Common Core Classroom Resources

Developed by teachers, for teachers, Share My Lesson gives access to high-quality teaching resources and provides an online community where teachers can collaborate with, encourage and inspire one another. Share My Lesson’s Common Core Information Center is dedicated to all aspects of the Common Core from identifying aligned resources to illustrating instructional strategies to providing the latest news about implementation.

The AFT has prepared sample parent letters on selected mathematics topics for grades K-8. The aim is to help parents better understand some of the new language in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and strategies they may see their children use on their journey to achieving the understanding and skills required by CCSS. You can personalize these letters with your school name, logo and signature and send to parents or post on your school’s website.

The resource section on Colorín Colorado, a project of WETA and supported by AFT, offers information to educators and parents about what the new standards will mean for English language Learners (ELLs). Materials include video interviews with experts and practitioners, informational guides, a blog, ideas for lesson plans, and more.

Illustrative Mathematics is an initiative of the Institute for Mathematics & Education at the University of Arizona. The Illustrative Mathematics website contains hundreds of free CCSS-aligned sample problems, videos and other resources, organized by grade, standard and domain.

To assist teachers in understanding and employing the Common Core instructional emphasis on close reading in the classroom, this primer from the Aspen Institute addresses key questions.

The Mathematics Assessment Project (MAP) aims to bring to life the Common Core State Standards in a way that will help teachers and their students turn their aspirations for achieving them into classroom realities.

The Common Core State Standards in mathematics were built on progressions: narrative documents describing the progression of a topic across a number of grade levels, informed both by research on children’s cognitive development and by the logical structure of mathematics. The progressions can explain why standards are sequenced the way they are, point out cognitive difficulties and pedagogical solutions, and give more detail on particularly knotty areas of the mathematics.

These brochures offer helpful questions as elementary and secondary level teachers implement the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics.

Student Achievement Partners offers a website full of free content designed to help educators understand and implement the Common Core State Standards. It includes practical tools designed to help students and teachers see their hard work deliver results. The website was created in the spirit of collaboration—the content is assembled by and for educators and is freely available to everyone to use, modify and share.

The Teaching Channel is a video showcase of innovative and effective teaching practices in America’s public schools. There are nearly 800 videos to choose from, many of which allow teachers to see the Common Core standards in action in real-life classrooms. Supplemental resources accompany each video, and teachers can write time-stamped notes on each video to share with their colleagues. The Teaching Channel also offers a live Q&A exchange so that teachers can ask any question about the Common Core and get an email alert when the answer is posted online.