1. Common Core State Standards Classroom Implementation for English Literature
Illinois State Board of Education
English Language Arts Common Core Specialists
Hosted by Kathi Rhodus, June, 2012
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2. Today’s Targets 1. Look at two Common Core State Standards implementation Ideas Observe Common Core State Standards integration ideas. 3. Discover strategies and resources for the English classroom.
This presentation will seek to meet the targets listed.
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3. Common Core Implementation Approaches
School A
School B
Tell participants this presentation came from conversations with two different 6-12 buildings. After talking with the teachers from both buildings, the next few slides provide information on how both schools began CCSS implementation including changes they discovered and the challenges they had.
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4. 2 Different Approaches Same Goal
School A
School B
Large School – 20 teachers per subject
Works within the department and reports to curriculum coordinator about the CCSS
Teachers chose to align one new course semester (World Literature) completely to the CCSS. Most of the rest of the department implemented as many of the 10 Reading Standards as possible.
Met as a department regularly. All teachers agreed to cover less and go deeper.
Small school – 2 teachers per subject
Works with rest of the faculty once a week for an hour about CCSS
Teachers implemented 2 CCSS across the curriculum 1st semester. (Reading #2 – Writing #9).
Each week there were reports “how it is going” with the rest of the faculty. Examples of student work for one class are shared.
This slide provides some basic information about the structure of the two schools as well as their approaches to implementation. Both schools begin this implementation process in August of 2011.
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5. Changes, Challenges and Discoveries Both schools discovered the same things!
“We had to cut our content. We were covering too much and
not going into enough depth.”
“Our students needed to do more work. We (the teachers) were the ones working so hard. We incorporated more chunked reading/writing/journaling.”
“We made sure our students were doing more reading and writing under our nose.”
“We needed to add more productive small group work in class.”
Even though both schools approached CCSS implementation in different ways, they both discovered they needed to make the same types of changes.
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6. Changes, Challenges and Discoveries
“We needed to add informational text into our classes.”
“Implementation takes time.”
“Our students were not used to working so hard.
They whined about the hard work at first, but
got used to it after a while.”
“We had to talk as a department about how we
teach some of the standards that were
confusing.”
Even though both schools approached CCSS implementation in different ways, they discovered many of the same challenges.
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7. Changes, Challenges and Discoveries
“Students were able to work hard and learn.”
Teachers said they found they needed to become more of a facilitator of learning than a speaker.
“Students liked working in small groups and they seemed to like class better and learn more.”
“Planning took more time (this will lessen with time), but facilitating a classroom was easier.”
Even though both schools approached CCSS implementation in different ways, they both discovered the same things.
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8. Integration Ideas Lesson RL.1
SL 1a & 1c
RL.1
W.9
RL.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text
says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
One challenge both schools had was to integrate the CCSS when teaching lessons and units. This model shows an example of how a teacher chose to address RL.1 in the classroom, but discovered that while they were doing that, it was easy to incorporate SL1.a & c as well as W.9. It will take time for teachers to discover the best ways to integrate standards into their units and lessons.
Lesson
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9. Watch how this high school English teacher can teach to multiple Common Core State Standards in one lesson. Be ready to participate in a Think-Pair-Share about what you saw!
Strategies for Student-Centered Discussion
Remind participants about the importance of student engagement while teaching the CCSS. Before showing the seven minute video clip, take participants to the website and show them how Teaching Channel provides the CCSS addressed at the top of the page and possible lesson plans that can be printed out on the right side of the page. After participants have watched the teaching channel video, ask participants to think about the way the teacher engaged students. After giving 30 seconds of “think time”, ask participants to pair and share for one minute. Give a 30 second “switch” signal. Ask for volunteers to share with the whole group.
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10. Teaching Theme Analysis in Layers https://www. teachingchannel
When encountering standards that seem difficult for students to master, watch how the teacher helps students master the standard.
Task:
On a sticky note, write down ways the teachers provided effective instruction.
This slide incorporates a middle school example of how to teach a difficult concept. Participants will watch a 9 minute video clip from Tell participants to watch for how the lesson provides scaffolded instruction. Provide each participant with a sticky note to record the different ways the teachers provided effective instruction. Have participants either share out whole group, within a small group, or with a partner.
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11. Resources for English Teachers
A variety of graphic organizers and strategies for the classroom.
Articles of the week to integrate informational text.
Strategies to teach the standards in your classroom.
Sample writing rubrics and assessment questions for the classroom.
This slide shows the participants some websites that provide strategies, resources and ideas to implement the CCSS. If time allows, go to each site to point out the resources.
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12. Contact Information
Sarah McCusker,100 N. First Street, Springfield, Illinois (217) Erik Iwersen, Area I-A,B,D (708) Amy Robinson, Area I-C (630) Jill Brown, Area II (815) Katy Sykes, Area III and IV (815) Kathi Rhodus, Area V and VI (618)
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