Common Core: New Opportunities for Deeper Learning

Leinda Peterman, Laura Sampson and Nevin KatzETLO Staff

Common Core + Deeper Learning

“Rigorous: The standards include high-level cognitive demands by asking students to demonstrate deep conceptual understanding through the application of content knowledge and skills to new situations.

High-level cognitive demand includes reasoning, justification, synthesis, analysis, and problem-solving.” - Common Core State Standards Initiative Standards-Setting Criteria

http://www.corestandards.org/resources

The Common Core State Standards

• Aligned with college and work expectations, regardless of where students live – consistent curriculum across states

• Include rigorous content and application of knowledge through high-order skills

• Based on evidence and research• Describe what students should understand and be

able to do• call for more skilled and knowledgeable instruction but

do not prescribe how to teach.

Key Instructional Shifts - ELAELA standards focus on– Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction and

informational texts– Reading and writing grounded in evidence in the text– Regular practice with complex text and its academic

vocabulary ; growing complexity of texts across gradesLiteracy standards are:• an interdisciplinary approach to literacy• designed to embed high-quality reading and writing

expectations in history, social studies, the sciences, career-technical education and other areas.

Key Instructional Shifts - Math• Focus strongly where standards focus– Narrow and deeper; no more mile-wide, inch-deep

• Coherence: think across grades, link to major topics within– Connect learning within and across grades

• Rigor– require conceptual understanding – procedural skill and fluency– application with intensity.

First step, “unpack” or “disaggregate” the Standards. Professional development needed!

Teaching to a standard requires that teachers:• identify the skills that need to be mastered

and the key concepts to be taught• write essential questions• determine appropriate pacing.

Implementing Common Core State Standards

Common Core State Standards

DO NOT DEFINE:• curriculum • how teachers are to teachDO CREATE:• a huge need for curriculum materials• a huge need for teacher professional

development

References

• Common Core State Standards Initiative Standards-Setting Criteria http://www.corestandards.org/resources

• Common Core State Standards Implementation: Rubric And Self-assessment Tool http://www.achieve.org/files/CCSSrubricandstateplanningtool-3212.pdf

• Common Core State Standards Webinarhttp://www.corestandards.org/assets/Common_Core_Standards_June_2010_Webinar_Final_v_2.ppt

Rationale Behind the ELA Standards

• David Coleman: The US has doubled the amount of money invested in education in the past 40 years, but we’ve seen no changes, no advances in testing data.

• There is a discrepancy among state exams: one student can proficiently pass the state exam in New York and another can pass the state exam in Texas, yet these two students will score very differently on national tests.

• The goal is to be college and/or workforce ready. • Emphasis on high-order skills and rigorous content.

Main Shifts in ELA1 A shift in the earliest grades (K-5) where 80% of

classroom time was focused on literature to now focus on general knowledge for students to acquire background knowledge. 50% of texts need to be informational.

2 The broad base for literacy extends in grades 6-12, so the standards are more interdisciplinary: Literacy is a fundamental part of science, history and the arts.

3 Text complexity is important (See Appendix B: http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_B.pdf )

Main Shifts in ELA4 A focus on questions about literature that force you to pay

attention to the text, rather than student feelings or student personal reactions about the text.

5 A focus away from Personal Writing to Argument/Opinion and Research Writing. (See Appendix C: http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_C.pdf )

6 Academic Vocabulary instead of Literary Terms as a focus. (See Appendix A: http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_A.pdf )

How we address the CCSS• So now what?• Focus on fewer standards, rather than many• Don’t teach the standards• Include readings and some of the support documents to illustrate the

standards in use• Still use research-based and evidence-based materials, do not need only

CCSS-titled materials. • Increase discussion around the issues close and important to the

Common Core• What does student mastery of a standard actually look like?

Focus on Fewer Standards

Use Non-CCSS Resources

Updating the Content Focus

Deep Discussion and Reflection

CCSS ELA Resources ELA Curriculum Exemplars:

http://engageny.org/resource/curriculum-exemplars/

Common Core Video Series: http://engageny.org/resource/common-core-video-series/

Sample Common Core Implementation Timeline for NY: http://engageny.org/resource/common-core-implementation-timeline/

Math CCSS Standards

Areas of Instructional Emphasis– Applying math skills to specific tasks; ex. Solve word

problems that call for addition of three whole numbers whose sum is less than or equal to 20 (Gr. 1, 1.OA.2)

– Building math understanding and skills in a coherent way through grade levels

– Analysis of complex real-life scenarios and data sets

There are 8 Standards for MathematicalPractice that span all grade levels.

http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards/mathematics/introduction/standards-for-mathematical-practice/

1. Make sense of standards and persevere in solving them.2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.4. Model with mathematics.5. Use appropriate tools strategically.6. Attend to precision.7. Look to and make use of structure.8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

Supporting the Common Core through Online Instruction

Goal: To train educators to support students in achieving proficiency at the grade-appropriate math competencies outlined by the common core.

Challenge: Teachers are likely to have a curriculum that is already in place, and constrained by existing tests. It can be difficult for some to integrate lessons that support the CCSS standards that are very specific and may not fit into their curriculum.

How Math Content Standards are Organized:

http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards/mathematics/

Grade Level > Domain > Group > Standards

CCSS Chart from Details Page of Virtual Manipulatives Course

http://webdev.edtechleaders.org/html_cores/algebra/01_13302EE/algebra_details.html

Strategies

Make educators aware of the common core at their grade level.

Walk educators through student tasks that address Common Core standards.

In courses we design for students, provide common-core aligned activities that stress application of CCSS.

Provide suggestions for how teachers can enrich their existing lessons with common core-aligned activities without having to rewrite their curriculum.

CCSS Standards: Interpreting Data

http://webdev.edtechleaders.org/lvs_samples/stat/stddev.html

S-ID.2. Use statistics appropriate to the shape of the data distribution to compare center (median, mean) and spread (interquartile range, standard deviation) of two or more different data sets.

This standard is supported in The Mean and Standard Deviation Geogebra Applet, which was used in a statistics online course for students.

CCSS Standards: Interpreting Data

http://webdev.edtechleaders.org/lvs_samples/party-game/partygame.html

S-ID.7. Interpret the slope (rate of change) and the intercept (constant term) of a linear model in the context of the data.

This standard is supported in the same course with The Party Game, challenges students to match the correct graph to each situation on the screen.

CCSS Standards: Interpreting Data

http://webdev.edtechleaders.org/interactive/ecostat/

S-ID.3. Interpret differences in shape, center, and spread in the context of the data sets, accounting for possible effects of extreme data points (outliers).

This standard is supported in the same course with Ecostat Explorer, a game that explores how statistics is applied to scientific field studies.

CCSS Standards: Geometry

http://webdev.edtechleaders.org/html_cores/salem_geometry_hs/salem_geometry_s4.html

S-ID.3. Give an informal argument using Cavalieri’s principle for the formulas for the volume of a sphere and other solid figures.

This standard is supported in a Geometry Course for teachers with an embedded web comic that illustrates how one could explain this concept to students.

CCSS Math Resources Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice:

http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards/mathematics/introduction/standards-for-mathematical-practice/

Common Core Exemplars (scroll down for Math):http://engageny.org/resource/curriculum-exemplars/

Mathematics Appendix A:http://www.corestandards.org/assets/CCSSI_Mathematics_Appendix_A.pdf

Thank you!

Leinda Peterman: lpeterman@edc.org

Laura Sampson: lsampson@edc.org

Nevin Katz: nkatz@edc.org