The English Language Arts Common Core State Standards (ELA CCSS) come at a time when many reading teachers, literacy coaches, and classroom teachers seek more extensive literacy practices than the policy mandates of No Child Left Behind and Reading First. These initiatives placed requirements for instruction in core aspects of reading at the forefront, but left other less-privileged elements of literacy too often forgotten. Implementing the ELA CCSS gives educators a chance to step back, think critically, and make decisions to help foster improved instruction. With the Common Core, educators are engaged in conversations about the "six instruction shifts" and other components of the ELA standards that offer new ideas or reminders of the broader context for literacy instruction. This article presents the six shifts in instruction that educators will need to accomplish to align curricular materials and classroom instruction with the ELA CCSS: (1) Shift 1: Increase reading of informational text; (2) Shift 2: Growth in text complexity; (3) Shift 3: Text-based answers; (4) Shift 4: Academic vocabulary; (5) Shift 5: Writing from sources; and (6) Shift 6: Literacy instruction in all content areas.