Andrew Ordover, Ed.D. Vice President, Product Development

IMPLEMENTING THE COMMON CORE

THREE KEYS FOR SUCCESS

Everybody’s Talking…

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You Can’t Handle the Truth!

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Just the Facts…

The Common Core State Standards ARE…

• A state-led effort coordinated by the National Governors

Association and the CCSSO

• Adopted by 45 States + DC

• Aligned with 21st century college and work expectations

• Built upon the strengths and lessons of previous state standards

• More focused and coherent than many previous sets of

standards

• Internationally benchmarked so that all students are prepared

to succeed in our global economy and society

• Research and evidence based

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Just the Facts…

The Common Core State Standards are NOT…

• A national curriculum that mandates WHAT you must teach on

any given day, week, or month

• An national instructional model that mandates HOW you must

teach

• A national set of approved or mandated texts or materials to

support instruction

• A global plot to fluoridate your water and make you start using

the metric system

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Instructional Shifts: Literacy

1. Balancing Informational and Literary Text

2. Knowledge in the Disciplines

3. Staircase of Complexity

4. Text-based Answers

5. Writing from Sources

6. Academic Vocabulary

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Instructional Shifts: Math

1. Focus

2. Coherence

3. Fluency

4. Deep Understanding

5. Application

6. Dual Intensity

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The Challenge: How Do We Move from Lists…

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…to Life?

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WHAT ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT?

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The First Key Setting a Standard for Rigor

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What Does Setting a Standard Mean?

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It means setting norms and expectations relating to the form you’re looking for…

What Does Setting a Standard Mean?

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And the content…

What Does Setting a Standard Mean?

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And the content…

Do Our Standards Set a Standard?

Find a percent of a quantity as a rate per 100 (e.g., 30% of a quantity means 30/100 times the quantity); solve problems involving finding the whole, given a part and the percent.

CCSS Math Content Standard 6.RP.A.3c

1. Identify 50% of 20

2. Identify 67% of 81

3. Shawn got 7 correct answers out of 10 possible answers on his science test. What percent of questions did he get correct?

4. J.J. Redick was on pace to set an NCAA record in career free-throw percentage. Leading into the NCAA tournament in 2004, he made 97 of 104 free-throw attempts. In the first tournament game, Redick missed his first five free throws. How far did his percentage drop from before the tournament game to right after missing those free throws?

Adapted from Driven by Data, Paul Bambrick-Santoya

Using Exemplars to Set a Standard

Reading Materials

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http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_B.pdf

Using Exemplars to Set a Standard

Reading Assignments • Literature: Students refer to the structural elements (e.g., verse, rhythm,

meter) of Ernest Lawrence Thayer’s “Casey at the Bat” when analyzing the

poem and contrasting the impact and differences of those elements to a

prose summary of the poem. [RL.4.5]

• History: Students analyze the role of African American soldiers in the Civil

War by comparing and contrasting primary source materials against

secondary syntheses such as Jim Haskins’s Black, Blue and Gray: African

Americans in the Civil War. [RH.9–10.9]

• Science: Students cite specific textual evidence from Annie J. Cannon’s

“Classifying the Stars” to support their analysis of the scientific importance

of the discovery that light is composed of many colors. Students include in

their analysis precise details from the text (such as Cannon’s repeated use of

the image of the rainbow) to buttress their explanation. [RST.9–10.1].

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http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_B.pdf

Using Exemplars to Set a Standard

Writing from Reading

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http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_C.pdf

Sample Item Constructed Response Balanced Assessment Consortium

S M A R T E R Elementary School Item

What is the greatest amount Tyler should spend?

© 2013 CATAPULT LEARNING, LLC – ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 19

High School

© 2013 CATAPULT LEARNING, LLC – ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 20

Using Sample Test Items to Set a Standard

Using Teaching Rubrics to Set a Standard

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Using Teaching Rubrics to Set a Standard

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Using Teaching Rubrics to Set a Standard

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HELPING HANDS

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The Second Key Creating a Culture of Inquiry

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What is Inquiry?

Characteristics

Learning is driven by challenging, open-ended, ill-defined and ill-structured problems

Students generally work in collaborative groups

Teachers take on the role as "facilitators" of learning

The Inquiry Cycle

1. Posing Questions

2. Seeking Answers

3. Re-evaluating Initial Inquiries

4. Sharing/Communicating Results

5. Posing New Questions

Where the Standards Demand Inquiry: Literacy

Students are expected to engage in rich, evidence-based dialogue about a text they have read

Teachers must now train students to stay in the text, to draw conclusions and make arguments about the text and do so through the text itself

Teachers should be asking, “where do you see that in the text? What paragraph? What sentence? What word?” and students must begin to think and argue through and with texts by constantly being asked to find evidence in what they have read.

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Some Examples: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.5 Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.8 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. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.9 Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.

Where the Standards Demand Inquiry: Math 1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.

2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.

3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.

4. Model with mathematics.

5. Use appropriate tools strategically.

6. Attend to precision.

7. Look for and make use of structure.

8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

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How Textbooks Limit Inquiry

Too many topics; not enough depth • Broad coverage to meet all standards is often more important

than focused, in-depth knowledge • This results is very abbreviated discussions or checklists of facts:

Stuff You Should Know

One size fits all • One reading level for all students

• Relying exclusively on textbooks makes it more challenging for

teachers to differentiate instruction.

Textbooks are designed to deliver information easily • They synthesize and “pre-digest” information and therefore do

most of the real thinking work for students • But CCSS is asking for kids to grapple and struggle with text, to

draw conclusions of their own

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Getting Beyond the Textbook

Build instruction around questions or problems instead of statements beginning, “Students will learn…”

Use more primary and secondary source text material, and manipulatives or “labs”

Encourage students to speculate about the texts they read:

• What was the creator’s purpose in writing this text?

• What does the creator do to get his or her point across?

• What was this text’s original audience?

• What biases or stereotypes are built in to the text?

Make students work towards synthesis

• Ask students to find other primary or secondary sources that offer support or

contradiction.

• Ask students to test their assumptions and conclusions by doing further

research

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Posing Questions to Drive Inquiry

Frame the year with questions that speak to the heart of the subject area

Frame the unit with questions that drive students towards inquiry that will reveal the big ideas and important concepts you need to teach

Frame the day with questions that students can answer in a class period

What Kinds of Questions Do We Ask?

Fact-Based

Open-Ended Debate-Based

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• Teacher-controlled • Focused on demonstrating knowledge individually • Usually limited to a single correct answer • Aimed at getting the answer right

• Confrontational • Focused on making an argument forcefully • Usually limited to two potential answers • Aimed at winning

• Communal • Focused on sharing ideas respectfully • No preconceived correct answer—the truth often lies in synthesis • Aimed at growing understanding

The Importance of Argument

Gerald Graff (2003) says “Argument literacy” is fundamental to being considered an educated person.

Richard Andrews (2009) says that argument is especially important in a democratic society.

David Conley (2010) identifies five cognitive strategies that are crucial across disciplines in college-level work. The single most important: the ability to explain a process or phenomenon or take and defend a position.

BUT in a recent study, only 3% of 8th graders and 6% of 12 graders were able to make informed, critical judgments based on text (Perie, Grigg, Donahue, 2005).

The same study showed 15% of 12th graders able to write clear, well-organized essays taking and defending a position.

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The Importance of Dialogue

“If my perception and description of the world is true only in a limited sense, that is, only as seen from my place in the world, then if I wish to expand my grasp of reality I need to learn from others what they know of reality that they can perceive from their place in the world that I cannot see from mine. That, however, can happen only through dialogue.”

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What is Dialogue? Leonard Swidler, The Dialogue Institute

Creating a Culture of Dialogue

It’s all about setting a standard that applies across the school

• Not just in the classroom, but in the hallways, in the lunchroom

• Not just between adults and students in formal settings, but

among students anywhere…and among adults, as well

A culture of dialogue requires:

• Ability to communicate clearly and logically

• Willingness to listen respectfully

• Openness to other opinions and perspectives

• Acceptance that you just might be wrong…

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What Happens in YOUR Faculty Room?

Raw Debate

• Open Advocacy

• Strategic Listening

• Clear Agenda

• Goal of Winning

Polite Discussion

• Pretense of Agreement

• Pretense of Listening

• Hidden Agenda

• Goal of Holding Original Position

Skilled Discussion

• Sharing of Perspectives

• Real Listening

• Shared Agenda

• Goal of Solving a Problem

Dialogue

• Authentic Inquiry

• Real Listening

• No Agenda

• Goal of Reflection, Understanding, and Change

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The Culturally Proficient School, Lindsey, Roberts, and CampbellJones

HELPING HANDS

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The Third Key Making Everyone a Stakeholder in Success

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Reaching Out Beyond English and Math

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Cross-Disciplinary Literacy Expectations

K-5: Embedded within the English standards

6-12: Separate literacy standards for History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Arts

Disciplinary Literacy

Disciplinary literacy involves specialized ways of knowing and communicating unique to different content areas.

Disciplinary literacy requires focus on the special problems of that content area and development of unique reading skills required for academic literacy within that content area.

It does not focus on basic literacy, but is concerned with the question of what it means to be scientifically literate or historically literate.

“The idea of disciplinary literacy is that students not only

have to learn the essential content of a field, but

how reading and writing are used in that field.” Timothy Shanahan, University of Illinois at Chicago

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Reaching Out to Non-Academic Staff

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Reaching Out to Non-Academic Staff

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Cheerleaders and Algebra

www.edutopia.org/harrison-high-school-technology-integration-video

Reaching Out to Parents

Can parents support the academic standards being taught in school?

YES, THEY CAN!

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• Students can help solve regular household problems involving math • Students can read the newspaper or listen to public radio at home and engage in “text-based” conversations on current events

Reaching Out to Parents

Can parents participate in setting standards for rigor and excellence?

YES, THEY CAN!

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• Household chores, like academic homework, shouldn’t just be done; they should be done correctly, neatly, and with care. • Parents of athletes (or even just sports fans) can make explicit connections between athletic and academic standards for excellence

Reaching Out to Parents

Can parents participate in creating a culture of inquiry and life-long learning?

YES, THEY CAN!

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• Encourage parents to engage in discussions with students and ask questions like: • “What do you think?” • “Why do you have that opinion?” • “How do you know it’s true?” • “How would it be different if I changed this part of it?”

Reaching Out to the Community

The Common Core Standards are back-mapped to ensure “College and Career Readiness”

This should mean that your local community has a real stake in the success of your students

How can you make them feel like stakeholders?

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• Invite community members to Common Core presentations • Make sure local businesses know when important test-days occur. Invite them to connect with students to wish them luck • Find ways to connect key issues like problem-solving and informational texts with the life of the larger community

HELPING HANDS

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Putting the Pieces Together

Setting a Standard for

Rigor

Making Everyone a Stakeholder

Creating a Culture of

Inquiry

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PIECE OF CAKE!

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