PA Common Core

1. PA Common Core Pathways for Implementation & Accelerating Achievement Ryan T. Monaghan, Ed.D. Spring, 2012

2. Agenda Solidifying understanding of the design and organizational features of the PA Common Core State Standards. Discovering how the content of the PA Common Core State Standards promote higher levels of thinking and rigor. Evaluating & Critiquing the PA Common Core in order to provide leadership and thoughtful integration into what we are currently doing

3. Common Core Standards • Viewed as “Curmudgeon” OR • Viewed as “Gold”

4. Curmudgeon To tackle the achievement gap, focus on poverty first Budgets and class size cannot support raising standards Questionable deign that all K-12 students should be prepared for college Content is questionable for Informational Texts and Literature Resources published are being touted as supporting CCSS implementation, when in fact they are not Expensive CCSS claims to be research based, rather an important hypothesis

5. Gold Provides a much needed wake-up call Emphasis on higher-level comprehension Equal weight on reading and writing Importance of critical citizenship Emphasis on complex texts Clear design, with central goals and high standards Intellectual growth occurs through time, across years, and across disciplines Call for proficiency, complexity, & independence Cross-curricular literacy teaching All students gain access to this work All states have the same measuring stick Supports professional judgment of classroom teachers

6. Implementing the CCSS

7. CCSS Promote • focus and coherence in instruction and assessment • access and acceleration • literacy as a shared responsibility • leveraging “shared” standards

8. CCSS Promote • Increased expectations • critical thinking • higher levels of comprehension • accessing and analyzing information • the use of evidence and reasoned judgment • effective oral and written communication • Teamwork and collaboration

9. Lessons Learned • Reflect on your experiences when standards were adopted in your state • What are your own “lessons learned” for teachers, administrators, and policy makers? • What do you know now about standards implementation that you wish you would have known then?

10. Learning from the Past • Too many standards, not enough time • Standards and assessment not aligned • Teacher ownership varied from deep and pervasive to non-existent • Superficiality and coverage rather than practice, feedback, depth, and rigor

11. Mistakes to Avoid • Analysis Paralysis - Don’t wait for Washington or for “the official answer” to every potential question • Abandon current standards-based teaching and assessment techniques – Don’t revert to a norm-based system • Try to do it all – it was too much 15 years ago and it’s too much now. • Check it off and move on

12. Power Standards • Leverage – standards in one subject that support student success in other subjects • Endurance – standards that help students across the years rather than respond to the testing of a single grade level • Essential for next grade – standards that help students prepare for next level of learning

13. Understanding the Common Core: There Are No Shortcuts • The patterns and system that make up the Common Core are intentionally designed. • The document, however, is dense. • You must “dig-in” and spend time with the document yourself – otherwise you would be relying on someone else to tell you their opinion about it.

14. RigorIn small groups, discuss your definition/understanding of rigor. Be prepared to share out.

15. Content v. Skills • Has less to do with how demanding the material the teacher covers is • Has more to do with what competencies students master as a result of the lesson. “A mile wide and an inch deep”

16. Cognitive Demand • The kind and level of thinking required of students to successfully engage with and solve a task • Ways in which students interact with content

17. Rigor Myth • Myth #1: Lots of Homework is a Sign of Rigor • Myth #2: Rigor Means Doing More • Myth #3: Rigor is Not For Everyone • Myth #4: Providing Support Means Lessening Rigor

18. Rigor So, what is rigor? • The most concise definition of rigor encountered is taken from Teaching What Matters Most: Standards and Strategies for Raising Student Achievement by Richard W. Strong, Harvey F. Silver and Matthew J. Perini, ASCD, 2001. According to Strong, Silver, and Perini, “Rigor is the goal of helping students develop the capacity to understand content that is complex, ambiguous, provocative, and personally or emotionally challenging.”

19. Rigor • Findings show “the decision to withhold rigor from some students is one of the most important reasons why schools fail.” (Strong, Silver, Perini, 2001). We’re talking about instructional delivery methods like project based instruction which use an inquiry model to empower students to seek their own answers to important issues, create models that represent their findings, and explore ways their discoveries can make a positive difference in the world. We’re talking about classrooms that find ways to be connected to the world, whether or not they use the latest technologies, to help create those personal and emotional synapses that motivate students to embrace challenging curriculum. We’re talking about classrooms where students are taught the strategies they need to attack challenging text, detect bias, gather relevant information, and decide how to put what they’ve learned to work in a useful way.

20. Impacts • Curriculum • Instruction • Assessment and • Professional development

21. So what does rigor look like in the classroom? • What are teachers doing? • What are students doing? • What does student work look like at different grade levels?

22. Ask students • What is the purpose of this lesson? • Why is this important to learn? • In what ways are you challenged to think in this lesson? • How will you apply or communicate what you’ve learned? • How will you know how good your work is and how you can improve it? • Do you feel respected by other students in this class? • Do you feel respected by the teacher in this class?

23. Something to contemplate… Imagine that you were accused of a serious crime you did not commit and were on trial for your life. How confident would you be of getting a fair trial if the members of your jury had merely met the intellectual standards of our college-prep courses as they exist today? Certainly they would know how to memorize information and perform on multiple-choice and short-answer tests. But would your jurors know how to analyze an argument, weigh evidence, recognize bias (their own and others), distinguish fact from opinion, and be able to balance the sometimes competing principles of justice and mercy? Could they listen with both a critical mind and a compassionate heart and communicate clearly what they understand? Would they know how to work with others to seek the truth? Adapted from Wagner, T. (2006). Rigor on trial. Education Week, 25(18), 28-29.

24. Design and Organization of ELA Five Standards Foundational Skills Reading Informational Texts Reading Literature Writing Speaking and Listening An integrated model of literacy Technology/Media requirements blended throughout

25. Mathematics K-12

26. Common Core Organization Standards for Mathematics • Two components • Standards for Mathematical Practice • Standards for Mathematical Content

27. Common Core Organization • Standards for Mathematical Practice • Describe varieties of expertise that should be developed in students • Rely upon longstanding important processes and proficiencies • Articulate the behaviors of truly mathematically competent citizens

28. Common Core Organization • Standards for Mathematical Content • Are a balanced combination of procedure and understanding • Need to connect mathematical practices to mathematical content

29. Standards for Mathematical Practice Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. • Look for entry points to solutions • Consider analogous problems • Understand approaches of others

30. Standards for Mathematical Practice Reason abstractly and quantitatively. • Ability to decontextualize • Represent problem symbolically • Ability to contextualize • Probe referents for the symbols

31. Standards for Mathematical Practice Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. • Analyze situations • Recognize and use counterexamples • Respond to the arguments of others

32. Standards for Mathematical Practice Model with mathematics. • Routinely interpret mathematical results in the context of a situation • Reflect on whether the results make sense • Improve model if it has not served its purpose Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, pp72.

33. Standards for Mathematical Practice Model with mathematics. • High School Example • Student might use geometry to solve a design problem or use a function to describe how one quantity of interest depends on another

34. Standards for Mathematical Practice Model with mathematics. • Middle School Example • Student might apply proportional reasoning to plan a school event or analyze a problem in the community

35. Standards for Mathematical Practice Model with mathematics. • Early Grades Example • Student might write an addition equation to describe a situation

36. Standards for Mathematical Practice Use appropriate tools strategically. • Pencil and paper, concrete models, ruler, protractor, calculator, spreadsheet, computer algebra system, statistical package, geometry software

37. Standards for Mathematical Practice Attend to precision. • Use clear definitions in discussion with others • State meaning of symbols • Express numerical answers with appropriate degree of precision

38. Standards for Mathematical Practice Look for and make use of structure. • Can see algebraic expressions as single objects or as being composed of several objects • In x2+ 9x + 14 … • See 14 as 2 × 7 and 9 as 2+7

39. Standards for Mathematical Practice Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning. • Maintain oversight of the process while attending to details • Notice if calculations are repeated • Look for general methods and shortcuts

40. Standards for Mathematical Content

41. Personal Professional Learning Reflections • What information validates and affirms your thinking and planning for implementation of the CCSS? • In what areas do you feel challenged? • What new ideas or strategies will you integrate into your CCSS implementation plan? • What questions do you still have?