1. CCRS Quarterly Meeting 1 2014 - 2015 K-5 English Language Arts
Slides 1-3
10 minutes
Welcome to year 3 of the CCRS quarterly meetings! How any of you have attended all of year one and two?

2. Phases of CCRS Implementation
CCRS website
CCRS Self Assessment
Evaluation & Accountability
Awareness
Follow Up & Support
Implementation
Year one we were in the awareness phase and just trying to spread the word that we had new standards! We shared an overview of how the standards were set up, what the key shifts were.
Year 2, last year, we were in the implementation phase. We spent the whole year learning about the 6 strands in the ELA CCRS and started to plan lessons.
This year we are in the Follow up and Support phase. We will assume that if you are here you have a lot of knowledge about year 1&2.
Regional Planning Team
Regional Support Staff (RSS)
Differentiated Support
District and school coaches
CCRS Team Professional Learning
Alabama Insight Tool
Global Scholar
Summer Teaching Academies

3. Alabama State Board of Education
Our state superintendent, Dr. Bice, has led the way in developing a new plan for our state. It is called Plan 2020.
Plan 2020, starting in 2012, is an 8-year plan outlined in 4-year segments.
There are four pillars to Plan 2020
- Alabama’s Learners
Alabama’s Support Systems
Alabama’s Professionals
Alabama’s Schools and Systems
You’re here as a part of developing Alabama’s professionals. Our goal is to provide research based professional growth opportunities based on individual and collective learning plans. As leaders in your school system, you also have a direct impact on the Alabama’s learners.
PLAN 2020

4. Outcomes for the Year
Effective Practices to Help Students Meet Standards
Tasks and questions of powerful teams:
Co-creating lessons- What learning experiences do our students need to reach the standards?
Co-creating assessments- How will we know if they have reached the standard?
Looking at student work- What does student work suggest about what they do and don’t understand and what will we need to do next?
We will spend a lot of time this year at these meetings co-creating lessons. We will be using our Equip rubric to guide us through this process.
How will we know if they have reached the standard? By formatively assessing daily! In session four last year we started talking about formative assessment and will continue to include it in each session this year.
How do we formatively assess? By looking at student work all the time, not just after the weekly test. Please understand that you are here to take this info. back and practice it in your own classrooms so you will be expected to bring back student work to share so we can all learn what our next steps should be.

5. Outcomes Participants will
Discuss the data gathered from state and national implementation surveys.
Analyze a unit plan using the EQuIP Rubric.
Determine how the standards connect across multiple lessons to provide differentiation in Tier One and maximize student learning.
Read outcomes.

6. Outcome 1
Discuss the data gathered from state and national implementation surveys.
Slides 4-7
15 Minutes
Review the data gathered from the :
Implementation Team Survey
Teacher/Administrator Surveys
Remodeling Literacy Learning Together
Discuss how it serves as the rationale for the content of the implementation team meetings.

7. CCRS Implementation Team Survey
On a five-point scale (where 5 is “very prepared” and 1 is “not at all prepared”, how prepared are teachers to teach CCRS to the following groups of students? Students as a whole 92% English Language Learners 60% Students with Disabilities 61% Low-income Students 80% Academically At-Risk Students 74%
About 40% do not feel prepared to teach ELL students and Students with disabilities
Survey says……..
This was taken from the members of the implementation teams who actually came last year.

8. CCRS Teacher/Administrator Survey
How prepared are teachers in your school to teach CCRS to the following groups of students? (from Very prepared to Not at all prepared) Students as a whole 81% English Language Learners 61% Students with Disabilities 64% Low-income Students 75% Academically At-Risk Students 75%
About 40% do not feel prepared to teach ELL students and Students with disabilities
Facilitators - A great source of Background Knowledge for you –
This was from over 12,000 Alabama teachers who were surveyed. We hope to focus on our special population of students this year.

9. Alabama’s Needs Align with the National Research
Working with colleagues is the most useful support for implementing the standards.
Teachers feeling most comfortable tend to be those more frequently working with others to analyze student work, design curriculum, and create assessments.
Teachers in all disciplines are actively engaged in shifting literacy practices.
Teachers engaged in cross-discipline conversation about literacy are making greater shifts in their instruction.
When given the opportunity, teachers are owning the change by innovating and designing appropriate lessons and materials.
Last year's national NCLE study, Remodeling Literacy Learning: Make Room for What Works  indicated that working together is working smarter—educators’ most powerful professional learning experiences come from working with their colleagues.
Think about the teachers in your school. Where are you and your fellow teachers in the process? Hold up fingers as we talk about each statement.
1- We do that regularly
2- We are still working on this
3- We need to get started
(The numerals and statements may be put on a chart to remind participants of how many fingers to hold up.)
Like all good teachers, we are using these surveys (our formative assessments) to plan for our sessions this year.
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10. Outcome 2 Analyze a unit plan using the EQuIP Rubric. Slides 8-11
30 Minutes
Distribute K-2 and 3-5 Equip rubrics.

11. Graphic
Let’s look at the rubric in a slightly different way. Last year we looked at the top part of each dimension as we made connections to various exemplary lessons. This year we are going deeper as we look at how the rubric can help us scaffold our students’ learning and strengthen their understanding across a unit or longer lesson.
Ask participants to look at each dimension, focusing on the bottom part.
How will this deepen students’ understanding of the concepts and help them make necessary connections?
Review the top section of Dimension 1.
Read the bottom section of Dimension 1 and determine what additional thought needs to go into a unit that maximizes student learning.
Continue with each dimension, having a conversation between each.
Note to facilitators:
You want to bring the participants to the understanding that units or longer lessons provide opportunities for students to make much needed connections and take the learning deeper.
Take out your EQuIP Rubric:
Dimension 1: Participants should notice that all strands are included and that application and synthesis across lessons should be intentionally planned. Look closely at the last bullet. Emphasize the importance of building students content knowledge.
Dimension 2: There needs to be a balance of the shifts with scaffolding to help students develop their skills.
Dimension 3: This is a learning progression, supports are gradually removed as students deepen their understanding.
Dimension 4: There should be various assessments throughout a unit that are purposefully planned to inform both the teacher and the student about their progress.

12. “Increased emphasis on deep content knowledge and teaching of academic vocabulary is a critical instructional shift in the Common Core State Standards” Dr. Donald R. Bear, Iowa State University
Texts must be purposefully arranged so that students develop content knowledge in science, History/social studies, and other content areas. Students can then systematically explore concepts, developing their knowledge base within and across grade levels.
By connecting what they read to concepts in science and history/social studies, students gain both general knowledge and discipline-specific expertise, thus applying literacy to understanding in other content areas (reading to learn). Informational texts also provide an ideal context for fostering the acquisition of academic vocabulary and domain-specific words.

13. Some of you have programs that embed conceptual understanding along side the literacy standards.
Video Background information: First Grade Scott Foresman Unit 3.
Unit Theme: Changes
Unit Concept: Question: What is changing in our world?
Growing and Changing
Week 1: How do we change and grow?
Week 2 :What do we learn as we change and grow?
Week 3: Why are changes exciting?
Changes in Natures
Week 4: What changes happen in a garden?
Week 5: What changes can we observe in nature?
Week 6: How does nature change during the year?

14. Unit Analysis Read the unit plan and accompanying text.
Using the rubric, determine if the unit meets the criteria of the bulleted items in Dimension 1.
In the blank beneath Dimension 1, make notes of concerns/issues; list items needed for improvement to meet criteria of rubric.
Check to the left of the bulleted item if the lesson plan meets the criteria listed.
For our purposes today, we have chosen to use materials that are not program connected.
Handouts: EQuIP rubric with blank columns for writing notes, The Fisherman and His Wife (3-5) .
Read the text first and then the lesson plans 1-5. (20 Minutes)
Note Facilitators should focus closely on group discussions to ensure participants acquire information provide on the EQuIP Review Feedback form.

15. Were there missing Dimension I components? Which item(s)?
Table Discussion
Were there missing Dimension I components?
Which item(s)?
What would need to be updated about the lesson to meet the rubric criteria?
Note to Facilitator
Model this one for participants.
The lesson plan clearly does not have the standards explicitly stated.
The participants should point this out very quickly during the discussion.
At this time, distribute copies of the standards for teachers to reference. (EACH REGION HAS A CLASSROOM SET OF THE ALABAMA COURSE OF STUDY ELA STANDARDS)
Take a few minutes to allow participants to work in partners to find and read the standards before going on.
Other areas that are weak:
RL4 and5 are weak and could be strengthened by adding text dependent questions.

16. Lunch

17. Unit Analysis
Using the rubric, determine if the unit meets the criteria of the bulleted items in Dimension II.
In the blank beneath Dimension II, make notes of concerns/issues; list items needed for improvement to meet criteria of rubric.
Check to the left of the bulleted item if the lesson plan meets the criteria listed.
Participants will work in partnerships to complete dimension II, but both partners will need to jot notes on their own tool.
All shifts may not apply to these lessons.
Note Facilitators should focus closely on group discussions to ensure participants acquire information provide on the EQuIP Review Feedback form.

18. Table Discussion Were there missing Dimension II components?
Which item(s)?
What would need to be updated about the lesson to meet the criteria?
If participants don’t mention these you can add them.
Adding a few more text dependent questions for RL 4 and 5 would strengthen the focus.
On day 1 domain specific vocabulary is addressed but here is not formal vocabulary instruction.
Include vocabulary acquisition strategies here
Adding on-demand writing would strengthen this lesson.

19. Unit Analysis
Using the rubric, determine if the unit meets the criteria of the bulleted items in Dimension III.
In the blank beneath Dimension III, make notes of concerns/issues; list items needed for improvement to meet criteria of rubric.
Check to the left of the bulleted item if the lesson plan meets the criteria listed.
Keep in mind, we are addressing some of your concerns from last year about special populations – EL, Special Education, struggling students, more advanced students.
As you are reading dimension III and thinking about the lesson, consider the students in your class that fall into this category. What instructional supports do you notice?
Note Facilitators should focus closely on group discussions to ensure participants acquire information provide on the EQuIP Review Feedback form.

20. Table Discussion Were there missing Dimension III components?
Which item(s)?
What would need to be updated about the lesson to meet the rubric criteria?
What scaffolds are visible?
What scaffolds are still needed?
Scaffolding - Always start with the top, as this is the level of thinking you want all students to reach. Remember that scaffolding does not mean “dumbing it down” for some students; it means providing the structures necessary for students to reach the highest levels of thinking.
If participants don’t mention these please add:
Extensions were not provided for students who read well above the grade level text band.
No supports were provided for diverse learners.
The inclusion of foundational reading would strengthen the unit.
No technology was included.

21. Basic Definition
Temporary support structures a teacher puts in place to assist students in accomplishing a task they might otherwise not reach
Appendix A: Common Core State Standards
What is Instructional Scaffolding?
Have participants read the definition of instructional scaffolding silently.
Discuss with a partner what stood out to you.
The word TEMPORARY is important because, like a scaffold used in constructing and repairing buildings, the support is not permanent. The support is provided by the classroom teacher, a resource teacher, or a fellow classmate..
How will you know when to remove the scaffold? What evidence will support that decision?

22. Curriculum Guide to the Alabama Course of Study: English Language Arts K-12
One tool that can be helpful as you consider the EL, special education and struggling students in your class is the Alabama
Curriculum Guide for English Language Arts.
Curriculum Guides -
Facilitators – Background Knowledge for facilitators.
The Curriculum Guides provide a series of prerequisite and enabling skills that may be taught to help students access grade-level content standards that were missed in an earlier grade.  
Teachers report that they use the Curriculum Guides to pre-asses skills to discover the content students do and do not know. 
If a small group of students, for example, requires additional knowledge/skills to understand grade-level content, the general and special education teachers can plan classroom instruction accordingly. 
Additionally, general and special education teachers use the Alabama Curriculum Guides to match student needs with evidence-based practices such as collaborative teaching, peer tutoring, and flexible instructional grouping. 
Alabama teachers report that the Curriculum Guides have helped to address the achievement gap often experienced by students with disabilities and with general education students with gaps in their learning.
Handouts of pages 47-49, 53,57, and 63 from Curriculum Guide. These pages are some of the standards taught in the Fisherman and His Wife.

23. Unit Analysis
Using the rubric, determine if the unit meets the criteria of the bulleted items in Dimension IV.
In the blank beneath Dimension IV, make notes of concerns/issues; list items needed for improvement to meet criteria of rubric.
Check to the left of the bulleted item if the lesson plan meets the criteria listed.
Remember we will focus each session on formative assessment. In your analysis were the students formatively assessed?

24. Table Discussion Were there missing Dimension IV components?
Which item(s)?
What would need to be updated about the lesson to meet the criteria?
If participants don’t mention please add:
The inclusion of a rubric to score final student writing on the final task would strengthen the unit.
There is not a method for pre-assessment or self-assessment. Having students write an on-demand paragraph as mentioned in Dimension II as a pre-assessment would guide the focus of writing instruction for the lesson.

25. Outcome 3
Determine how the standards connect across multiple lessons to provide differentiation in Tier One and maximize student learning.

26. Let’s Consider
RL3.3 – Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
Let’s consider
How did the teacher carry one standard across multiple lessons?
How did the teacher differentiate the instruction on that standard across multiple lessons?
Model
Let’s start with the fisherman’s wife.
In the beginning of the story we learn that she is unhappy in her current home – hovel.
This sets the stage for the theme of the story, which is greed.
Her actions contribute to the feelings and actions of the other characters and the sequence of events in the story.
Talk to a partner about how her actions and feeling contribute to the actions and feelings of the other characters in the story. Cite evidence from text to support your thinking.
Consider how you can use this same standard focusing on the other characters in the story and the effect this has on the sea.

28. Take It Back
Take the EQuIP rubric review tool back to your school and use it to analyze a unit of study from any content area.
Use the analysis results to determine what needs updating to meet the criteria of the unit.
Bring back findings to share with others.
Begin to use The Curriculum Guide to the Alabama Course of Study: English Language Arts K-12 to provide differentiated support for special populations in Tier One instruction.

29. Four Planning Questions
What is my desired outcome?
What steps will I take to reach my desired outcomes?
How will I know when the desired outcome has been met?
What will I do if the learning does or does not occur?