THE LITERACY STAMPEDE Common Core Reading and Writing for Content Areas

You’re standing in a large field minding your own business when you hear rumbling sounds in the distance. The sounds begin to intensify, and at first you wonder if it is thunder you hear approaching. Because it’s a beautiful, cloudless day you dismiss this notion. As the rumbling sound grows louder, you begin to see a dust cloud rising just over the ridge a few yards in front of you. Instantly, you become panicked because at that exact moment it dawns on you that the rumbling you’re hearing is the sound of hundreds of wild bulls stampeding over the ridge. There are hordes of them and they are bearing down right on top of you. They are clearly faster than you and there is no time to escape. What should you do? Survival experts recommend only one of the following actions: Imagine this scenario

1. Lie down and curl up, covering your head with your arms. 2. Run directly at the bulls, screaming wildly and flailing your arms in an attempt to scare them in the other direction. 3. Turn and run like heck in the same direction the bulls are running (even though you can’t outrun them). 4. Stand completely still; they will see you and run around you. 5. Scream bad words at your family for insisting on a back-to-nature vacation in Wyoming. What should you do?

If you don’t want to be crushed by the oncoming LITERACY stampede, you have to run with it in order to avoid being trampled. * Based on the the recommendations of the Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook (Piven and Borgenicht 1999)

RATIONALE AND RESEARCH How will this help my students?

With the adoption of the Common Core State Standards comes an increased emphasis on writing across all content areas. Every teacher, every content area and every student will be impacted by the new Common Core State Standards which emphasize nonfiction writing more than ever before. Rationale

Getting into good schools now requires a higher level of reading and writing than ever before. In 2005 UCLA turned down over 7,000 students who had a 4.0 GPA or higher (College Board 2006). Today, “Eighty percent or more of the companies in the service and finance, insurance, real estate sectors, the corporations with the greatest employment growth potential, assess writing during hiring.” In addition, half of all companies take writing into account when making promotion decisions. (National Commission on Writing 2004). Research

Top Ten Writing Wrongs in Secondary Schools Students are not doing enough writing. Writing is sometimes assigned rather than taught. Below-grade-level writers are asked to write less than others instead of more. English language learners are often short-changed as well. Grammar instruction is ineffective or ignored. Students are not given enough timed writing instruction or practice. Teaching Adolescent Writers (Gallagher 2006)

Top Ten Writing Wrongs in Secondary Schools Some teachers have little or no knowledge of district and state writing standards. Writing topics are often mandated with little thought about the prior knowledge and interests of the students. Teachers are doing too much of the work. Students are not doing enough work. Teachers need help assessing students writing. Teaching Adolescent Writers (Gallagher 2006)

Students need a lot more writing practice. Students need teachers who model good writing. Students need the opportunity to read and study other writers. Students need choice when it comes to writing topics. Students need to write for authentic purposes and for authentic audiences. Students need meaningful feedback from both the teacher and their peers. Righting the Wrongs Teaching Adolescent Writers (Gallagher 2006)

Students write to convey what they have learned. Students write to convey how they have synthesized information. Students write to convey what new understandings they have constructed. “Writing is thinking made visible.”

COMMON CORE WRITING TASKS How do I modify my current writing tasks so they are aligned with CCSS expectations?

To write a good task, we must know what elements make a good task in the first place. Just telling students to write on a topic might not yield the results that we are after, so let's consider what we can do to ensure some success. What things should be included in a task for students to help them have a better chance of meeting our expectations? What is a good task?

Context background of the task Expectations clearly states the directions of the task Purpose why are we writing this? Audience who is the reader? Format argumentative essay, project, poem, letter, etc In addition, the prompt should use language from the Common Core State Standards that stimulates critical thinking. Elements of a good task

An average task asks a question or gives direction for writers but does not include all of the information that helps writers fully address the topic and write thoughtful responses. For example: What effect does underage drinking have? Though the topic could be stimulating and useful, this task fails to meet most of the requirements of a good task. I'm just an average task

Let’s add the elements from our list to improve this task: context, expectations, purpose, audience, format, CCSS… Underage drinking has a pronounced effect on society, and programs like Every Fifteen Minutes emphasize the harm it does. You have the task of explaining the results of underage drinking to a group of teens and adult parents of teens. Write a multi-paragraph explanatory essay that uses relevant support from credible sources to show what some of the main effects of underage drinking are. Pumped up task

1. Compose a dialogue between two travelers on an airplane. One traveler is returning to Plainfield after a vacation in Mexico; the other traveler is visiting the United States for the first time. 2. Studying a foreign language does more than help a person communicate across cultures. In a five-paragraph analytical essay, explain to your class three benefits of studying a foreign language. Include credible sources to support your arguments in one cohesive essay. 3. Why do you think that the public would choose to censor art? Do you think that there are situations where censorship is necessary? Write a multi-paragraph essay to persuade your peers why art should or should not be censored. Pick the best task for CCSS

In Job-Alike Groups: Based on content from the current or next unit of your course, write an effective, common core aligned (context, expectations, purpose, audience, format) task that your students will complete by the end of this semester. We will be analyzing the student-created results of this task when we return for 2nd semester. Create a ready-to-implement Writing Task

Non-Text Stimulus Material How do students write about visual or auditory based “informational text”?

Non-Text Stimulus Material Cuyahoga River Fire In Department Groups: What questions might students generate when analyzing this photograph in your content area? What might you pair this photo with in order to more specifically direct your student’s thinking? Go on- line and, find another informational text (article, document, visual, cartoon, graph, chart, etc.) that could be paired with this visual. Finally, create a writing task using this visual and the second informational text that you have chosen.

Informational Text Resources 3GxaVSD.dpbs

COMMON CORE ASSESSMENT How do I align my assessments to CCSS? How do I integrate Datawise into my teaching?

Use the login information provided to take both a reading and math test in Datawise. Purpose: 1) To see the expectations of CCSS assessments 2) To see what students experience when taking tests using Datawise Datawise Practice Testlets

Using the test you brought with you, analyze the questions to determine their DOK levels. When practicing this afternoon, try to increase each question to a higher DOK. Analyzing Your Own Test