WHAT DOES GRIT HAVE TO DO WITH IT? Classroom and program team conversations about our practice, the Common Core, and the children we teach January 22, 2014

LEARNING TARGETS FOR THIS MEETING FROM SWOT Effective teams  Effective structures so that all voices are heard Shared knowledge & pride  On-going professional development about the field specific to our student population infused into all meetings And, continue our sharing of bright spots

AGENDA  Paseo (energizer and introduce topic)  Where did the Common Core come from and what does it have to do with us?  What does grit have to do with it?  Instructional strategies from our practice (Speaking and Listening Standards) (teaming and shared pride)  Instructional strategies from our practice (Reading Standards)(teaming and shared pride)  Social Emotional Learning—grit and growth mindset  Share out/take an idea away

The Paseo  A traditional Sunday afternoon stroll in the plaza  A way for members of a community to begin to get to know each other, or reconnect, quickly  A method of energizing a group and introducing a topic

WHAT DOES GRIT HAVE TO DO WITH IT?

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Smart is something you can get. 7

FIXED MINDSET VS. GROWTH MINDSET The fixed mindset creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over.  If you have only a certain amount of intelligence, personality and moral character, then you’d better prove you have a healthy dose of these. The growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts.  Although everyone may differ in every way…everyone can change and grow through application and experience.

Assumptions:  Innate ability explains only part of learning and achievement.  Intelligence is not fixed.  Intelligence grows incrementally and is influenced by expectations, confidence and effective effort.  Effective effort=working hard and smart (using effective strategies) Growth Mindset

FIXED MINDSET 10 Assumptions:  Intelligence is a “thing.”  Intelligence is innate and fixed.  Intelligence is measurable and is unevenly distributed.  Innate ability determines learning and achievement.

“A few modern philosophers…assert that an individuals’ intelligence is a fixed quantity, a quantity which cannot be increased. We must protest and react against this brutal pessimism… With practice, training, and above all, method, we manage to increase our attention, our memory, our judgment… and literally become more intelligent than we were before.” Binet co-authored the IQ test. ALFRED BINET

SELF REFLECTION  What is your story? 12

STUDENTS  How do you see fixed mindset playing out in your work? How does it affect the behavior of adults and/or students around you?  How do the concepts of grit and fixed ability relate to our students?  How do the beliefs we have about students play out in Common Core implementation? 13

CALVIN AND HOBBES by Bill Watterson

COMMON CORE?  Requested by Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and National Governor’s Association (NGA).  Developed by Achieve and others, including College Board.  Primarily back mapped from skills needed in college and career rather than a variety of other ways standards have been built (current practice, developmental stages, national standards of organizations such as IRA, NCTE, or NCTM).  Each state (45 at this point) adopted them independently.

FOLKS DON’T LIKE FOLKS LIKE  ELA’s theoretical foundation is old-fashioned and not based on contemporary theory (more “New Critical” than “Reader Response”)  Some find too little value on narrative text  Math has limited topics in elementary  Implementation of standards, and assessments has been too fast  Some people think they are too rigorous; some people think they aren’t rigorous enough  Fewer, clearer, higher  Consistency across states  Strong relationship to real- world applications  Anchor Standards in ELA provide consistency across grades and elegant organization

WHAT DID THE REGENTS DO YESTERDAY?  Reduced the penalty for students by extended the date at which students will have to achieve college and career ready scores on high school exams until  Allowed districts to choose not to participate in the data portal and continue to accept RTTT funds  Promised to consider slowing down any possible consequence to teachers  Allowed the old geometry exam (not Common Core aligned) to be offered for an additional year (this was expected and is similar to other exams)  Said they will require SED to include in its waiver application a provision to allow students with disabilities (who are not alternately assessed) to take assessments at their instructional level rather than Grade/age level  Attempted to assign blame for over testing of students to districts, emphasized that required testing take less than 1% of student time and made unclear requirements on testing for students in grades K-2 that are unlikely to have any impact on students who are alternately assessed

Speaking and Listening College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening Comprehension and Collaboration 1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on other’s ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. 2. Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally. 3. Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence. Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas 4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. 5. Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations. 6. Adapt speech to a variety of context and communication tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

Grade Level Essences for Listening and Speaking Comprehension and Collaboration Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas 3 2. Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a variety of materials presented in diverse formats Differentiate between contexts that call for formal English and situations where informal discourse is appropriate; use formal English when appropriate to task and situation Be an active participant in a collaborative discussion. Make prediction(s) based on a discussion(s). Answer key detail questions from a discussion(s). Summarize information from a discussion. 6 2.Interpret information from diverse media and formats and connect it to a topic or issue. 7 2.Analyze the main idea and supporting details in diverse media and formats. 8 6.Adapt expressive communication as appropriate for a student’s audience and the particular social context. HSHS 4. Present information conveying a point of view, which includes supporting ideas appropriate to a specific audience.

WHAT DOES THE COMMON CORE OFFER PINES BRIDGE AND SUNSHINE SO FAR?— LET’S FIND OUT  A slice of the standards  Related effective instructional strategies—what helped your student make effective Effort toward the standards  Three rounds  Speaking and Listening  Reading  Impacts on mindset and grit (positive and negative)

Your grade level band: k-2; 3-5; 6-8; transitions Instructional Strategies that have supported your students to work toward these standards. EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTION

Positive for grit and growth mindset Negative for grit—promoted fixed mindset SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL IMPACTS