Common Core Lesson Plan Template | Aligned
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Now that almost every state in the US has adopted Common Core standards for learning, it is important to plan your lessons so they are aligned with them. An easy way to help align your lessons with these standards is to use a Common Core lesson plan template.
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Common Core state standards are academic objectives that students should be able to meet at the end of each grade from kindergarten through high school. These have been developed to ensure that students are ready for entry-level work positions and college coursework. The standards are based on research from countries with the best academic performances and require rigorous application of knowledge to fulfill.
Among other standards, by the end of Grade 5, students in Massachusetts, for example, should be able to:
- Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
- Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.
- Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).
- Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes.
How to Use a Common Core Template
As you can see, the content of many lesson plans would teach students how to perform most of these tasks. Thus, the Common Core will probably not necessitate substantial changes in content for your lessons, but you can use them to guide the methods and topics you choose to better prepare students to fulfill them.
Further, teachers can address several standards with just one task. For example, a writing assignment could combine several of the standards above by asking the student to use quotes from text to compare and contrast events in a story or characters.
When creating your lesson plans, remember that the Common Core leaves a lot of discretion to the teacher regarding the materials and methods, and there are abilities that the standards to not cover. This leaves ample room for teachers to be creative in how they engage students and to cover competencies that the standards do not.
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