The Common Core

1. The Common Core An Introduction

2. Topics • Timeline of Implementation • Shifts in Common Core • The Standards • Relevance and Rigor • Implications

3. Background • The Background of the Common Core • Initiated by the National Governor’s Association and Council of Chief State School Officers with the following design principles: • Result in College and Career Readiness • Based on solid research and practice evidence • Fewer, Higher, Clearer

4. Timeline • CCSS and NGSS 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 • Phase 1 – CCSS and NGSS X X X Exploration • Phase 2 – Building awareness X X X X and begin building capacity • Phase 3 – Build statewide X X X X X capacity and classroom transitions • Phase 4 – Statewide application X X X and assessment

5. 2014-15 Spring Testing Schedule • End of January 2015 – EOC Math and Bio • March – HSPE Reading and Writing (11th and 12th Grade Retakes only) • April – May – SBAC ELA and Math • May – 10th Grade ELA Exam • June – EOC Math and Bio

6. Getting Started • Phase 1 – Exploration and Awareness • Take the time to immerse yourself in and learn about • The WHY and the WHAT • The background and vision of the CCR Standards • Major shifts in the content • Connectioins across content and initiatives (TPEP) • The HOW • Our state’s approach toward supporting implementation • Emerging resources and support systems

7. Introduction to the ELA/Literacy Shifts of the Common Core State Standards

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

9. Shift #1 Regular Practice with Complex Text and it’s Academic Language

10. 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.

11. 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

12. 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: • Mutiplereadings • Read Aloud • Chunking text (a little at a time) • Provide support while reading, rather than before.

13. 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.

14. Change in Lexiles

15. Example High School Texts

16. Shift #2 Reading, Writing, and Speaking Grounded in Evidence from Text, Both Literary and Informational

17. Reading, Writing and SpeakingGrounded in Evidence from Text: 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 ELA 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

18. Text-Dependent Questions Not Text-Dependent • 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 non-violent 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? Text-Dependent • 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 1776. According to Lincoln’s speech, why is this year significant to the events described in the speech?

19. Balance of Literary and Informational Texts • Literature includes • Stories • Drama • Poetry

20. Shift #3 Building Knowledge through content-rich non-fiction

21. Content-Rich Nonfiction Content-Rich Nonfiction • 50/50 balance K-5 • 70/30 in grades 9-12 • Students learning to read should exercise their ability to comprehend complex text through read-aloud texts. • In grades 2+, students begin reading more complex texts, consolidating the foundational skills with reading comprehension. • Reading aloud texts that are well-above grade level should be done throughout K-5 and beyond.

22. Building Knowledge Through Content-Rich Nonfiction: Why? • Students are required to read very little informational text in elementary and middle school. • Non-­fiction makes up the vast majority of required reading 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.

23. Sequencing Texts to Build Knowledge • Not random reading • Literacy in social studies/history, science, technical subjects, and the arts is embedded

24. The “What”: Key Content Shifts – ELA, Math, Science Shifts in Mathematics • Focus: fewer topics focused on deeply in each grade • Coherence: Concepts logically connected from one grade to the next and linked to other major topics within the grade • Rigor: Fluency with arithmetic, application of knowledge to real world situations, and deep understanding of mathematical concepts

25. The “What”: Key Content Shifts – ELA, Math, Science Shifts in Science • The NGSS Reflect the Interconnected Nature of Science through Focus, Understanding, and Application of Content • The Science Concepts in the NGSS Build Coherently from K–12. • Science and Engineering are Integrated across K–12 in the NGSS.

26. ELA Changes in Emphasis • Collaborative Discussions (Speaking and Listening) • Argumentative and Narrative Writing

27. So Who’s Responsible for all of this? Social Studies, Science and Tech Ed too! • 70% of text (over course of a day) should be informational, and responsibility is shared across disciplines! • ELA should add some Literary Nonfiction, but look for informational text in Science, Social Studies and CTE, too! • Performing and Visual arts – watch for standards soon!

28. What are the Standards? • Reading Strand • Key Ideas and Details • Craft and Structure • Integration of Knowledge and Ideas • Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity • Writing Strand • Text Types and Purposes • Production and Distribution of Writing • Research to Build Knowledge • Range of Writing

29. What are the Standards? • Speaking and Listening Strand • Comprehension and Collaboration • Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas • Language Strand • Conventions of Standard English • Knowledge of Language • Vocabulary Acquisition and Use

30. College and Career Readiness Standards (Anchor Standards) • Overarching standards for each of four strands that are further defined by grade-specific standards • Reading – 10 Standards • Writing – 10 Standards • Speaking and Listening – 6 Standards • Language – 6 Standards

31. The ELA CCSS Code W. 11-12. 1b Strand Grades Standard Number (Writing) (11-12) (Text types and purposes: Develop claims)

32. Structure of the Standards • Four Strands: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language • CCR Standards – Anchor Standards • (That by which all else is measured!) • Grade Specific Standards progressing to CCR’s • In addition to RL and RI strands, there are strands for Reading and Writing within History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects

33. Vertical Articulation Asks: • How are the content standards related from one year to the next? • Deepening of the cognitive processes for the same content • Knowledge or skills extend to a wider range of skills • New content or skills are introduced • Level of scaffolding/teacher support decreased

34. Example of Grade-Level Progression in Reading Reading Standards for Literature • Grade 3 – Describe characters in a story and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events • Grade 7 – Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact. • Grade 11-12 – Evaluate various explanations for character’s actions or for events and determine which explanation best accords with textual evidence, acknowledging where the text leaves the matters uncertain. • Reading Standards for Informational Text • Grade 3 - Describe the relationships between a series of historical events, scientific ideas of concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence and cause/effect • Grade 7 – Analyze the interactions between individuals, events and ideas in a text • Grade 11-12 – Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas or events interact and develop over the course of the text

35. Bloom’s Taxonomy • Labels the type of thinking needed to complete a task • Tracing the verbs reveals a deepening of the cognitive progression forward from K-12 Evaluation Synthesis Analysis Application Comprehension Knowledge

36. Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy • Taxonomy of revised objectives • 1950’s – developed by Benjamin Bloom • Means of qualitatively expressing different kinds of thinking • Adapted for classroom use as a planning tool and continues to be one of the most universally applied models • Provides a way to organize thinking skills into six levels, from the most basic to the higher order levels of thinking • In 2001 – Lorin Anderson (former student of Bloom) revisited the taxonomy, and as a result, a number of changes were made

37. A Comparison Original Evaluation Synthesis Analysis Application Comprehension Knowledge Revised Creating Evaluating Analyzing Applying Understanding Remembering

38. Bloom’s Taxonomy Levels Cognitive Processes Creating: Putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through generating, planning or producing. Evaluating: Making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing. Analyzing: Breaking material into constituent parts, determining how the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose through differentiating, organizing and attributing. Applying: Carrying out or using a procedure through executing or implementing. Understanding: Constructing meaning from oral, written, and graphic messages through interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing and explaining. Remembering: Retrieving, recognizing and recalling relevant knowledge from long-term memory Verbs Creating: adapt, build, compose, construct, create, design, develop, elaborate, extend, formulate, generate, hypothesize, invent, make, modify, plan, produce, originate, refine, transform Evaluating: appraise, assess, critique, defend, evaluate, judge, prioritize, support, test Analyzing: analyze, ascertain, attribute, connect, deconstruct, determine, differentiate, experiment, focus, infer, inspect, integrate, organize, outline, reduce Applying: apply, carry out, construct, develop, display, illustrate, model, solve, use Understanding: categorize, clarify, compare, conclude, contrast, compare, demonstrate, explain, interpret, match, paraphrase, predict, represent, summarize, translate Remembering: choose, define, describe, identify, label, list, match, name, recall, show, tell

39. Webb’s DoK Levels • Provides an important perspective of cognitive complexity • Name four different and deeper ways a student might interact with content • Are used by states in test specifications to include both the content assessed in a test item and the intended cognitive demand • Complexity of content (interpreting literal vs. figurative language) • Task required (summarizing in your own words vs. using evidence from various sources to support your summary)

40. DoK Levels • DoK 4 – Extended Thinking – An investigation or application to real world; requires time to research, problem solve, and process mulitple conditions of the problem or task; non-routine manipulations, across disciplines/content areas/multiple sources • DoK 3 – Strategic Thinking – Requires reasoning, developing a plan or sequence of steps to approach problem; requires some decision making a justification; abstract, complex or non-routine; often more than one possible answer • DoK 2 – Basic Application of Skills/Concepts – Use of information, conceptual knowledge, select appropriate procedures for task, two or more steps with decision points along the way, routine problems, organize/display data, interpret/use simple graphs • DoK 1 – Recall and Reproduction – Recall of a fact, term, principle, concept or perform a routine procedure

41. Cognitive Rigor Matrixby Karen Hess • Combines Bloom’s Taxonomy with Webb’s Depth of Knowledge framework • A tool for: • Designing units of study that have a range of cognitive demand • Assessing tasks for the thinking they require of a student

42. The Cognitive Rigor Matrix

43. Resources • www.stancoe.org – DoK examples • www.achievethecore.org – searchable lessons, samples and curriculum tools • www.k12.wa.us – Common Core Standards in PDF and Printable format • www.nationalartstandards.org – Common Core Art standards