Opportunities for Teachers Within the Common Core State Standards
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Teachers of the Common Core State Standards September 2014
Transcript of Opportunities for Teachers Within the Common Core State Standards
Opportunities for Teachers of the Common Core State StandardsSeptember 2014
Who am I?
Shameless Plug
Who are you?
A.K-1 TeacherB.2-3 TeacherC. 4-5 TeacherD.Other
The War of the Core
Like it or not…
•In February 2010, Kentucky was the first state to adopt the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and subsequently incorporated them into the Kentucky Core Academic Standards. The new English/language arts and mathematics standards were first taught in Kentucky schools in the 2011-12 school year.•Today, 43 states, the District of Columbia, four territories, and the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) have adopted the Common Core and are implementing the standards according to their own timelines.
Background
• The state-led effort to develop the Common Core State Standards was launched in 2009 by state leaders, including governors and state commissioners of education from 48 states, two territories and the District of Columbia, through their membership in the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). State school chiefs and governors recognized the value of consistent, real-world learning goals and launched this effort to ensure all students, regardless of where they live, are graduating high school prepared for college, career, and life.
The bright side
•There are opportunities within the CCSS to do what’s best for kids, so regardless of where we stand we can still meet the needs of kids… and that’s what’s important!
Opportunities
•Opportunities for teacher voice and choice
•Opportunities for student voice and choice
•Opportunities for deeper thinking and analysis
•Opportunities for culturally responsive teaching and critical literacy
•Opportunities to showcase teacher effectiveness
Opportunities for teacher voice and choice
What the standards don’t do
•The Standards define what all students are expected to know and be able to do, not how teachers should teach.
What the standards don’t do
•By emphasizing required achievements, the Standards leave room for teachers, curriculum developers, and states to determine how those goals should be reached and what additional topics should be addressed. Thus, the Standards do not mandate such things as a particular writing process or the full range of metacognitive strategies that students may need to monitor and direct their thinking and learning. Teachers are thus free to provide students with whatever tools and knowledge their professional judgment and experience identify as most helpful for meeting the goals set out in the Standards.
What the standards don’t do
•While the Standards focus on what is most essential, they do not describe all that can or should be taught.
For example…
•Reading Standard 2: Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.•What story? Describe in what way (written, orally, picture)? Alone, with a partner, whole group? It’s up to you!
A Sponge is a Summary
Pappas’ 3 Step Process
•Step 1: Start with the concrete "right there" observations.
•Step 2: Give students a chance to tell what they think is important.
•Step 3: Give students a chance to frame their summary into a narrative explanation for another audience.
Step 1: Start with the concrete "right there" observations
Step 2: Give students a chance to tell what they think is important
Step 3: Give students a chance to frame their summary into a narrative explanation for another audience
•Water would come from the mountain and fill the lake. You could get fish and drink water. Water is very important
•People were moving west. They moved by wagon at first, then but train, which is faster.
•Life was tough. People had to do everything for themselves.
•It maybe was lonely because people missed their friends back home.Here are some of their
captions: (spelling corrected)
•The people were building a town. They could get wood from the trees. It was a small town at first.
•The Indian see the people coming. They knew things were changing. They got sick from the smoke.
•The school was different from our school. People had different clothes than us.
•The train split the old life from the new life.
Captions (continued)
•What did I think was important?•How did I share that with my audience?
•Did my summary match audience and purpose?
•Is my summary accurate? •Did I use my own words and style?
•What did I learn from the activity?
Questioning for Authenticity
The Connect-a-pillar
Main Idea
Supporting Details
Pair, share
•Share a strategy you use for summarization or a way you might use one of these in your classroom
Opportunities for student voice and choice
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-the-n-word
Opportunities for deeper thinking and analysis
First Reading •Enjoy the text with your students. Do all of those wonderful before, during and after reading things K-2 teachers are so great at doing!
Choose a Focus•On the second (or subsequent) readings, choose a standard on which to focus.
•Let’s look at language anchor standard 5 as it is similar across grade levels:
Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word
relationships, and nuances in word meanings
How Can We Demonstrate the Standard?•Display key sentences (chart paper, sentence strips, smartboard or document camera) and circle or highlight verbs.
•Act it out.• Draw pictures to illustrate the verbs. Make a class dictionary.
•Try the verbs in student-generated sentences.
•Other ideas?
You Try It!
•At your tables, choose a language standard on which to focus.
•Decide how you would approach that standard using Leola and the Honey Bears.
•Be prepared to share.
Opportunities for culturally responsive teaching and critical literacy
U.S. Immigrant Population, 1900-2011
RELATIVE DISTRIBUTION OF U.S. POPULATION BY RACE / ETHNICITY
Race/Ethnicity 2005 2050
White 67% 47%
Blacks 12.8% 13%
Hispanics 14% 29%
Asian 5% 9%
Source: Pew Research Center, 2008 *projected.
•The goals of the Standards can be met using culturally relevant content; students can “master the Standards within a framework of critical, empowering, and engaging lessons” (Grindon, 2014, p. 251). Within such a framework, students read the world in addition to reading the word (Vasquez, 2010).
•Grindon (2014) explains practically: When students read closely (Standard 1), analyze a text (Standard 1), analyze an author’s word choice (Standard 4), and determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text (Standard 6), they acknowledge that these words, choices, and positions are not neutral. When critical literacy is a “way of being” (Vasquez, 2010) in a classroom, these Standards allow students to read the world. The Standards do not demand a teaching framework of critical literacy, nor do they prohibit one. Rather, they are an opportunity for teachers to explore how literacy can engage and empower students. (p. 253)
How do we address it?
• Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text. (Reading standard 6) Ask tough questions. (Who is telling this story? Who is included? Who is omitted? Why?)
• Conduct further research. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence (Standard 8).
• Construct counter-narratives. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence (Writing Standard 1).
What does this mean to a Puerto Rican child who is reading an account of the voyage of Columbus that does not acknowledge the impact his visit had on the Taíno people or an African American student who encounters a brief reference to Malcolm X in a textbook that does not recognize his role as a human rights activist?
Opportunities to showcase teacher effectiveness
PGES Help
•Here is a link to our newly structured webpages: http://education.ky.gov/teachers/PGES/Pages/PGES.aspx
Jedi Mind TrickYou cannot wait to read the Literacy Link. You cannot wait to submit to the Literacy Link. You cannot wait to share the Literacy Link with everyone you know and love.
