Balancing Informational Text and Literature This is a 10 minute video which features a discussion between NYS Commissioner of Education John B. King Jr., David Coleman (contributing author to the Common Core) and Kate Gerson (a Sr. Fellow with the Regents Research Fund) addressing Shift 1 – PK-5: Balancing Informational Text and Literature. By unpacking Shift 1, the discussion addresses the role of the elementary teacher and the benefits of giving informational text the time it deserves in the elementary classroom. After watching this video, educators might ask themselves: What is Shift 1? What does it demand? Participants might also work together to select informational texts for a single unit, ensuring that these texts both challenge students with grade level complexity as modeled in Appendix B of the CCSS, but also “teach” new ideas, concepts, or ways of making an argument. This is just one way of conducting professional development around this video.
9 Ways the CC Will Change Classroom Practice Harvard Education Letter Volume 28, Number 4July/August 2012 By ROBERT ROTHMAN Nine Ways the Common Core Will Change Classroom Practice, continued Nine Ways the Common Core Will Change Classroom Practice In a recent survey, William Schmidt, a University Distinguished Professor of education at Michigan State University, found some good news and bad news for supporters of the Common Core State Standards. Those teachers might want to take a closer look. In Mathematics 1. This is an excerpt from the Harvard Education Letter.
Text Difficulty and Adolescents I recently received the following letter and thought you might be interested in my responses: "I found your August 21, 2011 blog post on "Rejecting Instructional Level Theory" eye-opening and helpful. I'm a high school English teacher and instructional coach specializing in adolescent literacy remediation, so I've worked with leveled text a lot. If you have a moment, I'd love to hear your thoughts on a couple of follow-up questions:" Are the implications of your findings different for adolescents needing remediation? It depends on how low the students are and how much scaffolding is available. Is "accessible text" still important for fluency-building? Same issue. What about sheer volume? That makes so much sense, and yet, surveys tell us (as do teachers) that even with the easier materials, adolescents aren’t reading much.
5 Things Every Teacher Should be Doing to Meet the Common Core State Standards The following blog post was written by Eye On Education's Senior Editor, Lauren Davis. To read more newsworthy blog posts from Eye On Education, subscribe to our Insights eNewsletters . At the NCTE convention in November, everyone was buzzing about the Common Core State Standards . Teachers wanted to know how the new standards will alter what they teach and how they teach it. To gather answers to those questions, I attended a variety of NCTE sessions, and I spoke to educators across the country. 1. ...to read the other four things every teacher should be doing to meet the CCSS, as well as more details and examples, download Eye On Education's free whitepaper: 5 Things Every Teacher Should be Doing to Meet the Common Core State Standards . Check out Eye On Education's other free whitepapers!
Five close reading strategies to support the Common Core I walked in to my first college class, Political Science 101, eager to learn. For my inaugural college assignment, my professor asked the class to read the first three chapters of the textbook for the next class period. That night, I returned to my dorm room, determined to learn everything I could in those three chapters. However, when I opened my textbook it was unlike anything I had read in high school. I shrugged, pulled out my highlighter and started highlighting. I quickly realized that I had no real game plan for reading this complicated textbook. Flash forward to my first few years of teaching. While this method may have been slightly more effective than what I used that first day of college, it was still too vague and ambiguous for my students. Last fall, I attended an AVID workshop about critical reading strategies. 1. The Common Core asks students to be able to cite and refer to the text. 2. 3. Telling students to simply underline “the important stuff” is too vague. 4. 5.
CC Key Expectations Explained - Vander Ark on Innovation How the Common Core Will Change the Way Teachers Teach and Students Learn Since the Common Core State Standards were introduced, there has been much discussion about what they mean for educators and students and how they will impact teaching and learning. While the standards have been adopted by 45 states and 3 territories so far, there is a lot of concern, anxiety, and debate around what is best for students, potential challenges for teachers, and what implementation should and can look like. The new standards are focused on two categories: English Language Arts and Mathematics. Since the 1960s, text difficulty in textbooks has been declining ( ). In order to be college-, career-, and life-ready, students need to be familiar and comfortable with texts from a broad range of genres and formats. In addition, students are expected to understand the presentation of texts in a variety of multimedia formats, such as video. The Common Core State Standards are not "test prep" standards.
CAIS21stcentury - List of 21st Century Skills Cooperation '''Cooperation, co-operation, or coöperation''' is the process of working or acting together, which can be accomplished by both intentional and non-intentional agents. In its simplest form it involves things working in harmony, side by side, while in its more complicated forms, it can involve something as complex as the inner workings of a human being or even the social patterns of a nation. It is the alternative to working separately in competition. Communication '''Communication''' is a process that allows organisms to exchange information by several methods. Creativity '''Creativity''' (or "creativeness") is a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations between existing ideas or concepts. Organization An '''organization''' (or '''organisation''' — see spelling differences) is a social arrangement which pursues collective goals, which controls its own performance, and which has a boundary separating it from its environment.
Engage the Common Core Me in San Diego talking Common Core. I am finally (one month later) getting around to blogging some ISTE 2012 related information. Today I want to share a presentation I gave related to the Common Core State Standards. I’m embedding my slideshow from my ISTE Live presentation entitled “Engage the Common Core.” Within, you’ll find resources for finding information about the CCSS, great blogs and feeds to follow, sites to use to organize and curate CCSS info, and web tools to use to implement some of the tech-related standards. Spoiler alert! Sometimes you need a little more than the slideshow to tell the whole story. Photo Credit: Jennifer Bond (Thanks, Jennifer!) Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.
Common Core Resources: DarkeNet Resources for the Common Core English Language Arts Standards We are in a very transitional time with revised standards in the state of Ohio. We (the State of Ohio) have adopted the common core standards as our English Language Arts Standards. If you have questions about information provided on this site, please email me. The Standards and Appendices (A-C) can be found on the Core Standards Website.Learning Targets - you will find a PDF document for each grade level.
5 BIG ideas from CCSS This post is a summary/adaptation from Wiggins/McTighe article on 5 big ideas. 1. Read carefully AH-HA Moment: DON'T turn directly to YOUR grade level. You'll miss the point. READ THE WHOLE THING! Long term outcomes are in mind so the components are intended to work together.Educators need to understand the internt and structure of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS)Read the "front matter"What is the instructional emphasis? ASIDE: We are looking at "curriculum" wrong. We are looking at it as what is to be "covered," as opposed to what is to be LEARNED. 3. AH-HA MOMENT: This understanding of "cornerstone tasks" inspired me to write the next blog post pending. This "unpacking" is intended at a district or "macro" level as they call it. AH-HA MOMENT: Thinking of standards as discrete skills or concepts leads to "coverage mentality" and reveals a misconception that teaching bits in a logical and specified order will somehow add up to the desired achievements called for in the standards." 5.
Standards of Learning Information Center :: Practice Items Your browser does not support JavaScript! This site uses JavaScript but is fully functional without it. Standards of Learning (SOL) & Testing These practice items provide examples of the new content and increased rigor represented by the revised Standards of Learning (SOL) and illustrate the new Technology-Enhanced Item types for the mathematics, reading, science, and writing SOL tests. Please note that the practice items are not intended to be a complete test and are not intended to cover all content for the grade level or course. Audio versions of the practice items are available for those students whose Individualized Education Plan (IEP), 504 Plan or Limited English Proficient Student Assessment Participation Plan includes an audio accommodation on a Standards of Learning test. For technical assistance, see Technical Suggestions for Opening the Practice Items (PDF) Mathematics English Science Top of Page