The Common Core Standards

Parent Curriculum Night Third – Fifth Grades

7:20 – 8:00 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:

Third Grade

Third grade is a pivotal year for your child. Learning to read with

fluency and confidence will serve as a foundation for the reading

demands in later grades.

He or she will come to appreciate that words have meanings that are

not literal (e.g., a piece of cake) and have relationships to other words

(e.g., company and companion). Recognizing and understanding words

will help your child read increasingly challenging stories and books

and build knowledge about the world around him or her.

So what? As your children becomes a more sophisticated readers

interacting with more complex text, they will be assessed by the

level of transfer with which this richness of language begins to

appear in their writing, as well as how confident they are with

justifying their thinking in their writing.

Literacy at Home:

Students read for two main purposes --- to inform

and for pleasure. Make reading for fun a part of

your child’s daily routine. Set aside quiet time, with

no distractions, when your child can read for pleasure or to answer a

question. Keep a small notebook where your child can jot down a

question that was answered in their reading that day (about a

character, a plot detail, a fact from an informational text, etc.). Use

this to guide questioning of your student about their reading.

To find more books for your child to read, visit

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

Encourage your child to interact with newspaper or magazine, cut

out pictures and create an original story that draws on the details

within the picture.

Fourth Grade

Building the stamina and skills to read challenging fiction, nonfiction,

and other materials is fundamental in 4th grade. Your child will

continue to learn about the world as well as

build vocabulary skills by reading more complicated stories and poems

from different cultures and a range of books on history, science, art,

and music.

Fourth grade students also will make important strides in their ability

to explain plainly and in detail what a book says — both explicitly and

what is implied from its details.

So what? By 4th grade, your child will be writing effective

summaries, detailed descriptions of characters or events,

and evidence-based informational pieces – all of which

draw on close interaction with texts and other sources.

Literacy at Home:

Urge your child to use logical arguments to defend

his or her opinion. If your child

wants a raise in allowance, ask

him or her to research common

sense allowance systems and,

based on that research, explain reasons why, supported

by facts and details.

Talk about the news together. Pick one story in the

news, read it together, and discuss with your child

what it means. Practice assuming opposing points of view

in applicable news stories and defending positions in

conversation and/or writing.

Fifth Grade

In 5th grade, your child will read widely and deeply from a range of high-

quality, increasingly challenging fiction and nonfiction from diverse

cultures and time periods.

Building knowledge about subjects through research projects and

responding analytically to literary and informational sources will be key to

your child’s continuing success.

So what? Your child will write narrative stories or informational essays,

devoting significant time and effort to producing numerous written

pieces over short and extended timeframes throughout the year. The

balance of reading (50/50 literary and informational texts) will be

evident in the types of writing produced, as well. Again ---

supplying justifications and citing evidence will be

key features of assessed writing.

Literacy at Home:

Fifth grade social studies and science

content is rich. Provide books, magazines, electronic

media in your home that is related to 5th grade topics

of study. Choose a text and focus on the key details

within a three or four paragraph section. Ask

questions that require your student to find evidence

or draw conclusions from the focus paragraphs.

Read a story with your child and relate it to common

experiences as a way to infer implicit details and/or

predict outcomes.

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 assume 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

ELACC3RL1: Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as

the basis for the answers.

ELACC3RL2: Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central

message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.

ELACC3RL3: Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their

actions contribute to the sequence of events.

ELACC4RL1: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when

drawing inferences from the text.

ELACC4RL2: Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text.

ELACC4RL3: Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the

text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions).

ELACC5RL1: Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing

inferences from the text.

ELACC5RL2: Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a

story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.

ELACC5RL3: Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on

specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).

Sample Passage and Question Set for Fourth Grade

Text: Excerpt from Ellis Island: The Hunt for Alois Hanousek

Lexile: 780

Featured Text Structure: Sequence – The writer provides a

sequence of events or steps in a process.

Passage Summary: The author went to Ellis Island to find out

about his great-grandfather. Millions of immigrants entered the

United States through Ellis Island, and a great deal of information

about immigrants can be found here.

In a nutshell:

Students should apply

thinking work to their reading and

explain and justify their thinking

through writing.