Alaska’s English Language Arts & Mathematics Standards

What TLS Staff Need to Know

Objectives

• Understand the background and shifts of Alaska’s ELA and Math standards

• Consider how you might respond to questions or comments about our new standards

What our standards are!• Adopted by the State Board in June 2012

• Two sets of standards: English Language Arts (ELA) & Math

• Responsive to a gap between what was needed to graduate from high school and what is needed to be successful in college and the work place

• Similar and equivalent but not identical to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Two key differences.

Two key differences:1) Some previous Alaska math standards

were retained that are not in the CCSS, particularly for measurement in the elementary grades.

2) For some standards, additional language was added to provide clarity.

Example:Grade 5 for Reading Literature• CC – By the end of the year, read and comprehend

literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 4-5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

• Alaska – By the end of the year, read and comprehend a range of literature from a variety of cultures, within a complexity band appropriate to grade 5 (from upper grade 4 to grade 6), with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

What our standards are not!

• The CCSS

• Identical to the CCSS.

• Less rigorous that the CCSS.

• Pretty much the same as our previous standards.

Partner up – how would you respond to:

Partner 1: Why did we need new standards anyway?”

Partner 2: Aren’t our standards basically the Common Core?

Alaska English/Language Arts Standards

Strong Foundation in Early Grades

1. Foundational Skills in the early Grades

2. The instruction of the basic reading components is still an expectation

3. The standards for these skill are mastered by grade 5.

The importance of a proper foundation:

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Shift #1: Building Knowledge Through Content-Rich Nonfiction and Informational Text

What it is!• Using text as a source of knowledge

• Increase in reading of non-fiction, informational text

• 50/50 balance K-5 of informational and literary text

• 55/45 balance in middle school of informational and literary text

• 70/30 balance in 9-12 of informational and literary text

• Coherent set of non-fiction texts that support building knowledge

• In middle and high school, attention to literacy across content areas

What it might look like.• Emphasis is on text structure other than

narrative

To your neighbor, restate in your own words, what Shift #1 is and what is looks like.

What it is NOT!

Reading manuals 50% of the day for elementary students and 70% of the day in high school.

How would you respond if someone said to you,

“I heard that the new standards are going to expect kids in elementary school to read manuals 50% of the time. And by the time they are in high school that is about ALL they will read.”

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Shift #2: Reading and Writing grounded in Evidence From Text

What it is!• For reading, students must grasp information,

arguments, ideas and details based on careful attention to the text

• For writing, students must write to present analyses, well-defended claims, and clear information using clear information

• Teachers use text-dependent questions to achieve these objectives.

WHAT is a text dependent question?

• Questions that can only be answered with evidence from the text

• Can be literal but can also involve analysis, synthesis, evaluation

• Focus on word, sentence and paragraph as well as larger ideas, themes or events

• Focus on difficult portions of text in order to enhance reading proficiency

In “Casey at the Bat,” Casey strikes out. Describe a time when you failed at something.

In “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” Dr. King discusses nonviolent protest. Discuss, in writing, a time when you wanted to fight against something that you felt was unfair.

In “The Gettysburg Address” Abraham Lincoln says the nation is dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Why is equality an important value to promote?

What makes Casey’s experiences at bat humorous?

What can you infer from King’s letter about the letter that he received?

“The Gettysburg Address” mentions the year 1776. According to Lincoln’s speech, why is this year significant to the events described in the speech?

Not Text Dependent Text Dependent

What it might look like.

James Watson used time away from his laboratory and a set of models similar to preschool toys to help him solve the puzzle of DNA. In an essay discuss how play and relaxation help promote clear thinking and problem solving.

Example?

What it is NOT!Asking questions to try to trick the students.

With a partner take turns explaining your understanding of Shift #2 - Reading and Writing Grounded in the text.

Shift #3: Regular Practice With Complex Text and Its Academic Vocabulary

Text complexity is defined byw of Text Complexity

Qual

itativ

e2. Qualitative measures – levels of meaning, structure, language conventionality and clarity, and knowledge demands often best measured by an attentive human reader.

Quantitative

1. Quantitative measures – readability and other scores of text complexity often best measured by computer software.

Reader and Task

3. Reader and Task considerations – background knowledge of reader, motivation, interests, and complexity generated by tasks assigned often best made by educators employing their professional judgment.

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What it is!

• Subtle and/or frequent transitions

• Multiple and/or subtle themes and purposes

• Density of information

• Unfamiliar settings, topics, or events

• Lack of repetition, overlap, or similarity in words and

sentences

What it is! continued

• Complex sentences

• Uncommon vocabulary

• Lack of words, sentences, or paragraphs that review

or pull things together for the student

• Longer paragraphs

• Any text structure that is less narrative and/or

mixes structures

Academic Vocabulary

• Academic vocabulary is the vocabulary critical to understanding the concepts of the content taught in schools.

What it might look like

1. abbreviate2. abstract3. according4. acronym5. address6. affect7. alter8. always9. analogy10. analysis

11. analyze12. annotate13. anticipate14. application15. apply16. approach17. appropriate18. approximate19. argue20. argument

What it is NOT!

Expecting students to read text that is complex and difficult everyday.

With a partner discuss the two components of (hint: text, vocab.) Shift #3

Alaska Math Standards

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Shift #1: Focus

What it is!

•Significantly narrow the scope of content

•Focus deeply on 2 – 4 topics

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The shape of math in A+ countries

1 Schmidt, Houang, & Cogan, “A Coherent Curriculum: The Case of Mathematics.” (2002).

~ Two-thirds of 21 U.S. states~ Two-thirds of A+ countries

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K 12

Number and Operations

Measurement and Geometry

Algebra and Functions

Statistics and Probability

Traditional U.S. Approach

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Key Areas of Focus in Mathematics

Grade Focus Areas in Support of Rich Instruction and Expectations of Fluency and Conceptual Understanding

K–2 Addition and subtraction - concepts, skills, and problem solving and place value

3–5 Multiplication and division of whole numbers and fractions – concepts, skills, and problem solving

6 Ratios and proportional reasoning; early expressions and equations

7 Ratios and proportional reasoning; arithmetic of rational numbers

8 Linear algebra; linear functions

How would you respond to:

I can just keep teaching what I’ve always been teaching. The new standards aren’t really that different.

What it is NOT!• A mile wide and an inch deep

• “Covering” lots of topics with little time for students to build command of anything

• Teaching all of the content we taught before

What focus isn’t…

Grade Materials should not assess any of the following topics before the grade level indicated

4 Symmetry of shapes, including line/reflection symmetry, rotational symmetry

6

Statistical distributions (including center, variation, clumping, outliers, mean, median, mode, range, quartiles); and statistical association or trends (including two-way tables, bivariate measurement data, scatter plots, trend line, line of best fit, correlation)

7 Probability (including chance, likely outcomes, probability models)

8 Similarity, congruence, or geometric transformations

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Shift #2: Coherence

What it is!• Carefully connecting the learning

across grades

• Carefully connecting the learning within a grade

4.NF.4. Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication to multiply a fraction by a whole number.

5.NF.4. Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication to multiply a fraction or whole number by a fraction.

5.NF.7. Apply and extend previous understandings of division to divide unit fractions by whole numbers and whole numbers by unit fractions.

6.NS. Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication and division to divide fractions by fractions.

6.NS.1. Interpret and compute quotients of fractions, and solve word problems involving division of fractions by fractions, e.g., by using visual fraction models and equations to represent the problem.

Grade 4

Grade 5

Grade 6

Coherence across grades

Informing Grades 1-6 Mathematics Standards Development: What Can Be Learned from High-Performing Hong Kong, Singapore, and Korea? American Institutes for Research (2009, p. 13)

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Coherence within a grade

Example: Data Representation

Alaska Standard 3.MD.4

What it is NOT!• A grab bag

approach to

math content

• A lot of repetition

of content

Partner up

Partner 1 – How would you explain coherence across grades?

Partner 2 – How would you describe coherence within a grade?

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Shift #3: Rigor

What it is!Equal attention to

•Conceptual understanding

•Fluency

•Application

Solid Conceptual Understanding is NOT

• Teaching “how to get the answer”

• A set of tricks or mnemonics

Not This…

More like this…

Fluency• Speed and accuracy in calculation.

• Class time dedicated to practice with expected fluencies in grades K - 6

Required Fluencies in K-6

Grade Standard Required Fluency

K K.OA.5 Add/subtract up to 5

1 1.OA.6 Add/subtract up to 10

22.OA.22.NBT.5

Add/subtract up to 20 (know single-digit sums from memory)Add/subtract up to 100

33.OA.73.NBT.2

Multiply/divide up to 100 (know single-digit products from memory)Add/subtract up to 1000

4 4.NBT.4 Add/subtract up to 1,000,000

5 5.NBT.5 Multi-digit multiplication

6 6.NS.2,3Multi-digit divisionMulti-digit decimal operations

Application• Application of math concepts in “real

world” situations, recognizing this means different things in K-5, 6-8, and HS.

• Teachers in content areas outside of math, particularly science, ensure that students are using grade-level-appropriate math to make meaning of and access science content.

Tell a partner

The three components of rigor in our new math standards.Hint:1) First word starts with C, second

word starts with U2) Starts with F3) Starts with A

Wrap Up

•SPEED DATING