer them. Things like self-regulation, critical thinking and problem-solving, effective oral and written communication and resilience.

And Common Core is one of many responses to this. Another response is "The 4 C's in STEM: Collaboration, Creativity, Communication and Critical Thinking."

Jim and Ed also share a metric called "Webb's Depth of Knowledge" that breaks down knowledge about a book into four levels. Here are examples of text questions at each level:

1st level of knowledge: What are the names of the characters?
2nd level of knowledge: What happened?
3rd level of knowledge: Why did something happen?
4th level of knowledge: What would happen if…?

Common Core aims to have students go deeper, into those 3rd and 4th levels.

Jim aims to have his book and Common Core tie-in

"Easy for teachers to choose, easy for teachers to use."

Jim explains how texts are evaluated to be used in classrooms, based on "text complexity." It's a mix of Quantitative (like Lexile scores determined by computer - Jim's Hitch book was a Lexile 770, recommended for grades 3 and 4), Qualitative (like judging the complexity of the story, an evaluation performed by educators, and based on this analysis by teachers, Hitch moved up to 4th through 6th grades) and Reader & Task measures (individual teachers choosing things for individual classes and students.)

So what might we do to help teachers choose our books to use in the classroom?

There are group exercises through, like one that demonstrate to attendees how contemporary and speculative fiction can tie into the common core, and also tap into those 3rd and 4th levels of knowledge.

Jim shares his advice on what to do before the writing, during the writing, and after the book is published.

Here's one example for each:

Before: connect your fiction to research

During: Include appendices and author notes that surfaces research where appropriate

After: Create a "Common Core Selection Guide" that summaries the text complexity

They walk us through a page from the actual "Common Core Activity Guide" Ed created for Hitch! You can see and download the entire guide at Jim's website here.

And they even share a giant list of where to distribute your supplemental materials.

So much great information!

Bonnie Bader: Core Curriculum

When I read there would be a workshop on Common Core--the new American educational standards--I immediately wanted to hear more. The new Common Core is still a bit of  a puzzle, so I was interested to hear a publisher's perspective.

Leading the workshop was Bonnie Bader, the associate publisher of Frederick Warne as well as the editor-in-chief of Penguin Young Readers/Early Readers. She is also set to launch an 8x8 picture book program in spring 2014 with both fiction and non-fiction titles.

The session was packed. Bonnie immediately told the room that this was not a political discussion, but a workshop about how publishers and writers could work with Common Core. As Bonnie mentioned, there will be three areas of focus with CCSS:
1. Students should demonstrate independance
2. Students should be able to construct arguments and support with text evidence
3. Students should develop strategies to demonstrate content knowledge
(these are vague descriptions and not the actual standards)

"This is gonna get wild pretty quickly."

From the onset, the room buzzed with differing opinions. CCSS are hotly debated right now, and the audience was mostly made up of teachers. The beginning of the session had a debate in the audeicne about Common Core itself.

"Creativity is important to compete Globally."

"I'm a college teacher and I would appreciate if students came in with these skills."

Bonnie was quick to explain how teachers could incorporate some creativity in their lessons, combining historical fiction with non-fiction. What really got her excited about Common Core was the emphasis on non-fiction. "There is a tone to non-fiction. There is a voice." 

So in response to Common Core, Penguin has put together a new line: Penguin Core Concepts. The imprint will launch in Spring of 2014, and will have 4 non-fiction titles. Along with the non-fiction topics, the books have 20 core concepts to help teachers focus on the concept they want to tie into their lesson.

This gives writers more opportunities to write non-fiction. 

Some of the new books Bonnie will be publishing will be narrative non-fiction, full of facts and photographs. To align to Common Core, authors can take stories and approach them from a different direction, telling a story in a new way.

Ultimately, Bonnie felt these new educational standards will bring about more opportunities for teachers, librarians, and booksellers to work together.