1. Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts/Literacy AFT Stakeholders Conference Baltimore, MD June 29, 2012

2. www.achievethecore.org Worth Restating: Principles of Common Core Aligned to requirements for College and Career Readiness Based on evidence Honest about time 2

3. SHIFT ONE: Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction

4. www.achievethecore.org Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction Much of our knowledge base comes from informational text Makes up vast majority of required reading in college/workplace (80%) Informational text harder for students to comprehend than narrative text Yet students are asked to read very little of it in elementary and middle school (7% to 15%) CCSS moves percentages to 50:50 at elementary level and 75:25 at secondary level

5. SHIFT TWO: Reading, writing and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational

6. www.achievethecore.org Reading, writing and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational Most college and workplace writing is evidence-based and expository in nature (not narrative) Ability to cite evidence differentiates student performance on NAEP Writing Standards ask students to respond to evidence- based writing prompts (inform/argue) Speaking and listening standards require students to prepare for and refer to evidence on ideas under discussion Reading standards require students to respond to text-dependent questions with evidence-based claims

7. www.achievethecore.org (Students first listen to and read the Shel Silverstein poem “Moon-Catchin’ Net”) Has there ever been something you wanted very much that you may or may not have been able to get? Write a composition about what you wanted. Include the following: What did you want to have and why did you want this? If you got it, explain how it happened and why you were successful. Explain how you might be successful in getting it in the future. Sample Literacy Question: Pre-Common Core Standards

8. www.achievethecore.org High school students read an excerpt of James D. Watson’s The Double Helix and respond to the following: 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. Sample Literacy Assessment Question: Pre-Common Core Standards

9. www.achievethecore.org The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Have the students identify the different methods of removing warts that Tom and Huckleberry talk about. Discuss the charms that they say and the items (i.e. dead cats) they use. Ask students to devise their own charm to remove warts. Students could develop a method that would fit in the time of Tom Sawyer and a method that would incorporate items and words from current time. Boys played with dead cats and frogs, during Tom’s time. Are there cultural ideas or artifacts from the current time that could be used in the charm? Sample Literacy Question: Pre-Common Core Standards

10. www.achievethecore.org Sample Literacy Question: Common Core Standards The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Why does Tom hesitate to allow Ben to paint the fence? How are his sentences constructed to reflect that hesitation? What effect do Tom’s hesitations have on Ben?

11. SHIFT THREE: Regular practice with complex text and its academic language

12. www.achievethecore.org Regular practice with complex text and its academic language Gap between complexity of college and high school texts is huge What students can read, in terms of complexity is greatest predictor of success in college (ACT study) Too many students reading at too low a level (<50% of graduates can read sufficiently complex texts) Standards include a staircase of increasing text complexity from elementary through high school Standards also focus on building general academic vocabulary so critical to comprehension

13. www.achievethecore.org What are the features of complex text? Subtle and/or frequent transitions Multiple and/or subtle themes and purposes Density of information Unfamiliar settings, topics or events Lack of repetition, overlap or similarity in words and sentences Complex sentences Uncommon vocabulary Lack of words, sentences or paragraphs that review or pull things together for the student Longer paragraphs Any text structure which is less narrative and/or mixes structures

14. www.achievethecore.org Close Analytic Reading Close reading requires prompting students with questions to unpack unique complexity of any text so students learn to read complex text independently and proficiently. (as required in Standard 10) Virtually every standard is activated during the course of every close analytic reading exemplar. (Standards 2-9) To do this, questions have to be text-dependent and focused on what makes the text complex Text-dependent questions require text-based answers, otherwise known as evidence. (Standard 1)

15. www.achievethecore.org Close reading exemplars Text-dependent questions Publishers Criteria

16. www.achievethecore.org What’s In and What’s Out? INOUT 1.Leveled texts (only) 2.Reading any ‘ol text 3.Solely literature 4.Collection of unrelated texts 5.Mostly text-to-self questions 6.Personal opinions about issues 7.Accent on literary terminology 8.Emphasis on pre-reading 9.Reading strategies 10.(Just) Remediation 1.Daily encounters w/complex texts 2.Texts worthy of close attention 3.Balance of literary and Info texts 4.Coherent sequences of texts 5.Mostly text-dependent questions 6.Evidence-based analyses 7.Accent on academic vocabulary 8.Emphasis on reading & re-reading 9.Reading strategies 10.Pre-mediation

17. 17 www.achievethecore.org Sandra Alberti salberti@studentsachieve.net www.achievethecore.org Now on Twitter: @achievethecore salberti@studentsachieve.net www.achievethecore.org