Making Sense of the Appendices and the Explanations and examples Document

1. Making Sense of the Appendices and the Explanations and examples Document Arizona’s Common Core Standards English Language Arts Claudia Gaxiola

2. Appendices and Alignment Document • Goal • Articulate the research in Appendix A that supports the need for increased text complexity • Identify in Appendix B grade level text samples and performance tasks • Build awareness of the exemplars of student writing in Appendix C • Understand the purpose and intended use of the Explanations and Examples Document.

3. Appendices and Alignment Document • Essential Questions • Why is there a need for increased text complexity? • What is text complexity and what are its components? • Where would examples of appropriate text complexity for specific grade levels be found? How should scaffolding be used? • How might the annotated writing samples be used by leadership and classroom teachers? • How might the Explanations and Examples Document be used to support teachers?

4. Appendix A Research Supporting Key Elements of the Standards Glossary of Key Terms

5. Appendix AResearch Supporting Key Elements of the Standards

6. Appendices • Appendix A: • Articulates the research that supports the need for increased text complexity K-12. • Appendix B: • Applies understanding of text complexity to identify grade level text samples and corresponding performance tasks. • Appendix C: • Identifies exemplars of student writing.

7. Appendix A: the Big Picture • “Take a walk” through Appendix A • First Thoughts? • Usefulness? • Surprises?

8. Appendix A: The Big Picture • Reading • The Standards’ Approach to Text Complexity • Key considerations in Implementing Text Complexity • The Standards’ Grade-Specific Text Complexity Demands • The Model in Action: Sample Annotated Reading Texts • Reading Foundational Skills • Writing • Speaking and Listening • Language • Vocabulary

9. Appendix A • Pages 2-5 Jigsaw

10. Activity 1 - Handout: What is text complexity and why does text complexity need to increase? What does the research tell us? • What is the need for increased text complexity? • Materials: Appendix A pp 2-5 • Jigsaw • Why Text Complexity Matters (p 2) • College, Careers, and Citizenship: Steady or Increasing Complexity of Texts and Tasks (p 2-3) • K-12 Schooling: Declining Complexity of Texts…(p 3) • The Consequences: Too Many Students Reading at Too Low a Level • Assign a section to each member at your table. Share your findings.

11. Overview of Text Complexity • Reading Standards include exemplar texts (stories and literature, poetry, and informational texts) that illustrate appropriate level of complexity by grade. • Text complexity is defined by: Qualitative measures – levels of meaning, structure, language conventionality and clarity, and knowledge demands 2. Quantitative measures – readability and other scores of text complexity Quantitative Qualitative • Reader and Task – background knowledge of reader, motivation, interests, and complexity generated by tasks assigned Reader and Task

12. Text Complexity • Qualitative dimensions of text complexity are best • measured or only measurable by an attentive human • reader. • Dimensions include • meaning or purpose • structure • language conventionality • clarity • knowledge demands

13. Qualitative Dimensions of Text Complexity Page 6 • Knowledge Demands: Life Experiences (literary texts) • Simple theme → Complex or sophisticated themes • Knowledge Demands: Cultural/Literary Knowledge (chiefly literary texts) • Everyday knowledge and familiarity with genre conventions • required → Cultural and literary knowledge useful • Knowledge Demands: Content/Discipline Knowledge (chiefly informational texts) • Everyday knowledge and familiarity with genre conventions required → Extensive, perhaps specialized discipline-specific content knowledge required

14. Qualitative Dimensions of Text Complexity • Levels of Meaning (literary texts) or Purpose (informational texts) • Explicitly stated purpose → Implicit purpose, may be hidden or obscure • Structure • Explicit → Implicit • Language Conventionality and Clarity • Literal → Figurative or ironic Page 6

15. Activity Respond to the Question: How do the Qualitative Dimensions help teachers address rigor and higher order thinking skills? • On page six in Appendix A, read the list of Qualitative Dimensions. • Talk about one or two of the dimensions with your partner. • How could the dimensions affect classroom instruction? • *If publishers don’t address this, as professionals, we must.

16. Quantitative Dimensions of Text Complexity • Quantitative Dimensions refer to: • word length • word frequency • sentence length • text cohesion • These are difficult, if not impossible, for a human reader to evaluate efficiently, especially in long texts. Today they are typically measured by computer software.

17. Reader & Task Considerations • These decisions are best made by teacherswho employ their professional judgment,experience, and knowledge of their studentsand the subject. • Variables specific to reader’s • Motivation • Knowledge • Experiences

18. Reader and Task Support • Students reading well above and well below grade-band levels need additional support. • Many students on course for college and career readiness are likely to need scaffolding as they master higher levels of text complexity.

19. Scaffolding • It is important to recognize that scaffolding often is entirely appropriate, particularly with challenging texts. • The general movement, however, should be toward decreasing scaffolding and increasing independence both within and across the text complexity bands defined in the Standards.

20. Text Complexity Activity Great whirling storms roar out of the oceans in many parts of the world. They are called by several names-hurricane, typhoon, and cyclone are the three most familiar ones. But no matter what they are called, they are all the same sort of storm. They are born in the same way, in tropical waters. They develop the same way, feeding on warm, moist air. And they do the same kind of damage, both ashore and at sea. Other storms may cover a bigger area or have higher winds, but none can match both the size and the fury of hurricanes. They are earth’s mightiest storms. Like all storms, they take place in the atmosphere, the envelope of air that surrounds the earth and presses on its surface. The pressure at any one place is always changing. There are days when air is sinking and the atmosphere presses harder on the surface. These are the times of high pressure. There are days when a lot of air is rising and the atmosphere does not press down as hard. These are times of low pressure. Low-pressure areas over warm oceans give birth to hurricanes. From Lauber, Patricia. Hurricanes: Earth’s Mightiest Storms. New York: Scholastic, 1995. Excerpt from “The Making of a Hurricane.”

21. Text Complexity • Text complexity is an important component of the new standards, how would you explain it to a parent? Think Share

22. Writing • Emphasis on argument and informative/explanatory writing • Writing about sources • Students are required to adapt their writing to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks Pg. 23

23. Listening and Reading Comprehension by Age Pg. 26

24. Language • Acquisition of general academic and domain-specific vocabulary • Knowledge of Language • Conventions • Progressive Skill Development • Skills should be mastered in the year they are introduced. • (example) • K-3 Simple, Past Present and Future Verb Tenses • 4-5 Progressive and Perfect Tenses • 8th Active and Passive Voice Pg. 29

25. Appendix B Text Exemplars and Sample Performance Tasks

26. Background- Appendix B: Text Exemplars and Sample Performance Tasks • Selecting Text Exemplars • Exemplars are useful guideposts. • Complexity • Quality • Range Page 2

27. Sample Performance Tasks • Text exemplars are supplemented by brief performance tasks. • Tasks illustrate specifically the application of the Standards to texts of sufficient complexity, quality, and range.

28. Sample Performance Tasks • Students (with prompting and support from the teacher) describe the relationship between key events of the overall story of Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik to the corresponding scenes illustrated by Maurice Sendak. [RL.K.7] • Students describe how the narrator’s point of view in Walter Farley’s The Black Stallion influences how events are described and how the reader perceives the character of Alexander Ramsay, Jr. [RL.5.6] • Students summarize the development of the morality of Tom Sawyer in Mark Twain’s novel of the same name and analyze its connection to themes of accountability and authenticity by noting how it is conveyed through characters, setting, and plot. [RL.8.2] • Students analyze how Michael Shaara in his Civil War novel The Killer Angels creates a sense of tension and even surprise regarding the outcome of events at the Battle of Gettysburg through pacing, ordering of events, and the overarching structure of the novel. [RL.9–10.5] Pg. 61

29. Appendix B: Organization Pg. 4

30. Activity 5Touring the TitlesRespond to the Questions • Does my reading program have the appropriate level of text complexity? • How would I know? • What are examples of appropriate text complexity for specific grade levels?

31. Activity 5Touring the TitlesRespond to the Questions What you need • Appendix A: Pages 4-16 • Appendix B: Table of Contents • Highlighters • At your tables, highlight titles currently being used in your grade level. • Using a different colored highlighter, identify titles that have been moved from your level to another grade. • What “AHAS” and “UH-OHS” did you observe?

32. Appendix C Samples of Student Writing

33. Samples of Student Writing • Writing samples: • Annotated to illustrate the criteria required to meet the standards • Samples include the following types of writing at all grade levels: • Argument (“opinion” writing in K-4) • Informative/explanatory • Narrative • Demonstrate the lowest level of quality required to meet the Writing standards for that grade level

34. Writing Samples: Kindergarten Standards Pg. 19 • K.W.1 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic or the name of the book they are writing about and states an opinion or preference about the topic or book. • Find the Student Sample: K, Argument (Opinion) in your Handout Section. • Annotations refer back to the standards • The writer of this piece • Tells the reader the name of the book (in the title of the paper). • My fabit(favorite) Book is do you Want to be my FRIEND • States an opinion or preference about the book. • . . . My fait (favorite) pot (part) is the hos (horse) Appendix C Pg. 6

35. Activity Take a Peek! • Read through the student writing samples from your grade level band. • Discuss how the annotated writing samples might be used by leadership, classroom, and content teachers.

36. The English Language Arts explanations and examples Document • A Brief History: • Crosswalk • Alignment Document • Explanations and Examples Document • Explanations and Examples are the result of two efforts including ADE/ELA committee work and a national perspective from commoncore.org.

37. Coding: Quick Review • 1.RL.1 • RL.1.1 Standard 1 Grade Level Strand: Reading Literature

38. Design of Document • Some standards have an ‘AZ’ in front of the grade level number of the standard. • These standards were added by the AZ Review Committee as part of the Arizona additions to the standards.

39. Design of Document Clustersare a category of College and Career Readiness (CCR) Anchor Standards. For example under the Reading Literature (RL) Strand, the clusters are: Key Ideas and Details Craft and Structure Integration of Knowledge and Ideas Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity

40. Grade K Explanations and examples

41. Grade 2 Explanations and examples

42. Activity 7: HandoutTable Discussion: Three Sentence Wrap up Explanations and Examples Document Individually- Summarize what you have learned about the Explanations and Examples Document and how it might be used in three sentences or less. As a Table Group- Refine the summaries into one Three Sentence Wrap Up. Be ready to share.

43. OLD Grade 2 Alignment Document ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS ALIGNMENT OF 2010 STANDARDS TO ARIZONA 1996, 2003 and 2004 STANDARDS Examples and Explanations from ELA Committee and Common Core.org Grade 2

44. Appendices and Alignment Document • Essential Questions • Why is there a need for increased text complexity? • What is text complexity and what are its components? • Where would examples of appropriate text complexity for specific grade levels be found? How should scaffolding be used? • How might the annotated writing samples be used by leadership and classroom teachers? • How might the Explanations and Examples Document be used to support teachers?

45. Activity Stop and Go • The appendices provide useful information and support for educators. • Using the document as a foundation for building teacher understanding about Arizona’s Common Core ELA Standards, think about what you have learned and what you will take back to your site.

46. Resources • Please fill out a 3-2-1 Summary • If you are not returning for Days 2 & 3, please fill out an evaluation form Thank you!

47. Resources • Center for K-12 Assessment & Performance • Management at ETS Assessment Article • www.k12center.org • Arizona Department of Education • http://www.azed.gov/standards-practices/common-core-state-standards/ • Our CC Wikispace • http://pcrsc2010elacommoncorestandards.wikispaces.com/