Secondary Reading and the Common Core

1. Secondary Reading and the Common Core Dana Blanchard, Response to Instruction and Intervention coach Berkeley Unified School District

2. Who are we? Introduce yourself to the room: • Tell us who you are and where you work. • Tell us what you want to get out of this session.

3. Objectives for this Session • I can articulate the Common Core reading standards and skills that need to be taught across disciplines. I will get some resources and tools to help identify and teach these standards. • I can identify specific disciplinary reading skills that support the Common Core standards and student literacy in my discipline and gain tools for teaching these skills.

4. What do we Already know? Turn and talk to a partner using one the following language frames: • The Common Core standards in reading can be described as________. • Characteristics of the Common Core standards in reading include _____ and ______. • The Common Core standards in reading are wide acknowledged as ________ and exhibit _______.

5. What are some of our Challenges? We have students who struggle with reading and academic vocabulary. We need students to read well in content areas but content-area teachers often don’t teach reading (for many understandable reasons.) Secondary reading standards and skills are more complex and multi-faceted. Many more . . . Bottom line: it’s hard to teach secondary reading, Common Core is a challenge

6. Intermediate Reading Skills and the Common Core How do we tackle some of these challenges? • What does the current research say? • What are the Common Core reading anchor standards? Progressions? • Achievement level descriptors and Smarter Balance Assessment: How can we use these to develop essential standards and skills?

7. Resources and Instructional Tools • Use the Common Core reading progressions to identify key areas of focus. What are essential skills and what are supporting? Know what is essential for students to learn. • Use “Red Flag/ Green Flag” to identify key pedagogical shifts. Know how to teach these essential skills. • Example: Our work in BUSD with identifying Essential Standards.

8. Disciplinary-Specific Reading Skills and the Common Core • What does the current research say? • What does this actually look like in practice? • Remember the Common Core anchor standards and reading progressions . . . Now think about reading skills needed in specific content areas.

9. Resources and Instructional Tools • Tool for reading in the disciplines: Read like a . . . Know what and how to teach reading in specific content areas. • Additional resources document on flash drive

10. How Did We Do? • Can you articulate the Common Core reading standards and skills that need to be taught across disciplines? • Do you have some resources and tools to help you identify and teach these standards? • Can you identify specific disciplinary reading skills that support the Common Core standards and student reading in my discipline? • Do you have some resources and tools to help you teach these skills?

11. Contact Information danablanchard@berkeley.net