1. MAISA ELA Units: WHAT administrators want to know MIELANetwork. weebly
MAISA ELA Units: WHAT administrators want to know MIELANetwork.weebly.com
Laura Schiller, Ph.D.
Literacy Consultant, Oakland Schools
Director, Oakland Writing Project

2. Today We Will Address The history of the units
The units in relation to the common core state standards
Unit alignment within and across grades
Ways to assess the units
What administrators can look for in classrooms
Ways to facilitate staff learning in relation to the units
Ways to improve writing instruction and student learning

3. Common Core State Standards

4. Common Core State Standards
The development of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and English Language Arts was lead by
National Governor Association
Council of Chief State School Officers
The Standards focus on learning expectations for students, not on how students get there 4

5. Michigan’s Context Oakland ISD Superintendent Mandate
MAISA Collaboration

6. Common Core State Standards replace the GLCE’s
We are moving nationally from check lists of skills to an approach that integrates reading, writing, listening, speaking, and technology for the purpose of reasoning and learning at high levels of sophistication.
ACT: skills needed for trades are the same as those needed for college
We are in a period of transition. But if you work toward the CCSS, you will more than address anything the GLCE’s are requiring. CCSS is far more rigorous.

7. Common Core State Standards…
These standards are not intended to be new names for old ways of doing business. They are a call to take the next step.”
Page 5 CCSS Introduction

8. NAEP Charts: Balance of Instruction

9. 2011 NAEP Writing Framework
Grade
Narrative
Explanatory
Argumentative 4
35%
30% 8 12
20%
40%

10. 2011 NAEP Reading Framework
Grade
Literary
Informational 4
50% 8
45%
55% 12
30%
70%

11. Writing and Reading are equally important and given equal weight.

12. Teach Reading and Writing Across the Grades

13. Shared Responsibility for Reading and Writing Across the Disciplines

14. Setting the bar high!
Writing standard 5 describes the writing process, and standard 10 describes the need to write routinely as part of that process. Without these two standards, the other standards will be difficult to achieve.

15. Writing Standard 9
Careful reading and analysis precedes writing. Reading is linked to writing and writing is linked to reading. Implications for schools where different teachers instruct reading and writing.

16. Emphasis on Depth

17. 6-12 STUDENTS STUDY TOPICS/THEMES IN DEPTH

18. Student Portrait

19. CCR: College & Career Readiness Overarching Standards

20. Michigan’s ELA Units of Study: How do they promote this sophisticated level of teaching and learning?

21. Top 6 ELA Common Core Curriculum Writing Connections
6: Independence Introduction p.7
5: Balance of Narrative, Persuasive,
& Informational Units of Study
W3.1, W3.2, W3.3; W4.1, W4.2, W4.3; W5.1, W5.2, W5.3
4: Writing Process W3.5 , W4.5, W5.5

22. Top 6 ELA Common Core Curriculum Writing Connections
3: Literary & Informational Textual Analysis,
Reflection, & Research W4.9a,b; W5.9a, b
2: Write routinely over time and on demand
W3.10, W4.10, W5.10
1: Language Progressive Skills L.3.1f, L.3.3a;
L.4.1f, L.4.3g, L.4.3a, L.4.3b; L.5.1d, L.5.2a

23. K-12 Writing Overarching Considerations:
CCSS ELA MAISA Units
Text types: Started with argument
Argument Least understood
Informative/Explanatory Claim
Narrative Evidence/Support
Warrant
Logic of reasoning

24. Units Embody Opportunities to Learn
Clear Teaching Points
Models
Demonstration
Regular Practice
Repetition
Conferring
Individual, small group, and whole group instruction
Community

25. Lesson Template: from research based on effective instruction as summarized by Mike Schmoker 2011 Focus: Elevating the essentials to radically improve student learning. ASCD

26. Clear Teaching Points Modeling/Demonstrating Guided Practice Checking for Understanding
MAISA Career & College Readiness Collaboration Project--Phase I Roll Out

27. The Writing Process Today
Collecting Entries
Finding a Seed
Nurturing the Seed
Picking a Genre
Picking a Mentor Text
Drafting
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Main Goal:
Build a writerly life and establish a writer's notebook that students value.
Main Goal: Identify an important topic to explore and discover through writing.
Main Goal: Create a risk-free environment that encourages revisiting and experimentation to imagine, explore a voice, or discover important ideas.
Main Goal: Study a genre or author within a genre to create a product within the "rules"
of the genre.
Main Goal: Develop curiosity about and appreciation of an author to identify decisions for personal experiments and growth in skill.
Main Goal: Consciously design a product.
Approach revision as study and play, developing rethinking and experimenting behaviors.
Main Goal: Develop a standard of excellence for publication and strategies for achievement.
Main Goal: Produce a product for an audience.

28. We Stand on the Shoulders of Great Writers and Teachers of Writing
Across K-college, the writing workshop has been the accepted forum for teaching the skills and strategies of effective writing.
Experts: Donald Murray, Pulitzer Prize Winner, & Roy Peter Clark, Journalist
Writers: Annie Dillard, Mary Oliver, Anne Lamott, E.B. White
Great Writing Teachers: Peter Elbow, Georgia Heard, Ralph Fletcher, & TCRWP
Pathways to the Common Core, 2012, Calkins, Ehrenworth, Lehman, p. 111

29. CCSS Aligning to a Writing Process Tradition
This quality of writing can be achieved by mandating the explicit instruction, opportunities for practice, centrality of feedback, assessment-based instruction, and spiral curriculum that have all been hallmarks of rigorous writing workshop instruction.
Pathways to the Common Core, 2012, Calkins, Ehrenworth, Lehman, p. 112

30. Workshop models assume:
Conferring
Building community to promote risk-taking
Opportunities for independent, small group and whole group instruction
Small group work (K-5)
Partner work
Promoting independence

31. Explicit Instruction Versus Assign and Assess

32. Process & Product

33. Considerations for Reading Units
Alignment with writing units
Balance with CCSS Literary & Informational Text
Assessment with an eye toward text complexity
Close reading of text
Historical core documents
Depth of Knowledge (Norman Webb)

34. Where to find the New ELA Common Core Scope Units
Google: Atlas Rubicon Oakland
Another resource—go to Oakland Schools webpage. Under EDUCATORS click Common Core Initiatives
Under Links to Other Resources you’ll find the Public Atlas SCoPE Curriculum.
Only select those units that have a cc (for Common Core) next to them. Those are the new units.

35. Professional Learning for Literacy Leaders
“To help young people learn the more complex and analytical skills they need for the 21st century, teachers must learn to teach in ways that develop higher-order thinking and performance. To develop the sophisticated teaching required for this mission, education systems must offer more effective professional development.” Darling-Hammond & Richardson, 2009

36. Introducing the units at a staff/department meeting
Select one grade level to explore
Find the common core units on Atlas Rubicon
Then do the following:

37. Using Atlas Rubicon to Study Alignment
Notice the alignment of units within a grade level
Is there evidence of argument/opinion, information/explanation, and narrative/personal experience writing in the curriculum?
What do you wonder? What surprised you?
Look at the grade below.
Compare the unit titles.
What do you notice about alignment?
What do you notice about narrative/opinion/argument units?

38. Template Exploration

39. Using Atlas Rubicon to Study Alignment
Repeat by looking at the grade level titles above the grade you selected first.
Compare the unit titles.
What do you notice about alignment?
What do you notice about narrative/opinion/argument units?

40. Using Atlas Rubicon to Study Alignment
Notice the suggested pacing of the units
Follow the template—note the graphic organizer laying out the lesson sequence across the writing process
Notice the list of lessons and the link to access the daily lessons.

41. Template Exploration

42. Template Exploration

43. Digging into the Standards: Another staff/department meeting
Start with kindergarten
Read those grade level standards
Imagine a very simple story that meets those descriptors.
Reread just the first part of the kindergarten description.
Note what added work first graders are expected to do.
Continue to read horizontally noting the added work at each grade level.
These learning progressions make the writing standards attainable if students grow up in a strong writing curriculum.
Pathways to the Common Core, 2012, Calkins, Ehrenworth, Lehman, p. 116

44. What should administrators look for?
Extended student writing should be evident in the classroom i.e., portfolios, writers notebooks, published pieces, drafts…
Teachers model/demonstrate HOW to write using mentor texts, teacher or student writing, and whole class writing
Students write both on-demand and process pieces for a range of purposes and audiences
Students use writing to help them learn information and uncover their thinking
Writing and reading are given equal time and instruction.

45. What should administrators look for?
There is extended independent writing time on a regular basis in class.
Students make decisions about their writing.
Clear teaching point
Evidence of student uptake

46. Instructional Shifts
Proportion of Writing Types: Narrative, Information/Explanation, Argument/Opinion/Persuasion
Emphasis on claims, evidence, reasoning
Teaching Writing versus Assigning Writing
Time students spend writing independently
Both on-demand and extended writes
Writing throughout the school day

48. Writing Must Not be “OUTSOURCED!”
In order to coach and provide feedback, students must write during class. They can also write at home, but time for writing during class is absolutely non-negotiable.

49. ASSESSMENT

50. Systematically build a focus on writing
Teach the units of study
Three times a year have teachers bring class sets of papers to a staff meeting to score and analyze
Narrative, essay/argument, information

51. Appendix C Writing Samples K-12

52. Writing Pathways Grades K-5: Performance Assessments and Learning Progressions Lucy Calkins, 2013

53. Formative Assessment
One distinction is to think of formative assessment as “practice.” We do not hold students accountable in “grade book fashion” for skills and concepts they have just been introduced to or are learning. We must allow for practice. Formative assessment helps teachers determine next steps during the learning process as the instruction approaches the summative assessment of student learning.
~Garrison and Ehringhaus

54. Audit student writing at a staff/department meeting
Teachers bring an example of student work to analyze.
Where does the assignment fall on the DOK?
Where does the student writing fall on the DOK?
Show of hands: how many had an example of a 1? 2? 3? 4?
What does this random selection of student assignments/student work suggest?

57. Job Embedded Professional Learning
Time to talk
Time to share student work
Time to plan
Administrative encouragement

58. Administrator Breakouts: CREATING CONDITIONS for EFFECTIVENESS and a CULTURE OF LEARNING
What do writing classrooms look like in elementary and secondary classrooms?
How do we look at student work to build teacher knowledge and alignment?
How do administrators support this work?

59. What should I look for in CCSS classrooms?
Students read lots of books, documents, media resources…(ELA 25 books/equivalent per school year—New Standards)
Students have numerous opportunities to talk about their reading and argue for and against perspectives in books
Small group and partnered conversations deepen thinking
Writing is as important as reading in all core content areas
By high school, across all subjects, 70% of time spent in reading and writing informational texts
Both on-demand and process writing for a range of audiences and purposes
Assessments that inform instruction
Evidence of student growth
Evidence of deep reasoning

60. Steps Toward Improvement
Take an honest look at your current literacy initiatives and set goals for how to improve them. Build on strengths. Pat yourselves on the back for successes. Then recognize that most likely, you’re on your way toward a standard. Your, “Yes!” we do that is a starting point for reform.
Look for gaps in your curriculum and instructional practice. Pick one area to work on. Too many initiatives sink reform.