Preparing America’s Students for College and Career
Elementary Introduction
Reading/Language Arts
2011
• 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
Goals to compete with not only
their American peers in the next state, but with students
from around the world
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.
Goals
•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 students
require 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
Adopted by
Florida,
July 2010
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
Year/Grade
K
1
2
3-5
2011-12
Fully Implement
CCSS *
Implement
Text Complexity
Implement
Text Complexity
Implement
Text Complexity
2012-13
Fully Implement
CCSS
Fully Implement
CCSS
Implement
Text Complexity
Implement
Text Complexity
2013-14
Fully Implement
CCSS
Fully Implement
CCSS
Fully Implement
CCSS
Implement Blended
NGSSS and CCSS
2014-15
Fully Implement
and Assess CCSS
Fully Implement
and Assess CCSS
Fully Implement
and Assess CCSS
Fully Implement and
Assess CCSS *
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.
• Two National Assessment Consortiums
PARCC and SBAC
• Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for
Primary goal - increase number of students who graduate high school ready for college and
careers – FLORIDA’S Consortium
College and Careers (PARCC)
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
Oct. 2010
Sept. 2011
Launch and
design phase
begins
Development
phase begins
Sept. 2012
Sept. 2013
Sept. 2014
Summer 2015
First year field
testing and
related research
and data
collection
begins
Second year
field testing
begins and
related research
and data
collection
continues
Full
administration
of PARCC
assessments
begins
Set
achievement
levels,
including
college-ready
performance
levels
7
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
Page 11
Design and Organization
Goals
Page 12
Design and Organization
Goals
Reading the Standards
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 Strand
for Literature
Fourth Grade
Standard #
RL.4.9 Compare and contrast the treatment of similar
themes and topics (e.g., opposition of good and
evil) and patterns of events (e.g., the quest) in
stories, myths, and traditional literature from
different cultures.
Reading the Standards
CCR.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events
using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event
sequences.
Writing
Strand
Third Grade
Standard #
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.
Appendix
A, B, and C
Text exemplars
illustrating the
complexity, quality,
and range of
reading appropriate
for various grade
levels with
accompanying
sample
performance tasks.
Samples of
Student Writing
Research
Text Complexity
Glossary
The inherent difficulty or ease of reading and
comprehending a text combined with
ç
consideration of reader and task variables
Research analyzed the Reading section of the ACT college entrance exam to
determine
which skills
differentiated
those
achieved benchmark
What students
could
read, in terms
of that
its complexity,
rather than and
whatthose
they
that
did not.
(About
half,
51%,
ofwas
the half
million test
takers
who takepredictor
the test of
could
do with
what
they
read,
determined
to be
the greatest
each
year)
success.
Question type (main idea,
word meanings, details) is
NOT the chief
differentiator between
student scoring above and
below the benchmark.
Question level (higher
order vs. lower order;
literal vs. inferential) is
NOT the chief
differentiator
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)
19
STUDENTS MUST BE TAUGHT
TO READ AT GRADE LEVEL
• 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.
20
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).
21
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)
Complex Text…
Has rich/challenging vocabulary
Has multiple levels of meaning
Has complex structure
Requires specific content knowledge
22
Three Factors for Measuring Text Complexity
-Purpose
-Language
conventionality
and clarity
-Text Structures
-Knowledge demands
Readability measures
–
–
–
Word length; word
frequency/familiarit
y
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)
Performance Tasks
Text exemplars illustrating the
complexity, quality, and range of reading
appropriate for various grade levels with
accompanying sample performance
tasks.
Appendix B and C
Samples of Student Writing in
response to performance 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 color
of 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 2-3
Students explain how the main idea that Lincoln
had “many faces” in Russell Freedman’s Lincoln: A
Photobiography 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]
Spiraling packet activity #1
Work in your
Goals table groups to highlight
or underline the new skill and concepts
added to each grade level from the year
prior.
WHAT:
WHY:
Coding Strategy
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:
WHAT:
*I already knew this!
? I don’t understand
! Interesting Information
+ New Information
Foster Independent Reading
Gradual 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?