The Core Six Essential Strategies for Achieving Excellence With the Common Core

Reading For Meaning Paula Davis

Introduction to Strategy  Strategy that exercise active reading:  Before (previewing and predicting),  During (actively searching for relevant information), and  After (reflecting and learning)

Connection to Common Core  Text complexity – builds skills used by proficient readers to extract meaning from even the most rigorous texts.  Relevant evidence – students cite specific evidence when writing and speaking from text; they constructively evaluate others’ use of evidence  Core skills of reading – builds and assesses the skills Common Core identifies as crucial to students’ success

Steps to Reading for Meaning  Identify a short text that you want students to “read for meaning.” Any text will work – a poem, an article, a blog post, a primary document, a fable, a scene from a play, mathematical word problems, data chart, lab experiments, film clips, and visual sources like paintings and photographs.

Steps to Reading for Meaning  Generate a list of statements about the texts that require students to search the text for evidence that supports or refutes each statement.  Introduce the topic of the text; have students preview the statements before they begin reading.

Steps to Reading for Meaning  Students record evidence for and against each statement while (or after) they read.  Students discuss their evidence in pairs or small groups. Encourage groups to reach consensus about which statements are supported and which are refuted by the text.

Steps to Reading for Meaning  Conduct a whole-class discussion in which students share and justify positions. Students may need guidance toward evidence they may have missed or misinterpreted.  Use students’ responses to evaluate their understanding of the reading and their ability to support a position with evidence.

Compare and Contrast Jill Fishburn

Connection to Common Core  Comparative thinking  Comparative reading  A best bet for raising student achievement.

Four Phases  Students describe each item using criteria.  They use a top hat organizer to record key similarities and differences.  They discuss their findings and draw conclusions.  They synthesize their learning by completing an application task.

Criteria  Tell about the characters in the fables.  Why do they decide to race?  How does the tortoise win the race?  What lesson do you think the fable is trying teach us?

Discussion  Are the fables more alike or more different?  Why do you think that?  Give examples from the text to support your thinking.

Synthesis Task  Think of the value that you discussed when you were the successful underdog. If you were to write this as a story, how would the underdog character win the race?

Inductive Learning Brenda Dean

Inductive Learning  Deepens content understanding  Develops inference and evidence gathering skills  Begins with categorization  Forms hypotheses based on categorization  Gathers evidence to verify or refine hypotheses

Connection to Common Core  Inference  Higher order thinking and 21 st century skills  Reading Anchor Standard 1…make logical inferences  Sub-processes of reading closely, looking for hidden relationships, generating tentative hypotheses, and drawing conclusions

Connection to Common Core  Evidence  Math Practice 3, Reading Anchor Standard 1, Writing Anchor Standard 1 and 9, and other grade level specific standards  Students collect and consider evidence to support their hypothesis and to refine it.

Connection to Common Core  Academic Vocabulary  Language Anchor Standard 6…academic and domain specific words and phrases.  Forces students to search key attributes and relationships among the words…Language Anchor Standard 5.

An Example

Writing Extension  Inductive Writing  Each group is the basis for a paragraph  Sequence logically  First draft…revision…reflection

Writing Extension  Multiple Document Learning (Reading Anchor Standard 9)  Read a diary entry from a Chinese student about her first experience in US schools, a description of a classroom during an air-raid drill, and a poem on teachers  Indentify embedded topic (how teachers help students learn)  Read to find information related to topic…underline/highlight/notes  Patterns, group, label  Logical sequence  Draft, revise, reflect

Circle of Knowledge David Freeman

Circle of Knowledge  Circle of Knowledge provides teachers with a strategic framework for planning and conducting discussions that foster student participation and critical thinking.

Connection to Common Core  Effective communication is a crucial 21 st century skill.  Speaking and listening require thinking.  Discussions build collaborative and interpersonal skills.

Three Essential Criteria  A high degree of student participation  A strong focus on essential content  High levels of thinking

CoK in the Classroom  Spark discussion by posing an open- ended question that hooks students into the material.  Give students time to stop and think about the question.  Sharpen the focus of the discussion by posing a focusing question that highlights the central topic or theme of the discussion.

CoK in the Classroom  Have students “kindle” their responses by jotting down their initial responses and then sharing and comparing their responses in small groups.  Engage the whole class in discussion.  During the discussion, use a variety of recognition techniques to maximize participation.

CoK in the Classroom  Record students’ responses and summarize key content with students.  Allow students to reflect on the discussion and their own participation.  Synthesize student learning with a task that asks them to apply what they learned during the discussion.

CoK Examples  High School Geometry  English Language Arts and Social Studies  Middle School Science

Write to Learn Jaime Greene

Three Types of Classroom Writing  Provisional Writing-or brief, daily writing that supports learning.  Readable writing-which requires students to clarify and organize their thinking to develop on-demand essays or responses.  Polished writing-which engages students in the full writing and revision.

Connection to Common Core  Writing develops higher-order thinking.  Maximizing the benefits of writing as a “thinking builder”  Writing on-demand and in extended settings  Addresses arguments, informative/explanatory, and narrative

Provisional Writing  Provisional writing is quick writing that, like brainstorming, slows down and opens up the thinking process.  Students write spontaneously for 2-5 minutes to generate, clarify, or extend ideas or to react to important content.  Examples: Learning Logs, Freewrite

Readable Writing  Like a classroom essay test or assignments, requiring students to clarify their thoughts and develop an organizational structure for their ideas.  Should be assigned regularly  You do not have to grade all of them for summative purposes!

Readable Writing  Focus less on mechanics like grammar and spelling and more on accuracy and organization of main ideas and supporting details.  Called readable writing for a reason: it should make sense and be easy to understand.  Example: 3 X 3 Writing Frame

Polished Writing  Engages students in the full writing process from coming up with initial ideas to writing a final draft.  Examples- Writing Folder, Writers’ Club

Vocabulary’s Code Tony Dalton

Vocabulary’s CODE in a Nutshell  Vocabulary’s CODE is a strategic approach to direct vocabulary instruction that help students master crucial concepts and retain new vocabulary terms.

CODE  C onnecting with new words.  O rganizing new words into meaningful categories.  D eep-processing the most important concepts and terms.  E xercising the mind through strategic review and practice.

Connection to Common Core  Vocabulary is a foundation for improved literacy. (L.CCCR.4, L.CCR.5, and L.CCR.6)  Academic vocabulary is at the core of the Core. “general academic” and “domain-specific”

Connection to Common Core  Vocabulary fuels learning. Direct vocabulary instruction not only increases students’ ability to comprehend and retain what we are teaching today but also prepares students to be better learners in the future.

Steps for Vocabulary’s CODE  Connect – this first phase helps students form a strong initial connection with these terms (texts, words walls, vocabulary notebooks/glossaries)  Organize – this second phase ensures that students understand how the terms relate to one another (graphic organizers, categorizing, Three-Way Tie)

Steps for Vocabulary’s CODE Deep-Process – in this third phase, students use thinking strategies and multiple forms of representation to develop a deep, conceptual understanding (visualization, compare/contrast, metaphors, cinquains)

Steps for Vocabulary’s CODE Exercise – the fourth phase engages students in meaningful review and practice activities that help them commit new terms to long-term memory (para-writing, comic strips, vocabulary games, three’s a crowd)

Hamblen County Department of Instruction Paula Davis, Instructional Coach Grades 4-5 Jill Fishburn, Instructional Coach Grades 2-3 Brenda Dean, Assistant Director of Schools David Freeman, Technology Instructional Coach Jaime Greene, Instructional Coach Grades 6-12 Tony Dalton, Instructional Coach Grades PreK-1