ThinkCERCA is a literacy curriculum meant to bridge all subjects from science to social studies. Reading, writing, speaking, and listening are the four components of the ThinkCERCA curriculum. Each lesson supports the shared literacy framework, allowing learners and educators to use a common language to speak about literacy, including claims, evidence, reasoning, counterargument, and audience. ThinkCERCA is aligned to the standards in each subject (Next Generation Science Standards, Common Core State Standards, etc.) and can be used as a textbook replacement. Differentiation is easy as each text comes with ten adjustable levels. ThinkCERCA is backed by research and has a set of case studies that can be reviewed on their website.

Website: https://thinkcerca.com/

What Users Love About the App

“I have found positive results when integrated within a context of oracy, writing workshop and differentiation. I have used the product for progress monitoring and providing scaffolds for resistant / struggling writers.”

“I have found their materials to be very standards aligned and relevant and accessible. My students engage in writing workshop regularly and students liked the structure of the lessons which made embedding text in their writing more effective. Students annotated texts and their notes were organized and focused.”

“I enjoyed having the resource in my class. It allowed me to break down the assignment and show them the “big picture” after they were done.”

“This product is an excellent teaching tool. I like that there are modules on the writing process that I could use to introduce students to CERCA before I chose science-specific modules. Also, the ability to choose different reading levels enables me to differentiate for students within one class, and students were not aware that they were reading a different passage than other students.”

“Think Cerca is really a gift! It is an amazing website that seems to really understand the intricacies of teaching and provide teachers with an awesome level of support need to navigate the teaching waters.”

What Users Dislike About the App

“It would be great if the site could upload common reading novels to the site and already have the different assessments broken down with the lesson plan. This will save teachers time from having to create a lesson for the particular text.”

“It would be very helpful to have lessons or units provided that address writing about literary elements and other aspects of literature. I would also like to see alignment or suggestions of other texts or resources that are topically related to the argument-based writing lessons.”

“It would be great if you could see real time progress through the reading and writing steps. I would also love to have a section for teacher feedback that would show up the next time the students opened thinkCERCA.”

“I would like to be able to actually add my hook “warm” up to the lesson where I can project it to the student. Or just make it student interactive.”

“I wish the material would support third grade more. I am a combined teacher with third and fourth and struggle to address both and push those who are ready while others are struggling to write a sentence. I would like to see this available for individual printed results.”