Refocusing Instruction for the Kansas Common Core Standards

1. English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects Refocusing Instruction for theKansas Common Core Standards

2. A Renewed Vision for College and Career Readiness (CCR) The Standards “define general, cross-disciplinary literacy expectations that must be met for students to be prepared to enter college and workforce training programs ready to succeed” (p. 4).

3. An Integrated Model of Literacy • An advantage to Kansas over our now-retired, isolated standards in reading; writing; and speaking, listening, and viewing. • The four “strands” of the Kansas Common Core Standards are woven together to show the inter-connected nature of communication processes. • Examples: • Writing standard #9 requires that students write about what they read • Speaking and Listening standard #4 sets the expectation that students will share findings from their research • Language standard #1 obliges students to show command of the conventions of English grammar and usage when they write and speak Adapted from “Key Design Considerations” (page 4 of the Standards)

4. Shared Responsibility for Students’ Literacy Development “The Standards insist that instruction in reading, speaking, listening, and language be a shared responsibility within the school” (p. 4). “This division reflects the unique time-honored place of ELA teachers in developing students’ literacy skills while at the same time recognizing that teachers in other areas must have a role in this development as well” (p. 4). Adapted from “Key Design Considerations” (page 4 of the Standards)

5. Hallmarks of College and Career Readiness in English Language Arts and Literacy • College and Career Ready Students: • Demonstrate independence in “the 4 C’s” • Comprehend complex text • Critique the craft used to create text • Construct rich understandings of content • Convey multifaceted meaning • Build strong content knowledge through research • Respond to varying demands of audience, purpose, task, and discipline in writing and speaking • Adjust purpose • Appreciate nuance • Provide evidence as appropriate to the discipline • Use technology and digital media strategically and capably to deepen encounters with text and content and to present and share information • Come to understand other perspectives and cultures Adapted from “Students Who are College and Career Ready…” (page 7 of the Standards)

6. But how do we ensure our students reach these hallmarks of college- and career-readiness?

7. Publisher’s Criteria, Grades K-2 and 3-12 PLEASE NOTE: The ideas appearing in these documents do not represent a full, rich, or robust delineation of all that should be included in our curricula and instruction; instead, they represent a collection of highlights of broad, general ways we must re-tool some aspects of our curricula and instruction. • Documents available on KSDE website <http://www.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=4605> • Outline four key considerations for our curricula and instruction: • Text complexity • Range and quality of texts • High-quality, text-dependent questions and tasks • Writing and research that analyzes sources and deploys evidence

8. Text Complexity “The Common Core Standards hinge on students encountering appropriately complex texts at each grade level in order to develop the mature language skills and the conceptual knowledge they need for success in school and life” (p. 3).

9. Text Complexity • Text complexity is defined by: • Quantitative Measures – readability and other scores of text complexity • Qualitative Measures – levels of meaning, structure, language conventionality and clarity, and knowledge demands • Reader and Task Considerations – background knowledge of reader, motivation, interests, and complexity generated by tasks assigned

10. Text Complexity Resources for Analyzing Text Complexity are available on the KSDE website: <http://www.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=4605>

11. Close, Sustained Reading and Re-reading PLEASE NOTE: Again, this is not to say that compact, short, self-contained texts are the only things students should read but that they are the “priority.” • The Standards “prioritize” compact, short, self-contained texts that require students “to probe and ponder:” • Meanings of individual words • Order in which sentence unfold • Development of ideas of the course of the text • Reading and re-reading for the purpose of gathering evidence to support ideas and claims

12. Direct Access to Text • Instructional scaffolding should not… • “Pre-empt or replace the reading of the text” • “Translate the content of the text” • “Provide a ‘simpler source’ of the same information” In short, students should do the heavy lifting of reading and acquiring content on their own.

13. A Focus on Academic Vocabulary • Appendix A outlines a three-tier model for vocabulary1 • Tier 1 Words • everyday speech • not the focus of instruction • Tier 2 Words • Words that are far more likely to appear in written texts than in speech • Often represent subtle or precise ways to communicate relatively simple ideas • Found across many types of text • Are not specific to any one discipline • Tier 3 Words • Specific to a domain or a field of study • Key to understanding a new concept within a text • Often explicitly defined by an author • Often heavily scaffolded in text (e.g., bold-faced, defined in glossary, etc.) • Tier 2 and Tier 3 words deserve equal attention in instruction. 1Beck, McKeown, and Kucan; 2002, 2008.

14. Range and Quality of Texts PLEASE NOTE: The percentages on the table reflect the sum of student reading, not just reading in ELA settings. Teachers of senior English classes, for example, are not required to devote 70 percent of reading to informational texts. Rather, 70 percent of student reading across the grade should be informational. • Include a stronger focus on… • More information text in elementary school • More literary non-fiction in ELA classes in grades 6-12

15. Range and Quality of Texts “Teachers and students are guided to analyze dense arguments and information at the heart of complex literary non-fiction […] particularly literary non-fiction that makes an extended argument or provides dense scientific, historical, or technical information.” This emphasis mirrors the Writing Standards focus on students’ abilities to marshal an argument and write to inform or explain. This shift “constitutes a significant change from the traditional focus in ELA classrooms on narrative text or the narrative aspects on literary non-fiction.”

16. Range and Quality of Textsin History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects • “Provide texts that are valuable sources of information” • May not always exhibit literary craft, but they should be “worthy of reading” • Focused on “such significant topics that they are worth the instructional time for students to examine them slowly and deliberately” • “Include opportunities to combine quantitative information derived from charts, graphs and other formats and media with information derived from text”

17. High-quality, Text-dependent Questions & Tasks • “Among the highest priorities of the Common Core Standards is that students can read closely and gain knowledge from texts.” • “More questions that can be answered only with reference to the text.” • “Sequences of questions should elicit a sustained discussion.” • Tasks must “require the use of more textual evidence.”

18. Writing and Research the Analyzes and Deploys Evidence • Draw evidence from texts to support and develop: • Analysis • Reflection • Research • Increase opportunities to write in response to sources • Extensive practice with short, focused research projects • “typically taking a week and occurring—at a minimum—quarterly” • Increase focus on argumentation and informative writing, less narrative writing

19. Writing and Research the Analyzes and Deploys Evidence PLEASE NOTE: As with reading, the percentages in the table reflect the sum of student writing, not just writing in English Language Arts. Also, these modes of writing are not mutually exclusive; multiple purposes often exist within a single piece of writing.

20. Grammar and Usage Conventions “The Language Standards provide a focus for instruction each year to ensure that students gain adequate mastery of the essential ‘rules’ of standard written and spoken English.” “They also push students to learn how to approach language as a matter of craft so that they can communicate clearly and powerfully.” Instruct students to understand “when [they] should adhere to formal conventions and when they are speaking and writing for a less formal purpose.”

21. Additional Points Students should “skillfully use multimedia and technology to deepen encounters with texts and to provide opportunities for presenting and sharing information.” Teachers should “plan engaging discussions around grade level topics and texts that students have studied and researched in advance.”

22. Sunflower Literacy Learning Framework • Many of the ideas shared in the Publisher’s Criteria document are also reflected in the Sunflower Literacy Learning Framework, available in DRAFT form on the KSDE website <http://www.ksde.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=cBWsUCeRZQ8%3d&tabid=4678&mid=11155&forcedownload=true>. • The document contains a compilation of research and promising practices revolving around effective literacy instruction: • Provide explicit vocabulary instruction • Provide direct and explicit comprehension strategy instruction • Select texts purposefully • Provide opportunities for extended discussion of text meaning and interpretation • Provide opportunities for writing across the curriculum and writing within each discipline

23. For More Information Matt Copeland Kris Shaw Language Arts and Literacy ConsultantCareer, Standards, and Assessment ServicesKansas State Department of Education(785) 296-4926kshaw@ksde.org Language Arts and Literacy ConsultantCareer, Standards, and Assessment ServicesKansas State Department of Education(785) 296-5060mcopeland@ksde.org