Lake Windward Elementary

Thursday, May 2nd, 2013

Balanced Literacy

“If educational equity means having virtually all students achieve relatively modest levels of “adequate” performance on standardized tests, then efforts to realize educational equity may undermine the pursuit of educational excellence.”

However, “if educational equity entails providing virtually all students with opportunities to stretch themselves to the boundaries of their abilities, then the pursuit of equity can actually reinforce the quest for excellence.”

“The National Commission on Excellence in Education defined excellence at the level of individual student as performance ‘on the boundary of individual ability in ways that test and push back personal limits.”

Education- Equity vs. Excellence?

Duke, Daniel Linden. The Challenges of School District Leadership. New York: Routledge, 2010. p. 24

Accelerating Achievement

. . . through Balanced Literacy

Focus is on accelerating student Achievement . . . This cannot truly happen in a class where students all read at the same grade level.

ELA CCGPS Facts & Terms

“the standards define what all students are expected to know and be able to do, not how teachers should teach”

(Pathways to the Common Core-Calkins, Ehrenworth & Lehman)

Model Content Frameworks

Curriculum Maps/Units

“The Standards leave room for teachers, curriculum developers , and states to determine how these goals should be reached and what additional topics should be addressed….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.” (Pathways to the Common Core-Calkins, Ehrenworth & Lehman)

http://www.parcconline.org/

http://www.parcconline.org/samples/english-language-artsliteracy/grade-3-ebsr-end-year-assessment

http://www.parcconline.org/samples/item-task-prototypes#6

http://www.smarterbalanced.org/

https://www.georgiastandards.org/Common-Core/Pages/default.aspx