The instructional shifts of the Common Core set high expectations for teachers. Math instruction facilitates the learning process by successfully scaffolding learning so that all students can solve problems independently. The teacher must actively engage all students and design lessons that encourage students to become self-directed learners.

MATH WORKGROUPS
Common Core mathematics instruction requires a balance of conceptual and procedural understanding, fact fluency and application in problem solving. Math instruction needs to promote:
•  Inquiry among students
•  Discovery of concepts
•  Thinking about math through reflection
•  Development of conceptual understanding

Each workgroup is centered on the needs of the districts to:
•  Create inquiry and discovery instruction through
collaborative planning
•  Cultivate students’ thinking about the math they are
learning
•  Build a teacher’s toolkit for conceptual instruction and manipulatives (i.e. algebra tiles, fraction strips, whiteboards, etc.)
•  Examine student work such that teachers turnaround new learning the next day

ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS (ELA) WORKGROUPS
There are three shifts required by the Common Core State Standards. To be truly aligned to the standards, instruction must focus on:
1.  Building knowledge through the reading of content-rich
nonfiction
2.  Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from
text
3.  Regular practice with complex text and its academic
language
Each workgroup is centered on the needs of the districts to:
•   Create instructional plans for reading and writing through
collaborative lesson planning that:
–   Engage students in critical reading of fiction and informational text
–   Develop writing skills in a variety of genres and for a variety of purposes
–   Actively engage students in opportunities to construct
knowledge and expressive language
–   Meet the needs of diverse learners in the classroom
(differentiation)
•   Build a teacher’s toolkit for effective  strategies  that address the importance of academic vocabulary, close reading of complex text, and student discourse
•   Effectively move students from acquisition of knowledge and conceptual understanding to application and transfer of learning

NEW to CAC- 2013-2014:
EARLY CHILDHOOD WORKGROUPS: PreK-2
Shifts to the CCSS K-12 leave many implications for early childhood instruction. In addition, the Connecticut Early Childhood Standards, to be released in late 2013, will be intentionally aligned to the K-12 CCSS. This workgroup will purposefully bring together PreK-2 teachers to create lessons, learning experiences, activities, and performance tasks aligned to the new Early Childhood Standards and the existing
K-2 CCSS.

Interested? Click here for Membership and Pricing information.