It's Monday, It's ELA Common Core Day!

So, RL.__.6 is a standard that opened my eyes last year when I was preparing a Common Core workshop with teachers in New Hampshire, Missouri, and N. Dakota.  I wanted to share this one with you...

RL stands for Reading Standards for Literature.  The middle number ( __ ) represents the grade level, and the 6 represents the standard.

Now, what you want to do, is read over all of them, all the way down:

RL.K.6 (Kindergarten) - With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define the role of each in telling the story.

same standard, 1st grade... RL.1.6 (1st grade) -  Identify who is telling the story at various points in a text.

same standard, 2nd grade... RL2.6 (2nd grade) - Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud.

WOW - did you just have the same though I did?  

If I was a kindergarten teacher, it would be really good for me to know that point of view is where this standard is leading, down the line.  As a kindergarten teacher, I wouldn't stop at name and illustrator and the role(s) of who is telling the story... I would start to weave in oral discussions about point of view.  

I know a 5-year-old little girl named Kaylee, who has been talking about point of view with me since she turned 4.  We didn't call it point of view then... We talked about what the story would be like if my cat Mika, was the main character and she was telling the story, and how would the story change if Ty, my big brown chocolate lab was telling the story, and how it would sound really different from Mika's version.  I didn't label our discussions "point of view" but we had some rich dialogue going back and forth, all laying the foundation for point of view later on.

With Common Core, it's really important that we look down the road and see where our grade's standard is heading.  It's a way we can set our students up for success. 

Here's where that same standard is heading:
RL.3.6 (3rd grade) - Distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or those of the characters.

RL.4.6 (4th grade) - Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person narrations.

RL5.6 (5th grade) - Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.

RL.6.6 (6th grade) - Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.

and then look where 8th grade takes us (I know I skipped 7th grade, but I just want us to look ahead.)  RL.8.6 - Analyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader (e.g., created through the use of dramatic irony) create such effects as suspense or humor.

WOW!  So, my It's Monday, It's ELA Common Core Day! TIP this week is - don't put blinders on and only see your grade level's standards.  Take the one you are working on and look at the next grade, and the next, and the next... It might help direct the way you are teaching. :)

Click here for more Common Core ELA Standards.

Until next time, share a literacy strategy!
Dr. Denise Gudwin