1. NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE RIGOR
• Past standards development started with kindergarten and
added years of work on top of those standards
• Past standards have focused heavily on existing curricula and
teachers’ notions of development (what could students learn?)
• The common core standards began with college and career
readiness standards and then backmapped from there
• This means that the standards demand growth designed to
ensure that students reach graduation targets (rather than
depending so heavily on what we have done in the past)
NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE RIGOR (CONT.)
Implications:
• The common core standards are harder and more honest than
past standards
• Larger percentages of students likely to fail to meet these
standards (greater need for interventions)
• Important for teacher candidates to understand this if they are to
successfully join into schools (they need to have this contextual
knowledge to contribute to the changes that schools need to
undergo with the new standards)
2. NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE STRUCTURE
•
•
•
•
State standards have been somewhat random lists of skills,
knowledge, and strategies
The common core state standards have very strong progressions
and an organization that requires attention (e.g., reading
comprehension has 10 standards at each grade level, and these
standards are analogous from grade to grade, meaning it is
worthwhile to consider all of the #1s, #2s, etc.)
The reading and writing standards are connected
The organization of the standards provides:
a). Memory aid
b). Valuable explanation
c). Hints about the pedagogical response
NEED TO UNDERSTAND STRUCTURE (CONT.)
Implications:
• Candidates need to examine the standards structure and they
need to review the progressions across grade levels (do not
respect the elementary, middle, high school boundaries)
• Candidates should learn the standards of a grade level
• Candidates need to know how to design lessons that successfully
address multiple standards (across reading, writing, speaking
and listening)
• Candidates need to know that most of these standards do not
divide by report card marking
• Different kinds of learning entailed by the different parts of the
standards
3. NEED TO UNDERSTAND CHALLENGING TEXT
• Item #10 in all of the reading comprehension lists focus on text
difficulty and specify the Lexile range that has to be the target
• Unlike current standards the major emphasis is on texts rather
than on the cognitive skills included in the standards
• The specified Lexile levels will match students to harder texts
than in the past (and schools are discouraged from teaching
students at easier levels—new PARRC test will evaluate reading
against those levels)
NEED TO UNDERSTAND CHALLENGING TEXT
(CONT.)
Implications:
• Candidates need to learn to establish text levels
• Candidates need to learn to identify text features that might add
to the complexity of text (e.g., presupposition of background
knowledge, vocabulary, grammar, organization, cohesion, literary
devices, graphics, etc.)
• Need to learn how to scaffold challenging reading (without
reading it to students or telling them what it says)
4. UNDERSTANDING DISCIPLINARY LITERACY
• Research reveals unique reading demands of the various
disciplines (reading history is not the same thing as reading
literature, etc.)
• The common core state standards requires specialized reading
emphasis for literature, history/social studies, and
science/technical subjects
DISCIPLINARY LITERACY (CONT.)
Implications
• The ELA standards need to be studied by the middle and high
school teaching candidates who are to teach science, history,
vocational education departments – not just English
• Content teachers will need to emphasize aspects of literacy that
they have not in the past (these are disciplinary standards, not
content area reading standards—the idea is not how to apply
reading skills and strategies to content subjects but how to teach
the unique uses of literacy required by the disciplines)
5. NEED TO UNDERSTAND INFORMATIONAL TEXT
• Past standards included both literary and informational texts
• However, this emphasis left the distribution of this emphasis to
the teachers
• The common core standards requires the teaching of
comprehension within both informational and literary texts and
emphasizes that they be treated as co-equal and will be in the
upcoming testing
INFORMATIONAL TEXT (CONT.)
Implications
• Teacher candidates need to understand how to identify/select
quality informational text
• Teacher candidates need to understand the structures, graphics,
text features that are common in informational texts
• Teacher candidates need to know how to craft reading lessons
around informational texts
5. UNDERSTANDING CLOSE READING
• Common core promotes the idea of close reading
• Idea is that lessons need to focus on the text rather than on the
students
• Less pre-reading, more re-reading, text dependent questions
• What does text say?, How does text work?, What does text mean?
• Emphasis on text evidence
UNDERSTANDING CLOSE READING (CONT.)
Implications
• Teacher candidates need to have experience in engaging in close
reading of challenging text (weighing of author’s diction,
grammar, and organization to make sense of the text, engaging
in critical evaluation, etc.)
• Teacher candidates need to learn how to plan multi-day reading
lessons that require rereading and deep analysis of the text and
its meaning and implications
TEXT DEPENDENT QUESTIONS
Questions are text dependent if they can only be
answered by reading the text (the evidence must
come from the text and not from other sources)
How did Frederick Douglass’ ability to read contribute to his emotional struggle for
freedom? Cite examples from the text to support your answer.
After reading Frederick Douglass’ narrative, in what ways does America represent the
hope for freedom that lived in the heart of Frederick Douglass?
6. UNDERSTANDING MULTIPLE TEXTS
• Past standards have emphasized the reading of single texts:
students had to learn how to make sense of a story, article or
book (with perhaps an occasional emphasis on multiple texts)
• The common core state standards emphasize the interpretation
of multiple texts throughout (at all grade levels, and in reading,
writing, and oral language)
• Students will still have to be able to interpret single texts, but
much more extensive emphasis on reading and using multiple
texts (about 15% of the ELA standards mention multiple texts
explicitly)
UNDERSTANDING MULTIPLE TEXTS (CONT.)
Implications
• Teacher candidates need to learn how to select combinations of
texts that can be used together
• They need to know how to teach students to carry out
comparative analysis and evaluation and how to synthesize texts
(and non-texts)
7. UNDERSTANDING WRITING ABOUT TEXT
• Past standards have emphasized writing as a free-standing
subject or skill
• Students have been expected to be able to write texts requiring
low information (or only the use of widely available background
knowledge)
• The common core puts greater emphasis on the use of evidence
in writing
• Thus, the major emphasis shifts from writing stories, journals, or
opinion pieces to writing about the ideas in text
UNDERSTANDING WRITING ABOUT TEXT (CONT.)
Implications
• Teacher candidates need to know how to craft and deliver
lessons that integrate reading comprehension and writing (e.g.,
writing to models, summarization, critical analysis/evaluation of
text, synthesis)
• Teacher candidates will need to know how to evaluate the quality
of such writing and how to give feedback to students so they can
improve these products
8. UNDERSTANDING ARGUMENTATION
• Past standards have tended to treat text as being just a form of
neutral information
• The common core state standards begin with the theoretical
premise that texts (and other forms of language) are a form of
argument
• Arguments depend upon the use of evidence and reason
UNDERSTANDING ARGUMENTATION (CONT.)
Implications
• Teacher candidates need to be able to discern the arguments
underlying a text or presentation (and they need to know how to
teach students to engage in this kind of reading/listening)
• Need to know how to teach students how to make an effective
argument (putting forward one’s own position, providing rationale
and evidence, anticipating and refuting counterarguments,
engaging in debate, etc.)
10. UNDERSTANDING TECHNOLOGY
• The emphasis on technology has been minimal in past English
language arts standards
• The common core state standards reflect a much heavier
emphasis on how to take advantage of the affordances provided
by technology
UNDERSTANDING TECHNOLOGY (CONT.)
Implications
• Teacher candidates need to know how to search, read, and use
information drawn from the Internet; how to use word processors
and other technological supports in their writing; how to use
presentation software in their oral presentations; and how to use
various online references
• Need to know how to guide students’ use of these tools