ELA Standards & Core Programs

1. ELA Standards & Core Programs Maximizing Your Core Resources to Raise the Level of Rigor in the Classroom

2. Outcomes I can • Describe how the key shifts in the ELA standards influence my planning for core instruction. • Discuss the standards’ implications for instructional materials. • Begin to note ideas that will be helpful in planning and implementing effective instruction that will embed rigor in teaching and learning to meet the CCRS standards.

3. Tri-Fold Note-taking Tool To Keep Track of Our Thinking

4. Revised Publishers’ Criteria for the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts • Curriculum materials should have a clear and documented research base. • Curriculum should show evidence of usability with a wide range of students, including English language learners. • Programs that already have a research base should build on that base by continuing to monitor their efficacy with the whole range of common core standards. David Coleman President of the College Board Achieve the Core

5. ELA Standards http://alex.state.al.us/index.php http://alex.state.al.us/ccrs/

6. Three Key Shifts in ELA/Literacy • Building knowledge through content-richnonfiction and informational texts. • Reading, writing and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational. • Regular practice with complex text and its academic language.

7. Shift #1 Building knowledge through content-richnonfiction and informational texts.

8. Text Selections That Are Worth Reading and Rereading • The standards maintain that high quality text selections should be consistently offered to students because they will encourage students to dig more deeply into their meanings. • Students should reread deliberately and slowly to probe and ponder the meanings of words and discover how the ideas develop over the course of the text.

9. What Might This Look Like In Action? http://connected.mcgraw-hill.com/rd14t/assetBuckets.professionalDevelopment.do?rootCategoryId=7WS869S18PEZ3NQG74F9OXL6E1

10. Close Reading “Close Reading – an intensive analysis of a text in order to come to terms with what it says, how it says it, and what it means.” Tim Shanahan

11. How To Do a Close Reading • Read with a pencil in hand; annotate the text. Mark the big ideas and skills. • Reread to look for patterns in the things you’ve noticed about the text – repetitions, contradictions, similarities. Find the commonalities. • Ask and/or answer questions about the patterns you’ve noticed – how and why are these patterns important to the overall text?

12. A Close Readingof Non-Fiction Text • Read to get the gist. • Reread, with a pencil in hand, to jot or note significant moments in the text. • Reread, with a pencil in hand, to jot or note big ideas. • Reread, with a pencil in hand, to jot or note evidence to support the author’s purpose for writing the text.

13. Let’s Practice Reading Closely • Read the selected text (Scott-Foresman Reading Street 4th grade ELL Reader) independently one time through to get the gist. • With a partner, decide on a purpose for rereading. (Each partner should choose a different purpose for discussion afterwards.) • Read the same text again to find significant moments. • Read again to note the big ideas in the text. • Read again to find evidence of the author’s purpose. • Discuss your findings with your partner and then with a small group.

14. How Could Rereading In This Way Benefit Students? Reading in this way allows students to fully understand informational texts as well as analyze works of literature effectively.

15. Tri-Fold Note-taking Tool To Keep Track of Our Thinking

16. Consider Shift #1- Building knowledge through content rich nonfiction and informational text. • Add this shift to your trifold graphic organizer. • What resources do you already have that will help your students with making this shift in thinking? • Do you need additional resources? • Where might you find these resources? • Can you use the resources that you already have if you change some of the instruction that goes with it? • What instructional implications does this have for you and for students?

17. Shift #2 Reading, writing and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational.

18. Questions and Tasks Cultivate Students’ Abilities to Ask and Answer Questions Based on the Text • Rigorous text dependent questions require students to demonstrate that they not only can follow the details of what is explicitly stated but are able to make valid claims that square with all the evidence in the text. • Questions and tasks should require thinking about the text carefully and finding evidence in the text to support the response.

19. Questions and Tasks Cultivate Students’ Abilities to Ask and Answer Questions Based on the Text • Discussion tasks, activities, questions, and writings following readings should draw on a full range of insights and knowledge contained in the text in terms of both content and language.

20. Key Criteria for Questions and Tasks • High-Quality Text-Dependent Questions and Tasks • A significant portion of the tasks and questions are text-dependent. • High-quality sequences of text-dependent questions elicit sustained attention to the specifics of the text and their impact. • Questions and tasks require the use of textual evidence. • Instructional design cultivates student interest and engagement in reading rich texts carefully. • Materials provide opportunities to build knowledge through texts. • Questions and tasks attend to analyzing the arguments and information central to informational text.

21. What Might This Look Like In Action?

22. What Might This Look Like In Action?

23. What Might This Look Like In Action?

24. Tri-Fold Note-taking Tool To Keep Track of Our Thinking

25. Consider Shift #2 - Reading, writing and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational. • Add this shift to your trifold graphic organizer. • What resources do you already have that will help your students with making this shift in thinking? • Do you need additional resources? • Where might you find these resources? • Can you use the resources that you already have if you change some of the instruction that goes with it? • What instructional implications does this have for you and your students?

26. Shift #3 Regular practice with complex text and its academic language.

27. Texts Should Align With the Complexity Requirement Outlined in the Standards. • The standards hinge on students encountering appropriate texts at each grade level to develop the mature language skills and conceptual knowledge they need for success in school and life. • Instructional materials should also offer advanced texts to provide students at every grade the opportunity to read texts beyond their current level to prepare them for the challenges of more complex texts.

28. Features of Complex Text • Subtle and/or frequent transitions • Multiple and/or subtle themes and purposes • Density of information • Less common settings, topics or events • Lack of repetition, overlap or similarity in words and sentences • Complex sentences • Uncommon vocabulary • Lack of words, sentences, or paragraphs that review or pull things together for the student • Longer paragraphs

29. Some Key Criteria for Complex Text • Align with grade by grade complexity requirements outlined in the Standards • Give all students access to and support with grade-level complex text • Include shorter, challenging texts • Include novels, plays, and other full-length readings

30. Scaffolds • Non-text sources (movies, photos, art work) • Supplemental texts/apprentice texts • Direct instruction in key words and concepts • Instructional scaffolding • Note-taking; annotation • Explicit instruction in reading comprehension strategies: using prior knowledge, setting purpose, monitoring comprehension, asking questions, summarizing, visualizing • Repeated reading with different purposes

31. What Might This Look Like In Action?

32. Tri-Fold Note-taking Tool To Keep Track of Our Thinking

33. Consider Shift #3 - Regular practice with complex text and its academic language. • Add this shift to your trifold graphic organizer. • What resources do you already have that will help your students with making this shift in thinking? • Do you need additional resources? • Where might you find these resources? • What existing resources might you use if you modify some of the instruction in it? • What instructional implications does this have for you and your students?

34. Gallery Walk • Each wall contains 3 posters with a statement. Each of you will begin at one of the posters. • Please take a marker and something to record notes. • Gather around a poster with about 8 people in the group. • Read the statement on that poster and write some initial thoughts. • When the facilitator calls time, each group will move to another statement on a different wall. We will rotate in a clockwise pattern until you are back at your home poster.

35. Gallery Walk • As a group, review the comments and select 3 that represent your thinking regarding that statement. • Choose someone from your group to report to the whole group.

36. #1 Myth About Rigor - Lots of Homework is a Sign of Rigor The dilemma is that all homework is not equally useful. Some of it is just busy work, assigned by teachers because principals or parents expect it. Too often, “difficulty is equated to the amount of work done by students, rather than the complexity and challenge“(Williams and Johnston, 1999). 4 Myths About Rigor in the Classroom www.eyeoneducation.com

37. #1 Myth About Rigor - Lots of Homework is a Sign of Rigor Students learn in many different ways. Just as instruction must vary to meet the needs of students, so must homework. Rigorous and challenging learning experiences will vary with the student. The design of each experience will vary, as will the duration. 4 Myths About Rigor in the Classroom www.eyeoneducation.com

38. #2 Myth About Rigor -Rigor Means Doing More Rigor is more than just content and cannot be measured by the amount of things students must do. Tony Wagner (2008) studied classrooms across America and found that many of them were characterized by low-level, rote activity. The focus was too often on covering material or preparation for the next test. 4 Myths About Rigor in the Classroom www.eyeoneducation.com

39. #2 Myth About Rigor -Rigor Means Doing More True rigor is expecting every student to learn and perform at high levels. This requires instruction that allows students to delve deeply into their learning, to engage in critical thinking and problem-solving activities, to be curious and imaginative, and to demonstrate agility and adaptability (Wagner 2008). 4 Myths About Rigor in the Classroom www.eyeoneducation.com

40. #3 Myth About Rigor - Rigor Is Not For Everyone Rigor is anchored in the belief that every student can be successful given adequate time and sufficient support. Tony Wagner (2008) suggests that our society’s success rests on a commitment to providing students with a set of skills that will allow them to become “productive citizens who contribute to solving some of the most pressing issues we face” and to thrive in a collaborative environment. 4 Myths About Rigor in the Classroom www.eyeoneducation.com

41. #4 Myth About Rigor - Providing Support Means Lessening Rigor When Ron Williamson and Howard Johnston conducted their study, they asked teachers and parents about their experiences with rigor. Both groups repeatedly told stories of how successful they were on rigorous tasks when they were given a high level of support, a safety net. 4 Myths About Rigor in the Classroom www.eyeoneducation.com

42. #4 Myth About Rigor - Providing Support Means Lessening Rigor Often, people described tasks that were initially unsuccessful. Only after additional time or effort did they experience success. In fact, many people said that they would not have been successful without strong support. 4 Myths About Rigor in the Classroom www.eyeoneducation.com

43. #4 Myth About Rigor - Providing Support Means Lessening Rigor According to Blackburn (2008), supporting students so they can learn at high levels is central to the definition of rigor. As teachers design lessons moving students toward more challenging work, they must provide scaffolding to support them as they learn. 4 Myths About Rigor in the Classroom www.eyeoneducation.com

44. Closing Thoughts About Rigor “Rigor does not necessarily mean throwing away everything you are doing. Rigor in many cases means adjusting what you do to increase your expectations and the learning of your students. Rigor is ensuring that all students are provided with opportunities to grow in ways they cannot imagine”. Williamson and Blackburn.(2010).4 Myths About Rigor in the Classroom. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education

45. Time To Reflect … What teaching and learning implications come to mind as you think about rigor now?

46. Reader and TaskTen Guiding Principles Make close reading and rereading of texts central to lessons. Provide scaffolding that does not preempt or replace text. Ask text dependent questions from a range of question types. Emphasize students supporting answers based upon evidence from the text. Provide extensive research and writing opportunities (claims and evidence).

47. Reader and TaskTen Guiding Principles Offer regular opportunities for students to share ideas, evidence, and research. Offer systematic instruction in vocabulary. Ensure wide reading from complex text that varies in length. 9. Provide explicit instruction in grammar and conventions. 10. Cultivate students’ independence.

48. Ticket Out the Door 3 things I found helpful 2 things I will learn more about 1 additional comment

49. Resources Coleman, David & Pimentel, Susan (2012). Revised Publishers’ Criteria for the Common Core State Standards in English Language Art and Literacy, Grades K-2and Grades 3-12. http://www.achieve.org/equip http://www.achievethecore.org http://www.principals.org/tabid/3788/default.aspx?topic=Recognizing_Rigor_in_Classrooms_Four_Tools_for_School_Leaders_

50. Resources http://suite101.com/article/the-seven-myths-of-instructional-rigor-a407235 http://www.textproject.org/frankly-freddy/fyi-for-kids-building-students-capacity-for-complex-text/ http://textproject.org/professional-development/webinars/77-sec-on-text-complexity-/ 77 Sec on Text Complexity: What Are Good Books to Use With Beginning Readers? Williamson, Ronald & Blackburn, Barbara (2010). 4 Myths About Rigor in the Classroom. Eye on Education, Inc.