English Language Arts - Common Core State Standards

Common Core State Standards intimidate me for numerous reasons. I have little to no understanding of what the common core standards are for language arts. I’m also afraid of not knowing how to implement them in my teaching, which would lead to students not being engaged and not understanding what they are supposed to be learning. In the article we were given, it is mentioned that “a standards-based approach can result in the homogenization of instruction in which teachers teach the same content using the same methods regardless of differences in their classroom contexts or students.” Standards are difficult because these standards can come across as enforcing the same goals and learning on all students, when all students have different learning styles, abilities, skills, etcetera. Teachers also run into the problem of “teaching to the test” where teachers being “narrowing the curriculum, focusing on limited skills, reducing complex and meaningful questions, and closing students out of the critical task of constructing knowledge.

My question is then how do we, as teachers, teach common core standards while keeping students engaged and actively learning? Also, how do we intertwine common core standards, which are basically the same across the board, while being mindful of student’s different learning styles and abilities?