Common Core Common Sense

Common Core BIG IDEAS for Teachers and School Librarians

Compiled by Mary Ratzer


Students who are college and career ready in Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening:
    • Demonstrate independence
    • Build strong content knowledge
    • Respond to varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline
    • Comprehend as well as critique
    • Value evidence
    • Use technology and digital media strategically and capably
    • Understand other perspectives and cultures

Integration of knowledge and ideas:
    • Use their experience and their knowledge…and logic to think analytically, address problems creatively, and advocate persuasively
    • Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats to address a question or solve a problem

Research to build and present knowledge:
    • Conduct short as well more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) drawing on several sources and rating additional, related focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration
    • Develop factual, interpretive, and evaluative questions for further exploration of the topic
    • Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research
    • Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information avoiding plagiarism

Production and distribution of Writing:
    • Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others
    • Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient texts
    • Explore and inquire into areas of interest to formulate an argument

Comprehension and collaboration:
    • Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively
    • Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally

Presentation of knowledge and ideas:
    • Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose and audience


    • Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding

Types of Text
  • Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts,
    using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
  • Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a
    topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information
    through the selection, organization, and analysis of
    relevant content.
  • Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using
    effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences