During David Liben’s visit to Reno, he took some time to answer questions that educators in our community either emailed or posted on this blog. The questions are listed below with the link to the answers on Youtube. Liben, the Senior Content Specialist of the Literacy and English Language Arts team at Student Achievement Partners, also gave a short speech which will be posted soon.
I hear that by using a Common Core lesson, like BAP, I am hitting multiple standards and working with the shifts. I am also hearing that I need a specific plan to address all of a grade’s standards. If I do BAP and the close reading exemplars, do I still need a plan to address all of a grade’s standards? Answer
How will Guided Reading change with the Common Core State Standards? Or will it? Answer
In the Science Instructional Practice Guides, it says that lessons should focus on high quality texts. What if I’m doing a lab? Answer
What is the role of read alouds in the primary grades? How do we choose texts worth reading? Answer
What role does assessment play in this instructional shift? Obviously, the ability to look at a piece of text holistically and authentically analyze text to reach a deeper understanding is not one that students will master within a week or two (unlike discrete skills-based instruction). So how do we fairly assess kids during the process in which they are looking at texts authentically and deeply again and again and again? Another, and possibly even more difficult question might be how do we assign grades to kids in reading when we are teaching kids in this manner? Answer
What are things teachers should be doing to get ready for SBAC? Answer
Core Task Project 