Gearing Up for the California Common Core Standards: Parent Information

1. Gearing Up for the California Common Core Standards: Parent Information A Presentation from Educational Services Redondo Beach Unified School District

2. Goals for Today… • Overview of Common Core Standards • Understand rationale for Common Core Standards • Begin to understand how Common Core Standards improve your child’s learning of academic knowledge and skills • Understand how your child will be tested on Common Core Standards • Begin to understand how your child’s school is tackling and implementing Common Core Standards

3. What are the Common Core Standards? • First time there is a single set of national or ‘common’ educational standards voluntarily adopted by 45 states, including California • Specify ‘core’ student knowledge and skills by grade level in: • English Language Arts • Mathematics • Internationally benchmarked • Educational ‘standards’ tied to college and career readiness

4. Why the move to Common Core Standards?

5. #1: HS Graduation is not enough • Post-secondary education is necessary to compete in the U.S. and global economy Sources: U.S. Department of Education; U.S. Labor Department • By 2018, the U.S. Labor Market demands 63% of all U.S. jobs will require some college

6. #2: College Readiness Gap • College Eligibility vs. College Readiness • Nearly 60% of 1st year college students remediate in English or Math • Remedial courses don’t earn college credit • Result: Students who enroll in a remedial course are more likely to drop out • Nearly $4 billion wasted • Solution: Increase U.S. college graduate % to 60% by 2020; currently 39% Sources: U.S. Department of Education; ACT

7. #3: Literacy Gap • Gap between HS and College Literacy Expectations • HS literacy focus on literary/College literacy focus on non-fiction or informational text • Current state assessments don’t measure writing skills • Solutions seen in Common Core Standards: • More emphasis on writing skills • Increase text complexity 2-3 grade levels to match college expectations • Increase informational text reading • Gr. 8: 45% Literary vs. 55% Informational • Gr. 12: 30% Literary vs. 70% Informational Sources: U.S. Department of Education; ACT

8. #4: Career Readiness Skills • Effective Communication: ability to synthesize and transmit ideas in written and oral format. • Problem Solving: ability to make decisions and take appropriate action. • Collaboration: ability to effectively work with others. • Persistence: ability to continue even though the task is difficult.

9. How will students be tested on Common Core State Standards?

10. How we assess student achievement is changing • Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) is developing tests for California and more than 20 other states. • SBAC tests gauge student success in mastering CCSS knowledge and skills in English and Mathematics. • Students complete SBAC tests using computers and other technology. No pencil and paper. • Less emphasis on multiple-choice.

11. CST vs. SBAC Current California Standards Test (CST) Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) Grade 3-8 and 11, Grades 9 and 10 available for states that select them Delivered via computer Adaptive assessments Various responses, e.g.: Performance task Technology enabled • Grades 2-11, writing at 4th and 7th grades • Only paper & pencil • Only one response: multiple-choice

12. Types of SBAC Questions for CCSS

13. Grade 3 Math OLD: Question NEW: Question Jill is designing cards. She has 4 different colors of paper and 7 different pictures she can glue on the paper. How many different cards can she make with one color of paper and one picture? Show your work. Which of these is eight hundred seven? • 8007 • 870 • 807 • 8070

14. Grade 7 Math OLD: Question NEW: Question A group of friends went to lunch. The bill, before sales tax and tip, was $37.50. A sales tax of 8% was added. The group then tipped 18% on the amount after the sales tax was added. What was the total amount the group paid, including tax and tip? Show your work. A calculator that is regularly priced $20 is on sale for 40% off. What is the calculator sale price? • $8 • $12 • $15 • $16

15. California’s Transition to the Common Core

16. What is ‘current’ 2013-14 implementation in California? • Science CST in grades 5, 8, and 10 • CAHSEE in H.S. • Grades 3-8, 11: 95% of students will take a single, but combined, SBAC test with English and Math questions. Possibly 5% will take an English or Math test. • No SBAC test scores will be given to schools • No Academic Performance Index (API) scores for schools

17. How is the RBUSD supporting the move to CCSS?

18. What all schools in the RBUSD are doing… • Teacher/Administrator CCSS Training: supported by UCLA and CSUN in English and Math. • Measure Q Dollars at Work: Technology in student hands. • 21st Century Classrooms: Up-to-date IT infrastructure • Google Chromebook Computers: for all RBUSD students in grades 3-12, piloting in 2013-14. Full rollout in 2014-15. • Teacher/Administrator Technology Training: began Fall 2013 to implement CCSS.

19. How can you support your child?

20. Parent support… • Ask your child to tell you “why” they think or believe something from what they have read or have experienced • Allow your children to “persevere” • Read, Read, Read • Know what your child is learning • Ensure your child knows Math facts

21. Thank you for your participation! • Please turn in your Question Cards • Next up… how your school is supporting the move to Common Core

22. What does CCSS look like at Alta Vista? • Professional Development and Collaboration • ELA Instructional Shifts • AV is focused on Speaking & Listening AND Informational Reading • Mathematical Practices • Aligning curriculum, instruction and assessments

23. Adoption of Six Key Focus Areas • Collaborating with others to study and learn • Reading to study and learn in the content areas • Reading and studying literature in depth • Using the writing process to study and learn the types of writing • Using technology to study and learn • Acquiring and using academic language

24. PD & Collaboration • Friday Grade Level Collaboration • Monthly Staff Collaboration (Wednesdays) • Twice Monthly Staff Meetings with a Common Core Purpose • Cross-school collaboration • Additional online resources • Conferences

25. ELA Instructional Shifts

27. ELA Focus 1: Collaborating with others to study and learn • Students are able to talk and work with a nearby partner or group • With partners, each student thinks and talks about teacher provided topics and questions to prepare for class discussions • Students know, use and consciously try to improve their collaboration practices • Students’ performance improves as a direct result of group discussions • Students contribute to a challenging academic project that most could not have completed individually.

29. ELA Focus 2: Reading to Study and Learn • Students are aware and can access information texts • Students are aware of and can effectively use the organizational devices in non-fiction to locate information and comprehend • Students can effectively read and summarize in their own words portions of non-fiction texts • Students can effectively read and summarize for homework portions of informational texts • Students can locate, read and select non-fiction texts and articulate the relevance and contribution to the content being studied.

31. KINDER • Foundational Skills continue to be a focus • Increasing exposure to non-fiction • Writing Workshop • Following agreed-upon rules for discussions • Multiple exchanges 1st GRADE • Math Fact Fluency Addition and Subtraction up to 12 • Writing Workshop • Use Raz-Kids and Reading Eggs at home • Increasing exposure to non-fiction • Learning to collaborate and conversational rules

32. 2nd Grade • RazKids • Reading to Study and Learn • More non-fiction reading including Scholastic News • Project-based, in class projects • Collaborating with peers • Building on others’ talk • Asking for clarification and further explanation • Reading and Writing Workshop 3rd Grade • Reading Informational & Reading Literature strategies for comprehension of the different texts • Non-fiction text structures • Evidence-based • Language CCSS skills taught in Centers • Writing Workshop • Science & Social Studies integrated within Reading Informational • Raz-Kids • Practice multiplication (0-10) • Engaging in effective collaborative discussions • Coming to discussions prepared

33. 4th Grade • Working to realign curriculum, instruction & assessment • Can see shift in the unit assessments where students need to write in evidence. • Blending the old student favorites with new resources to address the standards. • Writing Workshop • More expository reading • Engaging in effective collaborative discussions • Coming to discussions prepared • Paraphrasing portions of text and dive 5th Grade • Creating units based on the ELA standards that have the Social Studies textbook as the main informational text • Reading and Writing Workshop • Increase students’ ability to support answers with evidence, pull information from multiple sources, and encourage students to use all resources available for projects or assignments • Teaching our students to effectively study informational texts at home for in-class discussion

34. Assessments: Old vs. New

35. What About Math? • Studying the Mathematical Practices and CCSS Standards • Focus on: • reasoning and explaining • modeling and using tools • seeing structure and generalizing • making sense of problems • attending to precision

36. How can I further support my child and his/her learning? • Stay informed • Encourage your child to read both informational and literary texts • Ask them questions about what they’ve read and encourage them to cite evidence from the text in support • Look for a magazine subscription or on-line news source such as New-o-matic, or Wonderopolis. • Enjoy games and activities centered around strengthening math facts

37. "Common Core Corner for Parents" -The Shift to the Common Core Standards Focus Area #2: Reading to Study and Learn in the Content Areas Teaching our children to "study" for content area learning assessments is always challenging. Often times, students are expected to re-read chapters or selections from social studies or science textbooks, that often contain a large amount of information, some more important than others. What are some strategies for helping your child to use their textbook as a means for studying for tests? Predict, Read, Cover, Summarize, Question • Teach your child to notice headings and sub-headings, as they are critical for tackling non-fiction text successfully. Before reading the text, ask your child to predict what information might follow each heading. • When reading non-fiction text, only have your child read enough of the passage that they can cover with their hand (usually a paragraph). After reading the section, have them cover it with their hand and think aloud about what was read. If they have difficulty remembering, then it's time to reread the selection.  • Before moving onto the next chunk of text, have them remove their hand, and generate 1 question that a teacher might ask about that section on a test. • Help your child to generate questions of varying complexity (Who, What, Why, When, and How). 

39. Thank you for coming and for supporting your children’s education!