Disciplinary Literacy Quiz

The questions below will assess your understanding of the CCSS for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects. The questions will display one at a time. When you select an answer, you will see whether your answer is correct and have an opportunity to read an explanation. Click continue to go on to the next question.

1. The Common Core State Standards arose from a federal/presidential mandate.
   • true
   • false

   While the current administration is supportive of the initiative, the Common Core State Standards are — and continue to be — state-led. As Rothman (2011) states, “No federal official was on the work teams and feedback groups that developed the standards. Then once the standards were released, forty-five states and the District of Columbia — each acting on its own — chose to adopt the standards.”

2. Teachers were not involved in writing the standards.
   • true
   • false

   The Common Core State Standards development relied on teachers and standards experts from all parts of the country. The development process was made possible by many states working together to ensure that the process of standard setting was thoughtful and transparent.

3. Poetry and literature must give way to informational text under the new standards.
   • true
   • false

   Poetry and literature are part of the common core. Ben Curran (Education Week Teacher, When Poetry meets the Common Core, Jan 15, 2013) states “What if we give up on trying to “get” a poem and explain its one true meaning? Instead we can discover the richness of the text and learn from the questions and puzzles poems present to us. Once we make this shift, nearly any poem becomes “teachable” at nearly any grade, from Emily Dickinson to Walt Whitman to May Angelou and beyond.”

4. Text complexity is a fixed number.
   • true
   • false

   The Standards “recommend that multiple quantitative measures be used whenever possible and that their results be confirmed or overruled by a qualitative analysis of the text in question.” (Appendix A) This means that we have some room to consider context and complexity for our particular students.

5. The Common Core State Standards represent only a small change from what most states are already doing.
   • true
   • false

   The Common Core State Standards are a big advance in terms of the level and types of demands that they include. No previous standards specified how challenging texts had to be at each grade level. By specifying such levels, the Common Core ensures that skills that students are taught are implemented at an appropriately difficult or rigorous level. Additionally, no previous state standards specified disciplinary reading and writing standards for social studies and science. Although these subjects entail and require more than literacy, if students are going to access such information and participate in such disciplines they will need to have the appropriate reading and writing skills needed.

6. The Common Core State Standards require all high school teachers to teach general or basic reading skills.
   • true
   • false

   The Common Core emphasizes the specialized reading and writing demands of the disciplines, not general reading or writing skills. Science teachers are not encouraged to teach study skills or basic reading comprehension strategies. History teachers are not encouraged to general vocabulary or to provide time for students to do self-selected reading. Such teachers are required instead to teach those reading and writing skills that are unique or special to their subject matter. Science teachers need to make sure that their students read science as a scientist would, and history teachers need to teach students to read history in the way that historians read such texts.

7. The Common Core requires that teachers teach particular texts.
   • true
   • false

   The Common Core leaves the selection of specific texts to teachers and schools. They require that students be taught to read texts of appropriate levels of complexity and quality, but the specifics of what is actually used is a local concern. The CCSS does provide some lists of examples of texts that are appropriate, but these are examples aimed at helping districts to make choices — not recommendations or requirements for what districts have to use.

8. A history teacher has assembled a text set that includes 8 items, including some texts that have harder and easier Lexile specifications than what the Common Core recommends. Is the teacher allowed to use this text set?
   • yes
   • no

   The answer to this question is likely “yes.” It is impossible to be certain without an examination of the texts themselves, but assuming that the teacher has selected texts that are appropriate to what is being studied; that they meet normal community standards; and that students gain experience in learning to deal with materials that give sufficient experience with complex and challenging texts, the set would be deemed as appropriate. It is not necessary that every text read be within the grade level brackets.

9. I teach career and technical education. The Common Core did not specify reading and writing standards for my subject. Does this mean that I don’t play a role in implementing Common Core in my school district?
   • yes
   • no

   No, the purpose of the Common Core is to ensure that students develop the abilities that would allow them to be college and career ready. While it could not set literacy standards for each subject matter, the informational text and disciplinary standards go a long way towards pointing out the kinds of things that teachers should be ensuring that their students can do. Some aspects of career and technical education are similar to the technical reading goals that the standards do specify. Similarly, the informational text reading standards are likely relevant, as well. The same is true for other subjects. Examine the standards and identify the ones that make the greatest sense for your subject matter to contribute to.

10. Do the standards require the use of textbooks?
    • yes
    • no

    No, again, teachers and schools get the final word in how to teach. Textbooks can be very useful in addressing some standards, but there are other ways that schools can assemble reading materials that would make sense in the various subjects. The Common Core neither encourages nor discourages the use of textbooks. The point isn’t whether or not textbooks are the source of the materials and lessons that you use, but whether the students accomplish these college- and career-readiness standards.