Common Core Standards and the Edmonds School District

1. Common Core Standards and the Edmonds School District October 7, 2013 Sarah Schumacher, Manager of Secondary Education

2. Common Core State Standards • National standards • Math • English Language Arts – Reading, Writing, Language, Speaking & Listening • Includes History/Social Studies, Science, and other Technical Subjects • Focus on Career and College Readiness • Articulated K-12 • Assessments aligned with the standards are being created by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium • Math and English Language Arts are assessed • These assessments begin in 2014-15 at 3rd-8th and 11th grades

3. What are the big shifts? – English Language Arts • Building content knowledge through content-rich nonfiction • Balance of literary and informational (non-fiction) text • Literacy in the content areas • Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational • Text-based questions and answers • Writing using evidence • Regular practice with complex text and its academic language • Academic vocabulary • Increased complexity of text

4. What will this look like in the classroom? • Students reading more non-fiction texts in Science, Social Studies, Health, etc. • Pairing of literary and informational texts, which can include artwork, film, etc. • Shifts in writing – opinion/argumentation, narrative, informative/explanatory • Short research projects

5. What are the big shifts? - Math • Focus – Teachers significantly narrow and deepen the scope of how time and energy is spent in the classroom • Coherence – Teachers carefully connect the learning within and between grades so that students can build new understanding onto foundations built in previous years. • Rigor – Students deeply understand and can operate easily within a math concept before moving on. They learn more than the ‘trick’ to get the answer right; they learn the math. • Mathematical Practices – Students in all grades are expected to reason and explain, make sense of problems, persevere in problem solving, model using tools, and see structure and generalize.

8. What will this look like in the classroom? • Deeper focus on certain concepts and skills • More opportunities for students to explain their thinking • Students engaged in discussion around concepts and problems • Real-world problems that require students to use various skills and strategies

10. What does teacher learning look like? • Teachers learning via a train-the-trainer model – learning takes place on building days or during other collaborative opportunities • Job-embedded learning alongside elementary coaches and secondary coordinators • Ongoing learning opportunities throughout the year, going deeper into certain topics

11. Communication with Parents and community • Developing plans for next year – district-wide and school-based • This year, conducting a review of the elementary progress report • Will be done with a representative group of teacher leaders • Public process in the spring