From Standards to Capacities – A Bridge for Subject Area Teachers

In my two most recent blogs, I envisaged the excitement and apprehension that teachers of all subject areas will probably experience due to the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS) literacy block.

(To view these standards, follow the link below, and go to pages 61-64.)

Reading for literacy in history/social studies, Grades 6-12
Reading for literacy in science and technical subjects, Grades 6-12
Writing for literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects

As you can tell by their three titles, CCSS literacy standards ask science, technical subject, history, and social studies teachers to show students how to skillfully activate reading and writing during their study of subject area content. Given their focus on reading and writing, these standards are especially exciting, because they establish common language and common objectives among diverse subject area teachers. Opportunities for teachers to collaborate across the entire curriculum abound.

However, these same literacy standards might also cause trepidation, since they swivel the spotlight to reading and writing in all subject areas. Now, for example, science teachers are expected to incorporate not just science standards, but also literacy standards into their planning and teaching.

Beyond those two effects, which are huge, the literacy standards will also function collectively as a bridge from subject content to another Common Core State Standard (CCSS) element, known as the Language Arts Capacities.  Although a component of the Language Arts Common Core State Standards, the Capacities are not standards. Instead they are descriptions of the college and career ready student of any level (K-12) interacting with spoken communication and written text.

Due to their length, I’m not printing the seven Language Arts Capacities in full here, but in future blogs I’ll explore each one’s unique description of the college and career ready student. (Follow the link below to see their full text.)  Here is a brief glimpse of each one.

The student will…

1. Demonstrate independence
2. Build strong content knowledge
3. Respond to audience, task, purpose, and discipline
4. Comprehend and critique
5. Value evidence
6. Use technology and digital media
7. Understand other perspectives and cultures

Remember that these are not subject area capacities; they are language arts capacities. The idea is that students will, within virtually any subject content, perform reading and writing tasks that demonstrate strong ability to do the work suggested by each capacity.

Why do I propose that literacy standards might function as a bridge from subject content to the capacities? I do so, because literacy standards identify, methodically and sequentially, skills needed by the student scientist, the student historian, the student mathematician, etc. in order to become college and career ready. When a teacher examines the capacities and asks himself, “How do I get my students there?” he can turn to the literacy standards for detailed guidance.

What new levels of reading and writing might students attain when challenged by teachers from every subject area to attain literacy-standard mastery in pursuit of full college and career language arts capacity!

Do the possibilities excite you as much as they do me? Comment on this blog and share your vision.

Link to the CCSS Language Arts Capacities
-http://www.corestandards.org/assets/CCSSI_ELA%20Standards.pdf