The ELA Core Curriculum
in
English Language Arts (6-8)
By: Heidi Tomasko, Kellie Skweres, Janine FiorinaCody, and Lynn Marsico
August 14, 2008 @ Greenway
Strategies for Academic
Achievement
(PART 1)
1.
Evaluate all programs for effectiveness and replace where necessary
2..
Provide a rigorous curriculum aligned to state standards, assessments,
and instruction
3.
Provide ongoing professional development for all teachers and staff
focused on academic objectives
4.
Create a “Pittsburgh Leadership Academy” to provide professional
development for principals and central staff
5.
Implement a district-wide coaching model
6.
Establish Accelerated Learning Academies
7.
Create individual school improvement plans with specific academic
achievement goals
8.
Adopt a writing program across the curricula
9.
Develop a high school reform model that includes:

Redesign Career & Technical programs

Expand and increase participation in Advanced Placement, International
Baccalaureate, Center for Advanced Studies, and dual enrollment courses

Continued partnership with universities
Objectives
 Explain the instructional practices that occur within the ELA
Core Curriculum.
 Define the term Culturally Responsive and how it impacts our
Core Curriculum.
 Review Roadmap changes and the rationale behind those
changes.
 Create a graphic representation of each unit by grade level.
 Anticipate what opportunities exist within these units to
promote student engagement.
 Discuss what struggles and successes students may
experience in these units.
 Reflect as a teacher and as a learner on the DL lessons in the
upcoming 6th, 7th, and 8th grade units.
 Become familiar with the Teaching and Learning Feedback Tool
Culturally Responsive Curriculum
in English Language Arts:
Seeing our students’ cultural backgrounds
as supports for learning rather than deficits
Acknowledging and building from
students’ personal, ethnic, class,
gender, neighborhood, and school
histories to promote learning
Choice of Texts
 Students studying the Core Curriculum in English language arts
will spend a considerable amount of time studying works by a
wide-range of writers representing a variety of experiences, e.g.,
African American, women, economically disadvantaged, etc.
 Every effort is being made to include as many Pittsburgh writers
as possible.
 Units designed around texts that are more accessible to
increasingly difficult (e.g., “The Treasure of Lemon Brown” to
“Harriett Tubman”).
 Where texts deal with topics that might be previously unknown,
activities are designed to support broadening students’
knowledge base (e.g., mini-/full research units on the Holocaust
or Apartheid).
Design Features of the Units
 Gives multiple opportunities for students to say what
they already know
 Gives multiple opportunities for students to link big ideas
of texts and units to their personal experiences
 Works to identify in advance issues or content that might
not easily be accessible to students or that might be
emotionally charged
 Gives multiple opportunities for students to say how they
learned (increase chances of transference)
 Gives multiple opportunities to make sense of texts
independently and with peers
 Gives variety of ways students can engage with learning
and demonstrate their understanding.
Building Intellectual Community in
Classrooms
 High expectations in the Core Curriculum are
reflected in the requirement that all students
inquire, investigate, read, write, reason and talk
about critical questions, problems, and concepts.
 Teachers use scaffolding (inquiry, direct
instruction, modeling and observing,
differentiation, guided reflection) to ensure that
students of all backgrounds do the intellectual
work involved in understanding the core content.
Multiple Perspectives
 Encouragement of the use of multiple perspectives
occurs through providing opportunities for students to
reflect on their learning as they learn from each other.
Students are consistently exposed to the different
perspectives of their peers through pairing, small group,
and whole group discussions. Charting of these thoughts
and feelings is a means of validating what viewpoints
students bring to the classroom and maintains these
viewpoints as a reference.
 Students are also invited to take on the perspectives of
the characters in and the authors of the multicultural texts
from which they are learning. Texts selected to reflect the
perspectives of various writers from different cultural
backgrounds enable students to not only see themselves
in the literature but also become sensitive to the many
commonalities that all cultures share.
Student Engagement
 Student engagement is on-going through the
presentation of unit questions which drive the
overarching questions that are the power of
purpose and motivation for the learning taking
place in each unit. These questions are
grounded in inquiry and are designed to be open
ended which allows all students to approach
these questions from multiple perspectives that
are both personal and text-based.
 A compilation of ideas and reactions in the
Reader’s/Writer’s notebook is a means of
engaging students as they document their
learning experiences in their own words.
Assessment
 The learning potentials of students are assessed through
several formative assessments. Students can
demonstrate their learning at entry points that are at
varying comfort levels: pair/share, trio/share, small group
discussions, entries made in Reader’s/Writer’s
notebooks. Differentiation strategies and interventions
are able to be employed if these formative assessments
reveal a need for students who are struggling with
particular concepts.
 Not being chained to one form of assessing students’
learning is another way of responding to the various
learning styles and needs of students from various
backgrounds.
Roadmap Revisions
2008-2009 School Year
Road Map Revisions were
informed by:
 Feedback from teachers, ITLs coaches and
administrators
 Data from 4Sight and Core Curriculum Benchmarks
 The need to align each curriculum to all elements of the
Pennsylvania State Standards and Eligible Content
 The need to incorporate more vocabulary and grammar
instruction into the established DL pattern
 The charge to create a more culturally responsive
curriculum
Changes that Apply to All Grades
More time and attention will be devoted to nonfiction,
vocabulary, grammar and writing instruction.

A novel or unit has been removed, at most grade levels, to allow time
for more explicit writing instruction.

Students will receive the majority of their grammar and vocabulary
instruction in the context of their reading and writing.

Grammar and mechanics will also be addressed through mini
lessons based upon formative assessment of students’ needs.

Portfolio – Portfolio requirements will be marked in the Road Maps
and in the units.

Differentiated Instruction – We will add more options/ suggestions for
differentiation. Differentiation of process and product need to be
addressed. Learning styles should be considered when
differentiating assignments.

Roadmaps were aligned with the DWA so that instruction will occur
in the Core between pre and post tests.
Grade 6 Road Map for 2008-09
Grade 6
Previous Units
Proposed Units
Unit One
Selected Works of Fiction and Nonfiction
Unit One
Selected Fiction, Nonfiction, Functional
Documents (interviews and biographical
text), and Poetry
Unit Two
I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly
Unit Two
On My Honor
Unit Three
Selected Works of Fiction and Nonfiction
Unit Three
Selected Poetry (New Unit)
Unit Four
Bud, Not Buddy
Unit Four
Selected Nonfiction and Researched
Sources on Great Depression
Unit Five
Selected Works of Fiction and Nonfiction
Unit Five
Bud, Not Buddy
Unit Six
Holes
Unit Six
I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly
Unit Seven
Selected Works of Fiction and Nonfiction
Unit Seven
PSSA Reading Practice Module; Selected
Works of Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry
Unit Eight
On My Honor
Unit Eight
Holes
Unit Nine
Selected Works of Fiction and Nonfiction
Unit Nine
Selected Nonfiction (published and
student models of Reflective Essays and
Memoir)
Grade 7 Road Map for 2008-09
Grade 7
Previous Units
Proposed Units
Unit One
Selected Works of Fiction and Nonfiction
Unit One
Selected Nonfiction: Biography and
Autobiography
Unit Two
Hatchet
Unit Two
Tangerine
Unit Three
Selected Poetry
Unit Three
Selected Nonfiction and Research Sources
Unit Four
The Giver
Unit Four
Selected Nonfiction
Unit Five
Selected Advertisements
Unit Five
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Unit Six
Tangerine
Unit Six
Selected Poetry
Unit Seven
Selected folktales, myths, legends,
autobiographies, and biographies
Unit Seven
Selected texts; PSSA Release Tasks in
Preparation of PSSA Reading
Unit Eight
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Unit Eight
The Giver and Among the Hidden
Unit Nine
Various Research Sources
Unit Nine
“The Monsters are Due on Maple Street”
Grade 8 Road Map for 2008-09
Grade 8
Previous Units
Proposed Units
Unit One
Selected Works
Unit One
Student Models, “About the Author”
selections from Holt
Unit Two
Among The Hidden
Unit Two
Out of the Dust; Selected Poetry
Unit Three
“Flowers for Algernon” and “The Diary of
Anne Frank”
Unit Three
Expository Texts used for Research
Unit Four
Chain of Fire
Unit Four
Unit Five
Chain of Fire
PSSA Writing Readiness Unit
Unit Five
Selected Works
Unit Six
Selected Speeches: “I Have a Dream,” “The
Gettysburg Address,” “The First
Americans,” “Slavery,” “What to the
Slave is the 4th of July?”
Unit Six
Out of the Dust
Unit Seven
PSSA Reading Readiness Unit
Unit Seven
Selected Works
Unit Eight
Selected Short Narratives: “Mrs. Flowers,”
“from Harriet Tubman: Conductor of the
Underground Railroad,” “The Treasure of
Lemon Brown,” “Ribbons”
Unit Eight
Whirligig
Unit Nine
Whirligig
Unit Nine
Selected Works
Unit Ten
“Flowers for Algernon” and “The Diary of
Anne Frank”
Relighting The Fire
Reconnecting Effort and Success through the
Core Curriculum
My Appointments
 Draw a clock face on a
piece of paper
 Indicate 12, 3, 6, and 9:00
 Take 3 minutes to make
mutual appointments for
each of these times
 Return to your original
seats
Access Prior Knowledge
Quick Write: Take 2-3 minutes to respond to the
following on the paper provided:
 What are some things that you, or people you
know, have quit trying to learn?
 When time is called go to your 12:00
appointment and share your response.
 In your appointment collaborate to answer
this: What are some common factors that
contribute to quitting?
Cycle of Failure
Failure
Loss of Self-Esteem
Frustration
Loss of Motivation
Avoidance
Lack of Practice
LEARNED
HELPLESSNESS
 Picture a student from your past. What did
his/her learned helplessness look like?
The Matthew Effect:
The Rich Get Richer and The Poor Get Poorer
What Can We Do To
Interrupt This Cycle?
Most of us have witnessed the phenomena of a
student reawakening to learning.
QuickWrite: Think of a student (if you can) who
made a turn-around. Describe what you believe
to have been the factor(s) that moved this child
out of the Failure Cycle.
Go to your 3:00 appointment and share your
analysis. Decide together whether these
motivating factors occurred accidentally or were
planned and intentional.
Organizing for Effort
 Repetition of a Learning Pattern
 Artifacts to make thinking visual
 Readers/Writers Notebook to track
thinking and work
 Explicit back mapping of Culminating
Projects
 Student created protocols organize
discussions
Clear Expectations
 Posting of Overarching and Unit Questions for
refocusing and retrospection of the learning
purpose.
 Artifacts provide written rather than oral prompts
and assignments and opportunities to recall the
progress of the work and thinking.
 Teacher modeling of any new skill or learning
activity
 Ongoing use of student models to guide learning
as it approximates the expectation
Fair and Credible
Evaluation
 In progress work and learning in Reader’s
Writer’s Notebook and homework assignments
are evaluated according to effort rather than the
quality of a “final” product.
 Summative Assessments such as Process
Writing and Culminating Projects are apprenticed
and scaffolded through models and back mapped
through modules to support success.
 As units are revised, Culminating Projects will
provide more variety in the way a skill can be
assessed and the products for assessment.
Student choice will increase.
Recognition of
Accomplishment
 Multiple informal opportunities for teacher encouragement
and private praise are available during “over the
shoulder” work.
 Encouragement and praise delivered through notes in the
R/W Notebook can occur weekly or daily for students in
need of extra and/or private support.
 Daily work with peers (governed by shared protocols)
provides opportunities for praise, recognition and support
by those who sometimes matter most, their peers.
 Classroom Artifacts that reflect student responses, work
and ideas provide ongoing recognition of the value of the
students’ ideas.
 Many units end with suggestions for celebrations of
accomplishment.
Academic Rigor in a Thinking
Curriculum
 The curriculum is explicitly designed to set very
rigorous learning goals with abundant scaffolding
to support students along multiple learning paths.
 Unless the teacher is modeling, the challenging
work of interpretation, analysis, and evaluation,
the thinking work, is done by students and
supported by the teacher.
 Learning outcomes are focused on developing
the essential content and habits of thinking that
are central to the discipline. These habits are
taught explicitly and ritualized.
Accountable Talk
 Paired, small and whole group discussions are a daily
part of the curriculum and essential to the instructional
pathway.
 Students collaborate to create a set of protocols to guide
their interaction during discussion. This allows for student
ownership and self-management.
 Talk makes thinking public and so provides authentic peer
models to scaffold higher level thinking.
 Talk provides an opportunity for auditory and verbal
learners to participate and develop core skills that they
may not have been able to through reading and writing
alone. Visual learners benefit from charting.
Socializing Intelligence
 Students see that intelligence is not static! Intelligence grows
through effort.
 Beginning with prior knowledge provides multiple entry points so that
all students can engage from the start of a lesson.
 Effort is increased in a safe, supportive environment where risks can
be taken and peers of differing abilities and perspectives are all
challenged to take these risks.
 The curriculum provides daily opportunities for interaction with peers
who learn and think within a wide ability range.
 Teachers may support this process by grouping students with
complementary strengths.
 Recognition and validation of multiple perspectives during class
discussion supports socializing intelligence as well as culturally
responsive instruction.
Self-Management of
Learning
 The Reader’s / Writer’s Notebook is the central
tool for self-management. The teacher can
support this with artifacts for organizing this tool.
 StepBacks and Retrospectives (Metacognition)
provide opportunities for students to reflect upon
their own learning processes both old and new
and identify strategies that may work in new
situations (transfer).
 Classroom protocols for discussion and class
created criteria support a self-managing
community of learners that is student centered.
Learning as Apprenticeship
 Teachers are encouraged to create authentic
models during all learning activities.
 Scaffolds should be systematically removed for
students, and made optional and available, as
students individually progress in their ability. This
differentiates the learning continually.
 As students progress in their skills, the teacher’s
role becomes more and more of a support or
facilitator to the work.
Location, Location, Location
 Take time with your 6:00 appointment to
locate one example of the Principals of
Learning in your own units.
 Be prepared to share your findings.
Overview of the ELA Core Curriculum:
6th-8th Grade
Accessing Prior Knowledge
 What are the key
components of a DL
unit?
Write your responses
individually; be prepared to
share them with the group.
Getting the Gist of it…
The Big Picture: Review your
assigned unit with the people
at your table. As you read,
consider the following:

If you could represent this
unit graphically (as a
picture), how would it
look?
Record your representations
on chart paper. Be prepared
to share your work and to
justify the graphic you chose.
Let’s Discuss…
• Choose a presenter for your group:
-Why did you choose to “represent”
your unit in the way that you did?
-What “Ahas” occurred as you engaged
in this work?
StepBack: Quick Write
 Reflect on this activity as a
teacher…
What similarities/differences
do you notice across these
units?
How did engaging in this
activity help prepare you to
teach this unit?
Prepare to share your
response with a partner/the
whole group.
Lunch Time!
Review of Grade Level Units
Revisit more closely the grade-level unit
you’ve been assigned. Read through
it independently one module at a
time. As you read, consider the
following talking points:
 What CE’s/PE’s and Eligible
Content are addressed?
 What mini-lessons could you
create for use during Writers’
Workshop that align with the
writing genre in your unit?
 What trouble spots/successes do
you anticipate?
 Where do you see natural places
to build in differentiation? What
scaffolding do you feel is needed?
 What planning/prep is involved?
 What are your “favorite moments”
in the unit?
The ELA Teaching and Learning
Feedback Tool
Please turn to page 55 of the English
6-12 Handbook to view to ELA
Teaching and Learning Feedback Tool.
Use of the Tool
 This tool will be used during classroom
visitations and learning walks. The
intent is to provide feedback to inform
the professional development training.
This tool is not to be used in evaluative
ways. This tool supports the recursive
cycle of professional development and
professional learning of teachers.
English Content and Context
p. 55
 What unit are the students working on?
 What text/s are the students working with?
 What part of the pattern are the students engaged in?
(Gist, significance, etc.)
 What overarching questions and concepts are
students working to understand?
 Is the task/question being used as it is written in the
curriculum?
 Are the students and teacher working on literary concepts
using reading, writing, speaking and listening with an
inquiry stance?
Potential for Student Progression
from Comprehension to Critical
Thinking p. 55
 Is the task set up so that the students are making
sense of the text from literal comprehension to
critical thinking through talking, writing and
working with others?
 Are students working towards producing
extended writing assignments that demonstrate
their understanding of whole texts and major
discipline-specific questions?
 Are students given multiple opportunities to
engage in the writing process?
Academic Rigor in a Thinking
Curriculum pp. 56 - 58

Do students engage in active thinking, talking
and writing about challenging ideas and texts?

Tool is divided into three sections:
1. Students’ Active Use of Knowledge
2. Evidence/Observations
3. Teacher’s Implementation of Task
Academic Rigor in a Thinking
Curriculum - Example
Inquiry Discussion – Students’ Active Use of
Knowledge
1. Are students given the opportunity to engage in
whole group inquiry discussion where the emphasis
is on how the group talk is deepening everyone’s
understanding of the text ideas, the quality of the
students’ interpretations, and socialization into the
linguistic and literary routines of the discussion?
2. Is the focus question one that has more than one
plausible response supportable with evidence from
the text?
Academic Rigor in a Thinking
Curriculum - Example
Inquiry Discussion – Teacher’s Implementation of Task
1. How does the teacher set clear expectations for students’ roles
during the discussion?
2. What evidence is there that the teacher shows students how to
engage in discussions through follow-up questions, requests for
clarification, prompting connections to text, assisting
connection-making between knowledge and text, and bringing
students back to the guiding questions?
3. How does the teacher use wait time?
4. How does the teacher encourage all students to engage in the
discussion?
5. How does the teacher press for elaboration of responses or
more appropriate evidence?
Accountable Talk p. 59

In what ways do students talk about English
language arts content and share their thinking?

The tool is divided into three categories for this
section:
1. Student Talk
2. Evidence
3. Teacher Talk
Accountable Talk - Example

Student Talk:


In what ways did student-to-student discussions
occur during the lesson? What evidence exists that
students have learned to support each other’s
learning?
Teacher Talk:

In what ways did the teacher facilitate a discussion
with and among students?
Classroom Environment –
Physical and Social p. 60
 In what ways does the classroom environment
support high level work, student exploration and
discussion of texts and concepts?
A. In what ways are the following made public (through
display or other means), discussed, and used by
students?
B. How is the physical environment of the classroom
conducive to learning in English language arts?
C. What type of feedback is provided on student work and
how does the written feedback help students to advance
their learning of concepts and make connections between
their own work and the criteria for quality work?
It’s 9 o’clock!
Please discuss the following quote with your 9
o’clock appointment:
 Learning and teaching should not stand on
opposite banks and just watch the river flow by;
instead, they should embark together on a
journey down the water. Through an active,
reciprocal exchange, teaching can strengthen
learning how to learn.
Loris Malaguzzi
How does this quote relate to the curriculum work
in Pittsburgh?
StepBack: Reflect on Learning
 How has our work today
helped you to better
understand the Core
Curriculum/DL Pattern?
Final Thoughts…
 Any questions, comments, or
concerns?