Unraveling the Common Core State Standards and Frameworks District Learning Day Location goes here Session time goes here August 5, 2015

Do Now Do now activity goes here

Norms Be present and engaged. Be respectful of differences in perspective while challenging each other productively and respectively. Monitor “air time.” Make the most of the time we have. Stay focused on students.

Objectives Know The CCR expectations for student learning across grade levels How to support student reading readiness through appropriate grade-level instruction and curricular documents Understand The knowledge, skills, and habits students need to be successful with grade level tasks Do Utilize specific instructional strategies that will enhance students’ instructional practices Utilize District curriculum guides, pacing charts, and textbook resources to plan instruction effectively

Context for presentation – Include the WHY and WHAT. Highlight any article, book, relevant research, or data to support your presentation

PEDAGOGICAL SHIFTS FOR INSTRUCTION What do the instructional shifts really mean?

Instructional Shifts in ELA/Literacy 1. Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction 2. Reading, writing and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational 3. Regular practice with complex text and its academic language

Shift 1 Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction Sequencing Texts to Build Knowledge Texts are not randomly chosen. Students build knowledge about the world through TEXT rather than through the teacher or through activities. Texts, within and across grade levels, need to be selected around topics or themes that systematically develop the knowledge base of students. Through Content-Rich Nonfiction: Why? Students are required to read very little informational text. Non-fiction makes up the vast majority of required in college/workplace. Informational text is harder for students to comprehend than narrative text. Supports students learning how to read different types of informational text. Summary There should be a balance of literary and informational texts used in your classroom.

Shift 1 Building knowledge through content- rich nonfiction Knowledge in the Disciplines English/Reading – syntax (the way in which linguistic elements (as words) are put together to form constituents (as phrases or clauses); mechanics (the application of standard rules of grammar, spelling, punctuation); and literal (explicit) and figurative (implicit) meaning Social Studies – the interaction between ideas, individuals and events using sources (primary and secondary); bias and credibility Science – interpreting; analyzing; synthesizing; questioning/forming hypotheses (etic and emic) Technical Subjects – accuracy; authority and corroboration; and literal (explicit) meaning Summary The standards address knowledge in all of the disciplines.

Shift 2 Reading, writing and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational Why? Most college and workplace writing requires evidence. Ability to cite evidence differentiates strong from weak student performance on NAEP Evidence is a major emphasis of the standards: Reading Standard 1, Writing Standard 9, Speaking and Listening standards 2, 3, and 4, all focus on the gathering, evaluating and presenting of evidence from text. Being able to locate and deploy evidence are hallmarks of strong readers and writers. Text-Dependent Questions and Text-Based Responses The standards call for students to ask questions that require students to return to the text for the answer. Students should engage in rich and rigorous evidence- based conversations about the text. Students are required to produce original text characterized by an emphasis on the use of evidence from sources to inform or make an argument.

Content Shift #2 11 In “Casey at the Bat,” Casey strikes out. Describe a time when you failed at something. In “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Dr. King discusses nonviolent protest. Discuss, in writing, a time when you wanted to fight against something that you felt was unfair. In “The Gettysburg Address” Lincoln says the nation is dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Why is equality an important value to promote? What makes Casey’s experiences at bat humorous? What can you infer from King’s letter about the letter that he received? “The Gettysburg Address” mentions the year According to Lincoln’s speech, why is this year significant to the events described in the speech? Not Text-DependentText-Dependent Text-Dependent Questions

Think Pair Share Insert Activity for participants to practice creating a text dependent question.

Shift 3 Regular practice with complex text and its academic language Why? Gap between complexity of college and high school texts is huge. What students can read, in terms of complexity is the greatest predictor of success in college (ACT study). Too many students are reading at too low a level. (<50% of graduates can read sufficiently complex texts). Standards include a staircase of increasing text complexity from elementary through high school. Standards also focus on building general academic vocabulary so critical to comprehension.

What are the Features of Complex Text? Subtle and/or frequent transitions Multiple and/or subtle themes and purposes Density of information Unfamiliar settings, topics or events Lack of repetition, overlap or similarity in words and sentences Complex sentences Uncommon vocabulary Lack of words, sentences or paragraphs that review or pull things together for the student Longer paragraphs Any text structure which is less narrative and/or mixes structures 14

Scaffolding Complex Text The standards require that students read appropriately complex text at each grade level – independently (Standard 10). However there are many ways to scaffold student learning as they meet the standard: Multiple readings Read Aloud Chunking text (a little at a time) Provide support while reading, rather than before. 15

Instruction must include both “macro-scaffolding,” in which teachers attend to the integration of language and content within and across lessons and units, as well as “microscaffolding” during the “moment-to- moment work of teaching.” 1 In order to develop the ability to read complex texts and engage in academic conversations, ELs and SPED population need access to such texts and conversations, along with support in engaging with them. With support, ELs can build such repertoires and engage productively in the kinds of language and literacy practices called for by the Standards for both ELA and other disciplines 1 Bunch, George C., Amanda Kibler, and Susan Pimentel. "Realizing Opportunities for English Learners in the Common Core English Language Arts and Disciplinary Literacy Standards." Understanding Language, Stanford University. Web. Considerations for ELL/SPED

Close Analytic Reading Requires prompting students with questions to unpack unique complexity of any text so students learn to read complex text independently and proficiently. Not teacher "think aloud“. Virtually every standard is activated during the course of every close analytic reading exemplar through the use of text dependent questions. Text dependent questions require text-based answers – evidence. 17

COMMONALITIES IN THE STANDARDS What’s Common about the Common Core State Standards?

Activity Participants will compare and contrast the standards and find the commonalities.

INTERPRETING THE STANDARDS What do the standards really mean?

Activity Participants will examine and analyze the reading informational standards to determine the meaning of each standard. This activity will assist teachers in knowing which direction to lead students as they teach and demonstrate each standard.

THE CONNECTION: STANDARDS AND CURRICULUM How are the standards and the curriculum documents connected?

Airtight Activity: MODELING Have the facilitator MODEL the skill. Align the activity to the objective Check for participants’ understanding Give explicit instructions to your activity Have participants give feedback

Reflection: MODELING What resonated with you? What is similar to your current practice? What is different than your current practice? What are you going to change as a result?

Title of section 2 goes here, for example, “Application to your Classroom” First section of presentation header goes here in the form of a question, for example, “How do we measure successful co-teaching in the inclusion setting?”

Airtight Activity: Application (ie – apply to upcoming lesson) Align the activity to the objective Check for participants’ understanding Give explicit instructions to your activity Have participants give feedback

Reflection: Application What was easiest for you? What was most difficult? What else do you need to learn/do prior to applying to your classroom?

Closing

Revisit Objectives Place session objectives here in KUDOS format What will participants: Know Understand And Be Able to Do as a result of this presentation?

Next steps and activities for follow up Describe the next steps and activities for follow up

Reflection: One minute paper on post-it Jot down your “Take-Aways” Consider what you need to know and be able to do to successfully implement what you have learned in this session. – What is still unclear? – What professional development or additional resources do you need?

District Contacts Place district contacts and website information here