2015 Common Core State Standards Resource Guide

Why should you use
Reading Informational Texts?

• Each book has everything you need to teach informational texts — in one place.
• Your students will learn skills they can use to analyze any work of nonfiction.
• No more scrambling to find grade-appropriate texts — every text here has been vetted by experts.
• It has rigorous texts from several domains, including court opinions, political speeches, scientific essays, and more.
• You'll meet Common Core State Standards for Reading: Informational Text without hours and hours of prep work.

Why should you use Vocabulary Power Plus?

• You’ll stay current with changes to the SAT — revised word lists incorporate more words likely to be found on the forthcoming version of the test.
• You’ll foster long-term word retention using words-in-context, inference, and sentence completion exercises — your students won’t forget these words over summer vacation.
• You’ll show students, parents, and administrators exactly which Common Core State Standards you’re meeting with the Standards alignment guide.
• You’ll prepare students for the PARCC assessment with critical reading passages, along with new two-part multiple-choice questions.
• You’ll ready students for the Smarter Balanced Assessment with revised writing prompts and exercises.
• You’ll challenge students with more than 300 words in every book that were carefully chosen to be of the correct difficulty for your students.

What makes Reading Literature so great for your classroom?

• You'll get everything you need to teach your students how to analyze any work of literary fiction — in one book.
• Every short-answer question was written with one of the Common Core State Standards for reading literature in mind.
• Your students will learn more from every story and poem thanks to detailed annotations on vocabulary, tough passages, allusions, and more.
• The Teacher's Edition includes information on reader-task considerations, Common Core State Standards alignment for every question, and qualitative and quantitative measures of text complexity.

How does College and Career Readiness: Writing help you and your students?

• It supports your students through the entire writing process — from choosing a topic to putting the finishing touches on a beautiful final draft.
• It helps them practice writing in several genres, including process writing, journaling, narrative writing, and traditional essays.
• You get standards-based scoring rubrics that cover every element of essay writing: topic, organization, craftsmanship, development, and conventions.
• Your students get the scaffolding they need from examples of student work — the students in our examples ask themselves the questions your students should ask themselves as they write and revise their essays.
• It focuses on the process of writing, so you can use your favorite writing assignments rather than something that doesn't fit into your curriculum.