{

ELA Common Core Learning Standards and Unit Development

Discuss Common Core Shifts Look at student reading and writing

exemplars Create an assessment and unit plan from

a text exemplar.

Objectives for the day:

Balancing Informational and Literary

Text

Building Knowledge in the Disciplines

Staircase of Complexity

Text-based Answers

Writing from Sources

Academic Vocabulary

6 Major Shifts in ELA

What percentage of what adults read is informational text?

Shift 1: Balancing Informational and Literary Text

Adult Reading

Informational TextLiterary

-80 percent of what adults read is informational.-In most school districts 80 percent of what a student reads is literary.National Geographic School Publishing (2003)

Student Literacy

Informational TextLiterary

There must be a balance of informational and literary text. By high school, 70 percent of a student’s reading should be informational.

Literacy must be promoted across all content areas using a variety of informational text.

Reading strategies must be built in all content areas.

Shift 2: Building Knowledge in the Disciplines

Build on prior knowledge. Build specialized vocabulary. Learn to deconstruct complex sentences. Use knowledge of text structures and genres to

predict main and subordinate ideas. Map graphic and mathematical representations

against explanations in the text. Pose discipline relevant questions. Compare claims and propositions across texts. Use norms for reasoning within the discipline to

evaluate claims.

Discipline Specific Reading Strategies

Use double-entry journals where students post questions, observations of patterns in the texts, summarize and make connections.

KWL graphic organizer, students identify what they KNOW, WHAT they want to know, and what they have LEARNED.

Graphic organizers that use text structures to guide what kinds of information students are reading for.

Annotations of texts to pose questions, mark main ideas, make predictions, mark reactions.

Strategies for Creating Self Directed Learners

3 Factors in Determining Text Complexity

Quantitative-measures difficulty (Lexile)

Qualitative-levels of meaning Reader Task Components-reader

motivation and prior knowledge

Shift 3: Staircase of Complexityhttp://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_A.pdf

http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_B.pdf

TEXT EXEMPLARS

Answers must be supported with the text through close reading.

Our questions should be guided questions that prompt students to revisit the text.

Pre-reading/Front loading of material is eliminated, understanding comes from reading of the text.Shift 4: Text Based

Answers

Gettysburg Address Unithttp://engageny.org/resource/the-gettysburg-address-a-curricular-exemplar-in-literacy/

1. Describe the problem in this text and how it is solved. Use information from the article/passage to support your answer.

2. Describe the process of _____ using information from the text.

3. What is the author’s purpose of structuring the paragraphs in this way? Use details from the passage to support your answer.

Some Generic Close Reading Questions

Less creative and narrative writing, more argumentative and persuasive

Students respond to ideas, events, facts and arguments presented in the texts they read

Shift 5: Writing from Sources

http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_C.pdf

Student Writing Examples

Students build vocabulary across disciplines.

Concentrate on more commonly found words than on esoteric terms.

Build students’ ability to access more complex texts across content areas.

Shift 6: Academic Vocabulary

http://web1.d25.k12.id.us/home/title1/download/HighInvocab.pdf

High Incidence WordsAcross Disciplines

What are the components of a good unit?

Looking at Standards per grade level, and the shifts presented, what would you like to concentrate on for your unit.

Choose a targeted standard. Create your assessment FIRST. Consider at least

3-5 multiple choice, a couple short answer, and an extended response.

Look at and provide an exemplar of student writing.

Design unit around assessment. Teach unit. Discuss unit results and what will be done next

time.

Unit Design