1. Welcome to the Educator Enhancement Academy
English Language Arts and Literacy
Grades 6-8
We are glad you are here!

2. Introductions Name Position
Experience with the Next Generation Content Standards and Objectives for English Language Arts & Literacy

3. Sir Ken Robinson
Table Talk

4. World Cafe Why do we have content standards?
What do content standards represent?
How should content standards be used?
You have ten minutes for this discussion.
Strategy Option - World Café
Place a large sticky Post-It on each table.
Present the first question, “Why do we have content standards?”
Give tables two minutes to discuss and respond to the question.
Have each table move to the next table.
Read the response written by the previous table group.
Present the second question, “What do content standards represent?”
Read the responses written by the previous table groups.
Present the third question, “How should the content standards be used?”
Have each table return to their starting table.
The following points should be made. If they are not, the facilitator should engage the conversation to lead to these.
Content Standards represent minimum expectations at any grade level.
Standards-based instruction is not merely a checklist that topics were covered.
The CCSS represent call for evidence. We must practice evidence-based design for instruction and assessment if our students are to successfully attain these standards of performance.

5. CCSS New Foundation
A New Foundation

6. Teach 21 http://wvde.state.wv.us/teach21/
WV teachers locate the Next Generation Content Standards and Objectives on the Teach 21 site. Currently teachers have access to the Next Generation Standards for ELA and Literacy, mathematics and social studies. Within the next year WV teachers will have new standards aligned to the Common Core in science and the arts.

7. Overview of Next Generation Content Standards
Introductory Paragraph
Performance Descriptors
Numbering System
Mouse-over feature
Cluster Alignment
Objective Across Grade Level
Key Word Search
Search Across Clusters

8. Important Fact! ELA NxG CSOs = Common Core
Used a different numbering system
ELA.6.R.C1.1
Combined the Reading Strands
RL, RI, RF
Let me clear up a misunderstanding that persists across the state. The WV Next Generation Standards ARE the Common Core. When the WV BoE adopted the Common Core State Standards in 2010, they charged the Office of Instruction with putting them into the WV Framework. We worked with a group of almost 100 teachers in ELA and Math to do this.
First, we changed the numbering system to facilitate the interactivity that is found on, such as
Searching by cluster
Searching by key word
Looking at a 3-grade span of objectives so teachers can see the grade before and after
Looking at an objective in a learning progression from grade K to 12
The Common Core Numbers are in bold at the end of each of the NxG CSOs on Teach 21.
Second, the CCSS has 3 reading strands: Reading Literary Text, Reading Informational Text, and Reading Foundational Skills. This gave us one standard for reading instead of three.
Third, the CCSS contain only grade bands at grades 9-10 and The teachers felt it would be better to separate the grades so that each had their own specific standards. Ninth and 11th grade are the CCSS as written, but 10th and 12th have been tweaked to show more depth in mastering the objectives.
Finally, the CCSS do not have Performance Descriptors, but the WV teachers felt they were beneficial in painting a picture of what it looks like when students are performing at the various levels from Novice to Distinguished.
However, the important thing to remember is that the NxG ELA Content Standards & Objectives ARE the CCSS with very few WV tweaks.
Created Separate Grades from Grade Bands
9-10 and 11-12
Added Performance Descriptors

9. CUT-IT-OUT Activity Taking a Look at Vertical Alignment
Vertically align each standard across grades 5-9.

10. Why Common Core
" I Choose C"

11. GIST
Choose either the Sir Ken Robinson video or the I Choose C video to summarize using the GIST worksheet.

12. LUNCH

13. Publishers’ Criteria Book –A-Day Activity
Reading Standards
Publishers’ Criteria Book –A-Day Activity

14. Recommended Percentages for Reading throughout the Day
There is an increased emphasis in informational text as shown in the chart above.
In elementary school that translates to the CCSS requirement that 50% of what students read should be fiction and 50% of what they read should be non-fiction and the two should relate. Isolated experiences with nonfiction, such as a weekly news magazine, are not what we are talking about. Use nonfiction, such as Article of the Week, to help build background knowledge so students can attack literary text successfully.
In middle school and high school the CCSS translation is a requirement that all teachers attend to literacy across content areas and we are not talking about “Reading in the Content Area” as many of us may know it. This means that social studies and science teachers support student literacy as a way to enhance knowledge and skills in the content area. During middle school it is recommended that 55% of what students read is informational text.
70% of what students read by the end of high school should be nonfiction.

15. Recommended Percentages for Reading during English Language Arts Class
In an ASCD webinar in November, Sue Pimentel, one of the lead authors of the ELA CCSS, said that an English class should consist of 75% literary text and 25% informational text. She also indicated that English teachers should teach students how to read informational text so that they can use those skills in their content area courses where informational text is their primary focus. Teachers of other courses must take responsibility for helping students achieve the 70% - 30% goal for the entire school day.

16. Text Complexity

17. What is a Quantitative Measure?

18. What is a qualitative measure?

20. 4Cs
Connections – What connections do you make with the standards? Challenges – What challenges did you see with the standards? Concepts – What key concepts are important? Changes – What changes in thinking must occur?

21. Text-Dependent Questions

22. Non-Examples and Examples
Not Text-Dependent
Text-Dependent
In “Casey at the Bat,” Casey strikes out. Describe a time when you failed at something.
In “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Dr. King discusses nonviolent protest. Discuss, in writing, a time when you wanted to fight against something that you felt was unfair.
In “The Gettysburg Address” Lincoln says the nation is dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Why is equality an important value to promote?
What makes Casey’s experiences at bat humorous?
What can you infer from King’s letter about the letter that he received?
“The Gettysburg Address” mentions the year According to Lincoln’s speech, why is this year significant to the events described in the speech?
Text-dependent questions require students to pay attention to the text at hand and to draw evidence from that text.
Teachers assess comprehension of a text by evaluating students’ use of evidence in speaking and writing.
What does this look like in the classroom?
Teachers insist that classroom experiences stay deeply connected to the text on the page and that students develop habits for making evidentiary argument both in conversation and in writing.
Students have rich and rigorous conversations and develop writing all dependent on a common text.
This is not to say that text-to-self connections are entirely absent, but rather, with this shift, deep understanding of the text should precede students making those connections.

23. Example?
James Watson used time away from his laboratory and a set of models similar to preschool toys to help him solve the puzzle of DNA. In an essay discuss how play and relaxation help promote clear thinking and problem solving.
Here is great example of a non-example of text dependent. It is an excerpt from a high school biology textbook. Students are given the excellent opportunity to read an excerpt from James Watson’s memoir about the discovery of DNA. The excerpt gives a great description as a first-person account.
Now take a look at the question that students answer in response. Here is a hint: the answer to the question cannot be found in the text. In fact, you clearly do not need to read the text in order to answer the question.
Imagine that students put in the work of closely reading and making sense of this piece. The question provides no reinforcement, no reward, no “pay off” for that work.

24. Article of the Week Activity
Kelly Gallagher
Read and annotate

25. Informational Text Resource Wvinfodepot.org Sustained Silent Reading
EBSCO/ Info Depot
Informational Text Resource Wvinfodepot.org Sustained Silent Reading

26. Exit Slip
On a post-it note, complete the sentences below. Place it in the designated area before going to your designated county area. I used to think_______. Now I think_____________.

27. Use this time to collaborate with your county colleagues.
County Meeting Time
Use this time to collaborate with your county colleagues.
See you tomorrow!