1 Global Neutral a Global Warm Neutral d3d1c8 Global Accent On Dark ffbf00 Global Accent on Light ff9800 Global Accent Alt 97c410 ELA - Coral ff5147 Math 009f93 Leadership 7872bf Introduction to the ELA/Literacy Shifts of the Common Core State Standards Grades 6-12

2 About Us We are a team of former classroom teachers, curriculum writers, school leaders, and education experts who have worked in the private, public, and non-profit sectors. We are dedicated to teacher learning and teacher growth. We know that teaching is hard work and requires excellent training, high quality materials, and meaningful support for practitioners who are continuously striving to better serve their students. We provide educators with high-quality materials and hands-on professional development to help their students achieve the learning goals set by higher standards. We empower educators to make strong instructional decisions through immersive traning and access to free standards-aligned resources to adapt for their classrooms, schools, and districts.

3 FACILITATOR INTRODUCTION Tanji Marshall-ReedTanji Reed Marshall is an expert in teacher development, literacy development, curriculum mapping, and middle school instruction.

4 Norms that Support Our LearningTake responsibility for yourself as a learner Honor timeframes (start, end, activity) Be an active and hands-on learner Use technology to enhance learning Strive for equity of voice Contribute to a learning environment in which it is “safe to not know”

5 “I tell my students, 'When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game.” - Toni Morrison  Time: 1 min Speaker Notes: Frame this is to why we’re here, why we are involved in education, why we are constantly trying to grow as professionals and people. Possible turn and talk about what that means for individuals sitting at these tables.

6 Today’s Session Goals and Purpose Participants will… Understand the key shifts that accompany the Common Core State Standards Understand how each shift is intended to impact the rigor and delivery of instruction Participate in practical application of the shifts using grade appropriate texts Time: 1 min (introduce purpose) Speaker Notes: But before we move any further, we want to make sure everyone is on the same playing field with understanding what the standards are, where they come from, and why they are critical in and of themselves

7 Result in College and Career Readiness INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Background Initiated by the National Governors Association (NGA) and Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) with the following design principles: Result in College and Career Readiness Based on solid research and practice evidence Fewer, Higher and Clearer Time: 1 min Speaker Notes: Transition from previous slide; if our responsibility is education and lifting up, then we need to have more students meet the requirements for post-secondary success, there needs to be greater clarity in what is expected of students each year during K-12 education. This is where the Common Core Standards come in. The decisions surrounding how to focus the standards had to be grounded in evidence regarding what students in fact need in order to have a solid base of education and to be well prepared for career or college demands. You can look at the anchor standards and probably agree that all of them are skills you would really want every student you know and care about to leave school able to exercise. So the CCSS represent that rarest of moments in education when an effort starts by communicating that we must stop doing certain things, rather than telling educators about one more thing they can add to their already overbooked agenda to help support their students. You can think of the standards and this focus on the shifts that really are at the center of what is different about them as the “power of the eraser” over the power of the pen.

8 For every 100 ninth graders…INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS The Current Situation For every 100 ninth graders… 65 graduate from high school… 37 enter college… 24 are still enrolled sophomore year… and only 12 graduate with a degree in 6 years. Time: 1 min (Click through the information to demonstrate the numbers) Speaker Notes: ...And not a moment too soon: our students are competing for jobs with students prepared in other countries. Our economy depends more than ever on a higher level of knowledge and skills.

9 INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS College RemediationMore than 33% of students entering two-year colleges are placed in at least one remedial classes. Nearly 4 in 10 remedial students in community colleges never complete their remedial courses. After remediation, fewer than 25% of remedial community college students complete college-level English and math courses. Graduation rates for students who started in remediation are deplorable: Fewer than 10% graduate from community colleges within three years and little more than a 33% complete bachelor’s degrees in six years. Time: 1 min Speaker Notes: Additionally we know that the rates of remediation in our two-year and four-year colleges is incredible. More of the jobs that result in a living wage require some post-secondary education. We are encouraging more students to attend college and yet when they get there many do not qualify for credit-bearing courses. They are placed into remedial courses which cost money – and time – but do not result in credits toward a certificate or degree. We must better align our K-12 expectations to the knowledge and skills required for post-secondary success. These standards are intended to be a battering ram through the wall that is preventing so many of our students from post-secondary success. This is no longer to be considered an issue of college remediation programs, nor an issue of high schools, but rather an issue owned by the entire K-12 system.

10 Grade-Specific StandardINTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Vocabulary of the Standards Structure of the CCSS: Four Strands: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language There are Reading and Writing Strands for History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects. Text complexity standards are listed by grade “bands”: K-1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-8, 9-10, 11-12, CCR – College and Career Ready). K-5 has a Foundational Skills Section for the Reading Standards. Strand Anchor Standard Grade-Specific Standard Time: 1 min Speaker Notes: So the Common Core was designed to be a set of standards that are fewer in number, clearer in describing outcomes, and higher. What is included is what is expected for ALL students. To help students achieve these standards, all practitioners must be honest about the time they require. Teaching less at a much deeper level really is the key to Common Core success. Because we are all coming from different places, it’s helpful to be using the same vocabulary and understandings - so this is a quick review of the set-up . (Review the vocabulary briefly - most people should know about this, but if people don’t it’s informative)

11 Instructional DeliveryINTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS What We Know About Standards Standards Curriculum Instructional Planning Instructional Delivery Time: 1 min Speaker Notes: Long way from standards to instructional delivery. Better standards themselves don’t change practice or beliefs. That’s why we have the shifts when we talk about the standards, because it clarifies what the change in practice should look like.

12 Mother died today. Or. Maybe, yesterday. INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Who Wrote It? Famous First Lines As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin. Call me Ishmael. I am an invisible man. Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. Mother died today. Or. Maybe, yesterday. Ships at a distance hae every man’s wish on board. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of good fortune must be in want of a wife. 124 was spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking 13. Time: 6 mins Speaker Notes: Before we get into the real work of the Shifts, I want to do an icebreaker of sorts. Assuming we all love literature as ELA teachers, take a few minutes to identify how many texts you can recognize based on these first lines. (Several ways you can go from here- if there are people who seem to be getting them all, you can ask for individual. If it’s a struggle, have them collaborate at the table.) Transition into fact that we are all ELA people, so these first lines – at least some of them – speak to us. These sentences alone beg to be deconstructed – they roll off the tongue. And they bring back memories for us of our relationships with these books – largely happy memories. And there is much worth in reading them. The love we have is the love we want to cultivate in our students. Each book is a window– either into ourselves or out into the world – and we want students to embrace these opportunities for exploration and understanding. 1. The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka 2. Moby Dick, Herman Melville 3. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens 4. A Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez 5. Notes from the Underground, Fydor Dostoevysky 6. The Plague, Albert Camus 7. Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut 8. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen 9. Beloved, Toni Morrison , George Orwell

13 Building knowledge through content-rich nonfictionINTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS 3 Key Shifts These shifts represent the big ideas of the CCSS: Reading, writing and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction Regular practice with complex text and its academic language Time: 2 mins Speaker Notes: Let’s first talk at a high level. In discussing the major shifts of the standards, it is important to know both what the shifts are. As we continue throughout this session, we’ll also be talking a bit about the “Why” behind each of these shifts. Framing the understanding of the Standards in these overarching shifts helps to give coherence to the specific changes. The shifts represent the "big ideas" of the Standards. They aren’t everything that is in the standards, but rather major areas to focus on that will pay off in long-term implementation efforts. As your work in understanding and implementation continue to develop, your knowledge of the standards must also deepen. Additionally these shifts are not a brand-name interpretation of the standards. These shifts are embedded throughout the architecture of the Standards. Again, these shifts are a high-level summary of the biggest changes signified by the adoption of the CCSS. They represent the most significant shifts for curriculum materials, instruction, student learning, and thinking about assessment. Taken all together, they provide the instructional pathway leading to desired student outcomes. Everyone working in your school and district should have a solid understanding of the shifts required in both ELA/Literacy and Mathematics. They are a great starting point for learning about and understanding the CCSS. You can test any message or effort regarding the CCSS against these touchstones. From state, district, school, or classroom – how does X support the ideas of the shifts? They are meant to be succinct and easy to remember. We’ll discuss them each in turn.

14 Regular practice with complex text and its academic languageShift #1 Regular practice with complex text and its academic language Time: <1 min Speaker Notes: Call out the key words and discuss the fact that we will get into what regular practice is and is not, how we define complex text, and what academic language means.

15 Gap between complexity of college and high school texts is huge. INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Regular Practice With Complex Text and its Academic Language: Why? Gap between complexity of college and high school texts is huge. What students can read, in terms of complexity, is the greatest predictor of success in college (ACT study). Too many students are 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 that is critical to comprehension. Time: 1 min Speaker Notes: There are multiple reasons for this shift to focusing on complex text and academic language. Research that informed the development of the Standards revealed that there is a significant gap in the complexity of what students read by the end of high school and what they are required to read in both college and careers – 4 years! In a study done by ACT in 2006, it was found that the complexity level of what students read at each grade level has dropped 4 years in the last half of the 20th century (and has remained the same in the last decade). The academic language of informational text is different than narrative literature. Exposing students to this enhances the breadth of their academic language; lack of this exposure narrows it. For too long, proficiency in reading has been defined as skill in using reading strategies, even to the point of separating those strategies from the context or challenge that might call for a given strategy. The Common Core puts the text in the center of the equation and demands that students activate strategies in service of understanding the text. Mastering the strategies in isolation only take students so far. A successful reader possesses the ability to activate strategies skillfully in response to challenges most frequently encountered in complex text. Like every other complex set of skills, this takes lots of practice. Increasing complexity of text is the path to CCR, not increasing complicated reading strategies. The Standards focus on increasing text complexity from elementary school to high school, and also focus on building academic vocabulary.

16 Subtle and/or frequent transitions INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS 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 Time: 2 mins Speaker Notes: Complex text contains any and all combinations of these features, in many combinations. The complexity level is determined by both quantitative and qualitative measures. The details of text complexity are well described in Appendix A of the Standards, one of the supplemental readings offered with this module. New tools have been developed since the Standards were developed to help determine qualitative text complexity. Those materials are available on Students who struggle with reading almost always have gaps in their vocabulary and their ability to deal with more complex sentence structures. This is also well documented in research. Too often, less proficient students are given texts at their level where they do not see these features, where the demands of vocabulary and sentence structure are lowered. Though this is done for the kindest of reasons, it has disastrous consequences. Day by day, differentiating by level of text during instructional time increases the achievement gap between high performers and those who struggle. Students cannot address gaps in their vocabulary and develop skills to unpack complex syntax text when they are not given the opportunity to work with material that provides these opportunities. With that said, there is a place for providing students with text more appropriately matched to their individual reading abilities to build fluency and provide opportunity for increasing the volume of reading. But those texts cannot be the primary texts for instruction.

17 Any text structure which is less narrative and/or mixes structuresINTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS What are the Features of Complex Text? – cont. 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 Time: 2 mins Speaker Notes: Complex text contains any and all combinations of these features, in many combinations. The complexity level is determined by both quantitative and qualitative measures. The details of text complexity are well described in Appendix A of the Standards, one of the supplemental readings offered with this module. New tools have been developed since the Standards were developed to help determine qualitative text complexity. Those materials are available on Students who struggle with reading almost always have gaps in their vocabulary and their ability to deal with more complex sentence structures. This is also well documented in research. Too often, less proficient students are given texts at their level where they do not see these features, where the demands of vocabulary and sentence structure are lowered. Though this is done for the kindest of reasons, it has disastrous consequences. Day by day, differentiating by level of text during instructional time increases the achievement gap between high performers and those who struggle. Students cannot address gaps in their vocabulary and develop skills to unpack complex syntax text when they are not given the opportunity to work with material that provides these opportunities. With that said, there is a place for providing students with text more appropriately matched to their individual reading abilities to build fluency and provide opportunity for increasing the volume of reading. But those texts cannot be the primary texts for instruction.

18 Introduction to the ELA/Literacy Shifts of the Common Core State Standards Complexity at the Sentence Level Example 1 Abe had to work and did not get to go to school very often. But he loved to read books and would read whenever he got the change. Math was also a favorite subject for Abe. Score.rims.k12.ca.us/activity/presidentsday/pages/linc6.htm Example 2 Lincoln had less than a year of schooling. Books were scarce and so was paper. He worked his arithmetic problems on a board and cleaned the board with a knife so he could use it again. gardenofpraise.com/ibdlinco.htm Time: 5 mins Speaker Notes: Which sentence is more complex? Turn and talk with a partner regarding what makes this sentence complex - list and be prepared to share. Ask participants to share out. When you click to the next slide, you’ll see some examples of the grammar and rhetorical advices that make the sentences complex.

19 INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Complexity at the Sentence Level Example 1 Abe had to work and did not get to go to school very often. But he loved to read books and would read whenever he got the chance. Math was also a favorite subject for Abe. Example 2 Lincoln had less than a year of schooling. Books were scarce and so was paper. He worked his arithmetic problems on a board and cleaned the board with a knife so he could use it again. Time: 5 mins (Animation on the slide) Speaker Notes: Which sentence is more complex? Turn and talk with a partner regarding what makes this sentence complex - list and be prepared to share. Ask participants to share out. When you click to the next slide, you’ll see some examples of the grammar and rhetorical devices that make the sentences complex.

20 INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Complexity at the Sentence Level In the first sentences, the adjective phrase “less than a year” provides us with information about the length of Lincoln’s education, and thus adds to the sense of time in this “past tense” paragraph. Al 1 min. Black=pronouns, nouns and conjunctions Green=phrases Blue=verbs

21 Like the first example, the second example has three sentences…INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Complexity at the Sentence Level Like the first example, the second example has three sentences… But the third sentence contains two clauses with each clause containing several phrases that provide the reader with additional information. 1 min. Black=pronouns, nouns and conjunctions Green=phrases Blue=verbs so, rather than saying “abe liked math”, there is this complex third sentence about the dedication with which he worked his math problems.

22 The use of nominalizations Passive voice INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS What are the Grammatical and Rhetorical Features of Complex Text? Informational density through embedded dependent clauses and phrases within sentences in which the author is able to pack important and additional information The use of nominalizations Passive voice A combination of complex and simple sentences The use of adverbial clauses and phrases to situate events Time: 3 mins Speaker Notes: Ask partners to compare to the list they created, and discuss any additions. (e.g. abstract agents as subject, passive voice, informational density, complex sentence: “academic discourse is often defined in contrast to conversational language as decontextualized and specific.”)

23 The use of abstract agents as subjects INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS What are the Grammatical and Rhetorical Features of Complex Text? – cont. Ellipses The use of abstract agents as subjects The use of devices for backgrounding and foregrounding information (Snow & Uccelli, 2008; Schleppegrell, 2010, 2007; Wong Fillmore & Fillmore, 2012) Any text structure which is less narrative and/or mixes structures Time: 3 mins Speaker Notes: Ask partners to compare to the list they created, and discuss any additions. (e.g. abstract agents as subject, passive voice, informational density, complex sentence: “academic discourse is often defined in contrast to conversational language as decontextualized and specific.”)

24 INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Comprehension of complex texts: Ideas to consider Grappling with a complex text can be a roadblock to struggling readers. However… Listening and following along with a masterful read will support students as they transition into independent and group close readings. How can we ensure that struggling readers are comprehending at standards level? Time: 2 mins (Animation on the slide) IF THEY CAN DECODE BUT ARE NOT FLUENT, THEN LISTENING AND FOLLOWING ALONG TO A MASTERFUL READ WILL SUPPORT FURTHER INDEPENDENT AND GROUP READS. FLUENCY BUILDS COMPREHENSION. If they can decode but are not fluent, then listening and folowing along to a masterful read will support further independent and group reads. Fluency builds comprehension. Speaker notes: AND This doesn’t apply only to ELLs and SWDs. Can students who struggle with reading analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events, and manipulate time create such effects as mystery, tension, surprise? Show complex characters develop over the course of a text? The answer is YES – and for students struggling with comprehension because of fluency, strategies can be put in place to support that. Students who cannot decode still need access to these conversations…. DEFINE decoding, and fluency—secondary people may not know what it is: What is fluency? Definition: Instruction in the ability to read text accurately and quickly, either silently or orally. (Math fluency: speed and accuracy in calculation. With Literacy, it’s reading) Rasinski (2005) 61% of 9th grade students in bottom quartile of fluency with pre-Common Core 8th grade texts Fluency ≠ Comprehension, but lack of fluency will certainly hinder comprehension. There needs to be a large paradigm shift in how secondary teachers deal with students who cannot decode. It’s crucial to still find a way to give them access to the Grade-level content, but it may not be through reading/writing—it may be through listening/speaking. It should never be assumed that a student who cannot decode is not capable of critical thinking/analysis.

25 INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Learning to ReadTime: 2 mins (Animation on slide) Speaker notes: Children vary in practice that is required for fluency and automaticity. Some can read a word once and recognize it again with greater speed – others need 20 or more exposures. The average is 14 to automatize recognition of new word. THIS IS WHY IT IS VITAL students read a ton of text at their independent reading level. 44 sounds, 26 letters, so many combinations. (first click) Recognizing that symbols (letters) represent sounds. Our speech can be broken into small sounds (phonemes) and the segmented units of speech can be represented by printed forms (phonics) (second click). This understanding that written spellings systematically represent the phonemes of spoken words (alphabetic principle) is the precursor to DECODING. (third click) Once students can DECODE, or sound out, words from 44 phonemes, speed becomes a factor in reading larger units of print. This is FLUENCY. (4th click) COMPREHENSION is when they actually can understand, summarize, paraphrase what they read. LOTS of places where this can go awry.

26 Phonics Decode Phonemes Alphabetic Principles Learning to ReadA content placeholder. Use for text, graphics, tables and graphs. You can change this text or delete it. Here is a placeholder for more text. You may delete this text Alphabetic Principles Decode Time: 2 mins (Animation on slide) Speaker notes: Children vary in practice that is required for fluency and automaticity. Some can read a word once and recognize it again with greater speed – others need 20 or more exposures. The average is 14 to automatize recognition of new word. THIS IS WHY IT IS VITAL students read a ton of text at their independent reading level. 44 sounds, 26 letters, so many combinations. (first click) Recognizing that symbols (letters) represent sounds. Our speech can be broken into small sounds (phonemes) and the segmented units of speech can be represented by printed forms (phonics) (second click). This understanding that written spellings systematically represent the phonemes of spoken words (alphabetic principle) is the precursor to DECODING. (third click) Once students can DECODE, or sound out, words from 44 phonemes, speed becomes a factor in reading larger units of print. This is FLUENCY. (4th click) COMPREHENSION is when they actually can understand, summarize, paraphrase what they read. LOTS of places where this can go awry. Learning to Read

27 Regular practice with complex text and its academic language is not: INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS ADDRESSING MISCONCEPTIONS Regular practice with complex text and its academic language is not: Inserting “x” amount of “Close Read Lessons” into the quarter/month/year Close reading an entire novel Just a word wall Just a vocabulary program Expecting kids who struggle with reading to understand text that they cannot decode Speaker Notes: These may be beginning steps, but they are just the beginning. Note that a word wall/vocabulary program in and of themselves are not bad, but they are not in and of themselves meeting the demands of the shifts – they serve a supporting role. THese alone will not change test scores, and will not make your students better readers. And the knowledge doesn’t transfer. It’s about integration and development of habits - not checking off a lesson. This week, through examples, video, and experiences, we are going to see what it is, and how it can be integrated to create students who do it automatically when it’s needed.

28 INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDSRegular practice with complex text and its academic language is close analytic reading. It requires prompting students with questions to unpack unique complexities of any text so students learn to read complex texts independently and proficiently. It is in addition to (not in place of): accountable/assigned independent reading, reading for enjoyment, and reading for comprehension, skimming, scanning, etc… Speaker Notes: Close reading hones in on difficult portions of text, and provides students an opportunity to work with those sections. Close reading opposes "think aloud," where teacher explain these difficult portions before students have had a chance to learn from them on their own.

29 Knowledge and Skill Demands INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Monitoring Comprehension and Ensuring Analysis CCRR.2: Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize key supporting details and ideas Knowledge and Skill Demands Consistency in use and meaning of vocabulary across content (central idea, theme, main idea) It’s possible to have more than one central idea in a text What analyze means What it means for a theme to develop How to summarize How to pick out a relevant supporting detail or idea Going Deeper Transferring from literal to figurative What analysis looks like Linking relevant supporting details back to a central idea Picking evidence and explaining how that supports one’s point Tracing the development of a theme and being able to articulate it Speaker Notes: So we go back to the standards. For CCRR2 – in order for a student to “master” this standard – there are a lot of moving parts that have to be harnessed and sometimes explicitly taught, even though at the high school level we don’t always think it’s our job to teach these concepts and understandings. To say you are “hitting” standard 2 involves a complex combination of these skills and understandings, so we have to construct thoughtful sequences of questions.

30 You can ask questions that: Monitor comprehension through INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Close Reading and Questioning: How do we measure learning? Text- dependent questions require text-based answers – evidence You can’t analytically close read with an empty text; complex and rich texts give you choices for the direction of questioning that you wish to go… You can ask questions that: Monitor comprehension through Establishing meaning Summarizing Paraphrasing You can ask questions that: Monitor analysis through Inferencing Drawing conclusions Interpreting Time: 1 min Speaker Notes: Close reading hones in on difficult portions of text, and provides students an opportunity to work with those sections. Close reading opposes "think aloud," where teacher explain these difficult portions before students have had a chance to learn from them on their own. Not only is virtually every standard evident when students close read, the 3 shifts required by the standards are evident as well! When reading appropriately complex non-fiction or literature, ask students to respond the text-dependent questions about the text.

31 - More than one (type of) text - Complete texts Chapters Paragraphs INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Close Reading and Questioning: How do we measure learning? You can ask about… - Validity - Rhetoric - Figurative language - Style - Connotation Using… - More than one (type of) text - Complete texts Chapters Paragraphs Sentences Words Speaker Notes: There are two reasons why we ask questions in class of students – one is to try to figure out of they are COMPREHENDING the text, and the second part is to do things TO the text and get students to interact with it. Can’t have analysis without comprehension. Can students who struggle with decoding and fluency still comprehend text when it is read to them? We are not reading teachers, but we are responsible for making sure students are involved in the high-level thinking and conversation that accompanies this complex text. We aren’t reading teachers – that is an area of expertise that we don’t have – but we owe our students access to these texts and these activities. The strategies for this can be better understood once we understand what we want students to do when they are reading closely and examining text, and what the questions look like that help them get there. Complex and rich texts give you choices for the direction of questioning that you wish to go…

32 INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Two Anchor StandardsCCRR.4: Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning and tone. CCRR.6: Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text. Speaker Notes: Do a close read of these standards to deconstruct. Break one of these standards down in terms of knowledge demands and skill demands in pairs, and share out. The point here is that these may be short, but they are loaded, and complicated. Our assumptions about their knowledge impact the explicit instruction we engage in. Teachers think deconstructing the standards is sometimes a waste of time, but at the high school level it’s a good idea to actually show kids what you want them to be able to do, and unpack some of those layers with them. This is where the Common Core Standards come in. The decisions surrounding how to focus the standards had to be grounded in evidence regarding what students in fact need in order to have a solid base of education and to be well prepared for career or college demands. You can look at the anchor standards and probably agree that all of them are skills you would really want every student you know and care about to leave school able to exercise. So the CCSS represent that rarest of moments in education when an effort starts by communicating that we must stop doing certain things, rather than telling educators about one more thing they can add to their already overbooked agenda to help support their students. You can think of the standards and this focus on the shifts that really are at the center of what is different about them as the “power of the eraser” over the power of the pen.

33 An “unfortunate” excerpt:INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Taking a Look at Craft and Structure An “unfortunate” excerpt: Read the first paragraph at your table, aloud. Read the remainder of the excerpt silently, with your own adult lens. First impressions. Dive back in. Assess the difficulty of this text – highlight complex vocabulary, predict grade level appropriateness. Time: 5 mins Speaker Notes: In this case, because we know the participants can comprehend what they read, read over it first for enjoyment, and then back in to annotate for the “Dive back in.”

34 INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Chapter 11"The Baudelaire orphans looked out the grimy window of the train and gazed at the gloomy blackness of the Finite Forest, wondering if their lives would ever get any better." Time: 5 mins Speaker Notes: As we have discussed previously, a book's first sentence can often tell you what sort of story the book contains.  This book, you will remember, began with the sentence "The Baudelaire orphans looked out the grimy window of the train and gazed at the gloomy blackness of the Finite Forest, wondering if their lives would ever get any better," and the story has certainly been as wretched and hopeless as the first sentence promised it would be. From Lemony Snickett’s Download copies of the excerpt from Chapter 11 Reading as a group at a table - aloud first chapter, then independently for the remainder.

35 Text depending questions require text-based answers – evidenceINTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Close Analytic Reading Text depending questions require text-based answers – evidence You can’t do close analytic reading with empty texts; complex and rich texts give you choice in the direction for questioning that you wish to go Time: 1 min Speaker Notes: Close reading hones in on difficult portions of text, and provides students an opportunity to work with those sections. Close reading opposes "think aloud," where teacher explain these difficult portions before students have had a chance to learn from them on their own. Not only is virtually every standard evident when students close read, the 3 shifts required by the standards are evident as well! When reading appropriately complex non-fiction or literature, ask students to respond the text-dependent questions about the text.

36 How does the word choice in this excerpt shape the tone? INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Sample Question with Text CCRR.4: Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning and tone. How does the author use “of course” throughout this chapter? What is the impact? How does the word choice in this excerpt shape the tone? CCRR.6: Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text. How does the author’s point of view shape the style of this text? How does the author use style/point of view to engage the reader? Time: 15 mins Speaker Notes: Break the room into table groups and assign questions for different CCRRs. Give the teachers 15 minutes to have a discussion about the questions in their CCRR and provide evidence for their answers. Ask them to also be thinking about the process that they engage in with answering and discussing these questions. Ask them to develop, if there is time, one additional question that they would pose for that standard with that piece. Before we discuss your answers as a group, let’s move onto the second big shift, which is reading, writing, speaking and listening grounded in evidence from the text.

37 Shift #2 Reading, Writing, and Speaking Grounded in Evidence From Text, Both Literary and Informational Time: <1 min Speaker Notes: The second of the three shifts in ELA/Literacy concerns evidence - the obligation of students to pay close attention to what they read and to support what they say or write about it by providing evidence. Grounding reading, writing, and speaking in evidence from the text is not only applicable to informational text, but to stories as well. The demand for evidence can be thought of as “reading like a detective and writing like a reporter.”

38 Most college and workplace writing require evidence INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Reading, Writing and Speaking Grounded in Evidence from Text: Why? Most college and workplace writing require evidence Being able to locate and deploy evidence are hallmarks of strong readers and writers Evidence is a major emphasis of the ELA Standards: Reading Standard 1, Writing Standard 9, Speaking and Listening standards 2, 3, and 4, all focus on the gathering, evaluating and presenting of evidence from text Time: 1 min Speaker Notes: Research that informed the development of the Standards revealed that there is a significant gap in the complexity of what students read by the end of high school and what they are required to read in both college and careers – 4 years! In a study done by ACT in 2006, it was found that the complexity level of what students read at each grade level has dropped 4 years in the last half of the 20th century (and has remained the same in the last decade). The academic language of informational text is different than narrative literature. Exposing students to this enhances the breadth of their academic language; lack of this exposure narrows it. For too long, proficiency in reading has been defined as skill in using reading strategies, even to the point of separating those strategies from the context or challenge that might call for a given strategy. The Common Core puts the text in the center of the equation and demands that students activate strategies in service of understanding the text. Mastering the strategies in isolation only take students so far. A successful reader possesses the ability to activate strategies skillfully in response to challenges most frequently encountered in complex text. Like every other complex set of skills, this takes lots of practice. Increasing complexity of text is the path to CCR, not increasing complicated reading strategies.

39 How does the word choice in this excerpt shape the tone? INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS How Did It Go? CCRR.4: Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning and tone. How does the author use “of course” throughout this chapter? What is the impact? How does the word choice in this excerpt shape the tone? CCRR.6: Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text. How does the author’s point of view shape the style of this text? How does the author use style/point of view to engage the reader? Time: 10 mins Speaker Notes: Let’s return to the questions that you answered earlier. Ask tables to share their answers to questions. Ask tables for feedback on the discussion. What surprised them about the process? Were the questions worthy of conversation? Was it necessary to revisit the text and make inferences? That gets at the heart of Shift 1 and 2 – the types of questions. If you have written them, you understand that it’s not easy or quick to create a good TBQ.

40 Close reading every page of every text that is read in class INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS ADDRESSING MISCONCEPTIONS Common misconceptions about Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational ARE: Close reading every page of every text that is read in class Using “evidence” and ”text” with the notion that the more these words are used in a lesson, the more “common core” the lesson is Sharing out the answers to questions in a discussion format when the right answer is clearly obvious and needs no discussion Speaker Notes: As we said before, these may be beginning steps, but they are just the beginning. These alone will not change test scores, and will not make your students better readers. And the knowledge doesn’t transfer. It’s about integration and development of habits - not checking off a lesson. This week, through examples, video, and experiences, we are going to see what it is, and how it can be integrated to create students who do it automatically when it’s needed.

41 INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS ADDRESSING MISCONCEPTIONSSome more common misconceptions about Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational ARE: Being able to answer the questions on the “Gotcha” quiz the day after a reading assignment - even though the name of the sister of the main character may be loosely characterized as “text based” Limiting student opportunities to use speaking to convey evidence, because only writing is assessed Time: 1 min

42 INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS TEXT-DEPENDENT QUESTIONSNot Text-Dependent In “Casey at the Bat,” Casey strikes out. Describe a time when you failed at something. In “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Dr. King discusses nonviolent protest. Discuss, in writing, a time when you wanted to fight against something that you felt was unfair. In “The Gettysburg Address” Lincoln says the nation is dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Why is equality an important value to promote? Text-Dependent Based on the game’s outcome, how might the crowd’s reported feelings about Blake and inferred feelings about Casey create a sense of irony? How does Dr. King use religious commonality to challenge the clergy addressed in his letter? “The Gettysburg Address” mentions the year According to Lincoln’s speech, why is this year significant to the events described in the speech? Time: 1 min Speaker Notes: Examples of questions that take students outside and inside the text. Text-dependent questions require students to pay attention to the text at hand and to draw evidence from that text. What does this look like in the classroom? Teachers insist that classroom experiences stay deeply connected to the text on the page and that students develop habits for making evidence-based arguments both in conversation, as well as in writing, to assess comprehension of a text. Students’ conversations and writing are rich and rigorous, and dependent on a common text.

43 INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS “Speaking grounded in evidence from text…” Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening Forbes 2015 “Top 10 Skills Employers Seek” CCRA. SL.1 Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on each others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively Ability to work in a team structure Ability to communicate verbally with people inside and outside an organization CCRA. SL.2 Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally Ability to analyze quantitative data CCRA. SL.3 Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence Ability to obtain and process information CCRA. SL.4 Present information, findings and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow Ability to plan, organize, and prioritize work CCRA. SL.5 Make strategic use of digital media...to express information and enhance understanding of presentation Ability to make decisions and solve problems CCRA. SL.6 Adapt speech to a variety of contexts Ability to sell to, and influence others Time: 4 mins Speaker Notes: Turn and talk - where do you see the overlaps? (3 minute) Share that this is A comparison between the speaking standards and what Forbes says is needed in employees; not focusing on speaking because it's not on the test is a disservice, because the test of life... 2015 from Forbes. Here are the 10 skills employers say they seek, in order of importance. They gave each a rating on a 5-point scale, where 5 was extremely important, 4 was very important, 3 was somewhat important, etc and these were the top 10 (in green)

44 INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Getting at Themehttps://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/analyze-text-with-storyboards Time: 25 mins Speaker Notes: We are going to watch a video. Hand out lesson plan. Analyze the development of central themes and how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text. Have the participants watch this for evidence of the first two shifts and fill in on handout. How does she clarify and revisit her objective? How is the assignment rigorous, even though the text is not? Is her reasoning valid? Where would you go next? Table discussions and feedback. In what way is this aligned, and in what way isn’t it aligned? Where is there strong alignment and weak alignment?

45 Building knowledge through content-rich nonfictionShift #3 Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction Time: <1 min Speaker Notes: The third shift requires that ALL students have regular practice with grade-level appropriate complex text and its academic language (vocabulary and syntax). Just as evidence appears all over the ELA standards, so does complex text. It is the first half of Standard Ten, the same standard that calls for a range of text types. It is a standard for students to read grade appropriate complex text at every point in school. Vocabulary is central to the standards as well. It is what Reading Standard 4 is about, and is also the focus of Language Standards 4,5, and 6.

46 INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Favorite Non-Fiction Piece What is your favorite work of non-fiction, and why? Or… What is the title of the last non-fiction book you read outside of class, and what did you think about it? Speaker Notes: Are teachers as familiar with each other’s picks? The goal of this is to think about non-fiction. When we talk about non-fiction, we aren’t just talking about “informational” text – the narrative non-fiction, literary non-fiction market is really taking off. On the next slide, take a look at the first lines of famous NF works – how many can you identify?

47 Content-Rich Nonfiction 50/50 balance in K-5 INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Content Shift 3 Content-Rich Nonfiction 50/50 balance in K-5 45/55 (literary texts/informational) in middle school 30/70 in grades 9-12, not all in ELA Time: 1 min Speaker Notes: In K-5 this means that we should have a balance in what students read of 50/50. So about half of instructional material should be stories, poetry, and drama, and the other half should be nonfiction. In middle school, the recommendation shifts to a 45/55 split between literary texts and informational. By high school, the standards call for a 30/70 split between literary texts and informational texts.

48 INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Building Knowledge Through Content-Rich Nonfiction: Why? Students are required to read little informational text in elementary and middle school. Builds the vocabulary and knowledge that students are going to need for success in school. Non-fiction makes up the vast majority of required reading in college/workplace. Informational text often has to be read differently than narrative text. Time: 2 mins Speaker Notes: Literacy plays a role in science and technology, history and social studies, and in classes focused on the arts – and in English Language Arts. Background knowledge has long been connected to comprehension. Reading informational text is essential in building background knowledge. The standards demand that students work on literacy in all the content areas, not as a distraction or as an addition to their study of content, but to build their understanding of the content being studied. This is displayed most prominently in two ways. 1) At every grade level, there are a set of standards for informational text and a set for literary standards. 2) Reading Standard 10 calls for students to read a wide range of informational text. It is actually a standard to read informational text.

49 Random/unconnected reading about a lot of different topics INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS What it is NOT Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction is not: Research assignments, as in “research (animal, place, etc) and write a paper, due on XXX (with no direct instruction/connection to topic/explicit process) Random/unconnected reading about a lot of different topics Social Studies class (only) Science class (only) Only happening through complex text and close reading “Performing” a favorite text Time: 2 mins Speaker Notes: Review

50 INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS What it ISIn this video, you will see HS students grapple with complex non-fiction in an ELA classroom. https://vimeo.com/channels/commoncoreliteracy/ Time: 20 mins Speaker Notes: Have students watch and collect evidence for all three shifts using the Evidence Collection Handout, then discuss. Note that Bradbury’s piece serves as a jumping off point for a much more complex and relevant discussion. Review

51 INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Evidence Collection ToolTime: 1 min Speaker Notes: Review the tool.

52 Sequencing texts and topics to build knowledge Not random reading INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Shift 3 Sequencing texts and topics to build knowledge Not random reading Literacy in social studies/history, science, technical subjects, and the arts is embedded Time: 2 mins Speaker Notes: Much of what students read in English classes will be literature, but English teachers should also expose their students to high quality literary non-fiction: speeches and essays and literary criticism for example. In content classes, teachers engage students in reading of the texts that are the sources of knowledge and communication in their fields, i.e. the textbook, trade journal articles, experimental results, and primary source documents. It is important that students see that text as a source of knowledge – that you always read about something. As they read a series of texts on a particular topic, they are building their knowledge and understanding of that area. The better they get at reading, the more able they are to learn independently and efficiently through text.

53 And There is Some Really Funny Stuff Out There…“Black bears rarely attack. But here's the thing. Sometimes they do. All bears are agile, cunning and immensely strong, and they are always hungry. If they want to kill you and eat you, they can, and pretty much whenever they want. That doesn't happen often, but - and here is the absolutely salient point - once would be enough.”  - Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

54 Consider your curriculum and instructional practice.INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Reflection on Practice Consider your curriculum and instructional practice. Speaker Notes: Reflection on Practice. Share out at tables. Share out with audience.

55 INTRODUCTION TO THE ELA/LITERACY SHIFTS OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS Reference ListSlide 7 Conley, David. 2012, “The Complexities of College and Career Readiness.” https://epiconline.org/files/pdf/ _Keene_NH.pdf. Slide 16 Score.rims.k12.ca.us/activity/presidentsday/pages/linc6.htm gardenofpraise.com/ibdlinco.htm Slide 36 https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/analyze-text-with-storyboards Slide 43 https://vimeo.com/channels/commoncoreliteracy/