Preparing America’s Students for College and Career

Elementary IntroductionReading/Language Arts

2011

GoalsGoals

• Each state had its own set of academic standards, meaning public education students in each state were learning at different levels

• All students had to be prepared to compete with not only their American peers in the next state, but with students from around the world

GoalsGoals

Only 51 percent of 2005 ACT-tested high school graduates met ACT’s College Readiness Benchmark for Reading.

Student readiness for college-level reading is at its lowest point in more than a decade.

•Students lack the writing skills necessary to meet the demands they face in higher education and the emerging work environment (Analyzing, arguing, and synthesizing information.)

Twenty-eight percent of entering college age studentsrequire remediation in reading, writing, or math.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics, Remedial Education at Degree-Granting Postsecondary Institutions in

Fall 2000, 2003.

Vertically articulate downward from college and career expectations

Include rigorous content and application of knowledge through high-order skills

Build upon strengths and lessons learned about current state standards

Internationally benchmarked so that all students are prepared to succeed in our global economy and society

Balance of what students read and the skill with which they read.

State led – coordinated by NGA Center and CCSSO

Adopted by Florida,

July 2010

Adopted by Florida,

July 2010

2013-14 ~ fully implement CCSS; assess FCAT 2.0

2014-15 ~ fully implement CCSS; assess PARCC

* 2011-12 kindergartners – first students assessed on CCSS as third graders in 2014-15.

Primary goal - increase number of students who graduate high school ready for college and careers

Primary goal - increase number of students who graduate high school ready for college and careers

• Two National Assessment Consortiums PARCC and SBAC

• Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) – FLORIDA’S Consortium

www.parcconline.org

• Participation of 24 states and District of Columbia

• Primary goal - increase number of students who graduate high school ready for college and careers

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Sept. 2011

Development phase begins

Sept. 2012

First year field testing and

related research and

data collection begins

Sept. 2013

Second year field testing begins and

related research and

data collection continues

Sept. 2014

Full administration

of PARCC assessments

begins

Oct. 2010

Launch and design phase

begins

Summer 2015

Set achievement

levels, including

college-ready performance

levels

PARCC design

• Variety of item types assessing reading and writing in short answer, longer open response, performance based, richer multiple choice formats

• Testing at key points throughout school year(4 X per year)

• Separate assessment for grades K-2

• Reading Standards for Literature K-5 (10 standards)

• Reading Standards for Informational Text K-5 (10 standards)

• Reading Standards: Foundational Skills K-5 (4 standards)

• Writing Standards K-5 (10 standards)

• Speaking and Listening Standards K-5 (6 standards)

• Language Standards K-5 (6 standards)

Range, Quality, and Complexity of Student Reading K-5

Page 10

GoalsGoals

Design and Organization Page 11

GoalsGoals

Design and Organization Page 12

Reading the Standards

Reading Strand for Literature Fourth Grade

Standard #

RL.4.9 Compare and contrast the treatment of similarthemes and topics (e.g., opposition of good andevil) and patterns of events (e.g., the quest) instories, myths, and traditional literature fromdifferent cultures.

RL.CCR.9 Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.

Reading the Standards

Writing Strand

Third Grade

Standard #

CCR.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

W.3.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences. a. Establish a situation and introduce a narrator and/or characters;

organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.b. Use dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings to

develop experiences and events or show the response of characters to situations.

c. Use temporal words and phrases to signal event order.d. Provide a sense of closure.

ResearchText ComplexityGlossary

ResearchText ComplexityGlossary

Text exemplars illustrating the complexity, quality, and range of reading appropriate for various grade levels with accompanying sample performance tasks.

Text exemplars illustrating the complexity, quality, and range of reading appropriate for various grade levels with accompanying sample performance tasks.

Samples of Student WritingSamples of Student Writing

Appendix A, B, and CAppendix

A, B, and C

çç

Question type (main idea, word meanings, details) is NOT the chief differentiator between student scoring above and below the benchmark.

Question type (main idea, word meanings, details) is NOT the chief differentiator between student scoring above and below the benchmark.

Question level (higherorder vs. lower order; literal vs. inferential) is NOT the chief differentiator

Question level (higherorder vs. lower order; literal vs. inferential) is NOT the chief differentiator

Research analyzed the Reading section of the ACT college entrance exam to determine which skills differentiated those that achieved benchmark and those that did not. (About half, 51%, of the half million test takers who take the test

each year)

What students could read, in terms of its complexity, rather than what they could do with what they read, was determined to be the greatest predictor of

success.

What students could read, in terms of its complexity, rather than what they could do with what they read, was determined to be the greatest predictor of

success.

TEXT FREE OR LIGHT-TEXT SOURCES OF INFORMATION

“There may one day be modes and methods of information delivery that are as efficient and powerful as text, but for now there is no contest. To grow, our students must read lots, and more specifically they must read lots of “complex” texts – texts that offer them new language, new knowledge, and new modes of thought.” (CCSS Appendix A, Page 182)

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• Some students will need more scaffolding to read more complex text.

• Scaffolding should not replace the reading of the text by telling the students what they will learn or becoming a simpler source of information.

• Scaffolds need to enable all students to access the complex text directly, rather than reduce the complexity of the text.

STUDENTS MUST BE TAUGHT TO READ AT GRADE LEVEL

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Scaffolds• Read the text aloud with students reading along• Guide the readers when encountering places in the text where

they may struggle• Use shorter pieces of complex text• Read closely and reread a great deal• Ask questions that can only be answered by close reading of the

text• Require evidence from the text to explain answers• General movement should be toward decreasing scaffolding and

increasing independence because that is what will be demanded in college and the workplace (and on new tests).

Complex Text

“Such assessments are best made by the teachers employing their professional judgment, experience,

and knowledge of their students and subject.” (CCSS Appendix A, Page 4)

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Has rich/challenging vocabularyHas multiple levels of meaningHas complex structureRequires specific content knowledge

Complex Text…Complex Text…

-Purpose-Language

conventionality and clarity

-Text Structures-Knowledge demands

-Purpose-Language

conventionality and clarity

-Text Structures-Knowledge demands

Readability measures– Word length; word

frequency/familiarity

– Sentence length and text length

– Lexile

Readability measures– Word length; word

frequency/familiarity

– Sentence length and text length

– Lexile

Reader Variables (motivation, knowledge, and experience) and task variables (purpose and the complexity generated by the task assigned and questions posed)

Reader Variables (motivation, knowledge, and experience) and task variables (purpose and the complexity generated by the task assigned and questions posed)

Three Factors for Measuring Text Complexity

Text exemplars illustrating the complexity, quality, and range of

reading appropriate for various grade levels with accompanying sample

performance tasks.

Text exemplars illustrating the complexity, quality, and range of

reading appropriate for various grade levels with accompanying sample

performance tasks.

Samples of Student Writing in response to performance tasksSamples of Student Writing in

response to performance tasks

Appendix B and CAppendix B and CPerformance TasksPerformance Tasks

2010 Grade 4 FCAT Writing—to Tell a Story (Narrative)• The Grade 4 narrative prompt directed the student to write a story about a day some 4th grade students made lunch for the school.

CCSS Performance Task for Stories& Poetry Grades 2-3• Students read Paul Fleischman’s poem “Fireflies,” determining the meaning of words and phrases in the poem, particularly focusing on identifying his use of non-literal language (e.g., “light is the ink we use”) and talking about how it suggests meaning. [RL.3.4]

CCSS Performance Task for Stories & Poetry, Grades 4-5

Students read Natalie Babbitt’s Tuck Everlasting and describe in depth the idyllic setting of the story,

drawing on specific details in the text, from the colorof the sky to the sounds of the pond, to describe the scene. [RL.4.3] 25

2011 Grade 4 FCAT Writing—to Explain (Expository)• The Grade 4 narrative prompt directed the student to explain their favorite weather.

CCSS Performance Task for Informational Text Grades 2-3Students explain how the main idea that Lincoln had “many faces” in Russell Freedman’s Lincoln: APhotobiography is supported by key details in the text. [RI.3.2]

CCSS Performance Task for Informational Text, Grades 4-5

• Students explain how Melvin Berger uses reasons and evidence in his book Discovering Mars: The

Amazing Story of the Red Planet to support particular points regarding the topology of the planet. [RI.4.8] 26

2010 FCAT Writing Grade 8—Writing to Explain• The Grade 8 expository prompt directed the student to explain the biggest change he or she has experienced from elementary to middle school.

CCSS Performance Task for Stories and Poetry Grades 6-8• Students compare and contrast Laurence Yep’s fictional portrayal of Chinese immigrants in turn-of-the-twentieth-century San Francisco in Dragonwings to historical accounts of the same period (using materials detailing the 1906 San Francisco earthquake) in order to glean a deeper understanding of how authors use or alter historical sources to create a sense of time and place as well as make fictional characters lifelike and real. [RL.7.9]

2010 FCAT Writing Grade 8—Writing to Explain• The Grade 8 expository prompt directed the student to explain the biggest change he or she has experienced from elementary to middle school.

CCSS Performance Task for Language Arts Informational Text, Grades 6-8• 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. [RI.7.4]

GoalsGoals

Spiraling packet activity #1

Work in your table groups to highlightor underline the new skill and conceptsadded to each grade level from the year prior.

WHAT:WHAT: Coding Strategy Coding Strategy

WHY:WHY:

WHAT:WHAT:

Allows for individual reflection and small group discussion; gets all voices in the room; sums up the day Allows for individual reflection and small group discussion; gets all voices in the room; sums up the day

Use the coding strategy while reading the key takeaway document:

*I already knew this! ! Interesting Information? I don’t understand + New Information

Foster Independent ReadingGradual Release of Support

Daily opportunities for structured independent reading

Variety of books needed at differing interest levels, genres (informational, expository, historical, diverse cultures, poetry, myths, legends, folk tales, fairy tales), readability levels, and complexity levels

Increase Emphasis On Expository Text

Increase percentage of expository text available to students

Eliminate shallow reading from complex expository texts

Provide more opportunities to students’ independent reading of expository texts

Increase higher level student response to reading (performance tasks) and provide multiple

opportunities for discussion and collaboration

What do your students read?What do they do with what they read?