Common Core
The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were researched, written and developed by professional educators and education experts from across the United States. TheCCSS provide clear educational standards, while allowing local districts and schools the flexibility needed to deliver quality instruction in the classroom. The standards, which are not to be confused with curriculum or instruction, are designed to ensure all students, regardless of demography, graduate high school prepared to enter college or the workforce. Moreover, the standards are internationally benchmarked and provide our students with an edge in the global jobs market by ensuring mastery of knowledge and skills needed to perform today's high-skill, high-wage occupations.
As Florida’s schools incorporate the Common Core State Standards, classroom instruction will look increasingly different. Expect to see children learning in more collaborative groups. Expect subject areas to overlap and intertwine. Expect more in-depth reading assignments.
More Non-fiction
Students will be reading more informational and increasingly complex text as they move through the elementary and secondary grades. Teachers in all subject areas will increase focus on reading and comprehension.
More Evidence
Students will be expected to write more and write better, using facts, details, and examples to inform, describe, and explain. In reading, students will be required to make evidence-based claims about what they read. In writing, students will be asked to cite evidence to justify their statements rather than rely on opinions or personal feelings.
More Complexity
Students will be expected to read and comprehend increasingly complex texts.
More Speaking /More Listening
Students will be expected to demonstrate that they can speak and listen effectively. Students will be assessed for both speaking and listening skills. In the classroom, this means more small-group and whole-class discussions. Expect teachers to teach and evaluate students on how well they understand the speaker’s points.
Common Core includes technology-based standards as well, interwoven into the literacy standards. These will help prepare students for life in our technological society. They ask that students understand and use sound methods for researching, producing, and consuming media.
http://www.williamsvillek12.org/files/10848/common%20core%20pta%20shifts-for-students-and-parents.pdf
http://www.definingthecore.com/
http://www.corestandards.org/
http://www.fldoe.org/schools/ccc.asp