Woodside Middle School Common Core

Common Core Standards

The Woodside School District is proud of its long history of success. Woodside students are encouraged to excel in a rigorous academic environment that places an emphasis on the whole child. While music, art, technology, etc. are emphasized and fully integrated into our comprehensive academic program, the successful implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) has been an area of focus the last few years. Through our teacher expertise, Woodside School is positioned to use the standards as an opportunity to increase levels of innovation and to continue to challenge each of our students with the skills they need in this ever-changing world.

The CCSS offer a set of minimum standards that aim for long-term improvement in student knowledge and performance. States that adopted the CCSS were invited to add up to 15% additional content at each grade level to customize the CCSS. The California State Senate established the Academic Content Standards Commission (ACSC) to develop academic content standards in language arts and mathematics. At least 85 percent of the standards were to consist of the CCSS with up to 15 percent additional material as recommended by the commission.

CCSS California Math Standards and How to Read the Math Standards

Mathematical Practice Standards (same for all grade levels) and Mathematical Content Standards (particular to each grade)
Content standards organized by domains
A cluster of standards fall under each domain
8 Mathematical Practices are K-12
Practices focus on processes and proficiencies that educators will be helping to develop in their students that will propel their mathematics expertise.

Grade Level	Common Core Math Standards
6th Grade	6th Grade Common Core Math Standards 7th Grade Common Core Math Standards
7th Grade	7th Grade Common Core Math Standards 8th Grade Common Core Math Standards High School Algebra Common Core Standards
8th Grade	High School Algebra Common Core Standards High School Geometry Common Core Standards

CCSS California ELA Standards and How to Read the ELA StandardsTop of Page

There are three sections to the ELA Standards - one section for K-5 and two sections for 6-12. There are four strands that are each headed by College and Career Readiness Standards:

Reading (broken into two parts - literature and information)
Writing
Listening and Speaking
Language

Each College and Career Readiness Standard is identical in grades K-12, but each grade-specific standard translates the College and Career Readiness Standard into grade-level specific, appropriate end-of-year expectations. What are the big ideas of the standards in ELA?

Reading: focus is on text complexity and increasingly sophisticated comprehension. Students must make fuller use of text and pull more out of it. They need to consider a wider range of textual evidence when making connections across texts and between ideas, as well as honing in on inconsistencies, ambiguities and poor reasoning in texts.

Writing: focus is on three main types: opinion/argument, informational/explanatory, and narrative. Students are required to draw upon evidence from literary and informational texts when writing and to conduct research to aid in their writing. Skills such as planning and organizing writing are delineated under each text type.

Listening and Speaking: emphasis is on flexible communication and collaboration. Students must develop strong oral speaking and interpersonal communication skills. They must also learn how to work collaboratively, listen carefully to ideas, integrate multiple sources of information and adapt speech to context and task.

Language: still focuses on the ‘rules’ of Standard English, but also highlights craft and informed choice among alternatives. Students also focus on understanding new words and phrases and their relationship to others, nuances of language and building general-academic and domain-specific vocabulary.

Grade Level	Common Core ELA Standards
6th Grade	6th Grade Common Core ELA Standards
7th Grade	7th Grade Common Core ELA Standards
8th Grade	8th Grade Common Core ELA Standards

CCSS California Literacy and Writing Standards in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical SubjectsTop of Page

In addition to the mathematics and ELA standards, Common Core literacy and writing standards are spread throughout the other subjects, specifically social studies and science. The emphasis on information text literacy is an ideal fit for both social studies and science.

Grade Level	Common Core Literacy and Writing Standards
6th Grade	6th Grade Common Core Literacy and Writing Standards
7th Grade	7th Grade Common Core Literacy and Writing Standards
8th Grade	8th Grade Common Core Literacy and Writing Standards

Please visit California's Department of Education website for more information on the Common Core Standards.