The Common Core Standards

Parent Curriculum Night Kindergarten – Second Grades

6:30 – 7:15 p.m.

Background of the CCGPS

• Adopted by 46 states and territories

• Most sweeping reform of the K-12 curriculum in US history

• Created by the Council of Chief State Officers and the National Governor’s Association

• Upon Georgia’s adoption in July of 2010, the standards are referred to as the Common Core Georgia Performance Standards (CCGPS)

• Currently, only the Reading, ELA, and Math standards are being implemented. Science are set to be released by the end of this school year with training next year. Implementation year is 2014-2015.

• Before the CCGPS, each state had its variety of standards.

Why new standards?

America has gone from providing our children with a world-class education to

scoring far below other counties on international assessments, landing in

fourteenth place on the most recent PISA (Program for International Student

Assessment)

Why new standards?

10

90

Required Job Skills, 1987

high skills

low skills

95

5

Required Job Skills, Present Day

high skills

low skills

What are the standards?

(and what they are not)

• The standards were created to define objectives for all students to be college and career-ready.

• College-ready means being prepared for any postsecondary education.

• Career-ready means being prepared to provide a family-sustaining wage and a pathway to advancement..

How will the standards affect my child’s instruction? What will I notice?

• The standards set a progression of skills that students learn as they move through school.

• For example, the following ELA inference standards looks different depending on the grade:

How will the standards affect my child’s instruction? What will I notice?

Example: Reading Anchor Standard 1: Read closely to

determine what the what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it.

• Kindergarten: with prompting and support, ask

and answer questions about key details in a text.

• 4th Grade: Refer to details and examples in a text

when explaining what the text says explicitly and

when drawing inferences from the text.

How will the standards affect my child’s instruction? What will I notice?

• In all subjects, evidence of thinking will be a goal. Students will need to back up their answers with evidence.

• Therefore, writing in all subject areas has come to the forefront.

Sample Question and Student Response

Two days after a flash flood and heavy rains in the desert, Mark

noticed that everything was as dry as it was before the

storm. Name and explain the process that caused the desert to

become dry again.

Evaporation is the process that caused the desert to become dry again. The sun in the desert is very hot. It shines on the land after the rain. The heat from the sun changes the water into a gas called water vapor. This vapor disappears into the sky. Soon the sun has caused all the

water to evaporate.

How will the standards affect my child’s instruction? What will I notice?

• Shifts in Math:

• Focus: Fewer standards taught to greater depth

• Math Fluency: Speed and accuracy with simple calculations

• Application to real-world situations

• Shifts in ELA/Literacy

• Students have a balanced “diet” of fiction and nonfiction

• Literacy is a shared responsibility across all content areas

• Close reading: Careful analysis of text

How are the teachers prepared?

Training for teachers began last fall to become familiar with the standards.

This year they will continue to be provided professional development and support in implementing the standards.

What about standardized testing?

• There are two comprehensive assessment groups that will develop CCSS assessments. Both are committed to implementation in the 2014–15 school year. These assessments are expected to be constructed response.

• Until then, the CRCT will be given as it has in the past. The format of the CRCT will remain the same, but aligned with the CCGPS.

For More Information The Marietta City Web Site contains many informative

links for explaining Common Core State Standards:

Kindergarten

Learning new language skills is a hallmark of kindergarten. Your child will

learn about the alphabet and its role in reading. Your child will practice

rhyming, matching words with beginning sounds, and blending sounds into

words.

Practice with these types of activities is a powerful step toward learning to

read and spell correctly. The size of your child’s vocabulary is another key

factor in his or her ability to read and comprehend books and stories.

Your child also will begin to experiment with writing and will be encouraged

to use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing letters to share

information, ideas, and feelings.

So what? Literacy assessments will be built around constructed-

response, open-response and inquiry questions, requiring your child to

think more deeply and provide authentic responses that

represent their thinking, not just “recall” level responses.

Literacy at Home:

Read with your child every day, being sure to spend

time discussing what is not explicitly stated.

Ask questions that require your child

to justify and explain the answers,

referring back to the text.

To find more books for your child to read, visit

www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_B.pdf.

First Grade

In 1st grade, your child will become a more independent reader and writer.

Your child will continue to learn and practice rules for recognizing the

sounds that make up words and will be able to sound out more complex

words. Such foundational skills are necessary and important components of

developing proficient readers with the capacity to comprehend a wide range

of materials.

Students will learn to think about what they read and talk about the main

ideas of simple stories, as well as determine the key points in informational

books.

So what? Students will be required to give evidence through writing

that they can summarize, draw conclusions, and connect different types

of texts read for different purposes.

Literacy at Home:

Encourage your child to read to you a variety of texts

that include both stories and informational books.

To find more books for your child to read, visit

www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_B.pdf.

Ask your child to summarize stories they read, as

well as identify key details in informational texts.

Talk with them about books that are similar in some

way and why.

Second Grade

Students in 2nd grade will gain more skills in reading, writing, speaking,

and listening. They continue to learn and practice rules for matching

sounds to letters that make up words, and they learn new concepts — such

as words that share the same root (e.g., add and additional) — that help

them figure out the meanings of new words.

They will read a wider variety of texts with both literary and informational

focus. Writing will become an exciting way for your child to use newly

learned words and phrases to express ideas.

So what? To assess students’ depth of understanding, they will be

required to respond to text and connect ideas using logic --- supplying

reasons that support an idea or opinion, connecting opinion and

reasons, and how reasons support specific points the author makes in a

text.

Literacy at Home:

Do interactive readings with your child by

reading every other paragraph – particularly in

informational texts. Question your child about details

and how the details are connected to a related topic.

Encourage your child to build fluency by having them

read to younger siblings or other children

you know. As a pre-reading activity,

have them preview the book/story and

develop some questions for their “reading audience”.

To find recommendations of books for your child to read,

visit www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_B.pdf.

Lexile Levels The Common Core Standards advocate a "staircase" of increasing text

complexity, beginning in grade 2, so that students can develop their

reading skills and apply them to more difficult texts.

** The Common Core standards assumed that kindergarten

and first grade students interact with increasingly complex text

in both shared and independent reading.

Anchor Standards

1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite

specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key

supporting details and ideas.

3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.

Corresponding Grade Level Standards

ELACCKRL1: With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

ELACCKRL2: With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.

ELACCKRL3: With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.

ELACC1RL1: Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

ELACC1RL2: Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their

central message or lesson.

ELACC1RL3: Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.

ELACC2RL1: Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to

demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.

ELACC2RL2: Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and

determine their central message, lesson, or moral.

ELACC2RL3: Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.

Sample Lesson for First Grade

Learning Goal: Make reasonable predictions for

the outcome of a story.

Lexile Level: 175

Standards Addressed: ELACC1RL1: Ask and answer questions about

key details in a text.

ELACC1RL2: Retell stories, including key details, and

demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.

ELACC1RL3: Describe characters, settings, and

major events in a story, using key details.

In a nutshell:

Students should apply

thinking work to their reading and

explain and justify their thinking

through writing.