ACHIEVING SUCCESS: COMMON CORE ELA

Achieving Success with Common Core ELA

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ACHIEVING SUCCESS: COMMON CORE MATH

Achieving Success with Common Core Math

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WHAT IS TEXT-DEPENDENT ANALYSIS?

As we begin to study the Common Core Standards, we start seeing references to “text-dependent analysis” and “text complexity”.  Let’s explore text-dependent analysis first.

Among the highest priorities of the Common Core State Standards is that elementary students learn to read texts closely and are able to acquire knowledge from the text. Click below to continue reading about text-dependent analysis.

WHAT IS COLLEGE/CAREER READINESS?

Students who are College and Career Ready (K-5)

The descriptions that follow are not standards themselves but instead offer a portrait of students who meet the standards set out in this document. As students advance through the grades and master the standards in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language, they are able to exhibit with increasing fullness and regularity these capacities of the literate individual. To read about the characteristics of students who are College and Career Ready, click below...

READING AND THE COMMON CORE

Our instruction in reading will begin to shift.  Common core ELA standards expect students to “Read like a detective and write like an investigative reporter.”  In order to do that, students must be able to comprehend a variety of genres and text.

Comprehension is defined as “intentional thinking during which meaning is constructed through interactions between the text and the reader”  (Harris & Hodges,1995). 

We know that reading comprehension is influenced by two factors:

1. Amount of engaged reading, and
2. Level of prior knowledge.

As teachers plan for every child’s core instruction, they need to include:

1. time for a good quantity of engaged reading,
2. the opportunity for student choice,
3. a variety of interesting books,
4. time for collaboration with peers, and
5. time for reading in the content areas that include all of the above.

Of these five, the research tells us that the one that has the greatest impact on comprehension is number 3, the variety of interesting tests, followed closely by student choice.

COMMON CORE CURRICULUM

On Wednesday we will meet in the Cafeteria to kick off the Common Core Curriculum (CCGPS) initiative.  Teachers across the state will view the live streaming video from: http://www.gpb.org/education/common-core

Forty-seven states and the District of Columbia have joined the initiative. Elementary age students will have CCGPS in Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language, and Mathematics.  The goal is to graduate students from our schools that are "college and career-ready".  These standards have been internationally benchmarked so that we can be confident that our students will be prepared to compete for high-demand jobs.  Again, if American students are career-ready, fewer jobs will be out-sourced.

National standards will make it easier for our students who live move frequently, especially our military students.  When a student from Oklahoma or Florida, for example, transfers to TCE they will have used the same curriculum.  Gaps will be significantly lessened and catch-up will be reduced.

Beginning in January, there will be a series of live, interactive, grade-specific sessions for both English/Language Arts and Mathematics.  These will be recorded, so you can access them at any time.

THIRD GRADE WRITING TEST

The 3rd Grade Writing Assessment Window this year will run from March 19th through March 30th, 2012.  This performance-based assessment looks at growth over time in the areas of narrative, persuasive, and informational writing as well as response to literature.  


Our 3rd grade team of teachers will meet in the Media Center on September 13th at 12:30 p.m. to discuss testing needs and requirements.


Visit the testing link on the DOE website for more information and resources about the Third Grade Writing Assessment.