9 free apps for Common Core scaffolding

Discover a number of useful free apps for Common Core, plus how to use them

As schools everywhere shift to the Common Core, teachers are now realizing that they must now be able to determine the both the factors within a given text where students will need scaffolding as well as the type of scaffolding appropriate for the activity. Fortunately, there are a number of free apps that can help.

The Common Core app organizes the Common Core standards by subject area (math traditional, math integrated, language arts, history/Social Studies, and science and technology) and grade level. This app also includes the Common Core appendices from the Common Core website. The organization within the app places the information in one single location for ease of use.

Apps for Common Core provides the common core standards and shares apps by grade level and standard. This particular app seems to include more resources for the primary grades and contains more extensive mathematics than English Language Arts resources.

Common Core ConceptBank, another free app, explores K-8 mathematics and English Language Arts standards by grade level in a greater depth. After identifying the grade level and subject area the teacher can identify the domain and the specific standard of interest. Sample questions are provided for many of the specific standards.

Understanding the standards is only the first step. Teachers also need to determine how they will scaffold instruction. Various free apps are available for scaffolding instruction and responding to text. Here are a handful of free apps that teachers can use with ELL students, students with disabilities (SWD), and struggling readers to scaffold instruction to meet these increased academic demands.

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