Leveraging the Common Core State Standards to Support Young - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Leveraging the Common Core State Standards to Support Young Children’s Learning

• Dr. Lisa S. Goldstein

Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA lsgoldstein@scu.edu

Welcome! Today’s plan…

Getting to know the CCSS

 Common Core State Standards

– English Language Arts (& Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects) – Mathematics

 Common Core State Standards

– Adopted by 45.5 states

 Common Core State Standards

– Meant to comprise 85% of the curriculum

CCSS Adopters

PLUS: District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, US Virgin Islands, Dept of Defense schools

Why do we need the CCSS?

 Establish and maintain greater

consistency and continuity across states

 Clear goal: all students will graduate

from HS college and career ready

 Benchmarked against the curricula of

countries that have highest rates of literacy and numeracy

 Increased rigor

How are they different from the HCPSIII?

 Fewer  Higher  Clearer

Are the CCSS good for young kids in preK and primary grades?

 Yes! And no…  It depends

– How the CCSS are framed and interpreted – How K-12 educators implement the CCSS

CCSS are DAP-compatible

 Implementation of the CCSS should

not create a rush for “academic shovedown”

– No long lists of content and skills to teach – No emphasis on testing testing testing

 The CCSS are compatible with DAP

– We could use the implementation of the CCSS in K-12 to create space for DAP in preK and primary grade classrooms

CCSS-DAP Alignment Areas

• 1. Explicit attention to role of development in

learning

• 2. Holistic perspective
• 3. Support children’s language development
• 4. Focus on children’s thinking
• 5. See children as capable, active learners
• 6. Teaching as guidance, not telling
• 7. Instructional decisions belong to teachers-

use DAP to enhance learning

• 1. Pay explicit attention to the

role of development in learning

 Reflect respect for the developmental

realities and needs of young learners

 This perspective appears in different

ways in the CCSS-Math and the CCSS- ELA

Explicit attention to the role development plays in learning

 CCSS- Mathematics

Young kids need more

• Repeated exposure to new concepts
• Focus on the most powerful knowledge

Explicit attention to the role development plays in learning

 CCSS-English

Language Arts

 Certain anchor

standards aren’t present in the kindergarten list

Holistic, integrated perspective

 Integration across academic disciplines

is expected

 Use of multiple forms of representation;

children have flexibility in showing what they know and can do

 Similar habits of mind are presented in

the CCSS-ELA and the CCSS- Math

• Leads to more coherent learning experiences

Emphasis on language development

 Support English language development

for all children in all content areas

– Expressing ideas and opinions – Presenting evidence to support ideas – Communicating clearly – Using rich and precise language – Developing academic vocabulary

 Deliberate English language

development is not reserved for ELLs

Focus on student thinking and metacognition

 Students are guided toward deep

understanding of concepts

• Not just mastery of procedures or memorization
• f information

 Explicit efforts to develop students’

awareness of themselves as learners, thinkers, and problem solvers

See young children as capable, active, sense-making learners

 Student-directed investigations and

presentation of findings begin in kindergarten

– Provide evidence to support statements – Discuss rationale and reasoning

 Standards demand higher order

thinking

 Students pose questions, solve

problems

Understanding of teaching

 Teaching should involve

– More asking, listening, observing, reflecting

• Less telling and talking

– Giving students opportunities to develop confidence in their own capabilities – Fostering independence, perseverance – Guiding students as needed

 Use lots of engaging, age-appropriate

strategies to build students’ connections with the content

Acknowledge teachers’ expertise

 Acknowledge teachers’ right to use their

expertise to make principled, informed, intentional instructional decisions

– Specify what students should learn, but not how it should be taught – CCSS was designed to be 85% of the curriculum in a given grade- room for additions and customization – Teacher discretion is expected and desired…..

An example from the CCSS-ELA

 “The use of play with young children is

not specified by the standards, but it is welcome as a valuable activity it its own right and as a way to help students meet the expectations in this document.” (p.9)

How to teach the CCSS content to young learners?

 You DO NOT need to make your young

students do “grown-up” work

– Sit at desks doing drill and kill worksheets – Focus only on academic skill development – Eliminate pretend play, art, dress-up, blocks, hands-on activities, field trips

Use DAP to teach the CCSS

 Use your professional expertise

– Knowledge of your kids – Knowledge of the community – Knowledge of child development

 Create age-appropriate learning

experiences that enable students to learn the content through fun, engaging, meaningful experiences

Recap: CCSS-DAP Alignment Areas

 Explicit attention to role of development in

learning

 Holistic perspective  Support language development  Focus on children’s thinking  Children are capable, active learners  Teaching as guidance, not telling  Instructional decisions belong to teachers-

use DAP to enhance learning

Small Group Discussion Prompts

• 1. How much did you know about the

CCSS before today?

• 2. What did you think about the CCSS

before today?

• 3. How have your knowledge or feelings

about the CCSS changed?

CCSS Work Session #1

 Work in grade level teams using your

CCSS-Mathematics document

 Consider and discuss the CCSS-M in

light of the issues on our CCSS-DAP Alignment Areas slide

 Make note of ways in which you believe

the CCSS-M is well-aligned with DAP and not well-aligned with DAP

 We will share out in _____ minutes

CCSS-DAP Alignment Areas

 Explicit attention to role of development

in learning

 Holistic perspective  Support language development  Focus on children’s thinking  Children are capable, active learners  Teaching as guidance, not telling  Instructional decisions belong to

teachers- use DAP to enhance learning

CCSS-DAP Alignment Areas

 Explicit attention to role of development

in learning

 Holistic perspective  Support language development  Focus on children’s thinking  Children are capable, active learners  Teaching as guidance, not telling  Instructional decisions belong to

teachers- use DAP to enhance learning

Digging into the CCSS

 How are the CCSS different from the

Hawaii Content & Performance Standards?

 What will this mean for me in real life?  What adjustments will I have to make to

my teaching practice and my curriculum?

Shifts: Implementing the Common Core State Standards

ELA Shifts

 Complexity

– Academic language – Rich vocabulary

 Evidence

– Support opinions with examples from text or other source

 Knowledge

– Build content knowledge using non-fiction texts

Math Shifts

 Focus

– Emphasize key knowledge/ skills

 Coherence

– Content builds across grade levels – Links within grade levels

 Rigor

– Conceptual understanding – Procedural skill/fluency – Application to real-world problems

Simplifying the Shifts

 Integrate the ELA and Math shifts  Align with preK-grade 3 practices  And the result is:

• Richness
• Reasoning
• Rationales

 Beef up your curriculum and teaching

practices to emphasize these elements

Richness

 Offer students both depth and breadth  Provide lots of instructional variety

– Write and read all literary genres – Full range of mathematical experiences

 Help students articulate their ideas

using specific, precise language

 Use and teach discipline-specific

vocabulary and academic language

 Build content knowledge and vocab by

reading and discussing non-fiction texts

Elbow partners: Richness

 Turn to an elbow partner and discuss

• 1. An example of “richness” already

present in your classroom and practice

• 2. How you could tweak your plans for

Monday to increase the richness of the experiences you offer your students

Richness?

 Questions?  Comments?  Anyone want to share a tweak you

could use to heighten the richness of

• ne of your lessons in the coming

week?

Reasoning

 Model and encourage critical thinking  Help students develop strategies for

recognizing and solving problems

 Expect students to explain their process

and thinking to the class

– “Work alouds”

 Push students to demonstrate their

understanding of the concepts, not just their ability to answer a question

Elbow partners: Reasoning

 Turn to a your other elbow partner and

discuss

• 1. How teachers can access students’

reasoning

• 2. What new vocabulary students will

need to learn to be able to explain their reasoning to a teacher and/or to a peer

Reasoning?

 Questions?  Comments?  Anyone want to share some of the new,

reasoning-related vocabulary you plan to teach to your students in the coming week?

Rationales

 Help students become aware of and

articulate the reasons for their actions and decisions

 Expect students to refer to evidence

from a text to support their opinion

 Ask students questions like

– How did you make that choice? – What other possibilities did you consider? – How did you decide which was the best? – Are you sure? Why are you sure?

Elbow partners: Rationales

 Turn to someone you haven’t elbowed

with and discuss

• 1. What’s the difference between

reasoning and rationale?

• 2. How can teachers push students to

engage in more rigorous thinking without seeming mean or harsh?

Rationales?

 Questions?  Comments?  Anyone want to offer some positive,

productive ways to push students to articulate their thinking processes?

CCSS Work Session #2

 Work in grade level teams using your

CCSS-Language Arts document

 Consider and discuss your plans for

teaching the CCSS-LA in terms of

– Richness – Reasoning – Rationales

 We will share out in _____ minutes

CCSS-LA Work Session Debrief

 Ideas for increased richness?  Ideas for tapping into student reasoning?  Ideas for getting students accustomed to

providing rationales?

Questions? Comments?

Concluding Q&A

Q: Are the Common Core State Standards great? Are they “meh?” Are they awful? A: It doesn’t matter. The CCSS are already here (in 45.5 states).

Our most pressing task?

 Determine how teachers can use the

implementation of the CCSS as a way to strengthen and enrich the learning

• pportunities made available to young

children in our classrooms.

Mahalo!

 Contact me at

lsgoldstein@scu.edu