Skills & Ladders (with more variations) Welcome! 1

Skills & Ladders(with more variations)

Welcome!

1

An expanding set of classroom, district, state and service providers with the will to meet the challenge of expecting high levels

of secondary literacy, head-on.

LDC: Skills and Ladders 2

The Literacy Design Collaborative

Our Regulars

Educators fromXYZ

Additional partners from

XY

And our facilitators


XYZ

4LDC: Skills and Ladders

Our Guests Today

Restrooms: Lunch:Copies of workshop handouts and this

PowerPoint will be available at TalkingEd after this session

5

Getting Comfortable

LDC: Skills and Ladders

Our Construction Calendar


Our Previous Project

ProjectReflect on the teaching experienceScore student work together, building deeper understanding of the LDC rubricChoose sample student work to illustrate the results


Simplifications for Your First Ladder

Used the sample skills

Used most mini-tasks “as is” (modifying mainly to refer to specific resources students will use)

Worked mainly on modifying instructional strategies to work smoothly for your teaching task and your students


Deeper Work for a Second Ladder

Now that you’ve worked through the basic idea, it’s time to use the full model and:

Think through the skills that fit your task

Vary mini-tasks to fit the skills

Modify instructional strategies to work smoothly for your teaching task and your students


Today’s Project

ProjectPlan instruction, revising each section of a sample ladder to work with your second teaching task

SuppliesYour Task 11Possible texts for your taskNote-taking and writing resources you have found helpfulModules you like from TalkingEd


What Skills?

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First Thinking

In your notebook, please:In a quick-write, jot down all the skills you

can think of that students will need for your task 11. Go for quantity!

After writing for 2-4 minutes, please:Compare ideas with your crewBe ready to share with the room.


Possible Additional Standards

Each template task has some Common Core State Standards built in. When a teacher fills in the template, the resulting teaching task may also address additional parts of Common Core.

In the LDC Guide for Teachers, Appendix B shows which standards come “built in” to each kind of template task—and which can be addressed “when appropriate.”


Possible Additional Standards

Consider Reading Anchor Standard 3:

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

Will your Task 11 require that type of work? Could you amend it so that it would?


Second Thinking

With your crew, please:Read through the Common Core Standards

that Task 11 can address “when appropriate”Does your Task 11 asks students to engage

any of those Standards? If yes, discuss what additional skills students may need for that kind of work

If no, choose one of the Standards and think about how a task could engage it—and about what additional skills students would need for a task like that

Be ready to share some thoughts


Possible Reading Standards

5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g. a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.

8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.

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.


Possible Writing Standards

6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.

7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.


Check on Tech

Do you:Have a computer version of the template

and plan to use that?Have a paper version of the template and

plan to use that?Need a computer version of the template

to use?Need a paper version of the template to

use?


Thinking and Writing

With your crew, please:Decide which skills your students will need to

complete your Task 11Feel free to use ideas from your own quick-

write, your standards notes, and the LDC samples

Add your skills list to the “What Skills?” section of your template

Enter definitions for each skill, too. (Working on defining may also help you revise how you’ve named and listed the skills themselves)


What Instruction? Cluster 1

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Building Your Version

With your crew, please fill out the Cluster 1 portion of your “What Instruction?” template section. You can:Fill in your skills and definitions from the list you just madeUse or revise mini-task products and prompts from a previous ladder, the sample in the LDC Guide for Teachers, or any modules you like from TalkingEdUse or revise instructional strategies from the same sourcesList the pacing you plan to use


Sharing Some Thinking

Did you keep some ideas your earlier ladder?

Did you borrow from another ladder?

Did you invent something new, or build in something you’re used in your own classrooms?


Quick Check

To strengthen your work, please: In your LDC Guide for Teachers, review

Appendix A’s listing of what’s required in the “What Instruction?” section

Decide if anything you’ve done so far needs to be tweaked to fit those rules

Be ready to share any questions you develop as you review


What Instruction? Cluster 2

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Reading and Researching

Will you limit students to a small set of sources available in the classroom?

Take them to the library?

Ask them to search the Internet?



With your crew, please:Fill out the Cluster 2 portion of the “What Instruction?” ladder in your template, including pacingMake your plan for the research step clearUse ideas from any sources, as long as they make sense for your subject, students, and teaching task


Sharing Some More

What’s your thinking on the research challenge?

What did you keep or borrow?

What did you invent or take from your own teaching experience?


What Instruction?Clusters 3 & 4

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With your crew, please:Fill out the Cluster 3 and 4 portion of the “What Instruction?” ladder in your template, including pacingUse ideas from any sources, as long as they make sense for your subject, students, and teaching taskGo on to complete your materials section, listing any books, handouts, and other items you will use, and deciding whether to use a writer’s notebook


Idea Swap

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The Ladder Makes Practice Visible

“People tend to be much more specific about what they expect by way of student performance than they are about what in classrooms would lead to the performance they desire…. We think you cannot change learning and performance at scale without creating a strong, visible, transparent common culture of instructional practice.”

City, Elmore, Fiarman, and Teitel,Instructional Rounds in Education


The Plan

Each crew will divide in half, with half going to “visit” another crew and half staying “home.”

Guests will take five minutes to share about their task, skills list, and ladder.

Hosts will do the same thing.

Guests and hosts will take five minutes to ask each other questions.

And then, guests will move to a second location and do it again.


Preparing for “Company”

With your crew, please:

Check over your design and see if there’s anything you want to clarify

Discuss which high points you’ll want to share with others

Decide who will “travel” and who will “stay home”


Taking It on the Road

To start sharing please:

If you’re a guest for this round, take your notebook and your traveling crewmates, and choose another table to join

Spend five minutes with guests sharing about their task, skills list, and their instructional ladder

Spend five minutes with hosts doing the same sharing

Spend five minutes asking each other questions


Coming Home

To finish off this learning, please:Rejoin your own crew

Share some ideas you heard

Discuss any changes you’ve thought of for your own design, and make those changes


Project Status

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Our Next Project

ProjectReflect on the teaching experience from your Task 11Score student work together, building deeper understanding of LDC rubrics and potential collaboration across subjects and gradesChoose sample student work to illustrate the results

SuppliesFour student responses to the teaching task from each teacherA copy of the teaching task attached to each response


Remove any information that could identify the student before you come: name, school, teacher’s name, etc. If a student has included personal information in the body of the piece, choose a different piece. Bring copies, not originals. You’ll be choosing some pieces as exemplars of each level of student work, and we’ll want to collect those from you at the end of the day.

38LDC: Skills and Ladders

More on Bringing Student Work

Organize for the Next Project

With your crew, please:Discuss what work you need to do to be

ready for teachingDiscuss what work you need to do for our

scoring projectMake notes in your notebooks on how you

divide up any needed workComplete your crew update and submit to

your facilitator


Closing

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Check in About Your Learning

Please:Rejoin your district teamBriefly share how the work is going with

your various crewsDiscuss the exit slip questions togetherFill out your own exit slip Add your name and e-mail if you’d like us

to get back to you before the next meeting


Thank You

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Documents

Skills & Ladders (with more variations) Welcome! 1