SAMPSON COUNTY SCHOOLS CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION MARCH 2013

WHY COMMON CORE?  We are improving public education with a new curriculum that goes beyond standards and multiple choice assessments to help teachers create well- rounded students who are prepared for life.  Why “Common” - Excelling Curriculum  Ensuring public schools are the best way to prepare children for life.  Sampson County Schools  GOAL: We Advance Everyone:  from the bottom to the top and everyone in between, to make sure that every child moves forward.

THE VALUE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION  Public education is necessary to ensure each child gets the instruction and attention he/she needs to be fully prepared for success in life.  Sampson County can not afford merely adequate public education; the future of our children and the state depends on consistent support for preparing each and every child for success and to be College and Career READY. School Safety  We are updating cameras, doors, fences, lighting  Working closely with Sheriff’s Department  Special Drills  Budget requests – increase SROs (create our own police department)

THE COMMON CORE STANDARDS  English/Language Arts and Math standards adopted by the N.C. State Board of Education in June 2010 – effective for  Are aligned with college and work expectations  Are focused and coherent  Include rigorous content and application of knowledge through higher-order skills  Build upon strengths and lessons of current state standards  Are internationally benchmarked so that all students are prepared to succeed in our global economy  Are based on evidence and research  Are state led – coordinated by 45 states and the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS (ELA) SHIFT 1: BUILD KNOWLEDGE THROUGH CONTENT-RICH NONFICTION AND INFORMATIONAL TEXTS Students must:  Read more nonfiction  Know the ways nonfiction can be put together  Enjoy and discuss the details of nonfiction  Increase knowledge in Science and Social Studies through reading  Handle “primary source” documents Parents can:  Supply more nonfiction text  Read nonfiction texts aloud or with your child  Have fun with nonfiction in front of them  Supply nonfiction texts on topics of interest and discuss ideas within  Find books that explain

SHIFT 2: READ, WRITE AND DISCUSS USING EVIDENCE FROM TEXT Students must:  Find evidence to support their arguments through discussion and writing  Form judgments  Become scholars  Discuss what the author is “up to”  Compare multiple texts in writing  Write well: Three types- Opinion/Argument, Informational/Explanatory, and Narrative Parents can:  Talk about text and encourage writing at home  Demand evidence in everyday discussions/disagreements  Read aloud or read the same book and discuss with evidence  Write “books” together and use evidence/details  Encourage different types of writing at home, samples are at /Appendix_C.pdf CLICK

SHIFT 3: REGULAR PRACTICE WITH COMPLEX TEXT AND ITS ACADEMIC VOCABULARY Students must :  Re-read  Read material at comfort level AND work with more challenging material  Unpack text  Handle frustration and keep pushing  Learn the vocabulary that they can use in college and careers lexile/summer-reading/ Parents can:  Provide more challenging texts AND provide texts that they want to read and can read comfortably  Know what is grade level appropriate  Read often and constantly with babies, toddlers, preschoolers and children  Read multiple books about the same topic  Let your kids see you reading  Expose them to lots of oral language: talking and singing through rhymes and word games and a variety of content areas

THE MORE WE READ, THE MORE WE CAN READ!  By age 3, children from affluent families have heard 30 million more words than children from parents living in poverty. (Hart and Risley, 1995).  Children who have larger vocabularies and greater understanding of spoken language do better in school (Whitehurst and Lonigan).  If children aren’t reading on grade level by third grade, they are four times more likely to leave high school without a diploma (Hernandez, 2011).

SAMPSON COUNTY SCHOOLS CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION

MATHEMATICS SHIFT 1: FOCUS on fewer topics  Students Must  Spend more time on fewer concepts to build strong foundational understanding  Parents Can  Know what the priority work is for your child for their grade level  Spend time with your child on priority work  Ask your teacher about your child’s progress

SHIFT 2: SKILLS across grades  Students Must  Keep building on learning year after year  Parents Can  Be aware of what your child struggled with last year and how that will affect learning this year

SHIFT 3: RIGOR – SPEED AND ACCURACY  Students Must  Spend time practicing problems on the same idea  Parents Can  Push children to know/memorize basic math facts  Know all of the fluencies your child should have and prioritize learning the ones they don’t

SHIFT 3: RIGOR – FLUENCY GradeRequired Fluency KAdd/subtract within 5 1Add/Subtract within 10 - Add/Subtract within 20 2Add/Subtract within 100 3Multiply/divide within 100 – Add/subtract within Add/Subtract within 1,000,000 5Multi-digit multiplication – Multi-digit division 6Multi-digit decimal operations 7Solve px=q = r, p (x+q) = r 8Solve simple 2 x 2 systems by inspection

SHIFT 3: RIGOR – APPLICATION  Students Must  Understand why the math works  Prove that they know why and how the math works  Apply math in real world situations  Parents Can  Ask “Why” and “How” to determine whether your child really knows the answer  Ask your child to “do the math” that comes up in your daily life

ASSESSMENTS  NC Assessments – Problem solving/critical thinking 1/3 to 1/2 calculator inactive Gridded responses (5 th grade and up) No retest this year Computer enhanced – Online test

ASSESSMENTS Smarter Balanced Assessments – performance-tasks/

MATH RESOURCES Khan Academy ://

SAMPSON COUNTY SCHOOLS CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION

NC ESSENTIAL STANDARDS  Social Studies, Science, World Languages, Arts Education, Healthful Living, Guidance, English As a Second Language, Information and Technology, and CTE  Creating, Evaluating, Analyzing, Applying, Understanding, and Remembering  Do more than memorization with an increased level of rigor  uides/Education/High-School- Biology.html uides/Education/High-School- Biology.html  NC Essential Standards  Written under Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy  Curriculum supports complex thinking that is expected of 21 st Century graduates

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR INSTRUCTION?  An increased level of rigor  Higher expectations for students  New instructional strategies (Paideia, Less Lecture, more Student Centered)  More Problem Based Learning – incorporating more real world applications  Less dependence on textbooks

NC ESSENTIAL STANDARDS ASSESSMENTS?  Measures of Student Learning(MSLs)/Common Exams(CE)  Common exams are selected for specific subjects and grades that are not part of the NC State Testing Program  Substitutes for local final exams  Designed with input from teachers  Multiple Choice  Constructed Response  No retest this year  timeline.pdf timeline.pdf Click

WHERE CAN MORE INFORMATION BE FOUND?  Sampson County Schools: (LiveBinders)  ionid=1 ionid=1  Curriculum & Instruction * Find ALL of your LiveBinders (Curriculum standards, NCDPI materials and Pacing Guides) for under each Divisions Website  High School:  Middle School  Elementary  PTA  CTE: standards.pdf CTE: standards.pdf

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Thank you!