Key Instructional Shifts in the Common Core:

Finding the Evidence

Helen S. CombaOctober 17,2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd8eIMzfcxQ

How does the Common Core Change our thinking about

Reading?

• https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/pre-reading-strategies

ELA/Literacy: 3 shifts

1. Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction

2. Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational

3. Regular practice with complex text and its academic language

Reflections on your own experiences…

• Have you ever read a complex text?

• What made the text complex?

• How did you deal with it?

TEXT COMPLEXITY

“Standard 10 defines a grade-by-grade‘staircase’ of increasing text complexity that rises from beginning readingto the college and career readiness level.” (CCSS, 2010, p. 80)

Standard 10

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.10 Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

Quantitative = Lexile LevelGrade band

CCSS 2010

Revised CCSS 2011

ATOS

DRP FK SR RM

4-5 770-980

740-1010

4.97-7.03

52-60 4.51-7.73

0.84-5.75

5.42-7.92

It’s more than just the Lexile Level

• Quantitative • Qualitative• Task/Reader Considerations

Qualitative Values

Task and Reader

Author’s Purpose Allegory for tolerance

“Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches had bellies withstars.The Plain-Belly Sneetches had none uponthars. Those stars weren’t so big.They were reallyso small You might think such a thing wouldn’tmatter at all.”

But, because they had stars, all the Star-BellySneetcheswould brag, ‘We’re the best kind ofSneetches on the beaches.’ With their snoots in theair, they would sniff and they’d snort ‘We’ll havenothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!’

And whenever they met some, when they were outwalking, they’d hike right on past them without eventalking.”

530LGrades 2-3

Assessing a Text

• Use the qualitative rubric to identify the teaching points and record scores.

My Papa’s WaltzThe whiskey on your breathCould make a small boy dizzy;But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy.

We romped until the pans Slid from the kitchen shelf; My mother's countenanceCould not unfrown itself.

The hand that held my wristWas battered on one knuckle;At every step you missed My right ear scraped a buckle.

You beat time on my headWith a palm caked hard bydirt, Then waltzed me off toBed. Still clinging to your shirt.

By Theodore Roethke

• It’s not enough to have complex text in the room. Students need to read and discuss complex text.

Asking questions is not the issue.

The issue is asking the RIGHT questions!Considerations:• Text structure/genre• Author’s Purpose• Vocabulary• Familiarity with content• Other…

Standards 1-9

• 1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences

from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

What does a classroom look like that includes a focus on the Key

Shifts?

• https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/analyzing-text-as-a-group

How did this teacher…

1. Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction

2. Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational

3. Regular practice with complex text and its academic language

Resources

• www.readwritethink.org• http://www.parcconline.org/about-parcc• www.thinkfinity.org• http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards• http://www.engageny.org/common-core-

curriculum-assessments• http://fisherandfrey.com/resources/• http://www.achievethecore.org/