The Common Core State Standards and History Education
NOTE: For updates, details, and discussion on the Common Core, follow the Emerging America blog and Twitter feeds.
See also: Vol. 1, No. 2, Fall 2012, TPS Journal issue on the Common Core and primary sources features a lead article, “Primary Sources: At the Heart of the Common Core State Standards,” by Emerging America Director, Rich Cairn. More.
What are the Common Core State Standards (CCSS)?
The kinds of critical thinking skills that the CCSS emphasizes for history and social studies—evaluating written sources, thinking with historical depth, integrating content analysis with written work—are all central to Emerging America’s inquiry-based approach to history education. Our professional development and online resources all aim to give teachers explicit strategies for helping students to become discerning readers, writers, listeners, and speakers of history in addressing the CCSS.
The CCSS Initiative is a state-led effort coordinated by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). The standards were developed in collaboration with teachers, school administrators, and experts, to provide a clear and consistent framework to prepare children for college and the workforce.
Massachusetts (and most other states) adopted the standards in 2010 and will require all students to demonstrate achievement of them beginning in 2014. (Download the standards and related documents from: Corestandards.org)
How do the CCSS relate to History/Social Studies?
The Standards set requirements not only for English language arts (ELA) but also for literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. Just as students must learn to read, write, speak, listen, and use language effectively in a variety of content areas, so too must the Standards specify the literacy skills and understandings required for college and career readiness in multiple disciplines.
Literacy standards for grade 6 and above are predicated on teachers of ELA, history/social studies, science, and technical subjects using their content area expertise to help students meet the particular challenges of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language in their respective fields. It is important to note that the 6–12 literacy standards in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects do not replace content standards in those areas but supplement them. States may incorporate these standards into their standards for those subjects or adopt them as content area literacy standards.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects pg 3.
How do the CCSS connect to College and Career?
As a natural outgrowth of meeting the charge to define college and career readiness, the Standards also lay out a vision of what it means to be a literate person in the twenty-first century. Indeed, the skills and understandings students are expected to demonstrate have wide applicability outside the classroom or workplace.
Students who meet the Standards readily undertake the close, attentive reading that is at the heart of understanding and enjoying complex works of literature. They habitually perform the critical reading necessary to pick carefully through the staggering amount of information available today in print and digitally. They actively seek the wide, deep, and thoughtful engagement with high-quality literary and informational texts that builds knowledge, enlarges experience, and broadens worldviews.
They reflexively demonstrate the cogent reasoning and use of evidence that is essential to both private deliberation and responsible citizenship in a democratic republic. In short, students who meet the Standards develop the skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening that are the foundation for any creative and purposeful expression in language.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects pg 3.
How do the CCSS relate to Massachusetts’ Curriculum Framework Standards?
The CCSS are intended to help teachers scaffold literacy and historical thinking skills throughout their curriculum. The CCSS provide teachers with literacy goals that address the analysis of primary and secondary sources, the understanding of key ideas, the research process and the development of historical arguments through reading and writing. The CCSS are not intended to replace the current MA Curriculum Frameworks for History and Social Studies but instead to augment the current content-based standards with specific literacy skills. Teachers should continue to use the MA Curriculum Framework standards to guide content decisions but utilize the CCSS to guide student development in reading and writing across the social studies curriculum.
CCSS College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading
Key Ideas and Details
1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
Craft and Structure
4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.
5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.
6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.*
8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.
9. Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.
CCSS College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Writing
Text Types and Purposes
1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details and well-structured event sequences.
Production and Distribution of Writing
4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.
Research to Build and Present Knowledge
7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.
9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Range of Writing
10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.
CCSS in English Language Arts & History/Social Studies for Grades 6-8
Key Ideas and Details
1. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
3. Identify key steps in a text’s description of a process related to history/social studies (e.g., how a bill becomes law, how interest rates are raised or lowered).
Craft and Structure
4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary specific to domains related to history/social studies.
5. Describe how a text presents information (e.g., sequentially, comparatively, causally).
6. Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author’s point of view or purpose (e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of particular facts).
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
7. Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.
8. Distinguish among fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment in a text.
9. Analyze the relationship between a primary and secondary source on the same topic.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
10. By the end of grade 8, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 6–8 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
CCSS in English Language Arts & History/Social Studies for Grades 9-10
Key Ideas and Details
1. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.
2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
3. Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them.
Craft and Structure
4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social science.
5. Analyze how a text uses structure to emphasize key points or advance an explanation or analysis. 6. Compare the point of view of two or more authors for how they treat the same or similar topics, including which details they include and emphasize in their respective accounts.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
7. Integrate quantitative or technical analysis (e.g., charts, research data) with qualitative analysis in print or digital text.
8. Assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence in a text support the author’s claims.
9. Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
10. By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 9–10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
