Transitioning to the Common Core

1. Transitioning to the Common Core Common Core Academy - Summer 2011

2. Purpose of Board adoption of Common Core State Standards: • To ensure ALL students are college and career ready when they leave our K-12 system • To propel change in instructional practices in order to improve student performance • We have Promises to Keep!

3. CC State Standards ARE… • State-led initiative • Voluntary in adoption with ability to add additional standards • Intended to ensure all students are college and career ready • Provide a clear, consistent statewide understanding of what students should know and be able to do

4. What is different about the Common Core State Standards? English Language Arts Mathematics

5. English Language Arts Standards • Organized in a K-12 structure • Outlines three types of writing, beginning in Kindergarten • Addition of writing with argumentation • K-12 emphasis on informational text • Deep integration of reading and writing • Greater emphasis on grammar

6. ELA (cont.) • Greater emphasis on digital reading, writing, multi-media production • Greater attention to comprehension • Pervasive demand for higher-order thinking and production • Specific standards for speaking and listening • Standards for literacy in science, social studies, and instructional technology

7. Mathematics Standards • Provides a framework for more robust mathematics instruction deepening content in a progressive manner • Includes current CORE mathematics content standards • Provides clearly defined performance standards of what students should know and be able to do • Demands deeper knowledge of mathematics content and instruction for elementary teachers • Integrates concepts of algebra, geometry and statistics into secondary coursework to provide relevant application • Aligns with international approaches to mathematics enabling our students to compete in a global economy

8. What does this mean for teachers? • Analysis, evaluation, critical thinking embedded in all instruction • Strategies on reading informational text taught interdisciplinary • Increased knowledge of mathematical properties • Application of what students learn to real world • Emphasis on performance instead of just knowing content

9. What is the timeline for implementation? • Fall 2009 – College and Career Ready Standards released • June 2010 – Final Common Core State Standards for Grades K-12 released • August 2010 – Utah commits to the Common Core • Summer 2011 – Common Core Academy for K-12 ELA and Grades 6 & 9 Mathematics • Summer 2012 – Common Core Academy for Mathematics and Content Area Literacy • Fall of 2013 – Full implementation of ELA Common Core • 2013-2014 school year– Full pilot of new assessment system (formative, benchmark, summative) • 2014-2015 school year – Full implementation of new assessment system (will be used for high stakes calculations)

10. Professional Development • Common Core Academy • Conferences • Lesson design & study • Studying student work • PLCs • LEA collaborative projects • Instructional based faculty meetings • Instructional coaching

11. Academy Expectations: • Be fully present in sessions • Honor the work of the facilitators • Be flexible as issues arise • Recognize that you are capable of implementation • Understand that the Common Core is for ALL students • Be willing to implement in your own classroom next year • Be purposeful in having conversations with colleagues at your school and willing to share what you have learned • Participants will be given 2 semester credits recorded on OnTrack for four day attendance.

12. Sustaining Systemic Change in Instruction • All of our activities, structures and resources must focus on and result in • a school culture in which the norm is: • Ongoing critical examination of student work by teachers, and the associated • Ongoing critical examination and improvement of instructional practice.