Information Technology Essential Standards (ITES) Activity 3

Common Core is only standard for math and language arts.
Essential Standards are standards for everything else.

Common Core Standards for Math:

1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
4. Model with mathematics.
5. Use appropriate tools strategically.
6. Attend to precision.
7. Look for and make use of structure.
8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

Essential Standards for Information Technology Grades 6-8:

• Analyze resources to determine their reliability, point of view, bias, and relevance for particular topics and purposes. 
• Use technology and other resources for the purpose of accessing, organizing, and sharing information. 
• Apply a research process for collaborative or individual research. 
• Apply responsible behaviors when using information and technology resources. 
• Evaluate information resources based on specified criteria. 
• Use technology and other resources for assigned tasks. 
• Apply a research process to complete given tasks. 
• Apply responsible behaviors when using information and technology resources. 
• Evaluate information resources based on specified criteria. 
• Use technology and other resources for assigned tasks.

The ITES relate to Common Core because they both can be integrated easily. For example, a student can use technology and other resources for the purpose of accessing, organizing, and sharing information (one of the essential standards) to construct viable arguments (one of the common core standards for math).  Then other students can view those resources and critique the students' reasoning (common core).

Another example would be to have students apply a research process to complete given tasks (essential standard) and then model their findings with mathematics (common core) such as having students look up the demographics of a certain geographic area and then graphing their results.

Both CC and ES seem to be very general, broad categories and should be easy to overlap with various subject areas.  This gives teachers the opportunity to utilize many different methods of teaching material while simultaneously integrating instruction between subject areas.