Introducing the Common Core to Parents and Community Members

1. Introducing the Common Core to Parents and Community Members WELCOME

2. http://vimeo.com/51933492 2

3. Common Core Across the Nation 3

4. What are the Common Core State Standards? The Common Core State Standards set grade-by-grade learning expectations for students in grades K-12 for Mathematics and for English Language Arts and Literacy. While states have had standards for more than 15 years, this set of standards is more focused on preparing students for success in college and career. They set clear, consistent and high learning goals. 4

5. Common Core: It Takes All of Us! Parents Community members Colleges and universities Technical training programs 5

6. What Should I Expect with CCSS? More time to focus on preparing students for college and career readiness. 6

7. Activity: What is college readiness? • In small groups, discuss: • What does college-readiness look like? • When is a student is ready for college? • What do children need to learn to be ready for college? • How can parents help?

8. College and Career Readiness …but what does that mean? The new standards will get students ready for success in college and the workforce. 8

9. College Readiness • “College” doesn’t just mean a four-year degree. It can mean any program that leads to a degree or certificate. • Being “ready” means that students graduate from high schools with key skills in English and mathematics. • College readiness means that graduates have the skills they need to do well in college. 9

10. Career Readiness • “Career” doesn’t just mean a job. It means a profession that lets graduates succeed at a job they enjoy and earn a competitive wage. • Career readiness means that high school graduates are qualified for and able to do well in long-term careers. 10

11. Why does this matter? Because it’s what our students need For every 100 ninth graders… 65 graduate from high school 37 enter college 24 are still enrolled in sophomore year 12 graduate with a degree in six years

12. … and only 6 get a good job after graduation 12

13. The new standards will… • Preparestudents to succeed in college and the workforce • Ensure that every child—regardless of race, ethnicity or zip code—is held to the same high standards and learns the same material • Provideeducators with a clear, focused roadmap for what to teach and when 13

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

15. Annotation is a note of any form made while reading text. “Reading with a pencil.”

16. 1 2 3 4 5 Modeled Annotation in Kindergarten Kemp, L. M. (1996). One peaceful pond: A counting book. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

17. Modeled Annotation in Second Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2007). Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

18. How can you help your child in literacy? • Ask your child specific questions about what they read. • Encourage children to read, then write and speak about, nonfiction text such as newspapers, magazines, and biographies. • Encourage children to research topics of interest and read series that relate to a central topic. • Have your child follow step by step instructions or a set of directions in order to accomplish a task, such as building a sandcastle or operating a game.

19. The Shifts in Mathematics Focus: Focus strongly where the standards focus Coherence: Think across grades, and link to major topics Rigor: In major topics, pursue conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency, and application with equal intensity

20. How can you help your child in math? • Help children practice their addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts. • Encourage children not to give up while solving problems, to build stamina and develop their critical thinking skills. Don’t give them the answers - ask them to think of different ways they can solve problems. • Have children illustrate the math they were thinking in their head and discuss it out loud. • Have children apply their math knowledge to a real-world scenario at home, such as doubling a recipe or calculating the area of a room.

21. Parent support can help students succeed • By staying involved, informed and engaged, parents can help students be successful • There are many ways to help: • Read with your children • Reviewand discuss their homework • Communicate with their teachers • Attendpublic meetings to learn more • Learnabout the standards and how they affect your child’s education and school • Lookthrough your child’s backpack each afternoon 21

22. Activity: After school routines • Grab a partner and discuss your after school routines. Be specific! • Ask each other questions: • How do you help your child with homework? How closely do you review it? • How closely do you review their schoolwork? • How often do you communicate with their teachers? • How do you celebrate your child’s success in school? How do you address poor performance? • What is your favorite part of your after school routine? 22

23. So? What works best? 23

24. Backpacks: What you should see Books that are both fiction and non-fiction Real-world examples that makes what they’re learning in English and math make more sense Writing assignments that require students to use evidence instead of opinion Math homework that asks students to write out how they got their answer Math homework that ask students to use different methods to solve the same problem

25. Some questions to ask your child How did you use evidence in school today? Where did you get it? Did you talk about anything you read in class today? Did you use evidence when you talked about what you read? How often did you use math today? How did you use it? Did you learn any new words in class today? What do they mean? How do you spell them?

26. Activity: Talking to your kids about school At your table, talk about strategies you use to get your kids talking about their days after school • What questions do you ask? • Do you discuss what they tell you? • How do you get them excited to talk? • What do you do when they refuse to talk? 26

27. What works best? 27

28. Additional Resources • Engage NY www. Engageny.org • National Parent Teachers Association (PTA) http://pta.org/parents/content.cfm?ItemNumber=2583 • Achieve the Core www.achievethecore.org • Common Core State Standards Text Exemplars http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_B.pdf • California Department of Education www.cde.ca.gov • Smarter Balanced Assessment www.smarterbalanced.org • Council of the Great City Schools Parent Roadmaps http://www.cgcs.org 28

29. Closing discussion • What strategies did we discuss today that you think you might use with your children? • What other information would be helpful to you? • What other questions do you have? EngageNY.org 29