Empowering Educators: A Guide to Common Core Implementation

1. Common Core State Standards When? Who? What? Where? Why? How?

2. CCSS – Where are we now?What is next?How do we get there?

3. Implementation • Grades K-2: 2011-2012 • Grades 3-8: 2012 - 2013 • Grades 9-12: 2013-2014 • PARCC Assessment 2014-2015 All Districts in AR

4. Summer 2012 Workshops • close reading and disciplinary reading, • writing arguments, • technology in the classroom, and • resources

5. Institutes and Leadership series www.Ideas.aetn.org/commoncore/ Institutes available: • Strategic plan • Assessment • Lesson planning for Formative Assessment • Learning Progressions in ELA and math • Subject Area presentations (disciplinary reading and close reading of complex texts)

6. Where to locate CCSS information • Official CCSS site http://www.corestandards.org/ • PARCC Model Content Frameworks http://www.parcconline.org/parcc-content-frameworks • Publisher’s Criteria grades 3-12 http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Publishers_Criteria_for_3-12.pdf

7. Where to locate CCSS information • ADE CCSS Microsite located on the ADE homepage, click on the common core logo http://www.commoncorearkansas.org/ • ADE CCSS wiki http://ccssarkansas.pbworks.com

8. Resources abound • “What Every Educator Needs to Know…” document and resources are available on the Ideas/AETN site and ADE CCSS wiki • http://ideas.aetn.org/commoncore/strategic-plan • http://ccssarkansas.pbworks.com • Student Achievement Partners site • http://www.achievethecore.org/ • Arkansas Traveler data base • http://library.arkansas.gov

9. Even more free stuff • Primary Sources—Library of Congress http://loc.gov • Thinkfinity, ReadWriteThink • SAS Curriculum Pathways

10. Now What? • Gather resources • Examine current units • Reflect – what worked well, where can I add more informational reading, how can I add more student research, more writing, more text complexity , more variety in types of text, more variety in sources… • Collaborate – share ideas, lessons, sources

11. CCSS Create New Challenges Unlike mathematics, secondary literacy is not a discipline. It is “homeless” in that it belongs to everyone and no one. Literacy is used in all secondary classrooms, but it is not taught in a systematic way.

12. The Big Shifts • Appropriate Text Complexity • Increased Reading of Informational Texts • Disciplinary Literacy • Close Reading • Text-dependent Questions • Academic Vocabulary--Tier 2 & Tier 3 words • Short & Sustained Research • Projects • Argumentative Writing

13. Questions to think about now • How do we help students think in social studies/science/technical subjects? • What types of critical texts are students expected to learn and maneuver? • What types of writing are expected?

14. SCAFFOLDING Definition - a temporary structure put up to allow you to work the text in a way that wouldn't be possible w/o the scaffold. • It is NOT a reading assignment, which treats kids as independent readers.

15. Website evaluation • Tree octopus

16. What CC Literacy Standards are NOT • … just having students read and write more • … assigning more vocabulary words to look up and write definitions for • … conducting basic literacy techniques to struggling readers during class time

17. What CC Literacy Standards are NOT • … giving students Venn diagrams and sentence diagramming assignments in social studies • …assigning more “What did you do during …” essays

18. What The CC Literacy Standards Are • Modeling and scaffolding what reading in your subject area looks and sounds like • Teaching students what is important/vital information in your discipline

19. What The CC Literacy Standards Are • Using the text book as a starting place not the definitive source • Reading a wide variety of texts appropriate for the content area/subject/class • Maps, charts, tables, graphs, photographs, pictures, diagrams, instructions, cartoons, journals, letters, documents, artifacts

20. LDC/MDC • LDC/MDC is the high school training for Common Core in AR • Designed to make literacy and math instruction the foundation of the core subjects • Teachers leading the development • Supported by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation • http://www.literacydesigncollaborative.org/

21. AR LDC/MDC Project 2011-12; Pilot – 5 districts, 8 schools • PCSSD – Sylvan Hills, No. Pulaski Co. • Fort Smith – Northside & Southside • Rogers – Rogers High & Rogers Heritage • Cossatot River – Wickes High • Monticello – Monticello High

22. AR LDC/MDC Project the beginning • 42 teachers were trained in LDC cohort 1 • 26 teachers were trained in MDC cohort 1

23. What’s next for 2012-13? • 2012-13 – about 50 high schools from districts across the state have joined the LDC/MDC project • 2 initial training sessions for teacher facilitators • July 18-20 • July 24-26

24. Essential Elements for a successful program: • Instructional leadership – who should be on team? • Literacy – ELA, Science, Social Studies, & Career ed. teachers • Math – algebra & geometry teachers • Leadership & support – principal, asst. principal, instructional facilitators, district office

25. The LDC Framework & Tasks The tasks students engage are at the center!

26. Close Reading Requires: • Understanding your purpose in reading • Understanding the author’s purpose in writing • Seeing ideas in a text as being interconnected • Looking for and understanding systems of meaning • Engaging a text while reading • Getting beyond impressionist reading • Formulating questions and seeking answers to those questions while reading

27. Disciplinary Reading Range and Content • Critical to building knowledge in content areas • Requires an appreciation of norms & conventions of each discipline • Necessitates an understanding of domain-specific words and phrases • Calls for an attention to precise details • Demands the capacity to evaluate intricate arguments, synthesize complex information , and follow detailed descriptions of events and concepts

28. Tracy Tucker Tracy.tucker@arkansas.gov 501-682-1991 or Maggie Herrick Margaret.herrick@arkansas.gov 501-682-6584