This accessible book will help elementary school teachers improve literacy instruction inside or outside the Common Core environment. The authors address teachers' instructional needs by introducing key concepts from current trends in literacy education--from high-level standards to the use of 21st-century literacies. Readers then follow teachers as they successfully implement the curriculum they developed to promote high-level thinking and engagement with disciplinary content. The text focuses on three disciplinary literacy units of instruction: a science unit in a 2nd-grade classroom, a social studies (history) unit in a 4th-grade classroom, and a mathematics unit in a 6th-grade classroom. Each unit revolves around a central inquiry question and includes research-based strategies for using reading, writing, and classroom talk as tools to foster disciplinary understandings. This unique, insider's look at how real teachers build and implement a Common Core-aligned curriculum will be an invaluable resource for teachers, schools, and districts as they move forward to align their own curricula. Book features include: (1) a clear, concise overview of the teaching requirements of the Common Core; (2) research-based approaches for using the English language arts to learn science, math, and history; (3) cases from urban schools representing the full range of literacy achievement levels; and (4) models of disciplinary units of study with guidance to help teachers create their own. [Foreword written by Annemarie Sullivan Palinscar.]