Supporting Rigorous Activities In The Transition To Common Core for High School Administrators

Rory Hinson, Assistant Principal South Gibson County High School

Jared Myracle, High School Supervisor Gibson County Schools

Contact Information

• Rory Hinson – hinsonr@gcssd.org @thehinsons4

• Jared Myracle – jmyracle@gcssd.org@jaredmyracle

Objectives

• Why rigorous math and literacy tasks are important• Pushing for a Conceptual Understanding in Math • Integrating Appropriately Complex Texts into

Instruction

Tasks Matter

• “There is no decision that teachers make that has a greater impact on students’ opportunities to learn and on their perceptions about what mathematics is than the selection or creation of the tasks with which the teacher engages students in studying mathematics.”

Lappan & Briars, 1995

Tasks Matter

Turn and Talk

While visiting classrooms this year, what have you seen with regard to math teachers and their instruction?

Have you seen teachers using high level tasks with their students?

Literacy/Text Complexity

“In 2006, ACT, Inc., released a report called “Reading Between the Lines” that showed which skills differentiated those students who equaled or exceeded the benchmark score (21 out of 36) in the reading section of the ACT college admissions test from those who did not.”

Turn and Talk

Are complex texts used regularly in your classrooms?

If so, are the texts being used appropriately complex (neither too high or low) for students?

Math Problem

• You plan on purchasing an item that is originally $80. You notice that the item is 30% off. What will you pay for this item before tax?

• Take two minutes and come up with an answer.

Turn and Talk

• While visiting math classrooms, do you see teachers letting students share different solution paths?

• If you haven’t seen this, talk about why this would be valuable.

What makes a task high level?

• Task Analysis Guide

• What are some common themes we see in the tasks that are considered high level?

Where do teachers find tasks?

• http://tncore.org/math/curricular_resources/9-12.aspx

• www.tncore.org • Hover over Mathematics • Click on Curricular Resources 9-12

• Username: tneducation• Password: fastestimproving

What should teachers consider?

• Accountable Talk Handout• Effective Questions Handout• Math Practices Handout• Guide to Creating Tasks Using TNCORE template• Hiebert Making Sense of Tasks Handout

Task Arcs

• Found in the same place as the tasks on the tncore.org website

• Training coming soon through the Core offices

ELA/Literacy Instructional Shifts

1. Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction2. Reading ,writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from text,

both literary and informational 3. Regular practice with complex text and its academic language

Anchor Standard for Reading #10: Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

Source: The Nation’s Report Card: http://nationsreportcard.gov/writing_2011/summary.asp

Evaluating Text Complexity

Quali

tativ

e

Reader and Task

Quantitative

Measuring Text Complexity

• Quantitative– Lexile.com – Readibility measures in Microsoft Word

• Qualitative– Qualitative Measures Rubrics for Literary and Informational Texts

• http://tncore.org/english_language_arts/curricular_resources/text_complexity.aspx

• Student Ability– Reader and Task Consideration Guides

• http://www.education.nh.gov/spotlight/ccss/documents/reader-task-considerations.pdf

Challenges

• Teacher Buy-In– 70/30

• Successfully linking to objectives

• Frequency and Pacing

Literacy Tasks

• In GCSSD:– After summer training, unpacked reading/writing standards– Reviewed measures of text complexity– Creating an index of texts with details on text complexity– Trial/error with strategies, matching students with texts

• Our challenge to our teachers:– ELA Classrooms: daily basis– Non-ELA: 2-3 times a week

Integrating texts into lessons

• Takes considerable work in planning – Finding documents, measuring complexity

• Insuring that texts align with content – Textbook can always serve as a “backstop”– Ideally finding related, high-interest texts

• Aligning texts with student ability– Relies heavily on teacher judgment in high school

• Consideration on time spent reading to build fluency– Reading 25% of school day– 15 minutes in traditional, 30 minutes in block

Reading to Write

• Read like “investigative reporters”– Read with a purpose

• Close Reading and text-dependent questions– http://tncore.org/english_language_arts/curricular_resou

rces/text_dependent_questions.aspx

• Using resulting document as “prewriting”

Accountable Talk Starters

Speaking/writing:• Based on the evidence found in __________, I

think that ___________.• The author/writer stated in _______________ that

_____________.• Ask students to prove their statements are correct

(How do you know that…?)

Accountable Talk Starters

In group discussion:• I agree/disagree with him/her because___________.• I also found evidence to support __________ in

___________.

• Encourage teachers to put on a bookmark and use in class on a daily basis.

• Build a dependency on the text (evidence-based thinkers)

Quick example from the field

• US History: 3 texts related to culture in the 1920s• Assigned to students of low/medium/high reading

abilities• Expert groups (discussion of article)• Jigsaw groups (asking and answering text-

dependent questions)• Write a few paragraphs, citing evidence

Where do we find texts?

• Standards prescribe some texts

• School/district reading lists

• Tennessee Electronic Library– http://tntel.tnsos.org/curricular.htm

• Article of the week– http://kellygallagher.org/resources/articles.html

• National Archives– http://www.archives.gov

• Tennessee State Library and Archives– http://www.tennessee.gov/tsla/

QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION ON MATH AND LITERACY TASKS