Reading & Writing Across the Curriculum

STEPS – Standard Themes for Educational Progress – is a series of manuals designed to help curriculum directors and teachers in PreK/K–12 schools — as well as students, parents, outreach educators, grant writers and others with interests in standards-based education — identify, organize, and teach state and national (“Common Core”) academic standards. A separate manual is prepared for each set of state and national standards in Mathematics, Reading and Writing, Science, and Social Studies, and all standards contained in each of these sets are included in the respective STEPS manual.Within each manual, the appropriate state- and/or national-level standards have been grouped into themes and strands, and then aligned vertically and differentiated by grade level to show change and continuity among specific teaching/learning objectives (“indicators,” “standards,” etc.) throughout the PreK/K–12 continuum. An accompanying matrix shows, for each theme and strand, the presence and number of standards or indicators expected to be taught in all grade levels — or the absence of assigned standards or indicators for any given grade level. STEPS is a tool that is helpful for planning, instruction, differentiation, assessment, and professional development — and, ultimately, for improving the education of the students whose PreK/K–12 experiences are enhanced by educators using these tools.Reading & Writing across the Curriculum: STEPS for the Common Core presents vertically aligned themes, strands, and standards, drawn from from National Governors Association for Best Practices and Council of Chief State Officers, Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects, 2010. Each theme and strand is also aligned with its appropriate College and Career Readiness Standard.

David Silverberg was born in Burbank, CA, and received his BA from Wesleyan University, CT, and both his MS (Educational Leadership and Administration) and Ed.D. (Educational Leadership, Administration, and Policy) from Pepperdine University, CA. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Ashland University, Ashland, OH, and specializes in Standards-based instruction, vertical alignment, and differentiation. He conducts professional development workshops on the STEPS manuals for Math, Language Arts, Reading & Writing across the Curriculum, Science, and Social Studies, and has presented workshops and lectures at state, national, and international conferences. Dr. Silverberg teaches courses on contemporary Methods and Assessment. Dr. Silverberg is married with two children and enjoys swimming, photography, travel, writing, and playing chess