Facilitator's Guide: Module 1: Instructional Leadership and the CCRSL

1 | Facilitator’s Guide: Module 1: Instructional Leadership and the CCRSL

Facilitator’s Guide: Module 1: Instructional Leadership and the CCRSL

Outcomes By the end of the session, participants will have:

• Acquired essential knowledge to lead instructional shifts for fidelity of implementation of the College and Career Ready Standards for Literacy (CCRSL) across the DoDEA system

• Understood a shared vision to integrate the implementation of CCRSL into broad education improvement efforts • Communicated systemic metrics to clearly describe what successful progress in implementation looks like and facilitates a flexible cycle

of change • Discussed the importance of building capacity so that all members of DoDEA are learning together • Understood ways to stay engaged with faculty (stakeholders) to be informed of the latest developments and resources

Provisioning/Materials Per Table

• Blank Copy Paper • Markers • Highlighters • Index Cards

• Pens, pencils • Post-it • Poster Paper • Tape

Set Up • Have all files downloaded to the desktop or a DVD in advance.

This includes the PowerPoint presentation, and all references used during this training. See Links to the Training Materials below.

o Rationale – the internet may not be available from the work station you are using during this training.

• Check the videos embedded on specific slides to ensure they play properly and the volume is adjusted appropriately.

• Make ALL copies – See Handout Section of this document.

• Set up the room to ensure your audience can work with an elbow partner and in a small group.

• On the table, have the blank copy paper, highlighters, markers, stickers and poster paper.

• You will need to determine how you will distribute copies throughout the training depending on the size of your group.

• You will need to set up a Parking Lot at the front of the room to hold questions.


LINK TO ACCESS THE TRAINING MATERIALS Please click the link below to access the CCRSL Training website. Click Module 1 in the navigation bar at the top. Then you will see the PowerPoint presentation and other training materials used during this training.

https://content.dodea.edu/VS/pd/ccrsl_training/index.html

https://content.dodea.edu/VS/pd/ccrsl_training/index.html


Slide Delivery Slide Number Presenter Time Script (Notes in PPT) Resources

Screenshot of the slide Slide # Name hrs/mins Notes, directions, key points HOs, videos

1 1 min Title slide: Briefly introduce the module and yourself.

2 2 min

Rate yourself on how well you know College and Career Ready Standards for Literacy (CCRSL) on a scale from 1 to 4, 1 being very little knowledge and 4 being an expert.

3 3 min

Knowledge: As instructional leaders, it is your responsibility to understand the shifts required by the College and Career Ready Standards Literacy Standards. These standards are different from prior standards and fundamentally change what we should think about when we think about standards-based education. Embracing your role as an instructional leader means knowing the content your teachers need to teach and understanding the shifts they need to make in their practice.

Shared Vision: Implementing the new Standards is an excellent opportunity for focus and coherence throughout your school. Far


Slide Number Presenter Time Script (Notes in PPT) Resources Screenshot of the slide Slide # Name hrs/mins Notes, directions, key points HOs, videos

from being from one more (disconnected) thing to do, the Standards provide a thread that can run through the fabric of our organization.

Systemic Metrics: As with any successful change management exercise, it will be critical to have clear, measurable goals and to commit to collecting data on progress toward those goals so that appropriate adjustments and support can be implemented.

Build Capacity: The CCRSL supports teachers by offering focus and coherence in their work, supports their understanding of the standards, recognizes their authentic development in the change, and provides them with quality tools and resources rather than quick fixes. From the classroom all the way through HQ, the system learns together.

Engagement: The CCRSL suggests that all members of DoDEA continue to seek out current information through approved DoDEA resources, best practices, and criteria for quality materials.

4 3 min

The first topic we will discuss is knowledge. As instructional leaders, it is critical to know the rationale, principles, and shifts of the College and Career Readiness Standards. With an understanding of what the big picture looks like, every decision and action made to support the implementation will be thoughtfully taken.

The Common Core State Standards, upon which DoDEA’s College and Career Ready Standards are modeled, are relatively new to many in the education community. As a leader, this is an opportunity for you to not only model quality leadership, but quality learning as well.



5 3 min

So, why the move to the College and Career Readiness Standards? This effort is much more than just sharing a set of expectations in mathematics and literacy across the states.

Continued evidence from international assessments such as the PISA and TIMSS show the United States as continuing to fall behind other countries in performance. Importantly, rather than thinking about a decline in performance, the United States has remained stable in performance while other countries have seen an increase in performance, outpacing the United States.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, often referred to as Our Nation’s Report Card, shows performance that is relatively flat over the last 40 years, despite increased spending, smaller class sizes and a fair amount of research. There is slight improvement on the 4th grade assessment, but 8th grade results are flat and there is a slight decline in performance on the high school assessment which leads to high rates of college remediation.

We know that the rates of remediation in our two-year and four-year colleges are incredible. The American education system, including DoDEA, is encouraging more students to attend college, yet when they arrive many do not qualify for credit-bearing courses. A significant number of American students graduate from high school lacking the skills to achieve success in either college or the workplace.



6 3 min

Rather than thinking of these standards as a guide to what is expected of student BEFORE they graduate, these new standards, from kindergarten through 12th grade, are aligned to the requirements for college and career readiness—what is necessary for success AFTER leaving high school.

The decisions around how to focus the standards are grounded in evidence regarding what students in fact need in order to be prepared. Evidence regarding necessary content and skills is used to make decisions about what is included.

The CCRSL provide greater clarity in what is expected of students each year: the standards are fewer in number and consistent across grade levels.

The new CCRSL are realistic about student and teacher time. They are designed to be a set of standards that are fewer in number, clearer in describing outcomes, and higher to the degree that what is included is what is expected from students by the end of each year.

7 5 min

Before discussing the 3 key shifts, let us have a look at how the standards span over grade levels and across curricular areas.

If you notice there are four categories associated with ELA. However, when we look closer, we recognize that the Literacy Standards in Reading and Writing cross curricular areas (see the curricular areas in the first column, Reading, under Literacy Standards). This is one of the major strengths of the College and Career Readiness Standards: that it is aligned both horizontally and vertically in ELA and in multiple curricular areas. Rather than creating separate standards in each curricular area, the College and Career Readiness Standards are reinforced both vertically by grade level and horizontally across grade and curricular areas, providing greater depth without sacrificing breadth. What is true



for “Reading,” is also true for “Writing.” The standards for ELA and Literacy are replicated.

8 1 min

In discussing the major shifts of the standards, it is important to know both what the shifts are as well as some information about why these are powerful headlines of the CCRSL. The major shifts apply to all grade levels. Our focus for SY 16-17 are grades 6-12 literacy.

Framing the understanding of the Standards in the shifts helps to give coherence to the changes – it is analogous to understanding distinguishing the forest from the trees. The three key shifts aren’t everything that are in the standards: each shift is a major areas of focus that will pay off in long-term implementation efforts. These shifts are not a brand-name interpretation of the standards. These shifts are embedded in the architecture of the Standards, and represent the "big ideas" of the Standards. As your work in understanding and implementation continues to develop, your knowledge of the standards and the shifts will also deepen.

9 3 min

The first of the three shifts concentrates on building student knowledge through Content-Rich Nonfiction: Non-fiction which is rich in science, social studies, art, or CTE content. Content rich nonfiction extends student exposure to a subject area beyond what is presented in the textbook. Content rich nonfiction can extend beyond traditional written text: it can take the form of artwork, symbols, or audio files, for example. Statistics, graphs, and maps are additional examples of content rich nonfiction which extends beyond the traditional written text.

In K-5 this means that we shall rebalance what students read so that about half of what they read is stories, and the other half is nonfiction which builds knowledge about the world around them: texts rich in science, social studies, the arts, etc. An important piece of this shift is that we work with students early to see text



as a source of knowledge – as they read a series of texts on a particular concept, they are building their knowledge and understanding of that concept, in addition to improving their reading, interpretation, and analysis skills.

In middle school and high school, literacy plays a role in ELA classes as well as in science, history/social studies, the arts, and CTE. Students work on literacy in the content areas, not as a distraction or as an addition to their study of content, but again developing and applying their literacy skills to build their understanding in the content area. By the time they arrive in high school, when considering what students read across the curriculum throughout the year, about 75% of what they read should be nonfiction.

Much of what students read in English classes will still be literature. Students in English classes will also read several nonfiction selections embedded throughout the course.

In the content areas, the text is not intended just as an additional reference, but rather as a primary source of information and knowledge.

Class assignments in all curricular areas should demonstrate this major shift in expectations regarding the role of text.



10 3 min

Much of what we know about the world around us comes from informational text.

Currently, the overwhelming majority of what students are typically expected to read during their literacy blocks is fiction. In order to improve student reading skills, along with the common practice of extending literacy blocks in the elementary school, we have often shortened science and social studies time. Unfortunately, this has resulted in less and less informational text being shared with students.

As a set of Standards grounded in expectations for college and career readiness, it is important for students to attend to the skills of reading informational text. It is the majority of what they will be expected to read in both college and workplace settings.

11 3 min

The second of the three shifts in ELA/Literacy concerns what students do with the text they read. The shift here highlights that the Standards emphasize using evidence from text as students demonstrate comprehension of what they read through writing and speaking. Across the grades, and even across the content areas, students should develop the skill of grounding their responses in evidence from the text.

Students will be asked to move away from personal, emotional responses to text. Rather than what they feel about a text, or what the text reminds them of from a period in their lives, students will be asked to respond intellectually to the text: questioning will change to emphasize the need for students to provide evidence to support their answers.

Grounding reading, writing and speaking in evidence from the text is very important in building college and career readiness. This is not only applicable to informational text, but to stories as well.



12 3 min

Even when students are reading grade-level texts, they have too often been encouraged to write or discuss their ideas without having to use evidence from the text.

Most college and career writing requires students to take a position or inform others citing evidence from the text rather than providing a personal opinion.

Across the grades, and even across the content areas, students need to develop the skill of grounding their responses in evidence from the text.

Requiring students to use evidence can and should occur during oral discussions with read aloud in the youngest grades and continue across all grades and content areas. This is a sharp departure from much current practice where the focus is commonly to relate the text to yourself in narrative expressive pieces where students share their views on various topics.

It is easier to talk about personal responses than to analyze what the text has to say, hence students - and teachers - are likely to engage in this type of dialogue before a text is fully analyzed. The unintended consequence of all of this is less time in the text, more outside of the text; a situation problematic in any case but far more so with complex text.

This is does not mean banishing personal response to a text. Though not called for in the standards, there are times these responses and discussion are essential. Asking for personal responses is best done, however, AFTER the text is fully analyzed. At this point students' personal responses will be enhanced by what the text has to offer.



13 3 min

The third shift in ELA/Literacy is the level of complexity of the texts that are the center of instructional practice in the classroom. The text complexity is determined by three parts as described in Appendix A of the Common Core standards:

1) Qualitative dimensions of text complexity—items such as levels of meaning or purpose; structure; language conventionality and clarity; and knowledge demands. These are judged by attentive human analysis.

2) Quantitative dimensions of text complexity – aspects such as word length or frequency, sentence length, and text cohesion, that are difficult if not impossible for a human reader to evaluate efficiently, especially in long texts, and are thus today typically measured by computer software.

3) Reader and task considerations. While the prior two elements of the model focus on the inherent complexity of text, variables specific to particular readers (such as motivation, knowledge, and experiences) and to particular tasks (such as purpose and the complexity of the task assigned and the questions posed) must also be considered when determining whether a text is appropriate for a given student.

Academic Language refers to both the vocabulary and syntax that is characteristic of more complex texts. Words considered academic vocabulary typically appear across content areas - they are words such as dedicate, ignite, specificity, etc. These words often "unlock" complex text for students and should be specifically addressed - not necessarily defined - for students through close reading exemplars.



14 3 min

Evidence indicates that there is a gap between what students are expected to read in college and careers and what they typically read in high school.

The complexity level of text that students are able to read is included in the College and Career Readiness Standards because, according to an 2006 ACT study, it is the greatest predictor of student success in college.

This third shift indicates a significant change in practice in which the goal is increasing independence with a specified level of complexity at each grade level, which puts students on a pathway to reading college and career-ready text by the time they complete high school. Practice with complex text builds academic vocabulary and skill with complex sentence structures that are absent from low level texts.



15 3 min

The complexity of a text is determined by the application of a Tri-part model.

Quantitative Measures are factors of the text that can be counted (number of words in a sentence, length of passage, word repetition and comparison of words versus a word list separated by grade level) and typically are measured electronically. This is the method with which most texts have been rated for complexity in the past. However, there are problems with relying solely on Quantitative measures to determine text complexity. For example, The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway and Captain Underpants come out around the same grade level range. Hemmingway uses a lot of short snippets of dialogue and Captain Underpants uses a unique word that artificially pushes the readability up.

Rather than relying solely on quantitative measures to determine text complexity, the College and Career Readiness Standards include two additional components.

Qualitative Measures are the factors that have to be determined by educators. While a book may be at the “reading level” of a student based on Quantitative Measures, the content may not be age appropriate and other factors (such as knowledge and language demands and levels of meaning/purpose) should come into play.

The Reader and Task are incredibly important factors of this determination. While a text may be appropriate for a certain grade level overall, a teacher may know that a certain group of students have more/less background knowledge on the subject, for example.



16 3 min

Listed are some factors that are measured quantitatively, typically by computers. Again, these are items that, for the most part, computers can count. When we use systems such as Lexile or Fleish-Kincaid, we are measuring a text quantitatively.

Text cohesion is grammatical and lexical relationship within a text or sentence. Cohesion can be defined as the links that hold a text together and give it meaning.

17 3 min

Qualitative measures are those things which need to be measured by a human being. For example, Shakespeare’s texts are difficult if not impossible to Lexile. Poetry and drama are difficult if not impossible to Lexile. And the connection between Old Man and the Sea and Captain Underpants need hardly be explained.

When asking educators to work with Qualitative measures, we are asking them to understand the importance of the knowledge demands and levels of meaning or purpose of the text. For example, a text like Lord of the Flies can be taught in middle school (and often is as the boys on the island are middle school aged). However, the richness of the allegory is often lost when teaching the text to younger children. While the Lexile level is appropriate, the qualitative measures of the text may be beyond their reach.



18 3 min

Finally, the reader and task are critically important considerations to consider when determining text complexity for a particular group of students. “Who are these students, and what will I ask them to do with this text?” For example, To Kill a Mockingbird is often taught at the 9th grade level in DoDEA. While the quantitative measures of the text would allow it to be taught at an earlier grade level, the questions asked by the text demand the knowledge and experience of an older student. Mockingbird asks students to grapple with the question of whether or not Justice and Racism can co-exist, a question 9th graders are ready to tackle because of their growing knowledge and experience.

Another example is Frederick Douglas: Narrative of the Life of a Slave. In the past, this text has been paired with 11th grade American History, but the College and Career Readiness Standards suggests that it might better be paired with U.S. history in the middle school. The Lexile is low, and the text itself is a straightforward autobiography with a straightforward message: Slavery is bad.

19 3 min

We're going to watch two excerpts from the same lesson (the full lesson is 45 minutes long) of the three shifts in action.

Teaching the Core, the source of the video, notes that, "The lesson begins with a text-based discussion; here, with one about a photograph and the academic vocabulary that can be applied to it. The teacher uses this image to teach the nuances of the new words, as well as provide direct instruction about positive and negative connotations within context. When a student provides an incorrect answer, the teacher normalizes the error and uses it as a teaching moment. Students build upon each other's answers and provide additional evidence to support inferences."

Importantly, throughout the lesson, students are continually asked to support their answers with text-based evidence,

Handout 1: Activity One: Reflecting on the Shifts for Literacy



continually refining their understanding of the cognitively demanding concept of exile. In effect, however, students are learning to approach their learning in a demanding manner, to look for clues, to apply inference and deduction, and to continually test both their questions and answers against the evidence itself. We'll use this handout, Handout 1: Activity One: Reflecting on the Shifts for Literacy, to take notes while watching the two video excerpts from the lesson. You'll use the handout to keep notes on evidence of the three shifts in action during this lesson.

(Point out the three shifts on the left side of the sheet).

Let's start the first excerpt now.

20 6 min

Part 1 - 0:00 - 5:50

Click play on the player bar and the video will play. NOTE: It will play in FULL screen.

Video Source: Teaching the Core at http://teachcore.herokuapp.com/view/20

Video on slide. Handout 1: Activity One: Reflecting on the Shifts for Literacy

http://teachcore.herokuapp.com/view/20



21 4 min

Part 2 - 6:50 - 10:30

(Read to participants before playing the second excerpt):

As we can see, this is not the first time thee students have been exposed to this type of lesson. It's evident that they've been provided with a consistent set of expectations for their learning--and the instructor holds himself to a high set of standards as well. Before we discuss what's happening in the first excerpt, we will look at a continuation of the same lesson. Please remember to note what sorts of things you observe both the teacher and the students participating in. We'll begin the continuation now.

Click play on the player bar and the video will play. NOTE: It will play in FULL screen. Video Source: Teaching the Core at http://teachcore.herokuapp.com/view/20

Video on slide. Handout 1: Activity One: Reflecting on the Shifts for Literacy

22 10 min

Referencing your handout, take a moment to compare notes with a seat partner.

• What did you find interesting? • Exciting? • Perhaps even a little disconcerting? • What evidence did you see of the three shifts in play?

(Allow participants approximately three (3) minutes to compare notes and to discuss. Next step: Open the discussion to the entire group. Spend approximately 7-10 minutes discussing both the first and second video excerpts. Make sure that participants reflect on the evidence of the three shifts in action: academic vocabulary, high level non-fiction texts (to include the visual images), and text-based evidence. Note also the high level questioning on the part of the teacher--that he uses questions rather than answers to direct the students towards a deep understanding of the concept of "exile.")


http://teachcore.herokuapp.com/view/20



23 3 min In the next few slides, the details in the language of a progression of a standard across the grades will show how these demands are ‘ramped up’ across the grades.

24 3 min

Facilitator will continue to emphasize how this is related to Literacy standards for core courses. Choose specific literacy example showing progress through the grade levels. Facilitator should point out the increasing demands in the standards using the highlighted text on the slides.

The demands of the standards rise across the grades, however rather than adding new standards the skills and behaviors that student must demonstrate increase in complexity. Students across grade levels are continually asked to return to the text to support answers with key details.

25 3 min

Facilitator will continue to emphasize how this is related to Literacy standards for core courses. Choose specific literacy example showing progress through the grade levels.

For grade 4 – the literary term ‘theme,’ which includes the central idea or message, is used for the first time? The focus moves from recounting to summarizing. By the time students reach 5th and 6th grade the skill demands on students have increased greatly. In grade 5, students are asked to consider how characters respond to challenges or how narrators in poems reflect upon a topic. In grade 6, student must distinguish between their personal opinions or judgments about a text and a summary.



26 3 min


In grades 7 and 8, students are asked to provide an objective summary, and in grade 8, students are required to consider the relationship between theme and characters, setting, and plot.

27 3 min


In grades 9 and 10, students are asked to provide a detailed analysis of the development of theme across the course of the text. In grades 11 and 12, students are asked to determine multiple themes and how they interact and build to provide complex analysis.

Throughout grades k-1, students are continually asked to build on previous knowledge and skills rather than being presented with isolated skills or incidental knowledge.



28 3 min

There have been volumes written about the importance of vision to leadership, both in education as well as in the private sector.

The College and Career Readiness Standards in Literacy give us an opportunity to examine our leadership and focus on the vision of college and career readiness for all children throughout our P-12 systems of education. This is a message that can apply across the disciplines.

29 3 min

The College and Career Readiness Standards in Literacy shifts our focus from preparing students to graduate high school to preparing our students to be successful in college and careers. By this we mean students graduate high school, are able to enroll in a trade program, technical school, or 2 or 4 year college and complete credit-bearing courses. This is a very different goal than simply granting students a high school diploma or certificate of completion.

In addition, the CCRSL shifts college and career readiness from an issue relevant only to our high schools to a very real pathway for students beginning in kindergarten. This vision of supporting students, building their knowledge and skills for a pathway of success, is an important element of any visionary plan for leadership.



30 3 min

Very much tied to visionary leadership is a commitment to set concrete metrics to support the implementation of the standards. This is a great opportunity for leading a learning organization. Let’s look at the hand out from earlier and the work we did with the video. How are we going to measure across contents what forward movement and success?

31 3 min

Metrics are a critical piece of the instructional leadership necessary to support implementation of the Standards. It is, however, not the work of the Standards. Once we’ve established a clear vision and identified how we will measure progress along the way, as instructional leaders we need to know how to adjust and support the work to sustain progress.

Our metrics within the CSP Volume II tell us what DoDEA has identified on what we will measure. Our accreditation data tells us we have repeating trends for improvement in four key areas: establishing and maintaining high expectations for students, training principals as instructional leaders, data collection and application for instructional decision making and technology embedded instruction. All of these are part of a CSI plan where a College and Career Ready student is the outcome of collective impact; establishing and maintaining a standards based education system.

As an instructional leader, job one is to understand the shifts of the Standards and then to lead the learning and envisioning that supports the work. That is all the pre-work and does not take the place of the efforts to learn together, implement together, monitor together, and adjust together. The work needs to be owned at the school and in our classrooms. This is also



accomplished through intentionally leading Collaborative Planning so that the work teachers do together is the “right” work toward increasing student achievement.

32 3 min

When developing concrete metrics, consider the shifts and consider measurable outcomes. Four possible areas to consider are listed on the slide:

• Teacher knowledge and practice – What will teachers know and be able to do? How will you know?

• Classroom materials and instructional resources – do teachers have access to rigorous materials and professional development necessary to implement the CCRSL?

• Content for Collaborative Planning Time – What are students reading? What types of problems are they solving? What adjustments are they making to their current resources? Is there evidence of focus?

• Student work – Does student work show evidence of the shifts? Use of evidence? Demonstration of conceptual understanding? Expectation of fluency?

We look to the work of capacity building, through collaborative planning time, to help us understand what to do with our faculty and staff as a team. Further we will have data from the Asset Inventory that will help drive the work of capacity building.

Deprivatizing practice – do we share what we learn with the group? Does the work of our group connect us to the broader goals of the system in which we work? Do we observe and provide each other with feedback?

Creating a Collaborative Culture – Can we share success and failures without being judged? Can we challenge each other and engage in hard conversations? Do we feel responsible for working together to address student learning problems? Do we share



leadership for our collaborative work?

Maintaining An Inquiry Stance – Our collaboration focuses on core issues of student learning; we are clear about the student outcomes we are working toward?

Using Evidence Effectively – We use a wide range of data sources; we have the skills in our group to use data effectively? When we try something, we analyze the impact on student learning?

Shared Agreements – we agree about the most important outcomes or our students, we agree about how to assess those outcomes, we agree about effective instructional practice?

Support Collaboration Systemically – Teachers, principals and administrators (all professionals) trust each other, collaboration is a routine part of how we do our jobs, leadership engages us in our collaborative work; we are encouraged to experiment with our practice and try new ideas.

33 3 min

Our priorities are: to raise and establish high expectations for students; to engage principals as instructional leaders; to increase the use of technology during instruction and to access and apply data to inform on instructional decisions to increase student achievement. All of our DoDEA metrics: our assessments, the CSP goals and the accreditation connect us to the collaboration process and move us toward the same goal of increasing student achievement, for all students. This slide gives a flavor of the types of metrics necessary to lead this work.

Note that nowhere does it say "80% of teachers attend a workshop." These are observable, measurable outcomes that inform action steps in order to make them a reality - not an aspiration. These action steps must be grounded in the shifts. All



of these actions are aligned with the collaboration work presented in the previous slide as an area to watch for progress. It all fits together. We take each step, one step at a time, but the goals are the same and it all fits together.

This table is offered as an example of metrics. The process of defining and describing the specific metrics is important. For DoDEA our specific measures are designed by the instruments we use: BAS, Terra Nova, PSAT, SAT, NMSQT, CEPA’s and our soon to be integrated assessments from PARCC. Our metrics are defined in the CSP Volume II and our connecting and objective criteria comes to us from the Accreditation process where three years of trend data reveals the same universal need in all DoDEA schools.

34 3 min

Implementation of the standards is not a simple exercise of aligning curriculum maps. These are a set of standards that raise expectations of students, as well as of teachers and instructional leaders. As such we need to build and support learning environments in which everyone is sharing their learning and supporting each other in doing this work.

35 3 min

Organizations that are set up to learn together will fare well in the work of implementing the standards. As an instructional leader in this relatively new initiative, it is more important to lead the work of learning rather than positioning yourself as the absolute "expert" in this work. This is a changed role for many instructional leaders. The importance of providing specific instructional feedback is critical within the climate of increased measures and accountability around teacher effectiveness. Instructional leaders will need to be able to cite accurate and specific evidence related to professional knowledge, instructional planning and delivery, assessment, and professional development



in content areas.

A risk in this work is that leaders and teachers view this as an issue of compliance in which an old checklist of standards is replaced by an updated checklist of standards. The CCRSL requires an understanding of new expectations for all students and how to reach all students in meeting these expectations.

36 3 min

It is important to understand and model the fact that implementation is not an issue of compliance. It is an opportunity for school improvement. Like with any change (or for that matter, learning), teachers will be at various phases in understanding and applying this work to their practice.

Look for signs of where people are and find appropriate ways to support them where they are, and to leverage and celebrate their progress. Too often we mislabel a lack of understanding as resistance, or silence as compliance. Within the specific metrics for CCRSL implementation as a whole, consider what opportunities you have provided to move members in the educational system through these stages.

37 3 min

This is a unique time in education. The number of changes and the pace at which they are developing is unprecedented. Sitting back and waiting for directives to be handed down or schedules to be delivered is not going to lead to a positive outcome. Instead, instructional leaders, and really everyone in education, need to remain engaged in the conversations happening throughout the country on education reform.



38 3 min

The fact that 44 states, DC and multiple territories have adopted Core State Standards makes this work relevant to our highly mobile student population. It is incredible to think about how many people are working on the same issues at this moment in time. And that means we’re creating resources that can be shared and used by all schools that have the same College and Career Standards. We can adopt work created by others, modify it to DoDEA’s needs and tailor it to our specific students: “Adopt, modify and tailor”.

Let’s remember the name of the literacy standards: English Language Arts/Literacy, History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects. In the 6th – 12th grade instructional arena this includes everyone. Every content area and every subject has a role to play and a place to engage with literacy standards. Within the CCRSL standards, there are specific standards for content and technical subjects for non-English teachers. This is important because we’re all contributing to a student's ability to use accurate vocabulary, to read and analyze complex text and to write a coherent paper on a specific topic. This is shared work.

With a firm understanding of the Standards, leaders are encouraged to look around –to amplify great ideas and resources for this work. Of course, not everything out there is great, so don’t skip the step of understanding the shifts - use them to guide judgment of what to bring to your own setting.

Because we now share specific expectations for mathematics and ELA/literacy with so many colleagues throughout the country, it is also a great time to engage with your professional organizations. There is a lot going on, and a lot of information is needed. Don’t rely on the usual chains of memos to get your information. There are many good resources for you to directly access.



Finally, instructional leaders should engage with their state education departments. Seek out information regarding resources they have available, timelines, and resources for support. Remember, they are part of this learning system as well.

39 3 min

To find additional information about CCRSL, join the DoDEA College and Career Ready Educator Resources group in Schoology.

The access code is RWH85-2TK6Q. Once you join the group, click Resources in the left sidebar navigation menu. Then open the Literacy folder.

In this folder, you will see additional subfolders with a variety of information and videos about CCRSL.

The standards, explanations for the instructional shifts, and various resources are available here for use by you and your team.

40 1 min

This activity (see handout) is important in processing and planning strategies to support individuals in this change process. This activity is best done in groups. The framework includes the opportunity to name individual leaders in each group. This process supports the concept that the work of instructional leadership is more than simply creating a plan, and instead requires differentiation in the needs of individual teachers.

The discussion here should center on the evidence that would be relevant to determining where individuals are in the continuum. Another important note to message here is that not all teachers will become advocates and innovators. If the participants in your

Handout 2: Activity Two: Building Capacity for the Work



setting develop a thorough description and evidence statement around each of these levels, it could well inform a set of metrics for the overall implementation effort.

41 30 min

Working together in a small group, take time to note your ideas about building capacity for the work. When small groups have completed this task, work together as a single group to find a common frame of reference.


42 3 min

A reminder of the three key shifts we’ll be focusing on over the next couple of years . . . Understanding the shifts will help us help teachers understand the CCRSL as it crosses all curricular areas—an understanding that will play out in classrooms across DoDEA, moving our students towards greater and greater achievement. As instructional leaders, the mandate placed on you is a noble one, one that will require a change in our understanding of what it means for our students to be College and Career ready.

End of Presentation Total Time 159 minutes equals 2 hours and 39 minutes


Handouts

Handout (HO) Image Slide # Title of HO Directions Number of Copies

19-22


Use Handout 1 to record your impressions while watching the video. Once completed, we will spend some time deconstructing what we have observed.

The video excerpt provides rich examples of the application of all three shifts in practice.

The number of copies depends on the number of participants in the room.

39-40


Working together in a small group, take time to note your ideas about building capacity for the work.

When small groups have completed this task, work together as a single group to find a common frame of reference.

The number of copies depends on the number of participants in the room.

https://content.dodea.edu/VS/pd/ccrsl_training/docs/m1/ho/ho1.pdf

https://content.dodea.edu/VS/pd/ccrsl_training/docs/m1/ho/ho2.pdf

Date post:	02-Jan-2017
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Facilitator's Guide: Module 1: Instructional Leadership and the CCRSL

Documents