1. Common Core State Standards
English Language Arts
Mia Johnson and Lora Drum Jan. 2012

2. Clear Learning Targets:
I can define the Six Shifts in ELA.
I can identify teacher and student responsibilities in the classroom.

3. Standards vs. Curriculum
Myth: The Standards tell teachers what to teach.
Fact: The best understanding of what works in the classroom comes from the teachers who are in them. That’s why these standards will establish what students need to learn, but they will not dictate how teachers should teach. Instead, schools and teachers will decide how best to help students reach the standards.

4. Key Features:
Reading Standards: Text complexity and the growth of comprehension
Reading Informational Text (10)
Reading Literature (10)
Reading-Foundational Skills K-5 (5): Knowledge of concepts of print, the alphabetic principle, and other basic conventions of the English writing system.
Writing Standards (10): Text types, responding to reading, and research
Speaking and Listening Standards (6): Flexible communication and collaboration
Language Standards (6): Conventions, effective use, and vocabulary.
Appendices A, B, and C
Appendix A contains supplementary material on reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language as well as a glossary of key terms.
Appendix B consists of text exemplars illustrating the complexity, quality, and range of reading appropriate for various grade levels with accompanying sample performance tasks.
Appendix C includes annotated samples demonstrating at least adequate performance in student writing at various grade levels.

6. Six Shifts in ELA Common Core
The new English Language Arts Common Core State
Standards contain many changes in learning
standards, but they can be grouped into 6 main shifts.
The shifts are directly linked to the College and Career
Readiness Standards.
Shift 1: Balance of literature and information text (K-5)
-50% of information text by 4th grade
Shift 2: Literacy across all content areas (6-12)
Shift 3: Staircase of complexity
Shift 4: Question and Answers: text-dependent
Shift 5: Writing to inform or argue using evidences
Shift 6: Academic Vocabulary

7. Shift 1: Balance of literature and informational text (K-5)
Shift 1: Balance of literature and informational text (K-5) -50% of information text by 4th grade
Students read a true balance of informational and literary texts. Elementary school classrooms are, therefore, places where students access the world – science, social studies, the arts and literature – through text. At least 50% of what students read is informational.
CCSS
R.I 1-10
R.L 1-10
NCTEP
Standard III- Teachers know the content they teach and recognize the interconnectedness of content areas/disciplines.
Standard IV-Teachers facilitate learning for their students.

8. What the Principal Does…
What the Student Does…
What the Teacher Does…
What the Principal Does…
Build background knowledge and exposure to the world through reading
Apply strategies to reading informational text
Provide students equal #s of informational and literary texts
Ensure coherent instruction about content
Teach strategies for informational texts
Teach “through” and “with” informational texts
Scaffold for the difficulties that informational text present to students
Ask students, “What is connected here? How does this fit together? What details tell you that?”
Consider an inventory of informational text in your building.
Consider purchasing equal amounts of informational and literary text for students
Ensure teacher accountability for building student content knowledge through text
Provide opportunities for PD and co-planning for teachers to become more familiar with informational texts
Shift 1:
Balance of Literature
and
Informational Text

9. Shift 2: Literacy across all content areas (6-12)
Content area teachers outside of the ELA classroom emphasize literacy experiences in their planning and instruction. Students learn through domain-specific texts in science and social studies classrooms – rather than referring to the text, they are expected to learn from what they read.
CCSS
Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects
RI. 1-10
NCTEP
Standard III- Teachers know the content they teach and make
instruction relevant to students.
Teachers recognize the interconnectedness of content areas/disciplines.
Standard IV-Teachers facilitate learning for their students.

10. What the Principal Does…
What the Student Does…
What the Teacher Does…
What the Principal Does…
Become better readers by building background knowledge
Handle primary source documents with confidence
Infer, like a detective, where the evidence is in a text to support an argument or opinion
See the text itself as a source of evidence (what did it say vs. what did it not say?)
Shift identity: “I teach reading.”
Stop referring and summarizing and start reading
Slow down the history and science classroom
Teach different approaches for different types of texts
Treat the text itself as a source of evidence
Teach students to write about evidence from the text
Teach students to support their opinion with evidence
Ask : “How do you know? Why do you think that? Show me in the text where you see evidence for your opinion. “
Support the role of all teachers in advancing students’ literacy
Provide guidance and support to ensure the shift to informational texts for 6-12
Give teachers permission to slow down and deeply study texts with students
Shift 2:
Literacy Across
All Content Areas
(6-12)

11. Shift 3: Staircase of Complexity
In order to prepare students for the complexity of college and career ready texts, each grade level requires a “step” of growth on the “staircase”. Students read the central, grade appropriate text around which instruction is centered. Teachers are patient, create more time and space in the curriculum for this close and careful reading, and provide appropriate and necessary scaffolding and supports so that it is possible for students reading below grade level.
CCSS
R10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational
texts independently and proficiently.
NCTEP
Standard II- Consideration of diversity and student interest when
selecting appropriate text which directly effects text
complexity.
Standard IV-Teachers facilitate learning for their students.

12. What the Principal Does…
What the Student Does…
What the Teacher Does…
What the Principal Does…
Read to see what more they can find and learn as they re-read texts again and again
Read material at own level to build joy of reading and pleasure in the world
Be persistent despite challenges when reading; good readers tolerate frustration
Ensure students are engaged in more complex texts at every grade level
Engage students in rigorous conversation
Provide experience with complex texts
Give students less to read, let them re-read
Use leveled texts carefully to build independence in struggling readers
More time on more complex texts
Provide scaffolding
Get kids inspired and excited about the beauty of language
Ensure that complexity of text builds from grade to grade.
Allow and encourage teachers to build a unit in a way that has students scaffold to more complex texts over time
Allow and encourage teachers the opportunity to share texts with students that may be more complex
Allow and encourage teacher to use leveled texts carefully to build independence in struggling readers
Shift 3:
Staircase of
Complexity

13. Shift 4: Text Based Answers
Students have rich and rigorous conversations which are dependent on a common text. Teachers insist that classroom experiences stay deeply connected to the text on the page and that students develop habits for making evidentiary arguments both in conversation, as well as in writing to assess comprehension of a text.
CCSS
R1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
NCTEP
Standard III-Teachers know the content appropriate to their teaching specialty: Develop and apply strategies to make the curriculum rigorous and relevant
Standard IV-Teachers facilitate learning for their students.

14. What the Principal Does…
What the Student Does…
What the Teacher Does…
What the Principal Does…
Go back to text to find evidence to support their argument in a thoughtful, careful, precise way.
Develop a fascination with reading
Create own judgments and become scholars, rather than witnesses of the text.
Conducting reading as a close reading of the text and engaging with the author and what the author is trying to say.
Facilitate evidence based conversations with students, dependent on the text.
Have discipline about asking students where in the text to find evidence, where they saw certain details, where the author communicated something, why the author may believe something; show all this in the words from the text.
Plan and conduct rich conversations about the stuff that the writer is writing about.
Keep students in the text
Identify questions that are text-dependent, worth asking/exploring, deliver richly,
Provide students the opportunity to read the text, encounter references to another text, another event and to dig in more deeply into the text to try and figure out what is going on.
Spend much more time preparing for instruction by reading deeply.
Allow teachers the time to spend more time with students writing about the texts they read- and to revisit the texts to find more evidence to write stronger arguments.
Provide planning time for teachers to engage with the text to prepare and identify appropriate text-dependent questions.
Create working groups to establish common understanding for what to expect from student writing at different grade levels for text based answers.
Shift 4:
Text-Based
Answers

15. Shift 5: Writing From Sources
Writing needs to emphasize use of evidence to inform or make an argument rather than the personal narrative and other forms of decontextualized prompts. While the narrative still has an important role, students develop skills through written arguments that respond to the ideas, events, facts, and arguments presented in the texts they read.
CCSS
W1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid
reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
W7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions,
demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
W8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and
accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.
W9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
SL1.Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when
writing or speaking. Specific Standard to address grammar and conventions:
NCTEP
Standard III-Teachers know the content they teach.
Standard IV-Teachers facilitate learning for their students.

16. What the Principal Does…
What the Student Does…
What the Teacher Does…
What the Principal Does…
Begin to generate own informational texts.
Use texts resources to support writing.
Synthesizing the information from multiple sources for writing.
Expect that students will generate their own informational texts (spending much less time on personal narratives).
Present opportunities to write from multiple sources about a single topic.
Give opportunities to analyze, synthesize ideas across many texts to draw an opinion or conclusion.
Find ways to push towards a style of writing where the voice comes from drawing on powerful, meaningful evidence.
Give permission to students to start to have their own reaction and draw their own connections.
Ensure teacher accountability to move students towards informational writing.
Provide opportunities for PD and co-planning for teachers to become more familiar with informational writing.
Encourage teachers use of technology and media to support instruction on informational writing.
Shift 5:
Writing
From
Sources

17. Shift 6: Academic Vocabulary
Students constantly build the vocabulary they need to access grade level complex texts. By focusing strategically on comprehension of pivotal and commonly found words (such as “discourse,” “generation,” “theory,” and “principled”) and less on esoteric literary terms (such as “onomatopoeia” or “homonym”), teachers constantly build students’ ability to access more complex texts across the content areas.
CCSS
R4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meaning, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.
R10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.
NCTEP
Standard III-Teachers know the content they teach.
Standard IV-Teachers facilitate learning for their students.

18. What the Principal Does…
What the Student Does…
What the Teacher Does…
What the Principal Does…
Spend more time learning words across “webs” and associating words with others instead of learning individual, isolated vocabulary words.
Apply knowledge of academic vocabulary in speaking and writing.
Develop students’ ability to use and access words that show up in everyday text and that may be slightly out of reach.
Be strategic about the kind of vocabulary you’re developing and figure out which words fall into which categories- tier 2 vs. tier 3.
Determine the words that students are going to read most frequently and spend time mostly on those words.
Teach fewer words but teach the webs of words around it.
Shift attention on how to plan vocabulary meaningfully using tiers and transferability strategies.
Provide opportunities for PD on Tiered Vocabulary and the shift for teaching it in a more meaningful, effective manner.
Shift 6:
Academic
Vocabulary

19. Wrapping Up:
Provide opportunities for collaboration and in depth discussion on the CCSS.
K-2 can go ahead and teach using Common Core State Standards.
We will be willing to meet with you, your faculty, grade levels, or individual teachers to assist in understanding how this might look in K-6 classrooms.