How did Common Core come up with the themes on which the maps are based?
The unit themes grew organically out of the process of selecting which standards would be the focus of each unit, and consulting the list of exemplar texts. The teachers who wrote the maps made sure to choose themes that would resonate with students in addition to lending coherence to the skills and content addressed. Some of the themes introduced in the early elementary grades, such as courage, re-emerge in later years. We have done so in a deliberate attempt to invite students to wrestle with some of the “great ideas,” a hallmark of a true liberal education. We hope that as students move through school, they will consider them at greater levels of depth.
