Keeping the Standards IntactMCLP Technical Assistance

Facilitator: Katanna Conley

Purpose of this Session

• Identify and correct common mistakes in teaching the CCSS.

• Ask targeted questions about teaching the CCSS and get support.

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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.3

Describe how a particular story’s or drama’s plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.

What is this standard about?

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What’s wrong with this picture?• An assignment requires students to explain how Lewis

Carroll’s background influenced his depiction of Alice.• Students are asked to look for “key ideas” in the text

because the first 3 standards, including R.3, are about that.

• A lesson teaches students to explain what Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is about.

• An assessment prompts students to describe the character traits of the Cheshire Cat.

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Common Mistakes in Teaching the CCSS• Rewriting the standard

• Leads to misinterpretation, overgeneralization, or teaching micro-standards

• Lumping standards together inappropriately• Leaves out critical skills

• Teaching micro-standards (only teaching sections of a standard)• Frequently changes the intent of the standard

• Teaching the wrong standard• Can be the wrong grade level or a misunderstanding of the

standard’s demands

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Teaching the Whole Standard

• Read the standard often.• Return to it when you’re teaching and assessing it.• Avoid the temptation to just use the number.

• Understand the standard.• The grade-level standard, its “heart” or its “core”• The anchor standard • The section the standard resides within

• Assess the standard.• Vet the assessment against the items above

Exceptions: Complex Standards

• Standards with clear breaks in content and intent:• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.8 Gather relevant

information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.

CAVEAT: Still always teach ALL the pieces

Exceptions: Extended Standards• Standards in which a single lesson cannot address an

entire standard:• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.3.1 Initiate and participate effectively in a

range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

CAVEAT: All standards require multiple instances of instruction and assessment.

Teaching the Whole Standard

Original

• An assessment in which students are asked, “Describe the character traits of Alice.”

Revision

• An assessment in which students are asked, “How does Alice’s worldview change over the course of the text? What details demonstrate her view and the changes?”

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Teaching the Whole Standard

Original

• Asking students to look for “key ideas” in the text (because the first 3 standards, including R.3, are about that.)

Revision

• Asking students to make and support a claim about how Carroll uses the episodes in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to build a key idea in the story.

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Practice• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.3 Describe how a particular

story’s or drama’s plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.

• An assessment in which students are asked to write an essay about the character traits of the protagonist.

• Asking students to explain the different ways an author creates characters in the text.

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Practice—On Your Own• RL.9-10.5 Analyze how an author’s choices concerning

how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.

a) Asking students to analyze a paragraph to find things that are surprising.

b) An assignment in which students describe how the pace changes in different sections of a text.

Thanks for Participating!

• What resonated with you today?• Are there learning takeaways for you that you

could share?• Is there something you wanted to know more

about?