Rigorous Learning

Editor's Notes

• #4: Employer Expectations: Employers increasingly need their employees to use a broader set of skills than have been required in the past to meet the increasingly complex demand coming from the modernized workplace.Skills Mismatch: While fifty years ago a large proportion of jobs were classified as unskilled, attainable by young people with high school diplomas or less, today only one-fifth of jobs are considered unskilled. The demand for higher skilled workers has increased, while the production of higher skilled workers has remained flat.International Advantage: Other nations are surpassing the U.S. in improving their educational systems to increase achievement, reduce achievement gaps, and educating themselves as a way to a better economy, while the U.S. remains stagnant.Personal Benefits: More education is associated with higher earnings and higher rates of employment. Educational attainment isn’t just a benefit in the short-term; more education is correlated with larger projections of lifetime earnings at every level of the pipeline.
• #5: In education, we are all familiar with new waves that come along…right now, we know some of the new waves crashing on our shores…The Common Core…College/Career Readiness…and renewed focus on Inquiry Skills, Thinking Skills and presenting students with more Authentic Learning tasks. As waves surge, they can be threatening…or….
• #6: …we can master the waves and turn something that can be overwhelming into a great ride. This was the original thinking behind INFOhio’sImatrix project…finding a way to help educators ride these new waves and keep them from “going under”…
• #7: Clarify here that our standards arent’ just about Common Core. With the advent of the New Ohio Learning Standards, students and educators are seeing key priority shifts with new Ohio Learning Standards and Next Generation Assessments.
• #8: This slide graphical shows which standards are Common Core and which standards have been Ohio developed.
• #10: Over the years, College and Career Readiness seems to have had different meanings, but it seems to me and David Conley confirmed this at the Innovative Learning Environments conference that college and career readiness is coming into its own. I really liked one of his statements that reaffirmed that college and career readiness isn’t about graduating, but more about readiness to be a life long learner. Massachusetts definition of college and career ready will demonstrate the knowledge, skills and abilities that are necessary to successfully complete entry level, credit-bearing college courses, participate in certificate or workplace training programs, and enter economically viable career pathways. College and career readiness refers to the content knowledge, skills, and habits that students must possess to be successful in postsecondary education or training that leads to a sustaining career. A student who is ready for college and career can qualify for and succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing college courses without the need for remedial or developmental coursework. (http://www.epiconline.org/Issues/college-career-readiness/definition.dot)
• #11: We talked a lot in the beginning of the presentation about Start Ready, Leave Ready and Ohio has added a layer of emphasis to this program by adopting the Third Grade Reading Guarantee. There is so much about the Guarantee that I could go into when it comes to the diagnostics, the reading endorsement for teachers, who can teach a student that is not on track and what happens if a student isn’t on track by the end of third grade. I really don’t want to spend our time on policy, but I thought the State Superintendent’s comment at the last State Board meeting gives us a sense of the sincerity and need to see the Third Grade Reading Guarantee as an important part of College and Career Readiness.
• #12: This is the new ODE website for Third Grade Reading Guarantee. If you are looking for the best information and the most up to date, always check here first.
• #13: Starting this year, school districts and charter schools will have to screen all students in kindergarten through third grade by Sept. 30. Then within 60 days, they have to come up with a plan to provide extra help to each child who needs it. Once the student has gotten at least two years of "intervention," he can be kept in third grade for up to two years. Until he's reading at grade level, he must have at least 90 minutes of reading instruction daily and his teacher must meet the state's definition of "high-performing." World Book Early World of Learning will help with K-2 as they prepare for the 3rd grade reading guarantee. How can this be a college and career readiness tool? Reading comprehension and fluency predicate success in the rest of the grade levels and helps to increase the rigor that students will meet at the upper grades.
• #14: Find the answers to the questions on this slide at http://www.corestandards.org/.
• #15: Common Core State Standards are organized by: Strands -major areas of study: reading, writing, listening/speaking and language.Topics -organizational grouping of the standardsStandard Statements - essential knowledge and skills to be learned at each grade level or grade bandReminder: This is the ELA common core format. Math’s format is different.
• #16: The CCSS have a coding system that will be used by all states.
• #17: These vertical alignments from the English Language Arts Common Core demonstrate the research strands in the Writing standards. Notice the scaffolding that occurs from one grade level to another.
• #18: The CCSS include anchor standards which can be found at the beginning of each strand. Because there are 10 standards for reading, there are 10 anchor standards. In addition to the anchor standards, there are three appendices that can further assist teachers. The Common Core also includes the literacy standards for History, Science, and other Technical Subjects for grades 6-12.Appendix A – an excellent resource for understanding the topic of text complexity.Appendix B – provides examples of grade appropriate text for each grade level. Caution: These titles are not to be used as a reading list. They are examples of text complexity appropriate for each grade. Appendix B also provides examples of performance tasks related to the exemplar texts for each grade level.Appendix C – provides student writing exemplars for each grade level.
• #19: Literacy standards for reading and writing in Science, Social Studies, History and Technical Subjects. Technical subjects can be Engineering or it could be Art.
• #20: Notice the grade levels that are covered and the assumption thati is made about K-5.
• #21: K-5 “A single K–5 section lists standards for reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language across the curriculum, reflecting the fact that most or all of the instruction students in these grades receive comes from one teacher”6-12 “Grades 6–12 are covered in two content area–specific sections, the first for the English language arts teacher and the second for teachers of history/social studies, science, and technical subjects”
• #22: Although these shifts are from the ELA standards, it is important to realize that the expectation is that all content area teachers should embrace these hsifts as well. How do we know this? Ohio has adopted the Literacy Standards for History, Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects. Students should be required to read and write about informational topics/issues in all content areass.
• #23: Note the increased emphasis on nonfiction through the grade level progression. Note you may hear nonfiction called literary non-fiction.
• #24: The Common Core standards suggest several genres of short text, both literary and informational, that can work at the elementary level. Many kinds of traditional literature—folktales, legends, myths, fables, as well as short stories, poetry, and scenes from plays—enable and reward close reading. For informational works, try short articles, biographies, personal narratives, and even some easier primary source materials, such as Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, or sayings from Poor Richard’s Almanac. Appendix B of the Common Core State Standards [CCSS] notes numerous picture books that can be used with younger readers. Because children’s listening comprehension outpaces their reading comprehension in the early grades, it’s important that young students build knowledge through being read to as well as through independent reading, with the balance gradually shifting to silent, independent reading. [CCSS 30]
• #25: All forms of literature and literary nonfiction are expanded.
• #26: Informational text can a variety of features, assisting the reader to more easily navigate the text and often provide additional information to help them comprehend the content.
• #27: The three parts of text complexity rely upon both computer-generated information and professional knowledge.
• #30: As of November 2012 a variety of measures are acceptable.
• #32: (Even choosing excerpts from Appendix B is less effective because it removes the reader and task considerations from the equation.) Remember Appendix B gives suggested titles, not required titles.
• #35: The demand for evidence can be thought of as “reading like a detective and writing like a reporter”Most college and workplace writing requires evidence.Ability to cite evidence differentiates strong from weak student performance on NAEPBeing able to locate and deploy evidence are hallmarks of strong readers and writersRemember: citing evidence based on reading can be done with literary as well as informational texts
• #37: The PARCC Content Frameworks are good to use to begin developing lessons that reflect what should be taught each quarter in preparation for the increased rigor needed for the new assessments. Let’s take a look at a Model Content Framework. This one is for Grade 3. What you are looking at is an example of one possible way to organize curriculum to ensure that all standards are covered in the course of a school year.Each grade level framework takes into account the correct amount of time that should be spent on each type of reading (informational/literary) and writing (narrative, explanatory, argument).Let’s focus in on each section of the framework.Along the left column you will see the four modules (A, B, C, D) which could be seen as the four grading periods of a school year. Once again this organization is just one way the curriculum could be organized. Equally successful modules could be based around semesters, trimesters or other school schedules.Across the top you will notice the 3 main elements of instruction: blue Reading Complex Texts, orange Writing to Texts, and purple Research Project. Also note the arrows connecting the sections to suggest the integrated nature of reading, writing and research. Under each heading you can see the standards that are addressed in that section. For example, the blue Reading Complex Texts section addresses (click) Reading Literature and Reading Informational Texts, grade 3, standard 10. The orange Writing to Texts section addresses (click) Writing standards for grade 3, #s 1-6, and 9-10 as well as Reading Literature and Reading Informational Text standards for grade 3, #s 1 – 10. On over to the Research in purple (click) you see the reading and writing standards that are addressed in that section.Each module suggests both the number and types of texts that students read and analyze. For example, look at Module A which might be the first grading period of the school year. Students should read 1 extended literary text (click), and 5-9 short literary texts (click). These shorter texts should be comprised of 3-5 myths/fables (click), 1-2 science texts, and 1-2 social studies or arts related texts. Each of the four modules offer the correct balance of informational and literary texts to ensure that grade 3 students are being exposed to 50/50 split as called for by the Common Core State Standards.In the writing section (orange) students then write about these texts either to express an opinion/make an argument or to inform/explain. They may also use these texts as models or triggers for crafting imaginative narratives or narrative descriptions. For module A, it is suggested that students write 2 analyses pieces that focus on opinions (click) and 1-2 narrative pieces to either convey experiences, events and/or procedures (click).In addition a research task appears in each module. (click)As indicated by the bar that stretches underneath the chart, the skills of reading, writing, and research rest on a fundamental skill set that includes citing evidence, analyzing content , using correct grammar, acquiring and apply vocabulary, conducting discussions and reporting findings.Finally because this example is for grade 3, the Reading: Foundational Skills standards (click) would be integrated across all modules as seen at the very bottom of the chart.The Model Content Frameworks permit educators the flexibility to shape the content within the modules in any way that suits their desired purposes and even re-order themodules themselves. Because all the standards are represented, the order of the modules is not important.What changes from module to module is the focus and emphasis on the types of texts read and written about; what remains constant across all four modules is the cultivation of students’ literacy skills in preparation for college and career readiness as well as the future PARCC assessments.
• #39: According to research: We spend too much time teaching Tier One words, not enough time on Tier Two words, and just about the right amount of time on Tier Three words.
• #40: Far less well-defined by contextual clues and far less likely to be explicitly defined within the text than Tier 3 words are.
• #41: Let’s explore the webpage and the different audience resources.
• #43: The INFOhio Curriculum Toolbox is new this year and will be growing with the release of our new website. We are using a curation tool calledScoopIT to create instructional linkage between the resources and instructional strategies. Right now, we have several Scoops created for college and career readiness. In just a few minutes, I am going to point out the highlights of these Scoops by grade band. So let’s start with K-3.
• #44: If you would like to follow along, please click the link on the slide as we move into the Elementary ScoopIt. Please feel free to explore while I talk.
• #45: INFOhio’s webinars for 2012-2013 will emphasize the common core.