An Introduction to the Common Core State Standards

1. An Introduction to the Common Core State Standards What they mean for you and your children

2. What are the Common Core Standards? http://vimeo.com/51933492

3. Activity: What is college readiness? • At your table, discuss: • What does college-readiness look like? • When is a student ready for college? • What do children need to learn to be ready for college?

4. So? What does it mean?

5. College and Career Readiness The new standards will get students ready for success in college and the workforce.

6. Why does this matter? Because it’s what our students need For every 100 ninth graders in the US… 65 graduate from high school 37 enter college 24 are still enrolled in sophomore year 12 graduate with a degree in six years

7. … and only 6 get a good job after graduation

8. The new standards will… • Preparestudents to succeed in college and the workforce • Ensure that every child—regardless of race, ethnicity or zip code—is held to the same high standards and has the same opportunity to learn • Provideeducators with a clear, focused roadmap for what to teach and when

9. States that adopted the Common Core

10. Guilford Public Schools Ready Building Awareness 2011-2012 Educators are preparing for the transition to the Common Core State Standards in mathematics, reading, and writing. This includes exploring the instructional shifts, grade level standards, and assessment samples. Set Streamlining Curricula, Instructional Shifts 2012-2013 Educators are engaging in the transition to the Common Core State Standards. This includes aligning curriculum, instruction, and assessment to the CCSS. Go Refine and Adjust 2013-2014 Educators will fully implement the Common Core State Standards. This includes aligning instruction so that students will be prepared for the new state assessment to be administered in the 2014-15 school year: Smarter Balanced.

11. What’s different in the new standards? • English Language Arts/Literacy: • Build knowledge through careful reading of content-rich non-fiction • Discuss reading, and write using evidence • Increase academic vocabulary • Mathematics • Learn more about fewer concepts • Focus on skills and fluency, including efficiency and flexibility • Use real world examples to better understand concepts

12. ELA Test Question – Pre Common Core • In both the Demosthenes biography and the Icarus and Daedalus myth the main characters are given advice from other people. Do you respond to advice from other people more like Demosthenes or more like Icarus? Write an essay in which you explain who you are more like when it comes to taking advice and why. Use details from both articles to support your answer.   • In your response, be sure to do the following: • tell whether you are more like Demosthenes or Icarus • explain why you are respond to advice similar to Demosthenes or Icarus • use details from both passages in your response

13. ELA Test Question – Post Common Core • In both the Demosthenes biography and the Icarus and Daedalus myth the main characters exhibit determination in pursuit of their goals. Did determination help both main characters reach their goals, or did it lead them to tragedy? Write an argument for whether you believe determination helped or hurt the two main characters.  In your response, be sure to do the following: • describe how determination affected the outcome in Demosthenes • describehow determination affected the outcome in Icarus and Daedalus • explainthe similarities or differences that exist in the ways determination played into the outcome of both texts • use details from both passages in your response

14. Comparing Connecticut Mastery Test to a Common Core State Standards Assessment -- Grade 7

15. So, what can parents really do to help?

16. What works best?

17. Backpacks: What you should start seeing Books that are both fiction and non-fiction Real-world examples that makes what they’re learning in English and math make more sense Writing assignments that require students to use evidenceto support their work Math homework that asks students to write out how they got their answer Math homework that ask students to use different methods to solve the same problem

18. Some questions to ask your child Did you talk about anything you read in class today? Did you use evidence from the text when you talked about what you read? What are you wondering? Where could you go to find information? How often did you use math today? How did you use it? What new words did you learn in class today? What do they mean? What mistakes did you make today and what did you learn from them?

19. Activity: Talking to your kids about school At your table, talk about strategies you use to get your kids talking about their days after school What questions do you ask? Do you discuss what they tell you? How do you get them excited to talk? What do you do when they refuse to talk?

20. A Closer Look: ELA/Literacy Shifts • Read as much non-fiction as fiction • Learn about the world by reading • Read more challenging material closely • Discuss reading using evidence • Write non-fiction using evidence • Increase academic vocabulary

21. A Closer Look: Mathematics Shifts • Focus: learn more about less • Build skills across grades • Develop speed, flexibility and accuracy • Really know it; really do it • Use it in the real world • Think efficiently AND solve problems

22. Additional resources • www.achievethecore.org • www.pta.org/4446.htm • http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/cwp/view.asp?a=2618&q=322592 • http://www.corestandards.org/ • http://www.guilford.k12.ct.us/CCSS/CCSSI.php • http://www.smarterbalanced.org/sample-items-and-performance-tasks/

23. Closing discussion What strategies did we discuss today that you think you might use with your children? What other information would be helpful to you? What other questions do you have?

24. Thank you