ELA Grade-level Work Sessions Oct. 7 th , 2011 – ICSD PLC Day

1. ELA Grade-level Work SessionsOct. 7th, 2011 – ICSD PLC Day

2. Shifts in the ELA CCSS • Balance of informational texts and literary texts • Access the world through books -- text seen as essential tool for gaining knowledge in all content areas • Text complexity matters • Text-based answers • Emphasis on writing to inform or to make an argument (writing from sources) • Emphasis on developing academic vocabulary to support access to complex texts

3. “Power” Standards • “a subset of state standards that represent the most important elements of the curriculum” (Reeves, 2002) • Power standards represent the “safety net” of standards every teacher ensures all students learn. • Three Criteria Apply: • Endurance • Leverage • Readiness for the next level of instruction

4. Levels of Priority • Essential (Assigned Priority = 3) –The concepts, principles, or process that you want students to understand in depth. • Important (Assigned Priority = 2) – The key knowledge and skills that lead to student understanding of essential knowledge. • Nice to Know (Assigned Priority = 1) – Material that students need to encounter but not understand at a deep level.

5. Nice to Know Important Essential (1 criteria applies) (2 criteria apply) (all 3 criteria apply) • Power Standards – Hitting the Bull’s Eye! • All standards are taught, but power standards are prioritized • Criteria: • Endurance • Leverage • Readiness for the next level of instruction

6. Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) • What students will know, be able to do or be able to demonstrate when they have mastered each standard • Students will… • Specify an action by the student that is observable, measurable and able to be demonstrated. • Shared expectations in all 8 schools

7. Why a new assessment? • Need to assess reading of both informational text and literature • Inconsistency between leveling systems used in primary and intermediate grades • Inconsistency in how comprehension is assessed at different grade-levels (written vs. oral) • No resource connecting 3-5 assessment to instruction • Currently no Kindergarten reading assessment

8. Proposed Criteria for a New K-5 Benchmark Reading Assessment • Designed to be used K-5 • Consistent leveling system for grades K-5 • Assesses reading using both fiction and non-fiction text at all book levels • Comprehension assessment is done orally at all book levels • Comprehension assessment looks at literal, inferential and critical thinking • Fluency measures include reading rate as well as phrasing, expression, smoothness • Assessment is tied directly to resources to support planning for instruction

9. Assessing Higher Order Thinking Processes • What types of reading assessments can we create to provide us with formative data about our students’ ability to apply higher order thinking processes as they engage in “close reading” of text? How will students demonstrate their thinking on these assessments? • What criteria should we use to interpret our students’ performance on these assessments?