1. Teaching to Exceed the English
Language Arts Common Core
Standards: MSU Seminar
Richard Beach, University of Minnesota
Resource website:
http://englishccss.pbworks.com
2. Strengths of the CCSS
Not mandating content to be taught
◦ Versus the Profile of Learning
Emphasis on informational
texts/argumentative writing
Connection to social studies and science
Shared curriculum across different
states and districts
3. Limitations of the CCSS
Formalist approach to reading/writing
instruction
◦ Teaching structures of essay/literature
versus responses/experiences
Less attention to writing about
experiences or engagement responses
to literature
Corporate publishing/testing shaping of
the curriculum
5. Implemenation: Publishers use of
―Text-dependent questions‖
―The Standards strongly suggest that
a majority of questions posed to
children be based on the text under
consideration…, not rely on students’
different knowledge backgrounds.‖
–Authors of the Common Core
Standards in ELA/Literacy
6. Publisher’s ad:
―Give them informational and
narrative books they can’t put down—
with text-dependent questions for
every title!
Every book in the following sets
comes with a Text-Dependent
Comprehension Card to help students
respond to 4 levels of text-dependent
questions on new Common Core and
state assessments. Saves prep time
7. Literature/informational texts
Prior knowledge:
Before reading All Quiet on the Western
Front, my honors-level sophomores read
three pieces on morality and ethics, written
by Pema Chödrön, Thomas Jefferson, and
Machiavelli—all of whom propose certain
ethical standards to live by . As we then read
All Quiet, the moral dilemmas came into
sharp focus as students considered how
Erich Maria Remarque created his own
ethical code. They read Taliban propaganda
and then the Declaration of Independence.
We looked at how people use that power,
both legitimately and illegitimately.
8. Grade level standards based on
―progressions‖: Literature
6th grade. Interpret the figurative and
connotative meanings of words and
phrases as they are used in a text.
7th grade. Interpret the figurative and
connotative meanings of words and
phrases as they are used in a text and
describe in detail a specific word choice
and its impact on meaning and tone.
8th grade. Explain the comparisons an
author makes through metaphors,
allusions, or analogies in a text and
analyze how those comparisons
contribute to meaning.
9. Karp: The Problems with the
Common Core, Rethinking
Schools
Ignores the larger context shaped by
Failure of NCLB
Text-based teacher evaluation
Budget cuts (Republican legislatures)
Privatization
Income inquality
Increased college costs
Market/business discourses
10. CCSS: Educational equity
Kornhaber, M.L., Griffith, K., & Tyler,
A. (2014). It’s not education by zip
code anymore – but what is it?
Conceptions of equity under the
Common Core. Education Policy
Analysis Archives, 22 (4).
http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v22n4.
2014
11. Different conceptions of
addressing inequities
―Equal‖: CCSS provides same ―high
standards‖ for all students:
meritocracy
―Equalizing‖: target resources to
assist schools most in need: Legal
issues: Who decides: providing for
both low-and upper income schools
―Expansive‖: range of financial and
policy interventions that go beyond
curriculum reform
12. Shift in funding
Given the steep costs and distribution
of benefits of this, and other,
standards-based reforms, we believe
a more productive course would be to
devise and support policies based on
equalizing or expansive views.
13. Challenge of PARCC/Smarter
Balanced Summative
Assessments
Assessments are on-line requiring
time for engagement in complex tasks
◦ Studying issues of building a nuclear plant
by online research to identify pro-con
positions
Survey: Level of preparation
◦ Only 11% are ―well-prepared‖
◦ 40%: students lack skills
◦ Lack of computers/bandwidth
15. Texting: Social coordination (Pigg
et al., 2013, Written
Communication) social connections with
Use of texting: maintain
friends and family members as social
coordination:
Provides college students an active means for
organizing ―things‖ that matter to them within the
contexts of the goals, identities, and domains
that are meaningful to them: projects,
internships, information, personal memory—
even their own learning trajectories…By
bringing people and things (like events or
projects) into alignment, coordination becomes a
way for students to actively participate and
meaningfully direct their relationship to many of
the roles and identities that characterize their
lives in college. (p. 19)
16. Social practice framework
Framing/contextualizing events and texts
Constructing and enacting identities
Relating to and collaborating with others
Constructing texts or objects
Synthesizing and connecting texts
Critiquing and representing issues
17. Negotiating identities/adopting
perspectives: Online role-play
Issue: Access to information on
blocked websites
Students adopt pro-con roles
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
construct a persona
employ rhetorical appeals
support their position with reasons
identify and refute counter-arguments
revise or modify one’s own positions
18. Using a Ning as the platform
for online role-play:
19. Using Diigo sticky notes to share annotations on
related research http://grou.ps/cwhybrid2010t1/talks/5160010/4
21. Role construction: Adopting
different perspectives
EmoGirl: Critique of school
Internet policies
I think the internet
usage policies are ridiculous.
The policies are
almost impossible to find. I
spent half an hour trying to
find them and I'm a
young, computer savvy
person.
22. ―Strict Father‖ cultural model:
Charles Hammerstein III
The issue with sites like
YouTube is that it is a
helpful site when used
correctly, but the ratio of
students who would use it
to the students who would
abuse it would greatly favor
the later of the two. R-rated
sites are not ok because
they usually contain
information and content that
may be considered
offensive. The internet
policies are very clear, if
your grandmother would not
appreciate it, then you
probably shouldn't be doing
those kind of things at
school.
23. Diigo annotations: Pro-con
readings: benefits of energy from
wind power
th
7 grade students iMelanie
Swandby’s
◦ Lighthouse School Community
Charter School, Oakland, California
Students posed questions for each
other
◦ ―What does that mean, virtually
free?‖
◦ What are some things that use
energy or power?‖
25. Dialogic interactions through
annotations
―There is a bad and good thing about
this. Bad is it kills birds passing by.
Good it makes energy cleaner.‖
―Tarnished with wind turbines? Aren't
wind turbines supposed to be a good
thing? Why are they complaining
about the turbines? it doesn't even
look bad.‖
