Common Core for English Language Arts

1. Common Core for English Language Arts Mary Newton Camille House

2. During Today’s ELA Session, We Will: Briefly review how ELA standards build across grade levels Discuss and examine three key shifts in ELA and the various roles of responsibility Analyze what Text-Based Questions with Text-Based Evidence are Identify the differences between the three tiers of vocabulary Apply our new knowledge through a lesson-based scavenger hunt

3. Vertical Alignment: ELA K-12 http://rt3nc.org/objects/standards/cclitmap/ela.html

4. Shifting Gears With Common Core, the ELA classroom should look and feel different from before. As teachers begin to shift gears, we need to redefine roles.

5. ELA/Literacy Shift 1: Building Knowledge through Content-Rich Nonfiction and Informational Text

6. ELA/Literacy Shift 2: Reading and Writing Grounded in Evidence from the Text

7. ELA/Literacy Shift 3: Regular Practice with Complex Text and its Academic Vocabulary

8. Levels of Responsibility What did you notice about the levels of responsibility over the Three Shifts? Let’s revise it for mastery and success on all levels!

9. Text Dependent Questions Ask Students to: Analyzeparagraphs on a sentence by sentence basis and sentences on a word by word basis to determine the role played by individual paragraphs, sentences, phrases, or words Investigate how meaning can be altered by changing key words and why an author may have chosen one word over another Probe each argument in persuasive text, each idea in informational text, each key detail in literary text, and observe how these build to a whole Examine how shifts in the direction of an argument or explanation are achieved and the impact of those shifts Question why authors choose to begin and end when they do Note and assess patterns of writing and what they achieve Consider what the text leaves uncertain or unstated

10. Which Are Text-Dependent Questions? Thumbs Up = Yes Thumbs Down = No How is the word liberty used differently throughout the excerpt? When was Federalist No. 10 written by James Madison? How does the analogy contribute to the reader’s understanding? Have you ever felt strongly about something like Madison that was not popularly accepted? Based on the text, how might Madison answer the essential question?

11. Text-Based Questions = Text-Based Answers • The overall Reading Anchor Standard for grades K-12 states: • “Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking tosupport conclusions drawn from the text.” • The strand changes per grade level; however, by grade 3 students “refer explicitly to the text,” by grade 5 students “quote accurately,” and from there the level of “citing” evidence intensifies

12. Resources On DPI’s ACRE webpage, there are Instructional Resources teachers can access and use. Synthesis Example: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/standards/common-core-tools/#goela

13. Common Core’s Vocabulary Organization Based on Isabel Beck’s 3 Tier Distinctions Tier 1 (sight words): Basic vocabulary children often come to school knowing – exception: ELL students and students of low socio-economic status 4000 word gap between Kindergarteners of low and high socio-economic status and 6000 word gap for ELLs Examples: river, on, because, before, after Tier 3 (domain specific): Content specific words which need to be explicitly taught (taught by content specific teachers) Examples: isosceles, democracy, protagonist

14. Tier 2 Academic Vocabulary • Tier 2 (academic): • More commonly found in writing rather than speech • Not commonly used in young children’s speech • Not usually learned by simply reading the words in context. • Words that are used in a variety of situations and used frequently (we often assume students know these, but many times they need to be taught) • Must be taught across the curriculum Examples: compare/contrast, detail, analyze, sequence (could be technical terms, informational terms, or literary terms)

15. Isabel Beck’s Criteria for Teaching Tier 2 Words: Students are likely to see the word often in other texts and across domains. The word will be useful in students’ writing. The word relates to other words or ideas that the students know or have been learning. Word choice has significance in the text. The context does not provide enough information for students to infer the meaning.

16. Resource for Teachers Academic Vocabulary Rubric

17. Scavenger Hunt! Use the Rubric and Sample Lesson to practice Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy: • Apply what you have learned today to a real-world lesson plan sample • Analyze the lesson plan for the CC elements according to the Guide • Synthesize and Evaluate the level of proficiency demonstrated through this lesson

18. Repair or Start Fresh?

19. Coming Soon http://engageny.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Tri-State-ELA-Rubric-V2-04-12-2012.pdf