An overview for parents and families Butler Avenue School Julie Gillispie--March st Century Community Learning Center

What is the Common Core & why are we changing? The Common Core State Standards are a set of national standards designed to prepare all students for college and careers. The purpose is to align standards in each state so that learners from Montana or Alabama have the same set of learning goals as students in North Carolina. The Common Core defines what students should be able to do by the end of each grade.

Common Core in North Carolina North Carolina will begin using the CCSS in all public schools next school year ( ) Math and English Language Arts teachers are planning now for the changes that we need to make next year During the first 2 years of this transition, students will have some “gaps” in their learning that will be addressed by teachers—we are aware of the requirements for the grade before and for the next grade as plan our classes.

How will this affect you and your child? Most textbooks will not change for next year Some of the homework will look the same, at least in the beginning of the year; it will begin to include fewer questions overall; however, those questions will require more problem-solving and proof from the text. After the first nine weeks of school, your child should be able to explain to you what activities they are doing in the classroom and the reasons why they do those activities.

Common Core English Language Arts Six Shifts Shift 1: Grades PK-5 Balancing Informational and Literary Texts Students read a true balance of informational and literary texts. At least 50% of what students read is informational. This includes: directions, recipes, magazines, “how-to” steps, labels, instructions, and other real-world texts.

CCSS ELA Six Shifts Shift 2: Grades 6-12 Knowledge in the Disciplines Content area teachers outside of the ELA classroom emphasize literacy experiences in their planning and instruction. Students learn through domain specific texts in science and social studies classrooms-rather than referring to the text, they are expected to learn from what they read. For example, mathematics teachers read a textbook differently than science teachers do.

CCSS ELA Six Shifts Shift 3 K-12 Staircase of Complexity In order to prepare students for the complexity of college and career ready texts, each grade level requires a “step” of growth on the “staircase”. Students read the central, grade appropriate text around which instruction is centered. Teachers are patient, create more time and space in the curriculum for this close and careful reading, and provide appropriate and necessary scaffolding and supports so that it is possible for students reading below grade level.

CCSS ELA Six Shifts Shift 4 K-12 Text-based Answers Students have rich and rigorous conversations which are dependent on a common text. Teachers insist that classroom experiences stay deeply connected to the text on the page and that students develop habits for making evidentiary arguments both in conversation, as well as in writing to assess comprehension of a text

CCSS ELA Six Shifts Shift 5: K-12 Writing from Sources Writing needs to emphasize use of evidence to inform or make an argument rather than the personal narrative and other forms of decontextualized prompts. While the narrative still has an important role, students develop skills through written arguments that respond to the ideas, events, facts, and arguments presented in the texts they read.

CCSS ELA Six Shifts Shift 6: K-12 Academic Vocabulary Students constantly build the vocabulary they need to access grade level complex texts. By focusing strategically on comprehension of pivotal and commonly found words (such as “discourse,” “generation,” “theory,” and “principled”) and less on esoteric literary terms (such as “onomatopoeia” or “homonym”), teachers constantly build students’ ability to access more complex texts across the content areas.

Eight Standards for Mathematical Practices 1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. 2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively. 3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. 4. Model with mathematics.

Eight Standards for Mathematical Practices 5. Use appropriate tools strategically 6. Attend to precision. 7. Look for and make use of structure. 8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

More about the Common Core The Standards do NOT define: How teachers should teach. All that can or should be taught. The nature of advanced work beyond the core. The interventions needed for students well below grade level. The full range of support for English Language Learners and students with special needs. Everything needed to be college and career ready.

Common Core State Standards The Common Core State Standards are “back- mapped”—design started from skills needed for college and career ready seniors and was planned down to the Kindergarten level. The Common Core is NOT a curriculum; it is a set of standards for student achievement at each grade level.