WELCOME!

1. WELCOME! Social Studies District PLC Asheboro City Schools 2012-2013

2. Introductions • We have many new faces to welcome! • Please share your name, school and teaching assignment.

3. Changes in/Clarifications of Terminology • Common Core/Essential Standards ARE now the Standard Course of Study for NC • Standards and Clarifying Objectives are the “rules” by which you now live… • Enduring Understandings=concept statements that explain the big ideas • Essential Questions=important questions that outline the path/outcome you want students to reach, no “right” answer, foster ongoing thinking

4. Planning Documents to Revisit • All available at NCDPI Website (http://www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/standards/new-standards/) • Standards/Objectives (SCOS) • (http://www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/standards/support-tools/) • Unpacking Documents • Crosswalks • Founding Principles Act alignment • ELA Standards for Social Studies Reading and Writing

5. Summer Professional Development • Take a few minutes… • Discuss what you worked on/achieved over the course of our Summer Professional Development for the benefit of your colleagues who did not attend. • What did you do? • What did you learn/what epiphanies did you have? • What do you still have questions about?

6. Concept-Based Planning • Use big ideas to teach students skills and content that will matter across disciplines and outside the classroom • Essential Standards already outline a very broad segment of these concepts/ideas • Ex. US History • Analyze turning points • Understand exploration, settlement, movement and expansion • Analyze conflict and compromise • Understand tension between freedom, equality and power • Understand role of US in world • Understand impact of war on US • Analyze factors impacting the “American Dream”

7. Concept-Based Planning Continued • Take a few minutes… • BY YOURSELF, decide what you most want students to know/understand about the world. (2-3 things) • Use the concept list to identify with your table partners the 8-10 MOST IMPORTANT conceptual ideas you would like to teach students about • Write some “enduring understanding” statements using the concepts you identified

8. Unit Planning/Lessons/Activities • Unit Planning Rubric • Share some of your great ideas! • Get/Provide REAL feedback! • What do you appreciate? What changes/improvements need to be made?

9. Assessment “Pursuant to Session Law 2011-8 House Bill 48: No Standardized Testing Unless Req’d by the Feds., there will be no End-of-Course testing for American History or Civics and Economics effective during the 2011-12 school year.” “There is no End-of-Grade testing for Social Studies K-8.”

10. Assessment Continued • DPI now identifies “Measures of Student Learning for Teacher Effectiveness” as a means by which to assess or provide evidence of student mastery • There are NO examples of this (officially) • One of the reasons for Common Core changes: to ensure that instruction, objectives and assessment are CONSISTENT • Translation: that you are teaching what you need to teach in the way you need to teach it for students to master the curriculum

11. Translation: • that you are teaching: whatyou need to teach in the way you need to teach it for students to master the curriculum and be successful

12. The Structure of Curriculum Students Essential Standards/Clarifying Objectives Classroom Assessments Learning Experiences/Performance Tasks Materials and Equipment Image of students with globe.Image no. 3Q1675 Photo by  Will & Deni McIntyre

13. Alignment of Assessment “Alignment is an even stronger predictor of student achievement on standardized tests than are socioeconomic status, gender, race, and teacher effect.” ~ Elmore & Rothman, 1999: Mitchell, 1998; Wishnick,1989 Remember, we must take into account: Factual knowledge Conceptual knowledge Procedural knowledge

14. Assessment Example • US History Unit: The Civil War • Enduring Understanding: Technology can impact the course of/outcome of a war.

15. Does this question assess the enduring understanding? Which general provided leadership for the Confederate Army at the Battle of Gettysburg? a. George Meade b. Ambrose Burnside c. Robert E. Lee d. Ulysses S. Grant

16. How about this one? The utilization of technology helped ensure a Union victory in the Civil War by • Allowing Lincoln to use send troops and supplies via railroad • Increasing the efficiency of communication through use of the telegraph • Using advancing medical techniques to increase chances of survival for those wounded in action • All of the above are true

17. So we have to be sure that… • We teach the facts/concepts that we want to students to know and understand • Our MEANS of teaching reflect the skills we want students to develop and • Our assessments actually test those things in a way that is CONSISTENT with what and how we have taught them to students

18. Assessment Examples • Middle School Version and High School Version (Handout) • Pick an example from your curriculum area. • Identify the CONTENT, CONCEPTS and SKILLS students would need in order to be able to answer that question effectively in your classroom. • Identify the Essential Standard and Clarifying Objective(s) that would be addressed by your particular question.

19. Example Assessment Document • These have been submitted by the state as possible assessment types for the “measures of student learning” • The state is currently requesting feedback concerning the nature, type, objective alignment, etc. of these assessment examples… • Possible future test?

20. Common Assessment • We have already been focusing on common assessments • Benchmarks/learning checks have been put in place for some • More formal use of common assessments as “measures of learning” for next year by the district administration • Use the planning sheet provided to create a common assessment for your area…