K-5 Text Genre Map

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

Denise Alterio, Judy Carr and Lynn Miler, working for the Sullivan County Board of Cooperative Educational Services, has created the following genre map (here). The map describes the elements of Shift 1—a balance of informational and literary text.

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Martinez’s Administrators Retreat Presentation

Posted on August 11, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

During his presentation at the Administrators Retreat this week, new Washoe County Superintendent Pedro Martinez makes mention of the Common Core at minute 35:50 (here).  The CCSS reference fits within a larger context in which Martinez asks how we can leverage the energy of parents to assist with this new outcome.

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Vertical Progression of Standards

Posted on August 10, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

Maine has created K-12 vertical progression documents for each of the ELA strands. The stands and the accompanying documents are linked below.

Reading K-12 Vertical Progression Informational Text / Literature

Writing K-12 Vertical Progression

Speaking & Listening K-12 Vertical Progression

Language K-12 Vertical Progression

 

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The Louisiana BAP Experience

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

As many of you know, the Basal Alignment Project involved districts coming together to work towards the same outcome: assisting teachers in taking current materials and more closely aligning them to the Common Core. Whitney Whealdon, an English Language Arts Program Coordinator and Senior Project Coordinator for the Louisiana Department of Education, shares her state’s BAP experience with Washoe educators.

A group of literacy leaders from the Louisiana Department of Education attended the Basal Alignment Project in Baltimore to learn how to revise questions and tasks to be more text-dependent. The work continued in Louisiana. Following the Baltimore training, Meredith and David Liben and Rachel Etienne from Student Achievement Partners trained a group of district literacy leaders in Louisiana. Each district then determined a plan for creating revisions to submit for the Basal Alignment Project. In most cases, district leaders gathered groups of master teachers within their districts to be trained and to work on revisions for the project. The groups submitted multiple rounds of revisions to expert reviewers, and now their revisions are posted on Edmodo for teachers all over the nation to use.

Feedback from the project has been overwhelming positive. So much, in fact, that we have taken on Basal Alignment Project, Part 2 in Louisiana to revise questions and tasks for read aloud texts in grades K-1 and main selections in grade 2.

Continue reading →

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5 Myths about the Common Core

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

Robert Rothman, writing for the Harvard Education Letter, describes five myths about the Common Core. He notes:

Perhaps the main idea of the Common Core ELA standards is the notion that students should read increasingly complex texts in order to be prepared for the reading they will do in postsecondary education. Yet research the standards-writers relied upon showed that the complexity of texts assigned in high school has actually declined over time, while the reading requirements of entry-level college courses have increased. The Common Core Standards raise the expectations for text complexity considerably.

You can read the entire article here.

 

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Pictorial Guide to Accessing BAP Materials

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

If you are having difficulty accessing the Basal Alignment Project materials you may want to use this pictorial guide (here).  It includes a more thorough set of directions that moves you through registering, finding the BAP group, and locating the requisite folders.

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Opportunities for English Learners in the CCSS ELA

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

In a paper, as part of Stanford University’s Understand Language series (here) authors George C. Bunch, Amanda Kibler, and Susan Pimentel describe, for those “collectively responsible for education of English Learners,” what has to be done so the CCSS are “realized” for English Learners. They outline four key principles:

  1. Making sure students are engaging with complex texts to build knowledge across the curriculum
  2. Using evidence to inform, argue and analyze
  3. Working collaboratively, understanding multiple perspectives, and presenting ideas and
  4. Using and developing linguistic resources to do all of the above.

They write, “Leveraging students’ existing background knowledge, and building new knowledge, can be accomplished in a number of ways before and during a lesson or unit of study—without preempting the text, translating its contents for students, telling students what they are going to learn in advance of reading a particular text, or ‘simplifying’ the text itself.”  If you work with English Learners, their paper is worth the read. (Full access here.)

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An Open Letter from Washoe Basal Alignment Project Contributors

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

In a letter addressed to their colleagues (here), Washoe educators, who participated in the Basal Alignment Project, share their experience and describe the implications for our students.  They highlight the challenge of the BAP including identifying major themes, important academic vocabulary, and keeping questions text-dependent. They also recommend that educators take part in the BAP process so that the depth and rigor of the Common Core is fully realized.

They letter was written by Chauncy Ashby, Terry Boyden, Lori Bell, Gail Corthell, Erin Dawson, Connie Frazer, Kitty Gillette, Robbie Gilmartin, Paula Glogovac, Mandy Grotting, Chris Hayes, Jolene Hamilton, Revae Henry, Trish Hermesky, Linda McMillan, Traci Mendoza, Jane Miller, Laurie Polzin, Megan Pruitt, Ann Warren, and Jen Wigfield.

 

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NAESP and the CCSS

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

The National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) has produced a series of webinars to inform administrators as they transition staff to the Common Core. At minute 19:43, in a video series they title “Dialogues on the Common Core,” (here) Lucille Davy and Kenny Jones share insight into CCSS implementation from a national perspective—Davy—and a school building perspective—Jones. They suggest principals focus on three shifts: Text complexity; balance of informational and literary texts; and writing to inform or persuade using evidence.

At minute 24:17, Davy introduces a new slide by saying, “How instruction in classrooms should change given these new standards.” For those who are wondering what is being shared with administrators at a national level, the webinar may prove useful.

 

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“The Challenge of Challenging Text”

Posted on August 4, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

Writing for Educational Leadership, Dr. Timothy Shanahan, Dr. Douglas Fisher, and Dr. Nancy Frey discuss what teachers can do to assist students with gaining access to complex text. (The entire article can be found here.) They begin with breaking apart the key features of complex text followed by specific steps educators can take to appropriately scaffold for students. They write:

With this increased understanding, teachers do not have to rely on intuition to figure out which books their students can handle. Instead, teachers can select texts worthy of instruction (emphasis added) and align their instructional efforts to ensure that all their students read complex, interesting, and important texts.

The key here is “texts worthy of instruction.” Finding these texts will involve educators collaborating in PLCs and across sites. It will take time but the effort will align practice to the CCSS, the SBAC Claims and assist students in reaching College and Career Readiness.

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