The Great Books Foundation provides strong, inquiry-based language arts programs for grades K–12 that improve students’ achievement in reading comprehension, critical thinking, writing, and speaking and listening. Great Books programs combine classroom materials and the Shared InquiryTM method of learning to provide the essential elements students need to meet and surpass the goals of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.

The common standards grew out of an extended effort to develop national standards that would ensure that all students are “college and career ready” in literacy when they complete high school. The grade-specific standards are based on these broad “anchor standards.” The following chart compares the anchor standards for English language arts with

Common Standards

Key Ideas and Details

Students should be able to:

• Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and make logical inferences from it

• Determine central ideas or themes of a text and ana- lyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas

the characteristics of Great Books programs. For the complete common core standards, visit www.corestandards.org.