There are 6 ELA Shifts that must take place to be
successful with Common Core State Standards
Staff Development
 This workshop will give you the essential tools needed
to plan effective staff development for the 6 ELA
Shifts.
 When planning your staff development for the 20132014 school year, you need to make Common Core
training your FIRST PRIORITY.
 Put all of your Common Core training on your staff
development calendar first and then plug in all the
other things that need to be scheduled.
Staff Development
 Think about all of the time you possibly have for
Common Core training.
 Think about using planning periods, grade level
meetings, and faculty meetings for training.
 At the end of this training, you will have some tools in
your hands that will help you plan your staff
development.
What should ELA and Literacy look
like in a Common Core Classroom?
Simple Version
 Students are reading A LOT.
 Students are engaging with questions about what they
are reading about in small groups.
 Students are writing about what they are reading
about.
What Do We Need to Examine?
 What are students doing in the classroom?
 What are teachers doing in the classroom?
 What teachers and students are doing in the classroom
should look very different with the Common Core
State Standards.
What is your Vision?
 Think about what you want your classrooms to look
like.
 Work Forward not Backward.
 Don’t try to match up what you are already doing with
the new standards. If you do this, you are looking
back and trying to make it match what you are already
doing.
Desired State
 The desired state should be all kids college and career
ready. REALLY READY!
 Think about the desired state and work FORWARD to
the desired goal.
Major Shift
 We are asking teachers to engage students in inquiry
based learning and they don’t know how to do this.
 A total shift must happen before you can be successful.
 The whole culture of the school must change.
Green and Red Flags Document
 Six ELA Shifts that must happen in order to be
successful with Common Core.
 This document can be used to observe in your
classrooms and get a “cold read” for where you are
right now in implementing Common Core.
 This should be used to help you see where you are,
where you need to go, and the type of staff
development you need to plan for your school.
Shift One
 Shift 1: Building Knowledge by Balancing
Informational and Literary Texts
 Examples of Informational Text
*Biographies
*Autobiographies
*Books about history, social studies, science and the
arts.
*Technical Texts (directions, forms, and information
displayed in charts, graphs, and maps)
*Digital Sources on a range of topics
Administrator’s Role in Shift One
 Determine who is responsible for teaching and
assessing the standards.
 Inventory materials to make sure the right balance of
complex informational text and literature is available
to each class.
 Use Appendix B of Common Core State Standards to
assess complexity of text.
Shift Two
 Shift Two: Content Area Literacy 6-12
 Worksheets don’t fit with Common Core.
 Students need to be engaged in meaningful
conversations about what they are reading and they
should be using text evidence to support their
conversations.
 The teacher is facilitating the conversation but the
students are leading the questions and finding the text
based evidence.
Teaching Channel Video
 Grade 5 Text, Talk Time
Shift Two Continued
 We have to teach students how to have meaningful
conversations.
 Administrator’s Role: Plan and Provide professional
development within and across departments to focus
on how to teach reading and writing strategies in the
content areas.
Shift Three
 Shift 3: Regular Practice with Complex Text
 Students reaching benchmark have the ability to make
inferences while reading and answering questions.
They also have the ability to answer questions
associated with complex texts.
 Administrator’s Role: Make sure appropriate complex
texts are in every class.
Shift Four
 Shift 4: Focus on Text-Based, Text Specific Questions
 Teaching Channel Video: The Art of Questioning
Administrator’s Role for Shift Four
 Provide opportunities and examples for teachers to
develop and critique text dependent questions.
 Teachers need to be taught how to facilitate text based
discussions.
Shift Five
 Shift 5: Focus on Writing Arguments and Writing
from Sources
 Most research should be short with 3 sources for
students to gather information.
 Three types of writing for Common Core: Argument,
Informational/Explanatory, and Narrative
 Argumentative writing is not the same as persuasive
writing.
Shift 5 Continued
 With persuasive writing, they are putting in their
opinions.
 With argument, they are using text based information
to support what they are writing about.
 Administrator’s Role: Set clear expectations of what
the writing needs to look like and give clear examples
to teachers.
The Teaching Channel Video
 Arguing the Pros and Cons of Teen Driving
Shift Six
 Shift 6: Academic Language
 Tier 2 Vocabulary: Words that you don’t usually hear
in everyday language but will see in written texts.
 Tier 2 Vocabulary words can have multiple meanings
and can also be used as nouns, verbs, or adjectives.
 Authors play with words and we need to teach
students how to figure out what the author is actually
saying with words.
Shift Six Continued
 An example of Tier 2 vocabulary: Magma pours forth
on the surface…….
 When choosing Tier 2 words to teach, they should
meet the following criteria:
*Chosen from grade level texts
*Unfamiliar to the students
*Useful words
*Be able to make connections with their previous
knowledge
Teaching Channel Video
 College Talk: Improving Students’ Vocabulary
 Grade 2
Administrator’s Role in Shift Six
 Provide staff development on the three tiers of
vocabulary.
 Make sure Tier 2 Vocabulary Instruction is taking
place on a regular basis.
K-2 Foundational Skills
 Key Word: Differentiated Instruction. Teach students
what they need to learn and not what they already
know.
 Teachers need to be able to discern when particular
students or activities warrant more or less attention.
 Students need explicit instruction in what they need
to learn.
K-2 Foundational Skills Continued
 Administrators should have an assessment system in
place that tells you what individual students need to
learn.
 Provide training on how to use the data to inform
instruction and how to differentiate instruction.
 Data driven differentiated instruction is what we need
to be doing.
Putting It All Together
 Use the Green Flags and Red Flags Evidence Walk
Template to do classroom observations.
 Compile the data after you have walked through every
classroom.
 Don’t use teacher names…compile all the data together
in one report.
Analysis of Evidence Walks for CCSS Implementation
Shifts
Building
Knowledge
by
Balancing
Information
al and
Literary
Texts
Content
Area
Literacy
6-12
Regular
Practice
with
Complex
Text
Focus on
Text-Based,
TextSpecific
Questions
Focus on
Writing
Arguments
and Writing
from
Sources
Academic
Language
K-2
Foundation
al Skills
What do
we need to
see more
of?
What type
of Staff
Developme
nt do we
need?
First Step
for Moving
Forward
Resources
We Need
Date of
Training
Moving Forward with CCSS
Implementation
 Use Evidence Form to compile the data.
 Plan staff development calendar based on the data.
 During the 2013-2014 school year, do mini observations
focusing on certain shifts that you have been working
on and provide feedback to the teachers.
 At the end of the 2013-2014 school year, do evidence
walks again for the entire school. Your goal should be
to see a high number of green flags and a low number
of red flags.
Resources
 Make sure everything you purchase meets the criteria
set forth in the Publisher’s Criteria for the Common
Core State Standards in English Language Arts and
Literacy. www.corestandards.org under Resources.
 Good Rule of Thumb: Wait three years to purchase
materials.
 Use Appendix B of CCSS to assess complexity of text.
 Use the Dillon District Four Website for Common Core
Resources.