Common Core State Standards for Literacy: What Science Teachers Need to Know

1. Common Core State Standards for Literacy:What Science Teachers Need to Know Cristina Veresan & Steve Shotola August 2011

2. Overview • State-led and developed common core standards for K-12 in English/language arts and mathematics content • Literacy standards for social studies, science, and technical subjects in grades 6-12 • Focus on teaching and learning strategies (the “how” not the “what”) • Direct link to college and work readiness • Emphasis on research, writing, speaking and listening (beyond making a presentation) • Clear vertical progressions across grades

3. Common Core State Standards • Fewer, clearer, and higher • Aligned with college and work expectations • Includes rigorous content and application of knowledge through high-order skills • Internationally benchmarked, so that all students are prepared to succeed in our global economy and society • Evidence- and/or research-based

4. Florida’s Common Core State Standards Implementation Timeline F- full implementation of CCSS for all content areas L - full implementation of content area literacy standards including: (1) text complexity, quality and range in all grades (K-12), and (2) CCSS Literacy Standards in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects (6-12) B - blended instruction of CCSS with Next Generation Sunshine State Standards (NGSSS); last year of NGSSS assessed on FCAT 2.0

5. Scope and Sequence CLICK ON THIS LINK FOR FULL TEXT OF THE LITERACY STANDARDS FOR SCIENCE. IT IS AT THE TOP OF EVERY TOPIC OF STUDY. FOR THE ENTIRE COMMON CORE STANDARDS DOCUMENT AND APPENDICES, PLEASE VISIT: WWW.CORESTANDARDS.ORG

6. Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects Reading Key Ideas and Details Craft and Structure Integration of Knowledgeand Ideas Range of Reading – Level of Text Complexity Writing Text, Types and Purposes Production and Distribution of Writing Research to Build and Present Knowledge Range of Writing

7. Anchor Standards for Reading Key Ideas and Details 1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. 2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. 3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop and interact over the course of a text. Craft and Structure 4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone. 5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole. 6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text. Integration of Knowledge and Ideas 7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words. 8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence. 9. Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take. Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity 10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

9. Anchor Standards for Writing Text Types and Purposes 1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. 2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. 3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details and well-structured event sequences. Production and Distribution of Writing 4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. 5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach. 6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others. Research to Build and Present Knowledge 7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation. 8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism. 9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. Range of Writing 10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.

11. Text Complexity • NOT cognitive complexity • The inherent difficulty of reading and comprehending a text combined with the variables of both: • the reader • reading task Texts complexity ranges from: • Simple to complex • Concrete to abstract • Explicit to implicit

12. Text Structure • Text structure refers to how text is organized: • Informational (organizational patterns) • Narrative (story grammar) • Reader understanding of text structure facilitates comprehension: • Forming expectations • Organizing incoming information • Judging relative importance • Improving comprehension • Enhancing recall

13. Expository Text Structure • Common Structure: • Sequence • Description • Compare/contrast • Cause/effect • Problem/solution • Text Content • Network of ideas and concepts • Outside of student knowledge base is complex • Generally more abstract ideas and implicit relationships

14. Grade 6-8 Text Exemplar “Space Probe.” Astronomy & Space: From the Big Bang to the Big Crunch. Edited by Phillis Engelbert. FarmingtonHills, Mich.: Gale Cengage Learning, 2009. (2009) A space probe is an unpiloted spacecraft that leaves Earth’s orbit to explore the Moon, planets, asteroids, comets, or other objects in outer space as directed by onboard computers and/or instructions send from Earth. The purpose of such missions is to make scientific observations, such as taking pictures, measuring atmospheric conditions, and collecting soil samples, and to bring or report the data back to Earth. Numerous space probes have been launched since the former Soviet Union first fired Luna 1 toward the Moon in 1959. Probes have now visited each of the eight planets in the solar system. In fact, two probes—Voyager 1 and Voyager 2—are approaching the edge of the solar system, for their eventual trip into the interstellar medium. By January 2008 Voyager 1 was about 9.4 billion miles (15.2 billion kilometers) from the Sun and in May 2008 it entered the heliosheath (the boundary where the solar wind is thought to end), which is the area that roughly divides the solar system from interstellar space. Voyager 2 is not quite as far as its sister probe. Voyager 1 is expected to be the first human space probe to leave the solar system.

15. Grade 9-10 Text Exemplar Cannon, Annie J. “Classifying the Stars.” The Universe of Stars. Edited by Harlow Shapeley and Cecilia H. Payne.Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Observatory, 1926. (1926) Sunlight and starlight are composed of waves of various lengths, which the eye, even aided by a telescope, is unable to separate. We must use more than a telescope. In order to sort out the component colors, the light must be dispersed by a prism, or split up by some other means. For instance, sunbeams passing through rain drops, are transformed into the myriad-tinted rainbow. The familiar rainbow spanning the sky is Nature’s most glorious demonstration that light is composed of many colors. The very beginning of our knowledge of the nature of a star dates back to 1672, when Isaac Newton gave to the world the results of his experiments on passing sunlight through a prism. To describe the beautiful band of rainbow tints, produced when sunlight was dispersed by his three-cornered piece of glass, he took from the Latin the word spectrum, meaning an appearance. The rainbow is the spectrum of the Sun.

16. Grade 11-12 Text Exemplar Kane, Gordon. “The Mysteries of Mass.” Scientific American Special Edition December 2005. (2005) Physicists are hunting for an elusive particle that would reveal the presence of a new kind of field that permeates all of reality. Finding that Higgs field will give us a more complete understanding about how the universe works. Most people think they know what mass is, but they understand only part of the story. For instance, an elephant is clearly bulkier and weighs more than an ant. Even in the absence of gravity, the elephant would have greater mass—it would be harder to push and set in motion. Obviously the elephant is more massive because it is made of many more atoms than the ant is, but what determines the masses of the individual atoms? What about the elementary particles that make up the atoms—what determines their masses? Indeed, why do they even have mass? We see that the problem of mass has two independent aspects. First, we need to learn how mass arises at all. It turns out mass results from at least three different mechanisms, which I will describe below. A key player in physicists’ tentative theories about mass is a new kind of field that permeates all of reality, called the Higgs field. Elementary particle masses are thought to come about from the interaction with the Higgs field. If the Higgs field exists, theory demands that it have an associated particle, the Higgs boson. Using particle accelerators, scientists are now hunting for the Higgs.

17. Science Exemplars www.corestandards.org

18. Meeting the Standards • Science teachers can address virtually the entire range of CCSS Literacy standards through best practices: • Students engage in research and technical writing related to Science Fair in grades 6-8 and high school science courses. • Students conduct short and long term research projects • Students read primary and secondary scientific journals and write informational responses. • Students develop an argument about an ethical issue in science and cite evidence to back up claims. • Students read a primary document from a different time period and explain the meaning .

19. Resources • Scope & Sequence • FOCUS • Core Standards Website www.corestandards.org • Marzano Website www.marzanoevaluation.com