Teaching to Exceed the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards: A Literacy Practices Approach for 6-12 Classrooms

by Richard W. Beach, Amanda Thein Haertling, Allen Webb

As the new English Language Arts Common Core State Standards take hold across the United States, the need grows for pre-service and in-service teachers to be ready to develop curriculum and instruction that addresses their requirements. This timely, thoughtful, and comprehensive text directly meets this need. It delineates a literacy practices and critical engagement curriculum framework for 6-12 English language arts education that explains and illustrates how the Standards’ highest and best intentions for student success can be implemented from a critical, culturally relevant perspective that is firmly grounded in current literacy learning theory and research. The first 6-12 English language arts methods text to be aligned with the Standards, this book also addresses their limitations ― formalist assumptions about literacy learning, limited attention to media/digital literacies, lack of attention to critical literacies, and questionable assumptions about linking standards and text complexity to specific grade levels. Specific examples of teachers using the literacy practices/critical engagement curriculum framework in their classrooms shows how these limitations can be surpassed. Features • Moves the CCSS framework into a view that literacy is a contextualized, social practice • Challenges simplistic models that homogenize adolescent learners • Adds the important element of critical literacy to English language arts classrooms • Provides specific examples of teachers in action implementing these practices • Interactive Companion Website with student and instructor resources. The Website is designed to foster interactivity through participation in an online teaching planning simulation with a text, video, or case on one side of the screen and a chat box for instructors and students to share their reactions and planning ideas. The Companion Website is linked to a wiki that serves as a repository for links, activities/units, and further reading.    

Genres: Education

320 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2012

Reviews

[James (JD) Dittes · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Teaching to Exceed" is a worthy goal for any class or book. While I felt that the book was targeted to a methods class, I read it as an experienced teacher, hoping to be a step ahead as Common Core is implemented in my state.

I feel that it is better read to complement a strong understanding of Common Core. I found many of the chapters more rewarding after I was further along the Common Core route than I had been when I read them initially.

The best idea I took from Teaching to Exceed... was the idea of "framing." I actually tried this in two units this semester, and I found the students better prepared both to learn and to think that in previous experiences with the same topics.

My only critique of the book was that some of it was too research-based. The chapter on teaching Language is theoretical, and a wash considering how much language is still required on ACT and state tests. Again, this is probably because this book, improperly timed, might seem more like icing than cake; more cart than horse.

[Melanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beach, Thein & Webb offer lots of useful information to preservice teachers just entering the classroom; I can easily see this text serving as an anchor for a methods class. The stated emphasis on the CCSS is a bit misleading, though, in that any reference to the CCSS could be eliminated and the text would read the same. Perhaps that's a positive: with or without the CCSS, the authors are offering solid advice on how to approach the ELA classroom. However, with all the fuss about CCSS, readers are likely to expect a more direct breakdown of the standards and how they alter and/or reframe the teaching of English. As with most ELA texts, I would use a chapter with PSTs rather than the whole text.

[Tamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had the unexpected pleasure of Richard Beach placing this text in my hands at UW Eau Claire's reading research symposium in June and am forever grateful---