California Common Core State Standards

A Teacher Leader’s Perspective

Kathy Harris, Teacher, Olivet Elementary School

Tulare County Office of Education

September 28, 2011

Professional History Classroom teacher since 1986

Site Director for California Reading and Literature Project 1998-2009

CTA leader since 1994

Member of various State committees focused on ELA and ELD

Recently appointed to California Commission on Teacher Credentialing

Personal CCSS Timeline

Fall 2009: joined NCTE Review Panel for CCSS, with focus on K-5 ELA standards

November 2009: invited to join K-2 Text Complexity subgroup, worked on qualitative scale for K/1 text

January 2010: attended Aspects of Text Complexity Working group meeting in Chicago

June-July 2010: member of Academic Content Standards Commission. California adopted the CCSS in August 2010

Timeline cont’d January 2011- present: member, Striving

Readers Comprehensive Literacy team

Continuing as member of Text Complexity Working group, with current work focused on text analysis using CCSS qualitative scale and Coh-metrics web-based tool

CCCSS used as planning guide for third grade, and current 4/5 combination class

How has CCCSS changed the way I teach?

Anchor Standards Fewer, clearer, higher

Text Complexity Matching kids to text

Comprehension Understanding, not strategies

Math Pedagogically appropriate

Anchor Standards College and Career Readiness Standards for

Reading (K-5, 6-12)

College and Career Readiness Standards for Writing (K-5, 6-12)

College and Career Readiness Standards for Speaking and Listening (K-5, 6-12)

College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Language (K-5, 6-12)

Not Adopted The Anchor Standards are not currently part

of the California CCSS

Pending legislation will include the Anchor Standards in the adoption process.

California did not adopt the appendices: Appendix A, B, or C. These documents are available as resources for teachers and professional development. Check them out!

CCSS Appendices Appendix A: Research Supporting Key

Elements of the Standards, Glossary of Key Terms. Text Complexity Resources

Reading Foundational Skills

Writing

Speaking and Listening

Language (Vocabulary)

Bibliography

CCSS Appendices Appendix B: Text Exemplars and Sample

Performance Tasks for K-1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-8, and 9-10 and 11-CCR bands Stories

Poetry

Read-Aloud Stories

Read-Aloud Poetry

Sample Performance Tasks for Stories and Poetry

Informational Text

Read-Aloud Informational Text

Sample Performance Tasks for Informational Text

Sample Performance Task

2-3 band, stories and poetry: When discussing E. B. White’s book Charlotte’s

Web, students distinguish their own point of view regarding Wilbur the Pig from that of Fern Arable as well as from that of the narrator. [RL.3.6]

CCSS Appendices Appendix C: Samples of Student Writing

By grade level

Argument (Opinion)

“My fabit Book is do you Want to be my FRIEND” (K)

Informative/Explanatory

“Author Response: Roald Dahl (5)

Narrative

“My first tooth is gone” (2)

Text Complexity Anchor Standard 10: Range of Reading and

Level of Text Complexity

Grade 4, Informational Text, Standard 10: By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, in the grades 4-5 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

Measuring Text Complexity

Qualitative evaluation of the text See Handout- Companion to the Qualitative

Dimensions Scale, or Appendix A

Quantitative evaluation of the text Lexile

Coh-Metrix

Measuring Text Complexity

Matching Reader to text and task

Reader Variables Motivation

Knowledge

Experience

Measuring Text Complexity

Task Variables Purpose

Complexity generated by the task assigned and the questions posed

Paying attention to cognitive load- are we putting the new on the new or the new on the known? Are students familiar with the vocabulary of the questions as well as the text?

Lexile Ranges Text Complexity Grade Band in the

Standards: 4-5

Old Lexile Ranges: 645-845

Lexile Ranges Aligned to CCR expectations: 770-980

Reference: CCSS Appendix A, page 8

Lexile assigns a measure based on word frequency and sentence length. Assessments assign a Lexile score to readers, to allow the matching of reader to text.

Coh-MetrixUniversity of

Memphis Coh-Metrix system focuses on the cohesiveness of a text—basically, how tightly the text holds together.

A high-cohesion text does a good deal of the work for the reader by signaling relationships among words, sentences, and ideas using repetition, concrete language, and the like;

A low-cohesion text, by contrast, requires the reader him- or herself to make many of the connections needed to comprehend the text.

High- cohesion texts are not necessarily “better” than low-cohesion texts, but they are easier to read. (Appendix A)

Comprehension 1997 Framework and Standards: teach

comprehension strategies (predict, infer, summarize)

CCCSS 2010: teach comprehension so that students will understand what they read Refer to details and examples in a text (4),

quote accurately from a text (5)

“Read the part that tells…”

Demonstrate understanding ,Describe in depth, Explain

In My Class… Vocabulary- Freddy’s Filters

All subjects

Read the part that tells

Informational text (Social Studies, Science, Math) What I have right now- making it work

Resources http://www.corestandards.org (Appendices A, B, and C-

go to “The Standards” tab at the top of the page)

http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cc/ (California adoption of CCSS- standards unique to California adoption are in bold type)

http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/grlevelcurriculum.asp (A Look at Kindergarten through Grade 6 in California Public Schools)

http://csmp.ucop.edu/crlp/ California Subject Matter Projects, California Reading and Literature Project

http://www.aera.net/uploadedFiles/Publications/Journals/Educational_Researcher/4005/223-234_07EDR11.pdf (Article about Coh-Metrix published by AERA)