Making Friends With the Common Core State Standards:

A Primer for Kentucky Educators

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Learning Goals

• Explore the challenges facing teachers and students in the 21st century and learn how Common Core State Standards are designed to address these challenges, as well as other challenges associated with standards-based education.

• Use a Learning Window to unpack Common Core State Standards.

• Analyze the grade progression built into Common Core State Standards.

• Learn how to use Learning with the End in Mind to help students prepare for and succeed on CCSS performance tasks.

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What matters most?

• What does our investment in teaching students mean? • What do we want students to walk away with from our

schools and classrooms? • What should we teach?

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The Five-Minute University

What is Guido Sarducci telling us about 20th century learning?

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BP Oil Spill: A Teachable Moment

What can we learn about the nature of the challenges our students will face in the 21st century from this ecological disaster?

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The challenges and problems our students will face in the 21st Century are:

• unpredictable. As in the case of the BP oil spill, we can wake up facing new and significant challenges we didn’t know we had yesterday.

• ambiguous. We may not have the knowledge we need to solve the problems when they occur and will have to acquire new knowledge as a result.

• interdependent. No single person or entity can solve the problem of the BP oil spill. 21st century problems are situated in a global economy in which individuals, organizations, corporations, and governments often have to work together to solve large-scale problems.

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Give One, Get One

What matters most to us today? In other words, what do we need to do to prepare students for the 21st century?

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Give One, Get One

Here are the basic steps of “Give One, Get One”:

1. Generate two ideas. (You’ve already done this part!)

2. Stand up and find a partner. GIVE ONE of your ideas to your partner. GET ONE of your partner’s ideas and add it to your list. If you and your partner have the same ideas, work together to generate a new idea and add it to your lists.

3. Find a new partner. Give one, get one.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you have a total of six ideas.

Here are the basic rules of “Give One, Get One”:•  

* Do NOT huddle in groups—work with one partner at a time!

* Do NOT copy your partner’s entire list. Give one idea to your partner and get one in return.

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A review of the design of the Common Core State Standards

As you learn more about the design and structure of the Common Core State Standards, think about what’s old and new about them. How are they similar to Kentucky’s State Standards? How are they different?

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COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS INITIATIVE

What is the Common Core State Standard (CCSS) Initiative?

• State-led initiative, led by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief School Officers.

48 states, Puerto Rico, District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands

What is the Common Core State Standard (CCSS) Initiative?

• Collaboration based on multiple drafts and feedback from school administrators, teachers, experts, and the public.

Interesting fact: There were almost 10,000 responses when the final draft was opened for public review.

What is the Common Core State Standard (CCSS) Initiative?

• Draws upon the best practices of existing curricular models in the United States, as well as internationally—cognizant of the fact that we are preparing our students to be active participants in a global society and economy.

• Designed with a focus on coherence and consistency, rigorous content and its application through higher order thinking skills—to best prepare students for college and careers.

• Emphasis on literacy across the content areas.

How are the Common Core State Standards designed?

ELA & Literacy in Science, Social Studies/History, & Technical Subjects

Mathematics

The CCSS are divided up into 2 categories:

ELA Standards—An Overview• K-12 Standards for

– Reading – Writing– Speaking and Listening– Language

• Reading and Writing Standards for History/Social Studies

• Reading and Writing Standards for Science and Technical Subjects

College and Career Readiness Anchor StandardsELA

– 4 sets: Reading, Writing, Language, and Speaking and Listening– Social Studies/History, Science, and Technical Subjects—2 sets: Reading and Writing– All of the standards within the grade bands are linked to these anchors with building complexity as

the grades increase

StrandsWithin each set, the anchors are divided into strands

Grade BandsThe ELA anchors are grouped K-5 and 6-12 (6-12 only for Social Studies, History/Science, and Technical Subjects)

StandardsThe standards within grades and grade bands provide further specificity in a developmentally

appropriate progression toward meeting the expectation of the anchor

AppendicesExemplar texts, performance tasks, student work

ELA Standards—StructureThis hierarchy describes how to read the CCSS documents for ELA & Literacy in Science, Social Studies/History, Science & Technical Subjects

Strand

Grade BandStandards

AppendicesExemplar texts, performance tasks, student work

Mathematics Standards—StructureThis hierarchy describes how to read the CCSS documents for Mathematics

Domains• Overarching concepts and topics (e.g. Operations

and Algebraic Thinking). There is a high degree of continuity in the K-5 domains. As students progress through middle and high school domains shift to accommodate more advanced mathematical concepts.

Clusters • groups of related standards within each domain.

Standards• define what students should understand and be

able to do.

Mathematical Practicesdescribe varieties of expertise that mathematics educators at all levels should seek to develop in their students.

Domains

Mathematical Practices

(These are always the same at all grade levels)

Each Grade Level Begins with An Overview

Domains

ClustersStandard

Each Grade Level Also Includes Focal Points that Lay Out The Big Picture

For more information about CCSS, go to:www.corestandards.org

The CCSS website offers a wealth of resources, including PDF versions of the standards documents, text exemplars, sample performance tasks, student writing samples, research, presentation documents, and more.

Making Friends With the Common Core State Standards

What, in your opinion, are some of the causes behind this gradual “warming up” between people?

In other words, how does “being rubbed the wrong way” evolve into a lasting friendship?

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If Common Core State Standards are the answer, then what are the questions?

1. How can we streamline and clarify our standards to make them more manageable?

2. How can we decrease the way standards sometimes promote “teaching to the test” and increase the emphasis on preparing students for college and the careers of the 21st century?

3. How can we better track students’ learning progression through the grade levels?

4. How can we highlight the vital role that literacy skills play in the disciplines?

5. How can we provide teachers with greater flexibility so they can adapt the standards to the needs of their students and the demands of their classrooms?

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What similarities can you find?

What differences do you notice?

Of the five questions, which is most important to you and why?

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Looking at the Questions

How can we streamline and clarify our standards to make them more manageable?

Simple overview provides all key information at a glance.

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Overview: The math standards start with a one-page overview highlighting what is most important.

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How can we streamline and clarify our standards to make them more manageable?

Fewer standards to address

KY 4th Grade Math CCSS 4th Grade Math

5 big ideas 5 domains

23 understanding standards 10 clusters

78 skill and concept standards 28 standards

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15 pages 5 pages

Examples make standards more concrete

How can we streamline and clarify our standards to make them more manageable?

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Represent and interpret data.•Make a line plot to display a data set of measurements in fractions of a unit (1/2, 1/4, 1/8). Solve problems involving addition and subtraction of fractions by using information presented in line plots. For example, from a line plot find and interpret the difference in length between the longest and shortest specimens in an insect collection.

How can we decrease the way standards sometimes promote “teaching to the test” and increase the emphasis on preparing students for college and the careers of the 21st Century?

Common Core State Standards“are an extension of a prior initiative led by the

Council of Chief State School Offices (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association (NGA) to develop Career and College Readiness standards in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language as well as in mathematics…As a natural outgrowth of meeting the challenge to define college and career readiness, the Standards also lay out a vision of what it means to be a literate person in the twenty-first century.”

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How can we decrease the way standards sometimes promote “teaching to the test” and increase the emphasis on preparing students for college and the careers of the 21st Century?

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Anchor standards serve as the spine for all ELA grade levels

A second investment in preparing students for the 21st century can be found in the way Common Core State Standards treat research and media skills:

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An emphasis on research and media skills for the 21st century.

How can we highlight the vital role that literacy skills play in the disciplines?

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Literacy skills are integrated into science, social studies, and technical subjects.

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How can we provide teachers with greater flexibility so they can adapt the standards to the needs of their students and the demands of their classrooms?

The Standards do not mandate such things as particular writing processes or the full range of metacognitive strategies that students may need to monitor and direct their thinking and learning. Teachers are thus free to provide students with whatever tools and knowledge their professional judgment and experience identify as most helpful for meeting the goals set out in the Standards.

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Respect for teacher autonomy

Turning Standards Into Learning Goals

1. What do students need to know? (Knowledge goals)

2. What do students need to understand? (Understanding goals)

3. What skills do students need to develop? (Skill-acquisition goals)

4. What habits of mind do you want to foster in students? (Behavioral goals/Habits of mind)

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A lesson on resistive forces

• Students will be introduced to three forces—gravity, inertia, and friction—and will compose a journal entry describing the forces at play in their daily lives.

• Here’s the Common Core State Standard that will be addressed:

Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context.

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How do you think this standard should be converted into learning goals?

Knowledge GoalsWhat key information and facts do students

need to know?

Behavioral Goals/Habits of MindWhat habits of mind do you want to foster?

Understanding GoalsWhat big ideas, generalizations, or principles

do students need to understand?

Skill-Acquisition GoalsWhat skills do students need to develop?

Students will know the definition of gravity, inertia, and friction and how each works in the world.

Students will understand:That different forces and phenomena have specific effects on people and objects

That energy is required to overcome resistance

Students will develop these habits of mind:Thinking and communicating with clarity and precisionApplying past knowledge to new situations

Students will be able to:Read and interpret a science-based text

Explain physical forces in their own words 40

Creating a Learning Window

Knowledge Goals

What key information and facts do students need to know?

Behavioral Goals/Habits of Mind

What habits of mind do you want to foster?

Understanding Goals

What big ideas, generalizations, or principles do students need to

understand?

Skill-Acquisition Goals

What skills do students need to develop?

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How can we better track students’ learning progression through the grade levels?

Standards have been designed to highlight the progression through the grade levels.

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Moving From Standards to Tasks

Performance Task

1. Students (with prompting and support from the teacher) read “Garden

Helpers” in National Geographic Young Explorers and demonstrate their understanding of the main idea of the text—not all bugs are bad—by retelling key details.

Reading Informational Texts Standard

F. With prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key details of

a text. [RI.K.2]

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Moving From Standards to Tasks

Performance Task

2. Students determine the figurative and connotative meanings of words such

as wayfaring, laconic, and taciturnity as well as of phrases such as “hold his peace” in John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley: In Search of America. They analyze how Steinbeck’s specific word choices and diction impact the meaning and tone of his writing and the characterization of the individuals and places he describes.

Reading Informational Texts Standard

C. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone. [RI.7.4] 44

Moving From Standards to Tasks

Performance Task

3. Students interpret the visual chart that accompanies Steve Otfinoski’s The

Kid’s Guide to Money: Earning It, Saving It, Spending It, Growing It, Sharing It and explain how the information found within it contributes to an understanding of how to create a budget.

Reading Informational Texts Standard

H. Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears. [RI.4.7]

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Moving From Standards to Tasks

Performance Task

4. Students provide an objective summary of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden

wherein they analyze how he articulates the central ideas of living simply and

being self-reliant and how those ideas interact and build on one another.

Reading Informational Texts Standard

D. Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text. [RI.11-12.2]

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Moving From Standards to Tasks

Performance Task

5. Students read Aliki’s description of A Medieval Feast and demonstrate their

understanding of all that goes into such an event by asking questions pertaining to who, what, where, when, why, and how such a meal happens and by answering using key details.

Reading Informational Texts Standard

A. Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text. [RI.2.1]

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Moving From Standards to Tasks

Performance Task

6. Students delineate and evaluate the argument that Thomas Paine makes in

Common Sense. They assess the reasoning present in his analysis, including the premises and purposes of his essay.

Reading Informational Texts Standard

G. Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. texts, including the application of constitutional principles and use of legal reasoning and the premises, purposes, and arguments in works of public advocacy. [RI.11-12.8]

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Moving From Standards to Tasks

Performance Task

7. Students determine the purpose and point of view in Martin Luther King,

Jr.’s, “I Have a Dream” speech and analyze how King uses rhetoric to advance his position.

Reading Informational Texts Standard

E. Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose. [RI.9-10.6]

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Moving From Standards to Tasks

Performance Task

8. Students trace the line of argument in Winston Churchill’s “Blood, Toil,

Tears, and Sweat” address to parliament and evaluate his specific claims and opinions in the text, distinguishing which claims are supported by facts, reasons, and evidence, and which are not.

Reading Informational Texts Standard

B. Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not. [RI.6.8]

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Working with your group, focus on one task

• How does the task meet the standard?• How does it support college and career readiness?• What are the implications for teachers?• What are the implications for administrators?• What are the implications for students? How can we

help students succeed on these kinds of tasks?

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What is it?• A tool used to help students

analyze what they need to know and be able to do to meet a specific learning goal.

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What are the basic steps?1. Communicate your learning goals to your students and identify how they

will be assessed at the end of the unit.2. Discuss with your students the value of beginning a unit or approaching a

task with the “end in mind.” Also, explain to students what they will be expected to produce to demonstrate their learning.

3. Distribute the Learning with the End in Mind organizer to your students.4. Have students review the organizer and complete the first part, restating

the culminating task in their own words.5. Ask students to identify what they think they will be required to know and

be able to do to complete the task. 6. Discuss the students’ analysis, the activities they’ll be completing along

the way, and what they will need to know and understand complete the task.

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At the end of this unit, I will be asked to…

Here’s what I need to know:

Here’s what I need to be able to do:

Design and sketch a monument for a new math garden. The section of the garden I have to design is the three-dimensional figure section.

•3-d figures•How to calculate volume•Vocabulary-bases, faces, edges, vertices

•Draw 3-d figures•Calculate volume•Use the vocabulary terms to describe my drawing

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At the end of this unit, I will be asked to…

Here’s what I need to know:

Here’s what I need to be able to do:

Design a container that has the least amount of heat loss

•Measure temperature•Calculate heat loss•Design a container

How heat moves

What materials slow down heat loss

What factors affect heat loss

If the material in the container can be a solid or liquid.

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At the end of this unit, I will be asked to…

Here’s what I need to know:

Here’s what I need to be able to do:

Write an editorial that explains the difference between renewable and nonrenewable energy and takes a position on how to address the energy crisis.

•Differences between renewable and nonrenewable energy•Causes and effects of the energy crisis•What experts say about how to solve the energy crisis

•Conduct a comparison•Write a persuasive editorial

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Reflection

Three big ideas from our work today:

Before today I thought:

Now I think:

Two questions I have are: Here are some ways I might apply what I’ve learned:

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