Six = Three: The Shifts Described Two Ways

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

When the Office of Academics shared the instructional shifts last October with K-8 principals, we used several items made available through EngageNY. EngageNY produced videos around the shifts that included interviews with lead ELA author David Coleman;  close reading exemplars; and additional resources to support the implementation of the CCSS.

All of the content on EngageNY, that described how to access the Core, outlined the six shifts.  Some educators, however, found describing six shifts took too much time to quickly share and the six became three. Thus, as you look for content matched to the Core, you may find sites describing three ELA shifts instead of the six we are using in Washoe.

The three, however, are the six and EngageNY has stepped forward to demonstrate this for educators. You can find that graphic here. As we prepare for parent nights, begin drafting parent letters, or simply want the proverbial elevator speech, having a reference to describe what’s different about the CCSS may prove helpful.

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Common Core “Bookmarks”

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

Macomb Intermediate School District, in Clinton Township Michigan, has posted “Bookmarks” that some of you might find helpful.  They have put all of the grade level standards on one half-page sheet so that teachers can quickly see what is expected of students at each level.

Informational Text, K-5 (here)

Literature, K-5 (here)

Foundational Skills, K-5 (here)

Speaking and Listening, K-5 (here)

Language, K-5 (here)

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ELA CCSS Progression View

Posted on August 2, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

North Carolina has put together an interactive resource that allows educators to see the progression of the K-12 CCSS. You can choose the strand and the grade range to focus on a specific set of outcomes. You can access here.

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Introduction to the Basal Alignment Project

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

The Council of Great City Schools has produced a video from the first Basal Alignment Project training. You can watch the video (here) and see first hand what was shared with state and district personnel that attended.

For those who want to know why this work was done, begin at minute 1:20. Meredith Liben, of Student Achievement Partners, outlines the reasons including the recognition that districts are short on money and new adoptions are cost prohibitive. Further, basals were written for a different set of standards and this has implications for the questions—often questions that fall outside the Core—we are asking of our students.

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Brown Elementary Trains on the BAP Resources

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

Teachers from Brown Elementary were among the first to train on how to use the Basal Alignment Project resources. Click on the links below to access the materials that were included in the presentation.

BAP Training PowerPoint

Tomas and the Library Lady Questions

Instructions on accessing the BAP resources on Edmodo

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SFA Aligns itself to the “instructional shifts”

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

Sad Sam sat. Sad Sam was happy. It was Ms. Tad’s birthday.

If those sentences mean anything to you, then you were likely a Success For All teacher at some point. Thus, you may find it interesting to read that SFA has aligned it program requirements to the instructional shifts. You can read about the alignment here.

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Washoe Educators Participate in the BAP

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

Last spring elementary school teachers, Implementation Specialists, and staff within the Office of Academics, worked through a process to more closely align the Houghton Mifflin Reading materials to the Common Core State Standards. A specific writing protocol was followed, developed by the Council of Great City Schools, in which teachers read through an entire HM selection to find major themes and student takeaways. This was followed by using a text complexity rubric (here) to identify challenging sections and areas in which comprehension was most likely to be break down for students. Finally, participants used a guide to writing text-dependent questions (here) to assist with keeping instruction anchored in the text.

The team consisted of Kitty Gillette, Revae Henry, Robbie Gilmartin, Jen Wigfiled, Trish Hermesky, Lori Bell, Chris Hayes, Jane Miller, Erin Dawson, Linda McMillan, Gail Corthell, Jolene Hamilton, Connie Frazer, Traci Mendoza, Chauncy Ashby, Ann Warren, Mandy Grotting, Megan Pruitt, and Terry Boyden

Their hard work and contributions are allowing Washoe to take advantage of rewrites for the entire HM series as well as Imagine It!, Trophies,  Story Town, Medallion, Open Court, Treasures, and Reading Street. You can read how to access the materials here.

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Differentiation and the “instructional shifts”

Posted on July 29, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

If you are someone who has been trying to make the connection between differentiation and the Common Core, you may want to take the time to watch the following webinar by with Dr. Carol Ann Tomlinson (here).

If you don’t have the time, several salient points to consider while lesson planning and writing meaningful curriculum:

  • Teachers must expect all students to apply complex thought and ideas when working through a task
  • Differentiation should always be about lifting up and never about watering down.
  • We must all learn to appropriately scaffold learning so that we are meeting the rigor implicit in the Core standards
  • Textbooks no longer define what students should learn

At minute 36:15, explicit connections are made between differentiation and Tomlinson’s “Learning Up” framework and the “instructional shifts.”

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David Liben’s Keynote Address before the VSC

Posted on July 29, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

David Liben, in a keynote address (here) before the Vermont State Colleges (VSC), addresses a number of key parts of the Common Core including the history of the CCSS, the research on which it is based, and the importance of text complexity and text-dependent questions.

The address is expansive and provides the viewer with specific insight into how the Common Core was written and who participated in the process. For those who have been asking for these specifics at CTP trainings, begin watching at minute 13:38.

David Liben will be visiting Reno on August 20th and 21st.

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The Libens are Coming!

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Aaron Grossman

Mark your calendars, the Libens are coming. They will be presenting before Washoe educators on August 20th and to Striving Readers sites on August 21st.

Workshop participants will build on the learning from the February 2012 visit by David and Meredith Liben of Student Achievement Partners.  Attendees will explore writing to sources; the importance of asking text-dependent questions for instruction and assessment; and will learn what constitutes strong CCSS aligned literacy instruction. The session will expand upon the work of the Core Task Project with specific attention to questions that have emerged from teachers and administrators.

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