Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC)

Objectives Participants will: Define the LDC module Identify the key components of the LDC module Explain the relationship between the LDC module and the common core Analyze a high school health education LDC module

What are the big changes in education you are facing? Turn and Talk with a table partner Quickly write as many changes as you can brainstorm in a couple of minutes Directions: Ask participants to turn and talk with a table partner about the question and to record as many changes as they can in a couple of minutes (Possible Responses: CCSS, PARCC, TESS, ESEA) Ask the partners to share with their table and add any changes they have not already recorded Call on one table to share one change while the facilitator records it on a chart Call on each table until there are no other responses Ask participants to turn to a table partner and discuss the following question for one minute: How can teachers add all of these changes to what they are already doing? Option: Ask participants to respond whole group and record their answers Option 2 Ask participants to talk at their tables for a couple of minutes to record the changes Call on participants at each table and record their responses for the whole group

How can we work together to make changes to our current practices so we can meet these new expectations? All these changes you have listed are challenging us to move from being a good school to being a great school. Story: When a coach is working with a basketball player who is a good player even though he uses bad form, the coach has to decide whether or not to retrain that athlete to use proper form when shooting the ball. If the coach leaves the player alone, he will be good but never great. Unless the coach and the athlete take the time and put forth the effort to retrain his form, the athlete will never reach his full potential. The changes you have listed have the potential to move your teaching practice from good to great, to move student achievement forward, but the changes will require time and effort on your part and that of your Instructional Leaders. Often when an athlete is using incorrect form when shooting the ball, it takes more energy and causes the shooters arm to tire more quickly, making him/her less successful. When we as teachers use less effective teaching practices, student achievement does not grow as much as we would like, and we find ourselves worn out and frustrated. How can we work together to change our current practices and meet all these new expectations? Educators are already working at full capacity. We cannot add hours to the day, So, if educators cannot add all of these changes to what they are already doing, they must stop doing some things they are currently doing and replace them with new things. Notice that I did not say “stop doing everything they are doing and replace them all with new things.” What I mean is that for the changes to have positive results, we must replace less effective practices with new more effective ones. We need something to help us plan for and to implement the changes in our curriculum, instruction, and assessment system. Since we cannot possibly add one more thing to our workload, we must find a way to work smarter, not harder as we change our practices.

Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) is one tool that can help us address all of these changes.

Guiding Question How do you engage students in reading and responding to complex texts in your discipline? LDC answers this question for all content areas and students at any point along the learning continuum.

Literacy Design Collaborative The Literacy Design Collaborative [LDC] offers a fresh approach to incorporating literacy into middle and high school content areas. Designed to make literacy instruction the foundation of the core subjects, LDC allows teachers to build content on top of a coherent approach to literacy. This is drastically different than past, less structured notions of “adding” reading and writing when possible to the teaching of content. LDC requires that we build our content lessons around reading and writing, the literacy of our content areas. One of the big emphases in the Common Core State Standards is the shared responsibility for literacy across all content areas. Teachers in the core areas are not expected to teach English content; instead, they are expected to teach students how to read and write like scientists, historians, technology specialists, artists, and musicians. Yes, coaches, those playbooks with all the X’s and O’s take special skills to decipher. In fact, the skills that athletes use to comprehend the playbooks will enhance their ability to read technical texts that include diagrams in other disciplines. LDC meets the expectation of shared responsibility for literacy across all content areas.

Goals of LDC To engage students in reading, comprehending, analyzing, interpreting, and responding to complex texts To align assignments to the CCSS and to promote collaboration To help teachers personalize learning so that every student can master the CCSS To ensure that all students can be college and career ready Read the slide

An LDC Classroom Students engaging in learning Students focusing on the LDC task Students working together Students reading to learn content Students persisting to complete tasks An LDC classroom is a student-centered classroom.

What are the LDC tools? A bank of reading/writing tasks Module templates Scoring rubrics Local and national collaboration Access to a community of educators with LDC modules aligned to course content and to CCSS These are the tools available for Literacy Design Collaborative. 10

Integrate the Standards Common Core State Standards Content Standards The first step in developing modules is to have a clear and thorough understanding of both the Common Core State Standards and the standards for your content area. There is a special section of the CCSS titled “Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects for grades 6-12. Another section is Titled Standards for English Language Arts for grades 6-12 ELA teachers. It is important to note that the Common Core State Standards do not replace your content standards if you teach history/ social studies, science, and technical subjects. If, however, you teach English Language Arts, the Common Core State Standards will replace the ELA Arkansas Frameworks. You will draw on your knowledge of the standards as you write essential questions that will guide the development of your modules.

What are the three types of writing tasks? Argumentation 2. Informational / Explanatory 3. Narrative Tasks are organized into three writing types: Argumentation, Informational/explanatory, and Narrative. Each task set includes a list of the standards addressed, the template tasks, and a generic writing rubric aligned to the type of writing required by the task and tied to the process elements of the tasks, not the content of the task. 12 © 2009 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Read through the SIM Organizer to provide the big picture of the LDC process. © 2009 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

LDC Planning Process The LDC planning process is driven by four questions: What task? What skills? What instruction? and What results? LDC uses an organizational tool called a module template to record information during the planning process. Trainer Note: On the document camera, walk participants through the What Task? section of the module template. Section 1 answers the question, What task?

Template Tasks Twenty-nine Template Tasks Three Writing Types that align to CCSS Argumentative Informational/Explanatory Narrative Two Categories Research Essential Question LDC provides participants with 29 blank template tasks. These templates are divided into three types of writing that align to the Common Core State Standards: argumentation, informative/explanatory (LDC says informational/explanatory), and narrative. Show participants how each of these types of templates are divided two categories: some tasks are answered after completing research, and others require students to answer an essential question.

What Task? Teaching Task 1. Choose a Topic 2. Choose a Template Template Task 1. Choose a Topic 2. Choose a Template 3. Choose Texts to Read 4. Choose Texts to Write 5. Create the Teaching Task The template tasks are empty skeletons that provide the bare bones or framework of a task. After the teacher fleshes out the template with his/her content, it is called a Teaching Task. Both the blank template and the teaching task are recorded on the module template. Several decisions go into creating a Teaching Task. The teacher will choose a template, a topic, texts to read, and texts students will write. After making these choices the teacher will create a teaching task. On the document camera show Sample Module 1: Comparing Economic Systems

Template Task Sample Task 2 Argumentative/Analysis: [Insert Question] After reading______ (literature or informational texts) write a/an _______ (essay or substitute) that addresses the question and support your position with evidence from the texts. Be sure to acknowledge competing views.

Teaching Task: Health Education Sample Task 2 Argumentative/Analysis: Should baseball players who use performance enhancing drugs be inducted into the Hall of Fame? After reading two articles pertaining to the use of performance enhancing drugs, write an essay that addresses the question and support your position with evidence from the texts. Be sure to acknowledge competing views. Sample Teaching Task This is an example of a Teaching Task for Health Education that has been created from Template Task 2.

Teaching Task: English Task 2: What impact does a human being’s level of interaction with nature have on his/her well-being? After reading Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay, Nature, To Build a Fire by Jack London, and other student-selected texts on nature, write an essay that addresses the question and support your position with evidence from at least 4 texts. L2 Be sure to acknowledge competing views. L3 Give examples from past or current events or issues to illustrate and clarify your position. Sample Teaching Task Show example of one Template Task on this slide

ELA LDC Task vs. Traditional Writing Prompt LDC Writing Task Task Prompt 11: After researching speeches which use persuasive techniques, write a report that defines persuasion and explains its impact on an audience. Support your discussion with evidence from your readings. Previous Writing “Assignments” Write an article that persuades someone to think or do something. Look at the difference between an LDC writing task and a traditional writing task. Notice the increased rigor of the LDC task. Source: East Jessamine High School; Kentucky LDC © 2009 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Career/Technical Task LDC Task vs. Traditional Writing Prompt LDC Writing Task After researching selected sources on green technological advances in the automotive industry, write an analysis report that relates how these changes have affected the environment. Support your discussion with evidence from your research. Informational Traditional Writing Prompt Write a report on how automotive technology has changed. The template tasks work across all content areas.

Science LDC Task vs. Traditional Writing Prompt LDC Writing Task After researching the article on invasive species, write an essay that defines invasive species and explains how these organisms impact an ecosystem, economy, and people. Support your discussion with evidence from your research. Informational Traditional Writing Prompt Explain what humans are doing to negatively impact the environment, using examples we discussed in class. Source: East Jessamine High School, Kentucky LDC

LDC Planning Process After the Teaching Task is created, teachers analyze the task and list the skills that students will need in order to complete it successfully. Since the Teaching Task aligns to the standards, the teachers can draw from the list of skills they identified during the pre-planning stage as they develop the skills ladder for this particular task.

Learning Progression What Skills? 1. Preparing for the Task 2. Reading Process 3. Transition to Writing 4. Writing Process Learning Progression After writing the teaching task, teachers make a list of the skills that students need to be able to do to successfully complete it. This is the learning progression for this particular task. The term skills ladder is used to describe this progression of learning. The skills are arranged in a logical teaching sequence in clusters: preparing for the task, the reading process, transition/bridge to writing, and the writing process. Optional: Using a document camera show Sample Module 1: Comparing Economic Systems Walk through the document and show how the skills are grouped into clusters. If additional skills are needed, they may be added to the skill clusters.

LDC Planning Process The next part of the process is using the learning progression to create lessons to teach the skills to students.

What Instruction? PACING SKILL AND DEFINITION MINI-TASK   PACING SKILL AND DEFINITION MINI-TASK INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES PRODUCT AND PROMPT SCORING SKILLS CLUSTER 1: PREPARING FOR THE TASK Using the slide, discuss the components of the What Instruction? section of the module template. This is the daily lesson planning section of the module. Rather than planning daily lessons, the instruction is built around the skills in the learning progression and how long it will take to teach that skill. This section of the template includes the pacing or the time it will take to teach that particular skill to your students, the skill that will be taught, the mini-task, which includes the product and prompt as well as the scoring, and the instructional strategies that the teacher will use to teach the skill. During and after teaching a module, the teacher reflects on the pacing and strategies used and makes adjustments to refine the instruction. Optional: Use the document camera to show the example of the What Instruction? section in the Sample Module 1: Comparing Economic Systems.

LDC Planning Process Review the four questions and tell participants that the last part of the planning process focuses on the question, What Results?

Classroom Assessment Task What Results? Rubric Student Work Samples Classroom Assessment Task Just as there are three module templates, one for each type of writing, there are three scoring rubrics. The teaching tasks are scored using the rubric that matches the type of writing assigned by the task. Trainer Note: If time allows, quickly walk participants through a “4” on the “Scoring rubric for Argumentation Template Tasks.” It is recommended that teachers collect student work samples at the completion of a module. The work samples can be used as exemplars when teaching the module the next time. Some teachers write an additional task to give as a summative assessment. It is completed in class as a 1-2 day assignment without coaching and is the same type as the teaching task for the module. A content-specific rubric is used to assess this task.

Let’s Take a Look Literacy Matters Videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5EnOVjRPGI Video: Industrial Revolution Module As you watch the video, pay attention to what makes this a student-centered classroom. Also notice how reading and writing are embedded within the content. Trainer Note: Click on “Industrial Revolution Module,” the second bullet on the slide to access the video. British Industrial Revolution, LDC Guidebook, Literacy Matters video (14 minutes) http://www.literacydesigncollaborative.org/about/videos

All students will graduate from high school college and career ready. If we align our curriculum, instruction, and assessment to the Common Core State Standards, our students will be college and career ready. LDC provides a framework for this alignment.

Evidence-Based Selected Response (EBSR) Technology-Enhanced Constructed Response (TECR) Range of Prose Constructed Responses (PCR) The PARCC assessments are aligned to the Common Core State Standards, so our students will be prepared to perform well when asked to read, draw evidence from multiple texts, and to write to texts.

Baltimore City Public Schools Professional Learning Communities Rich and Rigorous Conversations The Classroom Environment Professional Responsibilities Instruction And our teachers will address aspects of the four domains of the Teacher Excellence and Support System.

Questions Literacy Design Collaborative is a vehicle for planning curriculum, instruction, and assessment that is aligned to the Common Core State Standards. Successful planning will enable us to implement the Common Core State Standards with fidelity and will help us to address the changes that will improve both the quality of teaching and learning in our schools. Answer participants’ questions about LDC Review the essential questions.