The Common Core and the Middle

Level: A Match To Be Made

Nancy Doda, Ph.D.,www.teacher-to-teacher.comJill Spencer, Senior Partner

Learning Capacity Unlimitedjillspencer51@gmail.com

Teaching with the Common Core in

Mind

Warm the RoomTurn and Share with a

neighbor What Do You Think It Means To Teach

with The CC in Mind?

Let’s Start

• Read the Statement.

• What do you think? Agree or Disagree

• Stand by the Agree or Disagree Side

• Explain your Thinking (to someone near you).

Agree/Disagree

• The soft side of “middle school” has diminished national academic rigor.

• Common core is in the best interest of middle school learners

Mining the Good From the Common Core

Being Critical Leaders in the CCSS Initiative

Developmentally Appropriate

Challenging

Empowering

EquitableAMLE, This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents

The Middle Level Call

Turning Points 2000

• Give Authentic and Meaningful Work

• Use Ongoing and Multiple Forms of Assessment

• Emphasize Critical Thinking

• Sustain Focus on Essential Questions and Learning Goals

Jackson & Davis, 2000. (Turning points 2000)

“American students must be fully prepared to compete successfully in a global economy. The recently released Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited: Rapidly Approaching Category 5 continues to warn that the United States is quickly losing its competitive edge in the world.” (McNulty & Gloeckler, 2011)

The Common Core Call

• Shifting the Cognitive Load To Students

• Literacy Across All Disciplines

• Active and Reflective Thinking

Common Core: Students need ability to….

• gather, comprehend, evaluate, synthesize, and report on information and ideas,

• conduct original research to answer questions or solve problems,

• analyze and create a high volume and extensive range of print and non-print texts in media forms old and new.

Common Core ELA p. 4

21st Century SkillsThink, Innovate and Work Creatively

Reason Effectively

Solve Problems and Make Sound Judgments

Collaborate with Others

Communicate Clearly

Be Self-Directed

Can I figure out what to do

I don’t know what to do?

when

Student in Soundings, Mark Springer

Misleading Myths

• Rigor Means Unwieldy

• Common Core Means Uniformity

• CCSS Address all We Need to Teach

• Love of Learning Isn’t Important.

What Does This Mean For Our Classrooms?

What real shifts are needed?

The Real Shifts

EMPOWERMENTPutting Students in the Driver’s Seat

In which mode of transportation would you best be able to

retrace a trip?

Consider Why?

The Driving Metaphor Of Empowerment

What Does it Mean To Put Students In The

Driver’s Seat?

We cannot expect children to accept ready-made values and truths all the way through school, and then suddenly make choices in adulthood. Likewise, we cannot expect them to be manipulated with reward and punishment in school, and to have the courage of a Martin Luther King.... Constance Kamii (1991)

RESEARCH FLASH

If students believe that intelligence is something you can get and not something you already have, they learn more.

(Dweck, 2011)

John Dewey

It is hardly too much to say that in traditional education so much stress is laid upon the presentation to the child of ready-made materials, and the child to bear responsibility for reciting upon this ready-made material, that there is only accidental occasion …for developing motive and reflective attention. (School & Society, 1956)

The Perilous Sage on the Stage

“Teachers, teachers, teachers,

when will they learn. I have the

attention span of a raisin…” Research data, (Doda & Knowles,

2006)

“Learning is a consequence of experience. …people become responsible and independent not from having someone tell them that they should be responsible or independent, but from having experienced authentic responsibility and independence.” (Angelo V. Boy and Gerald Pine, 1971)

TEACHER SHARED

Control Continuum

Example: Text Study

Teacher Assigns Reading andAsks Questions

TeacherAssigns Reading, but StudentsAsk Questions

Student-Led DiscussionGroups

TEACHER SHARED

Control Continuum

Example: Worksheets to Think-sheets

Teacher Determines Questions For Worksheet

StudentsChoose From Teacher’s List of AcceptableQuestions

Students Use Open-Ended Think Sheets

Grapple

Persevere Polish

Refine

Create

Explain Defend

Persuade

Argue

Exhibit A

REFLECTION

• What’s makes this a best practice common core classroom?

• How does this compare with what you might typically see?

• How are you currently supporting your staff in their journey towards student empowerment?

What Kind Of Learning Experiences Support These

Skills?

• Problems to Solve

• Products to Create

• Issues to Investigate

• Processes to Use to Invent

• Arguments to Defend

The Real Shifts

LITERACY

Message To Kids

We are not born readers. We become readers.

Common Core Stance

• Nonfiction in All Subjects

• Speaking & Listening

• Vocabulary taught well

FOR THE LOVE OF BOOKS

• Middle schoolers love:

•Books that speak to them.•Books that grapple with life issues.

•Books they can share with others.

•Books that are culture and gender-friendly.

What Do Skilled Readers Do?

• BEFORE: Anticipate ~ Get ready to enter text

• DURING: Participate ~ Get into the text

• AFTER: Reflect ~ Review, Use, Evaluate

BEFORE

To help students connect to what they know, anticipate

content with curiosity and interest, and gain confidence,

and focus.

4 Corners

• History is best taught in chronological order.

• If we share power with students, they will not perform as well on state tests.

• Every child wants to learn.

Anticipation Guide

• Before Reading

• After Reading

TRUE or FALSE

Is the primary cause of Climate Change human

activity? Ben: China is a big contributor

Margie: Carbon emissions are the primary issue

Dave: The earth is heating up

Kara: Trees are helpful to the earth.

DURING

To help the reader become immersed in the text.

Marking Text

!! Interesting/Important

? Confusing/Curious

+ I want to recall this

1. Student “A" talks for 1 minute without stopping about the topic

2. Student “B” listens and encourages “A”

3. The roles reverse. Read on…

The students will take turns talking about all they know about a certain topic.

Read, Jot and Say Something

Replace Worksheets With Think Sheets

TEXT: __________________________

What it says

I think…. So what?

Power Notes

Property Parallelogram Rectangle Rhombus Square

Diagonals bisect each other

Diagonals are congruent

Diagonals form two pairs of congruent triangles

Diagonals form four congruent triangles

Diagonals are perpendicular to each other

Word or Concept

Definition Characteristics

Examples Non-examples

RON BERGER, SHUTESBURG, MA.

“Show me something I can’t

Google.”

Focus on Big Themes

• What makes us who we are?

• Choices and Consequences

• Are we at the mercy of our genes?

• How have humans overcome huge obstacles?

The Real Shifts

Teaching with the Common Core in

Mind

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