THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS: GETTING READY AND GETTING IT RIGHT Meredith and David Liben Student Achievement Partners for resources

NEED TO MAKE THREE TIGHTLY INTERRELATED INSTRUCTIONAL SHIFTS Washoe knows these as the 6 ELA 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 2

Why the CCSS Emphasis on Complexity? “Between the Lines” ACT 2006 Study Complexity Gap between 12 th grade and college and career demands 6 th 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 3

WHAT ARE THE FEATURES OF COMPLEX TEXT? 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 not “story-like” or less “story-like”

FEATURES CANNOT BE BROKEN DOWN AND SEQUENCED Complex text can contain any possible combination of these features Can’t possibly isolate these or control for these features in a scope and sequence or traditional skill based approach Where does that leave you? 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 not “story- like” or less “story-like

TEXT DEPENDENT QUESTIONS AND CLOSE ANALYTIC READING (CAR) Every text is complex in its own way CAR requires making questions to unpack unique complexity of any text so students learn to read complex text independently and proficiently: Standard 10 Virtually every standard is activated during the course of every CAR: Standards 2-9 To do this questions have to be text dependent and focused on what makes the text complex Text dependent questions require text based answers otherwise known as evidence: Standard One How is this emphasis shown in the reading standards?

Bands 11- CCR K-1 Increased Ability to Use Text Evidence Increasing Range and Complexity Bands 11- CCR K-1 Standard OneStandard Ten

EMMA LAZARUS POEM An example of close analytic reading at the 4 th to 5 th grade band

IS COMPLEXITY THE SAME AS DIFFICULTY? 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 Lack of words, sentences or paragraphs that review or pull things together for the student Longer paragraphs Vocabulary Any text structure which is not “story- like” or less “story-like IN TERMS OF DIFFICULTY TWO OF THESE STAND OUT—WHICH TWO DO YOU THINK THEY ARE? IMPLICATIONS

WHAT ELSE CAN BE DONE?of complex text The “once a month each subject equals 3 times a month” transition plan: This brings in informational text Alternatives to front loading Remediating ahead of the class not behind Going back into the text later – Worthy portions – Complex portions Rewriting the tasks and questions in the basals/anthologies Gradated text series on one topic First read in native language No Spitting GETTING STARTED ON THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS for ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS 10

ELA TOTAL PROGRAM Securing the Core for All (handout)

CONCLUSION Reach out around the country, but with caution Start thinking about new materials, but with caution Modify or develop your own materials – with confidence that you are addressing professional development and curriculum needs simultaneously, richly and cost effectively!

TEXT COMPLEXITY RESOURCES: an incomplete set of resources (Student Achievement Partners resources) Publishers’ Criteria (for 3-12 and K-2) Close Analytic Reading Exemplars Qualitative scales for evaluating text complexity wonderful, free informational texts and information Open access portals for new text complexity quantitative measurement tools Words Worth Teaching Andrew Biemiller Educational Publishers’ Professional Development such as this conference Kansas, Vermont, Iowa, Florida State Ed Dept Common Core resources Alliance for Excellent Education website (publications tab) McKeown and Beck “Rethinking Reading Comprehension Instruction…” Reading Research Quarterly 44(3) see notes below for full citation. GETTING STARTED ON THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS for ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS 13