I am so lucky to have personal connections with some of the most talented teachers in the country (as evidenced by our photo at Education Nation in NYC). What do we have in common? Our support for the Common Core and our willingness to speak up about its value for students.

Some opponents of the Common Core argue that the Core is a curriculum that exposes students to inappropriate content or teaching methods. This is not true. An examination of the Common Core will reveal a collection of rigorous standards, or skills, that students need to become successful adults. Instructional strategies and curriculum are not outlined in the Core. You will not see a required reading list or an outline of suggested teaching methods. These important decisions are left to school administrators, curriculum leaders, and classroom teachers, the experts of teaching and learning.

With the advent of technology and social media, teacher decisions are more public than ever, and sometimes, curriculum selections and instructional strategies are muddied in the waters with the Common Core. It’s important to know that they are separate. As educators, we choose the books we want to teach and the methods we use to teach them. We, therefore, need to spread the message that the Core is not our curriculum. It is a list of standards that unify our profession and help us to set high standards for our students. That isn’t so scary.

For another blog about the Common Core and creativity, read a post from the fabulous Brooke Carlyle here.

I have practiced yoga for years, and only yesterday it struck me that yoga is the ultimate example of Universal Design for Learning (UDL).  If you’ve never experienced the calm of a quiet mind, yoga is for you, regardless of your fitness level or age. How is it that one class can accommodate people with such variability?

When moving into asanas, or yoga positions, there are always choices. For example, one yoga pose is crow, demonstrated by my cousin, Jessie Dwiggins (left). This is ultimate rigor (think Common Core state standards), but in any class, modifications and accommodations are presented as choices, without fail. Instructors explain that it’s important to honor your body and take necessary modifications, because these scaffolds are learning tools that teach your body the postures.

For example, the beginner has the option of modified crow (right) which does not require balance. As practice evolves and the body becomes stronger, beginners can shift more weight to their hands to move closer to the traditional posture. Those who need more of a challenge can channel their inner Jessie and opt for a more difficult version of crow (below, left).

The thing is, it doesn’t matter where you start or end. Everyone is encouraged to begin at the level they are at and move forward, and throughout the practice, yoga instructors provide mastery oriented feedback to insure that postures are aligned to maximize the benefits of the practice. This acceptance of variability and ongoing feedback make yoga a practice that challenges everyone simultaneously.

Yoga has been practicing UDL for thousands of years. It’s time that all classrooms provide students with the same sense of acceptance while working toward rigorous standards.

The Common Core and the PARRC require the following instructional shifts. This information is summarized from the PARRC Model Content Framework, version 2.0, just in case you didn’t sit down with a cup of coffee for a close reading of the whole document!

Balance of text: The balance of student writing should be 65 percent analytical (30 percent opinions and 35 percent to explain/inform) and 35 percent narrative with a mix of on-demand and extended review-and-revision writing assignments.

Cite evidence: The goal of close, analytic reading is to be able to discern and cite evidence from the text to support assertions. By grade 3, students should refer explicitly to the text as the basis for answers (RL/RI.3.1). This means using direct quotes from the text in their analysis.

Conducting and reporting on research: This expands on “writing effectively when analyzing sources” to require students to demonstrate their ability to gather resources, evaluate their relevance, and report on information and ideas they have investigated. This requires students to find multiple pieces of evidence from various texts on their own.

Text-based responses: Studies show that learning to present important information in an organized piece of writing helps students generate a deeper understanding of a text. Indeed, whether taking notes or answering questions about a text, or crafting a summary or an extended response regarding what they have read, students improve both their reading comprehension and their writing skills when writing in response to texts. As a result, all students’ writing should incorporate text.

The two types of narratives: Narrative writing takes two distinct forms in the Common Core and the PARCC: narrative story and narrative description. The narrative story is about real or imagined situations and characters and uses time (temporal words) as its deep structure. Such writing includes the subgenres of creative fiction, as well as memoirs, anecdotes, biographies, and autobiographies. The narrative description differs from the narrative story in that it is used to create for the reader a vivid impression of a person, phenomenon, or event under study. This is a description from a narrator’s point of view. For example, in history/social studies, students might write narrative descriptions about individuals and events, selecting from their sources only the most relevant information. In science, students might write narrative descriptions of step-by-step procedures of investigations so that others can replicate their procedures to test their results.

Study and apply vocabulary: Focus vocabulary instruction on words that students would be encouraged to use in writing and speaking. Students should be given 5–10 Tier 2 academic words per week for each text they are reading. All vocabulary should come from the text.

Last week I attended a Debbie Miller seminar, and her message aligned beautifully to both UDL and the Common Core. I just have to share.

She began the session by explaining that the Common Core requires in-depth teaching and learning every day and a great way to promote this practice is to have students participant in daily reading workshops. This workshops should be based on the principles of choice, response, and community. These three principles all correspond to UDL guidelines.

Miller suggested beginning each workshop with the ‘what’ and the ‘why.’ Universal Design always encourages teachers to heighten the salience of goals and objectives so students know what standard they are working toward and why it is important, so its great to see that shared with a wider audience. She also noted that sharing the Common Core standard with students, in writing, is hugely important so they can be reminded of the end goal throughout the workshop. After students understand the objective, teachers can deliver a mini lesson that models how students will achieve their objective.

Once students understand the what, the why, and the how, they should be provided with choice on what to read and where to read, so they are engaged in authentic reading in authentic positions. Miller supported this with research by Guthrie and Humenick, 2004, who found that when students are provided with choice on what to read, where to read, and with whom it produced an impact on reading achievement more than three times as large as reported for systematic phonics instruction alone. Awesome!

At the end of readers’ workshop, Miller reminded teachers to provide time to reflect. Some of the most significant learning happens during the reflections because kids are actually teaching what they are learning. Without that, all the valuable skills may fall away. Coming back to talk about what they learned is invaluable because they are making their thinking visible, working toward speaking and listening standards, and it provides an opportunity to informally assess students. This could also be an opportunity to ask students to set personal goals for their next workshop.

So there you have it – an absolute guru in the world of reading aligns her presentations to both UDL and the Common Core. It was a day well spent.

Happy workshopping!