Retooled Textbooks Aim to Capture Common Core

Education Week

Nov. 13, 2012

In the 2013 version of its Reading Street series, Pearson officials have excised “reader response” questions and replaced them with prompts asking students to “use examples from the text to justify your answer.”

From analyzing text features, to citing evidence, to de-emphasizing personal responses to readings, such changes nod in the direction of the Common Core State Standards’ English/language arts expectations.

The 2013 version of Reading Street has some arguably more difficult “writing across texts” prompts. A narrative about ghost towns is now accompanied by a short piece of historical fiction. Rather than making a poster, as in the previous edition, students must now write a journal entry in a character’s voice, drawing on details from the nonfiction text.

Some of the most important changes…appear in the new teachers’ editions to help them implement the new techniques. For example, the brand new Reading Street teacher editions guide teachers through the reading of each featured text three times, said Nancy L. Winship, the vice president of product development for Pearson PreK-12 literacy. The tool responds to the common core’s demands that complex texts should be read multiple times as students master its new vocabulary, meaning, and craft.