What Does it Take to Succeed in the Era of
the Common Core?
David Liben
dliben@studentsachieve.net
skulkarni@studentsachieve.net
www.achievethecore.org
Five Essential Studies
• Hernandez 2011 “Double Jeopardy”
• Lesnick et al 2010 “Reading on Grade Level in
Third Grade: How Is it Related to High School
Performance and College Enrollment?”
• Fletcher and Lyon 1998 74 percent of third
graders who read poorly still struggling in 9th grade
• Snow et al 1998 “A person who is not at least a
modestly skilled reader by the end of third grade is
quite unlikely to graduate from high school”
• Juel 1988 First grade reading scores “reliable
predictor of later reading scores”
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Why?
• How is it that tests so early can predict results so
many years later?
• What are we doing in curriculum that might be
perpetuating these trends?
• What are we not doing in our curriculum that
might be perpetuating these trends?
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What are not the causes?
• Lack of critical thinking
• Failure to know or use comprehension strategies
• Failure to master the standards
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Quick Quiz: Which is harder?
Question 1: Literal Meaning
Low on Bloom’s Taxonomy
Restate the following sentence
in your own words:
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“The former render possible
theoretical cognition according to
principles a priori; the latter in
respect of this theoretical cognition
only supplies in itself a negative
principle (that of mere contrast), but
on the other hand it furnishes
fundamental propositions which
extend the sphere of the
determination of the will and are
therefore called practical.”
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Question 2: Synthesis
High on Bloom’s Taxonomy
Read the following passage, then
write a letter to the editor defending
the moral values the main character
displays with regard to animals.
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• “Where's Papa going with that ax?"
said Fern to her mother as they were
setting the table for breakfast.
• "Out to the hoghouse," replied Mrs.
Arable. "Some pigs were born last
night.“
• "I don't see why he needs an ax,"
continued Fern, who was only eight.
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• "Well," said her mother, "one of the
pigs is a runt. It's very small and weak,
and it will never amount to anything.
So your father has decided to do away
with it.”
• "Do away with it?" shrieked Fern. "You
mean kill it? Just because it's smaller
than the others?"
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• Which question was easier?
• Why?
• Would a lesson (or a whole week of
lessons) on “finding main idea” or
“making inferences” help you to
answer question 1?
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8th Grade Reading Standards
• Cite the textual evidence that most strongly
supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly
as well as inferences drawn from the text.
• Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or
incidents in a story or drama propel the action,
reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.
• Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding
how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama
(e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered,
how the characters are introduced and developed).
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If critical thinking,
strategies and standards
are not the causes…
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What are the causes?
• Vocabulary: Failure to grow sufficient vocabulary
• Knowledge: Failure to develop wide background
knowledge
• Fluency: Failure to become a fluent reader
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Importance of Vocabulary
• Nearly a century of research (Whipple 1925, NAEP 2012)
• Feature of complex text that likely causes greatest
difficulty (Nelson et al 2012)
• Cunningham and Stanovich (1997) Vocabulary assessed
in grade 1 predicts 30% of grade 11 comprehension
• Having to determine the meaning of too many words
slows readers up; a far greater problem with complex
text
• Not knowing words on the page is debilitating
• “30 Million Word Gap”
• After much research…
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Academic Vocabulary on Three Passages of
NYS Third Grade Test
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mimic
“special bond”
struts
scampers
plunge
flop
surface
“shooting out”
flap
scowled
shifted
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defense
fierce
darted
wiggle
gear
clanked
swelling
distant as an adjective in
the “distant truck”
observe
restless
cast v.
strikes v
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Academic Vocabulary on Just One Passage of
NYS Sixth Grade Test
Imposing
Harness
Finesse
Surge
Glanced
“comfort washed over me”
Process
Straddled
Draperies
Magnificent
Transformed
breathtaking
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Cascaded
Contrasted
Imposing
Ascent
Ascend
Descend
Exhilarating
Labored
Constricted
Exclamation
Rasping
Speck
Glanced
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Academic Vocabulary SBAC and PARCC
Sample Items - Grade 3 only
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Unfortunate
Filtered
Scarred
Scuffs
Fraying
Seams
Overlooked
Spouting
Blossom
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Bank (as in river)
Pitch (as in sound)
Nifty
Pose
Tender
Scorched
Scaly
Nutrients
Crops
Spouting
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Importance of Knowledge
• Similar history of research (Kintsch 1998, most of
John Guthrie's work, Adams 2009…)
• Recht and Leslie, 1988 – baseball study
• Makes sense as knowledge of words and
knowledge of the world go together
• Take a look at recent tests aligning with the
Common Core
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Topics and References in Third Grade
Passages NY State Tests
• Leaves in the fall, playing with leaves, suburban setting
• Ecology frogs—habitats, ponds, species in trouble, food
chain, life cycle
• GW Carver—African American History, agriculture, sense
of time 20th century 1900s, professor
• Benny West—Quaker/religious groups,
schoolmaster/old schools, small town rural life,
Italy/England/Europe
• Snow Walker—northern rural life, snowshoes, dogsleds,
Alaska
• The Nautilus—submarines, diesel, maps, Hawaii, North
Pole, nuclear power, the arctic
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Topics and References in Sixth Grade
Passages NY State Tests
• Caving: Rappelling, caves structure, “life flashing
before your eyes”, limestone, minerals
• Stargazing in the South Pole: Astronomy and
astronomers, constellations, National Science
Foundation, military transport planes, road
construction, kilometers, continents, “high peaks”
the size of France, crevasses
• Girl who wants to be a food scientist: masters
degree, microbiology, “biological standpoint”,
sensory science, internships, West Africa, “a science
and an art”, varieties of wheat
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Topics and References in Third Grade SBAC and
PARCC Sample Tests
Babe Ruth
Smithsonian
Alaska
Native peoples
Japan & Japanese art
National Geographic
Society
• Indonesia
• Animal communication
• U.S. Congress
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Animal mating
Gills
Animal traits
Vertebrate
Amphibian
Larva
Pupa
Lifecycle
Mammals
Mass-produced
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Illustration: PARCC Redacted
Imagine what it’s like to be a
student with vocabulary and
knowledge deficits…
…on test day.
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Ready to give up yet?
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Letter from a Principal
“ We continue to struggle with the gaps in vocabulary
development and background knowledge when
students engage in close reading of a complex
passage. We continue to model and assist students
navigating through complex informational and
fictional text, and hope that the efforts will help
them carry skills to the next piece of text they
encounter.”
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We owe our students a better
experience reading than this.
We have to help them get the
vocabulary and knowledge of
the world they need to be able
to read complex text.
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What To Do About Vocabulary and Knowledge
“Building knowledge systematically in
English language arts is like giving children
various pieces of a puzzle in each grade
that, over time, will form one big picture…”
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Growing Vocabulary and Background
Knowledge Through Reading
• Most words learned through context of reading or being
read to
• But not all reading is equally effective at doing this
• Reading a number of texts within a topic grows
knowledge and vocabulary far more than any other way
• Both NY elementary school programs do this extremely
well, but it is not the only way
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Growing Vocabulary and Background
Knowledge Through Reading
• Read Aloud Project (RAP) K-2
• Text Sets grades K-12
• Assigned Readings within a topic
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Growing Vocabulary Through Direct
Instruction
• What is direct vocabulary instruction?
• Need to grow vocabulary through reading AND direct
instruction
• How many words can students learn? Biemiller 2010
• Word Study
• How to choose words for teaching
http://achievethecore.org/page/974/vocabulary-andthe-common-core-detail-pg
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Importance of Fluency
• What is fluency?
• Name who you think is one of the wisest, most
intelligent people to ever live on our planet. Just
one please.
• Rasinski (2005) 61% of 9th grade students in
bottom quartile of fluency with pre-Common Core
8th grade texts.
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What to do About Fluency if Students Decode
without Automaticity
• You can’t be fluent reader if you can’t decode
• If your K-2 program produces fluent readers with
standards aligned complex text by end of second
grade then no reason to change
• If not, need to look at something different
• How CKLA differs from other foundational
standards programs
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What To Do About Fluency for Students Who
Decode with Automaticity
• Reading While Following Along
• Repeated Reading
• Tim Rasinski Developmental Fluency Lessons
• Fluency Packets
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Guided Reading
• Given all of this, how might it change?
• Why should it change?
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Close Reading
• Where does Close Reading fit into all of this?
• How often do I do Close Reading?
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WHAT ARE THE FEATURES OF COMPLEX TEXT?
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Subtle and/or frequent transitions
Multiple and/or subtle themes and purposes
Density of information
Unfamiliar settings, topics or events
Lack of repetition, overlap, or similarity in words and sentences
Complex sentences
Uncommon vocabulary
Lack of words, sentences or paragraphs that review or pull things
together for the student
• Longer paragraphs
• Any text structure which is less narrative and/or mixes structures
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Resources - Close Reading 2-12 & Text
Dependent Questions
• Featured Lessons on achievethecore.org
– http://achievethecore.org/page/752/close-readingsample-lessons-list-page
• ELA/Literacy lesson bank including RAP, BAP, & AAP
– http://achievethecore.org/page/788/ela-literacy-lessonbank-content-list-page
• Text Dependent Questions Resources from
achievethecore.org
– http://achievethecore.org/page/710/text-dependentquestion-resources
• Short Guide to Creating Text Dependent Questions
– http://achievethecore.org/page/45/short-guide-tocreating-text-dependent-questions-detail-pg
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Resources - Guided Reading
• ‘Both And’ Paper by David & Meredith Liben
– http://bit.ly/1oWZ7ai
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Resources - Text Sets and Assigned Readings
• ELA SCASS Navigating Text Complexity
– http://www.ccsso.org/Navigating_Text_Complexity/Showroo
m_Models.html
• ReadWorks
– http://www.readworks.org/
• Reading A-Z
– http://www.readinga-z.com/
• EBSCO Databases (state membership)
– http://cdn.lexile.com/m/cms_page_media/135/RTData_July_
13.pdf
• Webinar on Finding Texts at Different Lexile Levels:
– http://achievethecore.org/page/927/webinar-on-findingtexts-hidden-resources-at-your-fingertips-detail-pg
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Resources - Text Sets and Assigned Readings
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Book on “Teaching with Text Sets”
http://bit.ly/Teaching_with_Text_Sets
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American Reading Company Webinar on Finding Texts at
Different Lexile Levels: http://www.americanreading.com/
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Light Sail: http://www.lightsailed.com/
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Curriculet: http://www.curriculet.com
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Starting in the spring full text sets will begin to be loaded up on
www.achievethecore.org
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Nonfiction Text Sets from TC Reading and Writing Project
http://readingandwritingproject.com/resources/book-listsclassroom-libraries-and-text-sets-for-students/text-sets.html
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Resources - Direct Vocabulary Instruction
• “Wordly Wise” published by Educators Publishing
Service (EPS)
• Bringing Words to Life, Beck and McKeown
www.textproject.org
• Marzano Six Step Program
http://www.ncresa.org/docs/PLC_Secondary/Six_St
ep_Process.pdf
• “Word Nerds” - Stenhouse Publishers
• Frayer model (all over the internet)
• Words Their Way
http://www.pearsonhighered.com/educator/series/
Words-Their-Way-Series/10888.page
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Fluency Resources
• Fluency packets, fluency assessments, and fluency
benchmarks
http://achievethecore.org/page/981/fluencyresources
• Additional fluency packets for grade 2-3 and 9-10
available starting Sept
• Fluency Development Lesson - Tim Rasinski
http://www.vriuvm.org/members/lli/fluency/Fluenc
y%20Development%20Lesson.pdf
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Conclusion
• None of this is quick, none of this happens without
you.
• Thank You!
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