I had a long conversation with a teacher from another state last week about how she is already doing Common Core in her class and really always has. She explained how she has her students answer rigorous questions about high level text all the time. They complete packets and write to essay prompts. They know how to get at the real meaning of text. I smiled and nodded, but cringed. We swapped numbers and I listened to how she asks them about symbols, details, and difficult vocabulary words all of the time. She was certain that she did not need Common Core, because she already had a rigorous program. I explained that I do a lot of workshops and training on Common Core to help people understand that it is not a matter of increasing rigor, it is about looking at what we are trying to teach differently. We are not teaching students to come to the same conclusions that we have about text. We want them to focus their time on interrogating multimodal text and analyzing what the text is doing and how it is positioning them. If we ignore this, there are three standards that will never be taught well. In reality, these three standards should, in fact, be at the very heart of all of our instruction. What are they?
Top Three Common Core Standards No One is Actually Teaching:

1. Reading for Information (RI) 1: Textual Evidence. This is the first standard for literary and informational text. From 3rd-12th grade students are expected to explicitly cite, quote, and identify textual evidence to support their thinking. This demands explicit instruction. This is not the same as answering comprehension questions, or highlighting text that gives you clues. This is about making an assertion and determining the best textual evidence to support that assertion. Don’t discuss symbolism, don’t describe the character, create assertions, pose questions, and back them up with evidence. This should be happening regularly in all Common Core classes. Hum…
2. Reading for Information (RI) 6: Multiple Perspectives. This standard asks students to consider the author’s perspective, determine their own perspective, analyze how different viewpoints are presented within text, and analyze how these views influence the interpretation of text. This should be happening with ten year olds. Hum…
3. Reading for Information (RI) 7: Visual Elements. This standard asks students to critically think about the media based aspects of text. How does the author rely on multimodal, artistic, visual, or other elements to develop the aesthetic value, influence the tone, or affect the meaning of the text? Hum…

As we begin to reflect on how to teach Common Core, we need to accept that it is a paradigm shift toward critical analysis and thinking. I am sorry; we are not already doing that.