Presentation given at the American Educational Research Association Conference (AERA).

The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a coordinated effort to prepare every child in the U.S. public school system for college or the workforce by ensuring that they reach certain expectations in English language arts and mathematics and can apply the attained skills to the real world. The standards describe what students should know and be able to do in each subject in each grade. They are designed to be academically rigorous, while attainable for students and practical for teachers to teach. The purpose of this study is to try out a new tool (lessonfarm.com) to help preservice teachers learn about common core standards and prepare lessons with the use of close reading strategy aligned with common core standards.