The Common Core and the Middle

Level: A Match To Be Made

Nancy Doda, Ph.D.,www.teacher-to-teacher.comJill Spencer, Senior Partner

Learning Capacity Unlimited

Middle School & the Common Core

Warm the RoomTurn and Chat with a

neighbor What is changing in your school

as a result of the common core?

Mining the Good From the Common

Core

Being Critical Leaders in the CCSS Initiative

The Wonder Years

Developmentally Appropriate

Challenging

Empowering

EquitableAMLE, This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents

The Middle Level Call

Turning Points 2000

• Give Authentic and Meaningful Work

• Use Ongoing and Multiple Forms of Assessment

• Emphasize Critical Thinking• Sustain Focus on Essential

Questions and Big Ideas

Jackson & Davis, 2000. (Turning points 2000)

“American students must be fully prepared to compete successfully in a global economy. The recently released Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited: Rapidly Approaching Category 5 continues to warn that the United States is quickly losing its competitive edge in the world.” (McNulty & Gloeckler, 2011)

The Common Core Mantra

• Raise the Bar

• Literacy Across All Disciplines

• Active & Challenging Learning

Grapple

Persevere Polish

Refine

Create

Explain Defend

Persuade

Argue

Common Core: Students need ability to….

• gather, comprehend, evaluate, synthesize, and report on information and ideas,

• conduct original research to answer questions or solve problems,

• analyze and create a high volume and extensive range of print and non-print texts in media forms old and new.

Common Core ELA p. 4

21st Century SkillsThink, Innovate and Work Creatively

Reason Effectively

Solve Problems and Make Sound Judgments

Collaborate with Others

Communicate Clearly

Be Self-Directed

Creativity

In 2010, CEOs from 33 industries and over 50 countries named creativity as the most important… skill for the coming years.

Phillips, L. (2013). We Aren’t Preparing Young People for Careers at Disney or Apple. 

Can I figure out what to do

I don’t know what to do?

when

Student in Soundings, Mark Springer

Misleading Myths

• Rigor Means Unwieldy

• Common Core Means Uniformity

• CCSS Address all We Need to Teach

• Love of Learning Isn’t Important.

What Does This Mean For Our Middle Level Classrooms?

What real shifts are needed?

The Golden Shifts

EMPOWERMENTPutting Students in the Driver’s Seat

In which mode of transportation would you best be able to

retrace a trip?

Consider Why?

The Driving Metaphor Of Empowerment

What Does it Mean To Put Students In The

Driver’s Seat?

Empowered Learning Involves

Risk

Middle Schools Must Develop Trusting and

Collaborative Learning Cultures

Mrs. Mutner liked to go over a few of her rules on the first day of class

We cannot expect children to accept ready-made values and truths all the way through school, and then suddenly make choices in adulthood. Likewise, we cannot expect them to be manipulated with reward and punishment in school, and to have the courage of a Martin Luther King.... Constance Kamii (1991)

Students Help Develop Classroom Norms

“Learning is a consequence of experience. …people become responsible and independent not from having someone tell them that they should be responsible or independent, but from having experienced authentic responsibility and independence.” (Angelo V. Boy and Gerald Pine, 1971)

WATERSHED CORE VALUES

Everyone will strive to be:CARING

COOPERATIVE

CURIOUS

CONFIDENT

MOTIVATED

RESPONSIBLE

John Dewey

It is hardly too much to say that in traditional education so much stress is laid upon the presentation to the child of ready-made materials, and the child to bear responsibility for reciting upon this ready-made material, that there is only accidental occasion …for developing motive and reflective attention. (School & Society, 1956)

The Perilous Sage on the Stage

“Teachers, teachers, teachers,

when will they learn. I have the

attention span of a raisin…” Research data, (Doda & Knowles,

2006)

TEACHER SHARED

Control Continuum

Example: Text Study

Teacher Assigns Reading andAsks Questions

TeacherAssigns Reading, but StudentsAsk Questions

Student-Led DiscussionGroups

TEACHER SHARED

Control Continuum

Example: Worksheets to Think-sheets

Teacher Determines Questions For Worksheet

StudentsChoose From Teacher’s List of AcceptableQuestions

Students Use Open-Ended Think Sheets

Exhibit A

REFLECTION

• What’s makes this a best practice common core approach?

• How does this compare with what you typically see?

• How are you currently supporting your staff in their journey towards student empowerment?

What Kind Of Learning Experiences Support These

Skills?

• Problems to Solve

• Products to Create

• Issues to Investigate

• Processes to Use to Invent

• Arguments to Defend

The Golden Shifts

LITERACY

Message To Kids

We are not born readers. We become readers.

Common Core Stance

• Nonfiction in All Subjects

• Speaking & Listening

• Vocabulary taught well

• Reading and Writing Skills

Literacy as Part of Meaningful Learning

The Middle School Stance

Middle schoolers love:

•Books that speak to them.•Books that grapple with life issues.

•Books they can share with others.

•Books that are culture and gender-friendly.

Shared Message

If students believe that intelligence is something you can get and not something you already have, they learn more.

(Dweck, 2011)

What Do Skilled Readers Do?

• BEFORE: Anticipate ~ Get ready to enter text

• DURING: Participate ~ Get into the text

• AFTER: Reflect ~ Review, Use, Evaluate

Let’s Try a Piece of Text

“A teacher’s take on the Common Core”

Let’s Start

• Read the Statement.

• What do you think? Agree or Disagree

• Stand by the Agree or Disagree Side

• Explain your Thinking (to someone near you).

Two Sides: Agree/Disagree

• Common core is in the best interest of middle school learners.

• There is almost nothing disagreeable about the CCSS initiative.

DURING

To help the reader become immersed in the text.

Pairs will take turns talking about the text as they read.

Read and Say Something

Read half the text. Stop and take turns sharing one passage that struck you as critical. Share why.

Marking Text

!! Interesting/Important

? Confusing/Curious

+ I want to recall this

Replace Worksheets With Think Sheets

TEXT: __________________________

What it says

I think…. So what?

Range of Writing

Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.

 

Argument

Write arguments to support claims in an

analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid

reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

Digital Generation

Use technology for all phases of writing process:

• Quality and quantity of writing improvesTransfers to non-technology situations

• 78 % of students believe writing would improve if teachers used digital tools

• 82 % of students believe writing would improve with more class time

Blogging• Common Core

• Evidence• Valid reasoning• Clarity & coherence• Audience• Production of writing with technology

• Research• Analysis, reflection

• Middle Level

• Student at center of learning

• Interest• Choice• Relevance• Authentic• Technology-based• Appropriate

RON BERGER, SHUTESBURG, MA.

“Show me something I can’t

Google.”

Focus on Big Themes

• What makes us who we are?

• Choices and Consequences

• How have humans overcome huge obstacles?

The Golden Shifts

Teaching with the Common Core in

Mind

www.teacher-to-teacher.comResources

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