Transcript THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS: GETTING READY …

THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS FOR ENGLISH
LANGUAGE ARTS:
SHIFTS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR ELA INSTRUCTION
Webinar for CCSSO
April 12, 2012
Meredith and David Liben
[email protected]
[email protected]
www.achievethecore.org
Students who struggle greatly to read texts
within (or even below) their text complexity
grade band must be given the support needed
to enable them to read at a grade-appropriate
level of complexity.
Even many students on course for college and
career readiness are likely to need scaffolding as
they master higher levels of text complexity.
From Appendix A, p.9 CCSS - ELA
NEED TO MAKE THREE TIGHTLY
INTERRELATED INSTRUCTIONAL SHIFTS
1. Regular practice for all students with complex text
and its academic vocabulary
2. Reading and writing (speaking and listening) grounded
in evidence from text
3. Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction
and informational texts
GETTING STARTED ON THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS for
LANGUAGE ARTS
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Why the CCSS Emphasis on
Complexity?
• “Between the Lines” ACT 2006 Study
• Complexity Gap between 12th grade and
college and career demands
• 6th Grade McGuffey Reader circa 1961 was
more difficult than average high school
anthology is now
• Too many students never get to complex text
GETTING STARTED ON THE COMMON CORE
STATE STANDARDS for
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
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WHAT ARE THE FEATURES OF
COMPLEX TEXT?
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Subtle and/or frequent transitions
Multiple and/or subtle themes and purposes
Density of information
Unfamiliar settings, topics or events
Lack of repetition, overlap, or similarity in words and sentences
Complex sentences
Uncommon vocabulary
Lack of words, sentences or paragraphs that review or pull things
together for the student
• Longer paragraphs
• Any text structure which is less narrative and/or mixes structures
FEATURES CANNOT BE BROKEN DOWN
AND SEQUENCED
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• Complex text can contain any
possible combination of these
features
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• Can’t possibly isolate these or
control for these features in a
scope and sequence or traditional
skill based approach
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• Where does that leave you?
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Subtle and/or frequent transitions
Multiple and/or subtle themes and
purposes
Density of information
Unfamiliar settings, topics or events
Lack of repetition, overlap or
similarity in words and sentences
Complex sentences
Uncommon vocabulary
Lack of words, sentences or
paragraphs that review or pull things
together for the student
Longer paragraphs
Any text structure which is less
narrative and/or mixes genres
COMPLEX TEXT
• To teach students how to read complex text
we need to use complex text.
• With extensive support!
• Doing so will align with the standards in a
number of ways
CLOSE READING OF COMPLEX TEXT
• Each question supports multiple standards
• Each lesson addresses many of the standards
• The CCSS are written so that reading, writing, listening
and speaking are inextricably linked.
• Tom Sawyer example
• Full exemplar and others can be found at
www.achievethecore.org
But Tom’s energy did not last. He began to think of the
fun he had planned for this day, and his sorrows
multiplied. Soon the free boys would come tripping
along on all sorts of delicious expeditions, and they
would make a world of fun of him for having to work—
the very thought of it burnt him like fire. He got out his
worldly wealth and examined it—bits of toys, marbles,
and trash; enough to buy an exchange of WORK, maybe,
but not half enough to buy so much as half an hour of
pure freedom. So he returned his straitened means to his
pocket, and gave up the idea of trying to buy the boys. At
this dark and hopeless moment an inspiration burst upon
him! Nothing less than a great, magnificent inspiration.
– (straitened: severely limited)
Question: Describe Tom’s state of mind prior to his
inspiration. Work together to find as many phrases as
possible that point to his mood.
CLOSE READING ALONE IS NOT
ENOUGH
• Need to look carefully at fluency program at every
grade level.
• Need to look carefully at how vocabulary and word
study are taught
• Need to look carefully at syntax
• All of these aspects need to be carefully attended to if
the achievement gap is to be reduced rather than
enlarged by the advent of the CCSS for ELA.