What are the Common Core Standards?

1. \Common Core State Standards:Reading and Writing Standards for Literacy in History/Social StudiesGrade 9 – Grade 12Greece Central School District - Office of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment

2. What are the Common Core Standards? • The goal of the CCSS is the prepare students to be college and career ready. • These standards are research based, align with college and career expectations, are rigorous, and meet international standards. • There are four major strands that span K-12 education: • Reading • Writing • Speaking and Listening • Language Development

3. A Focus on Humanities • In social studies classrooms, the essence of the Common Core State Standards is a focus in humanities – connecting social studies skills and content with English/Language Arts curriculum. • For our social studies lessons, units and classrooms, the reading and writing strands are central to instruction and student learning. • Information contained here will focus on the standards for reading and writing, in grades 9-12 for social studies.

4. Common Core Standards in Social Studies - Reading • There are four standards for the Common Core Reading strand: • Key Ideas and Details:Read the text closely to make inferences, and to cite specific textual evidence to support conclusions. • Craft and Structure: Interpret text to determine technical, connotative and figurative meaning; assess how point of view shapes content and style. • Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: Integrate and evaluate content visually and quantitatively; delineate and evaluate claims in a text; compare how different texts address similar themes. • Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity: A progression of complexity in text and theme in order to build independence and proficiency.

5. CCSS: Reading in Grades 9-10Key Ideas/Craft and Structure • Key Ideas: • Cite specific textual evidence for analysis of both primary and secondary sources, including features such as origin and date. • Analyze a series of events in a text, but be able to determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them. • Provide summaries from primary and secondary sources that accurately describe how key events and ideas progress and develop through a text. • Craft and Structure: • Determine the meaning and purpose of words and phrases used in text as related to the political, economic, and social concepts of social studies. • Analyze how a text uses structure to focus on key points. • Compare the point of view of two or more authors (primary and/or secondary sources) for how they treat the same topics, including the details, evidence and conclusions that each author presents.

6. CCSS: Reading in Grades 9-10Integration of Knowledge/Range of Reading • Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: • Integrate technical and quantitative texts (charts, research data) with qualitative information in both print or digital text. • Assess the success to which an author uses reasoning and evidence to support claims and argument in a text. • Compare and contrast the same topic, concept or theme through multiple primary and secondary source documents (Ex – Document Based Question analysis). • Range of Reading and Text Complexity: • By the end of grade 10, students should be able to read and comprehend history/social studies primary and secondary source texts that include the grades 9-10 complexity band vocabulary. Examples include most district textbooks and ancillary materials (secondary sources).

7. CCSS: Reading in Grades 11-12Key Ideas/Craft and Structure • Key Ideas: • Cite specific textual evidence for analysis of both primary and secondary sources and connect the evidence to a central theme or claim that spans the multiple texts. • Evaluate various explanations for events or actions and determine which text best supports the event/action with evidence, and which source(s) leaves the content unexplained. • Provide summaries from primary and secondary sources that connect the multiple sources of text and make clear the relationships that exist among key events, people, concepts or themes. • Craft and Structure: • Determine the meaning and purpose of words and phrases used in text as related to social studies content, and analyze how an author uses a key term or concept throughout a text (Ex. How James Madison uses “faction” in Federalist 10; how Adam Smith uses “commodity” in Wealth of Nations, how Abraham Lincoln uses “dedicate” in The Gettysburg Address). • Describe the relationships between sentence structure, paragraphs, and overall text organization in various types of sources. • Evaluate different authors’ points of view on the same topic by analyzing claim, evidence and interpretation.

8. CCSS: Reading in Grades 11-12Integration of Knowledge/Range of Reading • Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: • Answer a question or solve a problem using multiple sources and diverse formats (text, graphs, video, online, etc.). • Assess an author’s claims and evidence by challenging or reinforcing them with other information from different texts. • Compare and contrast the same topic, concept or theme through multiple primary and secondary source documents and note discrepancies between texts. • Range of Reading and Text Complexity: • By the end of grade 12, students should be able to read and comprehend history/social studies primary and secondary source texts that include the grades 11-CCR (college and career ready) complexity band vocabulary. Examples include most district textbooks and ancillary materials (secondary sources).

9. CCSS and Text Complexity Bands • Common Core State Standards have selected various texts as examples for each grade level. • These exemplars are given a text complexity band – based on qualitative and quantitative measures of text difficulty. • Increasing complexity of text and task K-12 helps students prepare for college and careers. • The lexile scores of most textbooks, scientific journals, newspapers and magazines all increased or remained steady from 1930-1990. • In 2008-09, only 53% of students achieved appropriate reading benchmark scores or higher. • Workplace reading regularly exceeds the grade 12 complexity band. • In college, students are expected to read complex text independently and are held more accountable to those readings than students in high schools.

10. CCSS and Text Complexity Bands

11. CCSS and Text Complexity BandsGrades 9-10 • Examples of Grades 9-10 Text Complexity Readings: • The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck • In the Time of the Butterflies - Julia Alvarez • Animal Farm - George Orwell • A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens • Anne Frank In the World - The Anne Frank House • 1984 - George Orwell • Shadow Life - Barry Denenberg • Machu Picchu - Elizabeth Mann

12. CCSS and Text Complexity BandsGrades 11-CCR (College/Career Ready) • Examples of Grades 11-CCR Text Complexity Readings: • The Tragedy of Hamlet - William Shakespeare • A Raisin in the Sun - Lorraine Hansberry • Common Sense - Thomas Paine • Black Boy - Richard Wright • Politics and English Language - George Orwell • Democracy in America - Alexis de Tocqueville • Declaration of Sentiments - Seneca Falls Convention • 1776 - David McCullough • “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” - Frederick Douglass

13. Literacy in Social Studies - Writing • There are four standards for the Common Core Writing strand: • Text Types and Purposes: Write arguments to support claims using relevant and substantive evidence from text; write narratives to develop real or imagined events with rich detail and structure. • Production and Distribution of Writing: Production of writing pieces, including revision, editing and publication and the use of technology to interact and collaborate with others. • Research to Build and Present Knowledge: Students conduct both short-term and long-term research, gather evidence from informational and literary texts to support research while assessing the credibility of sources. • Range of Writing: Students learn to write for different audiences, purposes and tasks.

14. CCSS: Writing in Grades 9-10Text Types/Production of Writing • Text Types and Purposes: • Introduce precise claims about a topic and distinguish from alternate or opposing claims over several writing pieces. • Develop claims, and counterclaims fairly, supplying data and evidence for both, as well as an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of both. • Use words, phrases and sentences to create cohesion in writing, and to clarify pieces of evidence that support claims. • Establish and maintain a formal, objective style of writing. • Develop a topic in writing with relevant facts, extended definitions, quotations and examples. • Use precise language and domain specific vocabulary to manage the complexity of different writing tasks. • Production and Distribution of Writing: • Produce clear writing pieces that are organized for the purpose of specific audiences, peers, and tasks. • Plan, revise, edit, rewrite, or try a new approach to writing with both teacher and peer support and guidance. • Use technology (internet, computers, multimedia) to produce, publish and present information.

15. CCSS: Writing in Grades 9-10Research/Range of Writing • Research to Build and Present Knowledge: • Conduct short, as well as sustained, research projects (including self-generated questions) to answer a question drawing on several sources or texts. • Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources; narrow or broaden the topic when appropriate; select text as evidence to maintain the progression of ideas. • Learn standard formats for citations (in-text and works cited page) • Draw evidence from additional, student selected texts, to support analysis, reflect on evidence, and enhance research. • Range of Writing: • Write over extended time frames (time for revision, editing, and reflection), as well as over shorter time frames in order to expand understanding and development of discipline-specific tasks.

16. CCSS: Writing in Grades 11-12Text Types/Production of Writing • Text Types and Purposes: • Introduce claims about a topic and distinguish one claim from another in different texts; establish significance of claims and logically sequence claims and counterclaims. • Develop claims, and counterclaims fairly, supplying data and evidence for both, as well as an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of both, including point of view and bias. • Establish and maintain a formal style of writing, using varied syntax and tone. • Develop a topic thoroughly by selecting the most significant facts, definitions and quotations. • Production and Distribution of Writing: • Produce clear writing pieces that are organized for the purpose of specific audiences, peers, and tasks. • Plan, revise, edit, rewrite, or try a new approach to writing by focusing on what is most significant for a purpose or audience. • Use technology (internet, computers, multimedia) to produce and publish writing; introduce new arguments and information in conclusions.

17. CCSS: Writing in Grades 11-12Research/Range of Writing • Research to Build and Present Knowledge: • Conduct short, as well as sustained, research projects (including self-generated questions) to answer a question drawing on several sources or text and synthesize several sources on the same topic. • Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources; narrow or broaden the topic when appropriate; select text as evidence to maintain the progression of ideas and avoid overreliance on one source or text. • Avoid plagiarism and follow and standard format for citation. • Draw evidence from additional, student selected texts, to support analysis, reflect on evidence, and enhance research. • Range of Writing: • Write over extended time frames (time for revision, editing, and reflection), as well as over shorter time frames in order to expand understanding and development of discipline-specific tasks.

18. Resources for the Common Core State Standards • http://www.corestandards.org – Common Core State Standards Initiative Website. • Common Core State Standards for ELA and Literacy - A Video Overview