1. Superintendent’s Parent Advisory Committee The Common Core State Standards: Why is this best for my child? Presented December 12, 2013 LaRae Blomquist, ELA Curriculum Specialist Jodie Cooper-Hoffman, K-12 CCSS Instructional Coach Curriculum & Professional Learning

2. Common Core State Standards: Shifts in English/Language Arts Increase reading of informational texts Increased text complexity of reading texts as measured by lexile level Focus on academic vocabulary within context of texts Emphasis on text-dependent questions and performance tasks Connect writing to reading with frequent opportunities to research information Provide literacy instruction in all content areas Let’s examine the rationale for two specific shifts!

3. Increase reading of informational texts Did you know… Most of the required reading in college and workforce training programs is informational in structure and challenging in content; postsecondary education programs typically provide students with both a higher volume of such reading than is generally required in K– 12 schools and comparatively little scaffolding? Approximately 50% of CA students who have qualified for a 4-year university and who take an English Placement Test (EPT) fail to qualify for freshmen composition?

4. What is meant by increased text complexity? “Lexile” is a way of measuring how difficult a text is to read based on sentence length and word frequency. The higher the lexile rate, the more complex the text is to read independently. Let’s examine HOW these shifts affect your child!

5. Lexile Framework ® for Reading Study Summary of Text Lexile Measures 600 800 1000 1400 1600 1200 Text Lexile Measure (L) High School Lit. College Lit. High School Texts College Texts Military Personal Use Entry- Level Occupa- tions SAT 1, ACT, AP* * Source of National Test Data: MetaMetrics Interquartile Ranges Shown (25% - 75%) 5

6. Small Group Discussion What surprised you the most with the information just presented? What questions do you have as a result?

7. Questions & Answers

8. Reasoning About Multiplication & Division: A CCSS Math Classroom… 8 Play