1. ERWC AND THE C OMMON C ORE Ingrid Brennan -- October 2013 ERWC Workshop

2. H OW CAN ERWC HELP YOU IMPLEMENT THE CCSS? The ERWC Assignment Template is aligned with the CCSS…and has been since before the CCSS existed. (More about this after lunch.) Teaching ERWC units will help you incorporate more informational text into your ELA classroom. You can design your own units, using the Assignment Template, to incorporate even more informational texts. ERWC units can be taught as “stand-alone”, or linked with narrative texts to form longer thematic units. Ingrid Brennan -- October 2013 ERWC Workshop

3. W HAT ARE S MARTER B ALANCED P ERFORMANCE T ASKS ? In the words of SmarterBalanced, “ Performance tasks measure a student's ability to integrate knowledge and skills across multiple standards — a key component of college and career readiness. Performance tasks will be used to better measure capacities such as depth of understanding, research skills, and complex analysis, which cannot be adequately assessed with selected- or constructed-response items. Performance tasks in reading, writing, and mathematics will be part of the interim and summative assessments.” http://www.smarterbalanced.org/sample-items-and- performance-tasks/ http://www.smarterbalanced.org/sample-items-and- performance-tasks/ Ingrid Brennan -- October 2013 ERWC Workshop

4. “G ARDEN OF L EARNING ”: D ETAILS This is a 6 th grade Performance Task. You should not have a page 7 or 12. The actual texts were not provided by SmarterBalanced due to copyright issues… Stimulus #1 is a handout. Stimulus #2: http://books.google.com/books?id=esMwLOjPOrMC&pg=PA 74&lpg=PA74&dq=%22make+your+own+dirt%22+warsha w&source=bl&ots=5zAQFekCzX&sig=cprlp6saFxsZSZ_MIc XUzCxRGtg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=gcJeUtu8PI_yiQLF6IGIBQ &ved=0CDIQ6AEwAg#v=twopage&q&f=true http://books.google.com/books?id=esMwLOjPOrMC&pg=PA 74&lpg=PA74&dq=%22make+your+own+dirt%22+warsha w&source=bl&ots=5zAQFekCzX&sig=cprlp6saFxsZSZ_MIc XUzCxRGtg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=gcJeUtu8PI_yiQLF6IGIBQ &ved=0CDIQ6AEwAg#v=twopage&q&f=true Stimulus #3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zrooEAeIVc Ingrid Brennan -- October 2013 ERWC Workshop

5. “G ARDEN OF L EARNING ”: W HAT IS IT TESTING ? Read through the Performance Task and mark/list the following: Reading skills that are required of students. Analytical skills that are required of students. Writing skills that are required of students. Now, look at the corresponding CCSS – notice especially how the expectations build across the grades. As you continue to explore the ERWC curriculum, it should be increasingly clear how closely it is aligned with the CCSS. Ingrid Brennan -- October 2013 ERWC Workshop