The 3rd “C” in CCRS – Focusing on Community Right Now

We know that “CCRS” stands for College and Career Readiness Standards, but there is a 3rd “C” connected to these standards that is just as important to address in our classrooms: Community. And at this moment in time, “community” is arguably the most important of the three Cs.

The critical thinking that is developed when implementing college and career standards-based instruction directly impacts learners’ ability to interpret and analyze real-life, authentic news in a way that will affect the community around them – for better or worse. In a time like this, it becomes even more apparent the imperative need for learners to be empowered to interpret news articles, graphs and data, and directives from political leaders so that they can make informed decisions that will positively, and not negatively, affect their families and communities.

When designing activities and lessons in the coming weeks, consider directly addressing this 3rd “C” – community – with your learners. Below are some math and ELA examples of activities you could use with your students to make connections between their schoolwork (college and career) and the community.

There are options!

You could use these activities as is, or you could modify to best fit the needs of your learners:

• Convert activities into Schoology assignments, whether it is a multiple-choice quiz, short answer problems, or writing prompts.
• Use these activities and prompts to facilitate a discussion on Zoom or other synchronous platform.
• Add activities and link texts to your Google classroom site.
• Create a Google Form with questions for students to access and submit to you.
• Text students a picture of one of the graphs and ask students to respond with what they think the graph is trying to communicate.
• Use some of these Suggested Question Stems & Frames to prepare students for future NRS assessments.

Share on Schoology

Share on the COVID-19 & Distance Education Schoology group what you are doing in your classrooms in the “Resources” section under Instructional Resources Related to COVID-19 or FREE Instructional Resources for Various Subjects. We can all use our ideas to inspire the work of others! The materials from this article will be available in Instructional Resources Related to COVID-19 in the Schoology group.

ATLAS website

In addition to posting COVID-related resources in the Schoology group, ATLAS is compiling instructional resources on our website! The exercises above are all posted in this new COVID-19 resource library. Check it out: https://atlasabe.org/resources/covid-19/

Virtual coffee breaks

And please join ATLAS for informal virtual coffee breaks! Let’s connect during these distanced times and check in about how things are going with instruction.

• April 1 @ 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm – ABE Teacher Virtual Coffee Break – English Language Arts!
• April 8 @ 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm – ABE Teacher Virtual Coffee Break – Math & Numeracy!