Insight Education Group

Five “Core” Instructional Practices Educators Should Use to Help Students Master the Common Core State Standards

The Common Core State Standards chart a bold and compelling vision for moving beyond the rhetoric of college and career readiness to making certain students actually are ready. The Core Standards have the potential to significantly increase students’ learning but not without considering how students are taught them. When the Core standards were released, we began to consider what type of instructional practices would be needed to help ensure students mastered them, so we developed the Insight Core Framework to clearly spell them out. 

The Insight Core Framework is comprised of five “Core Practices,” derived from the “Big Ideas” in the Common Core, which are concrete, strategic actions teachers can take to help orient their overall approach to teaching with the Common Core. The Core Practices include:

1.    Know the Discipline Well

2.    Prioritize Evidence Over Opinion

3.    Grow and Improve Students’ Knowledge Base

4.    Assess Progress Towards Mastery

5.    Promote Intellectual Risk Taking and Persistence

Know the Discipline Well

·      Models precise content knowledge

·      Models and uses academic vocabulary

·      Uses resources that are high quality and appropriately complex

Prioritize Evidence Over Opinion

·      Asks questions that require evidence-based answers

·      Creates learning activities that require the use of evidence when building arguments, making claims or explaining thinking

Grow and Improve Students’ Knowledge Base

·      Makes connections within and across disciplines

·      Provides assignments that require the application of knowledge for real purposes

·      Requires the exchange and analysis of multiple perspectives

Assess Progress Towards Mastery

·      Provides multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate understanding

·      Provides timely and effective feedback

·      Makes adjustments based on a variety of student data

Promote Intellectual Risk Taking and Persistence

·      Builds a supportive and challenging learning environment

·      Builds a climate that encourages academic curiosity

·      Uses time, space and routines to allow for deep engagement with content

For a complete explanation of each core practices visit www.insightcoreframework.com.