Tools and Strategies for Conquering the Common Core · Tools and Strategies for Conquering the...

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Tools and Strategies for Conquering the Common Core

Presented by Tr. Harvey F. Silver EdD Matthew Perini

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Thank you for attending!

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Website: www.ThoughtfulClassroom.com

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 1.800.962.4432

Essential Questions

1. What is an effective instructional strategy and how do we know when we have one?

2. What kinds of instructional strategies will best prepare our students for the demands of 21st century standards and assessment tests?

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Expert vs. Novice

What is the difference between an expert and novice?

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Mike the “Fix It” Man

“We fix it all. No job is too big or too small!”

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Harvey Silver’s toolbox

Today’s Goal

Today we are going to present some instructional tools and strategies that have proven to be essential in teaching meaningful content, and developing the thinking and literacy skills that students will need to meet the challenge of the Common Core Standards.

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Is it Harder Than Ever to Be a Thoughtful Educator?

College and Career Readiness

21st Century Skills

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//tepserver/common/Workshop Files/Video Clips/Video Elements/Music for Videos/Long Male AAGRH.wav

What is your level of anxiety around implementing the Common Core in your school or classroom?

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I am totally freaking out!

It used to be easier . . .

I’m worried. I need some . . .

I will survive . . .

What’s the Big Idea?

On the next few pages (and in your packet) are some statements from educational experts.

What’s the big idea?

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“Trying to change students’ classroom experience through changes in curriculum is very difficult. A bad curriculum well taught is invariably a better experience for students than a good curriculum badly taught.”

—Dylan Wiliam

Embedded Formative Assessment (p. 13)

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Reviews of reading and math programs at all grade levels showed that changes in textbooks had little impact on student achievement. Only those programs that changed teaching practices made a significant impact in student achievement.

Slavin & Lake 2008;

Slavin, Lake, Chambers, Cheung & Davis, 2009;

Slavin, Lake, & Groff, 2009

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If we are to fulfill the promise of the Common Core, we need to…

“…shift from what I am going to teach and what the students are going to do towards how am I going to teach and what are the students going to learn.”

—Black, Harrision, Lee, Marshall & Wiliam (2004 p.19)

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“The greatest impact on learning is the daily lived experiences of students in classrooms, and that is determined much more by how teachers teach than by what they teach.”

—Dylan Wiliam

Embedded Formative Assessment (p. 19)

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Pedagogy trumps curriculum.

“How we teach has a dramatic impact not only on what students learn, but on how they learn to think.”

—Tr. Harvey F. Silver, EdD.

Educator, author, Common Core expert

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Recognizing the Promise

The Common Core State Standards represent a new generation's promise to educate all of its children to be successful citizens in the future.

The Standards focus on what to teach, not how to teach.

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According to its mission statement, the Common Core State Standards Initiative aims to

“provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy.”

(www.corestandards.org)

So How Do We Respond?

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Learning from Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein, the great 20th century philosopher, reminds us that a word’s true meaning is not found in the dictionary. We discover what a word means by paying attention to how it’s used.

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However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

-- Winston Churchill

Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it's about deliberately choosing to be different.

-- Michael Porter

You have to be fast on your feet and adaptive to use a strategy well.

-- Charles de Gaulle

When you're prepared, you're more confident. When you have a strategy, you’re more comfortable.

-- Anonymous

Strategy requires thought; tactics require observation.

-- Max Euwe

Sound strategy starts with having the right goal.

-- Michael Porter

There is always a better strategy than the one you have; you just haven't thought of it yet.

-- Sir Bryn Pitman

A strategy is a system for analyzing and advancing positions.

-- Gary Gagliardi

A strategy is a style of thinking, a conscious and deliberate process, an intensive implementation system, the science of ensuring future success.

-- Peter Johnson

Learning from Wittgenstein

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAcQjRw&url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/646252/Ludwig-Wittgenstein&ei=bM2qVOiJPMPkapH8gcgE&bvm=bv.82001339,d.aWw&psig=AFQjCNHr08D6KFB6vcHaHtGKW4VQ_rSZig&ust=1420566203370709

What is a strategy?

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However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

—Winston Churchill


—Michael Porter


—Charles de Gaulle

When you're prepared, you're more confident. When you have a strategy, you’re more comfortable.

—Anonymous


—Max Euwe

Sound strategy starts with having the right goal.

—Michael Porter

There is always a better strategy than the one you have; you just haven't thought of it yet.

—Sir Bryn Pitman

A strategy is a system for analyzing and advancing positions.

—Gary Gagliardi

A strategy is a style of thinking, a conscious and deliberate process, an intensive implementation system, the science of ensuring future success.

—Peter Johnson

What is a strategy?

Let’s use an Vocabulary’s CODE tool called Association Triangle to deepen our understanding of the question, What is a strategy?

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Association Triangle

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What is it?

A tool that assesses big-picture understanding by

challenging students to explain the connections

between important terms or concepts

Page 82

A MATH triangle

Classifying shapes according to their attributes

(CC 3.G.1, 4.G.2)

A LITERATURE triangle

Recounting the plot and determining the central message of a fable

(CC RL.3.2)

Association Triangles

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Common Core Connections:

Ideal for developing and testing students’ grasp of general and content-specific vocabulary terms (CC Language Anchor Std 6)

Can be used with non-vocabulary standards as well

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Association Triangles

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What is a strategy?

1. Review the quotes about strategies and select one word from three different quotes that you feel are important.

2. Place each word or phrase in one of the boxes of the Association Triangle.

3. Write a sentence on the line between each of the boxes that explains the connection between them.

4. In the middle of the triangle write a one-sentence summary that completes this sentence: Without a winning strategy, teaching is a lot like…

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—Michael Porter

What is a strategy?

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—Charles de Gaulle


—Max Euwe

What is a strategy?

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observation

adaptive choices

When implementing a strategy you must observe its progress and adapt it accordingly.

You have to observe a situation in order to

choose the right strategy.

Strategies can be adapted to fit any situation depending on the goals or objectives you choose.

Without a winning strategy, teaching is a

lot like going into a football game without

a scouting report.

What Does an Effective Teaching Strategy Look Like?

Let’s use the Give One, Get One tool to explore this question in greater detail…

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Page 11

What is it?

A technique that’s used to initiate physical movement,

promote divergent thinking, and generate many ideas

quickly

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Give One, Get One


Page 11

Steps

1. Jot down two responses. (We’re working on the statement in blue below.)

2. Stand up and find a partner.

GIVE ONE of your ideas to your partner and GET ONE in return.

If you and your partner have the same ideas, work together to create a new one and add it to your lists.

3. Quickly find a new partner. Give One, Get One.

4. Repeat Step 3 until you have a total of six ideas.

General rules: Work in pairs, not groups—don’t huddle!

Don’t copy each other’s entire lists!

“An effective strategy is one that ___________.”

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Give One, Get One

Page 11

An effective strategy is one that… Establishes organization, rules, and procedures that support learning

Builds positive relationships in the classroom

Gets students engaged in the learning process

Helps students develop the behaviors and “habits of mind” of good thinkers

• Helps students master the content and develop useful skills

• Can be adapted for use across grade levels and content areas

• Is rooted in research about what works and is based on sound learning theory

• Improves teaching, learning, and achievement

• Actually works in real classrooms (practical, not theoretical)

These are the Four Cornerstones of Effective Teaching

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Organization, Rules, and

Procedures

Positive Relationships

A Culture of Thinking

and Learning

Engagement and Enjoyment

Preparing Students for New Learning

Deepening and Reinforcing Learning

Presenting New Learning

Reflecting on and Celebrating Learning

Applying Learning

How do you organize

your classroom to enhance

learning and establish

rules and procedures

that clarify expectations?

How do you develop a classroom

culture that promotes serious

learning and sophisticated

forms of thinking?

How do you build

meaningful relationships

with your students and among

students to promote learning?

How do you motivate students

to do their best work and inspire

the love of learning?

Professional Practice

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What Is Learning?

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What Is Learning?

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Here’s what four 2nd graders said:

Expert teachers use effective tools and strategies

In a minute, we’ll watch a video of a kindergarten teacher using a tool called “Fist List,” which is part of the instructional strategy called Vocabulary’s CODE.

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As you watch the video, ask yourself how the teacher’s implementation of Fist List addresses the “effective teaching strategy” criteria on our list.



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Essential Questions



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The Impact of The Thoughtful Classroom and the Core Six Instructional Strategies

Examine the data from a group of Kentucky districts and one of the lowest performing districts in Ohio. Both have built their professional development and instructional program around Core Six strategies.

What can you conclude from the data about the impact that the Core Six instructional strategies had on teachers’ effectiveness and students’ learning achievement?

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2.8

4.6 4.1

5.2

0.9

3.3

7.2

4.7

6.7

5.3

3.5

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0

8.0

Accountability Gain From 2004-2006

KY school districts using The Thoughtful Classroom and Core Six Instructional Strategies

Average, all KY schools

Edu

cati

on

al In

dex

*Number one school demonstrating the greatest student growth scores.

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• In the past two years 9 of the 10 districts participating in the Thoughtful Classroom initiative exceeded the state accountability index of 2.8.

• The average accountability index of the nine school districts that exceeded the state’s index was 5.0, almost twice the growth of the state average of 2.8.

• 3 of the 10 districts more than doubled the state accountability index, 7.2, 6.7, 5.6.

• GRREC districts not participating in the Thoughtful Classroom initiative gained an average slightly more than the state’s 2.8, but significantly less than the participating districts in the Thoughtful Classroom initiative.

• The state’s number one and number three districts with the greatest gains in 2005 were participants in the Thoughtful Classroom initiative. In 2006 the eleventh and twelfth districts with the greatest gains in the state were also Thoughtful Classroom participants.

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Lorain City Schools

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Impact on Preparedness for Common Core

Student Benefits: Engagement

Student Benefits: Knowledge and Skills

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Lorain City School District Report Cards

This is your district’s average progress for its students in math and reading, grades 4-8. It looks at how much each student learns in a year. Did the students get a year’s worth of growth? Did they get more? Did they get less?

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PROGRESS

Value Added 2012-2013 2013-2014

Overall C A

Gifted A B

Students with Disabilities C A

Lowest 20% in Achievement A A

Core Six Potpourri

Now let’s look at the type of work students were engaged in that brought about this dramatic change in learning, achievement, and attitude.

Examine the potpourri of selected student work and classroom artifacts that follows.

• What can you conclude about the instructional strategies the teachers used?

• What kinds of thinking and literacy skills did this work develop in students?

Try to put the artifacts together into at least four different groups.

• Why did you put your chosen artifacts together?

• What kind of descriptive label would you give to each of your groups?

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Core Six Potpourri

After listening to the Native American folktale “Turtle Races with Beaver,” a second-grade student drew the evidence that led him to agree or disagree with statements that the teacher generated.

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Core Six Potpourri

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Middle school science teacher Dante Constantino teaches a lesson to his students on what scientists do. Dante begins by presenting students with a list of key terms taken from an article called “How Scientists Do Their Jobs.” Students group the words and make predictions. Predictions

1. Science is a way of looking for answers to the unknown.

2. Scientists make educated guesses and then try to test them.

3. There are many ways that scientists gather information.

4. Science tries to stick to the facts and to avoid personal opinions.

Core Six Potpourri

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An elementary school student analyzes an imaginary creature called a “Woggle.”

Core Six Potpourri

A second-grade teacher addressed Common Core RL.2.9 by helping students compare two different Cinderella stories

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1. Description Phase

2. Comparison Phase 4. Application Phase

3. Conclusion Phase

Core Six Potpourri

A middle school science teacher helps students collect evidence during a lab.

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A 2nd grader creates a Flip Strip to show how frogs and toads differ using appropriate transitional words.

Core Six Potpourri

Core Six Potpourri

A first-grade teacher completes an argument opinion organizer prior to writing a position piece on whether children should have a bedtime.

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Core Six Potpourri

In preparation for a courage-themed literature unit, a student was asked to map and define the term courage. At the end of the unit, they were encouraged to revisit and refine their initial definitions.

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A 3rd grade student explains the similarities and differences between a map and a globe.

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Core Six Potpourri

Core Six Potpourri After studying the causes of the Civil War, students are participating in a Socratic Seminar to discuss and take a position on the primary cause of the Civil War. The following is an excerpt from the discussion.

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Mr. A: I see a lot of interesting ideas out there – lots of different points of view – and that’s great! Does anyone want to share?

Dwayne: I believe that slavery was one of the major causes of the Civil War, but I do not think it was the primary cause of the war because the North was willing to tolerate slavery as long as slavery was limited to the Southern states. In my opinion, the primary cause of the war was the different economic systems that had emerged in the North and the South.

Mariko: I agree with Dwayne that the divergent economic interests of the North and South were a major source of conflict. Darryl: Mariko can you explain WHY you agree with Dwayne? Why do you think that economic issues played a more important role than slavery? Mariko: Because in Lincoln’s speech the “House Divided,” he says, I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.

A middle school student compares the educational philosophies of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois on a Y Organizer. At the end of the lesson, students had to decide how Booker T. Washington and W.E.B DuBois would weigh in on the current educational debate: What are the most important 21st century skills?

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Core Six Potpourri

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Core Six Potpourri

A high school student compares two literary movements: Naturalism and Realism. At the end of the lesson, students were asked to choose from a selection of short stories and explain which story best represented the Naturalist movement and which best represented the Realist movement.

A 5th grader draws conclusions about renewable and nonrenewable energy.

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Core Six Potpourri

Core Six Potpourri

Before reading the folktale called “Spiders and Diamonds” elementary students are presented with a group of words from the story and are asked to group and label the terms. After making their groupings they are asked to make predictions. As they read the story, they look for evidence to support or refute their predictions.

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Our Predictions 1. The story takes place in the woods and in a house. 2. The characters are a selfish man, an old man, an old

woman, and a beggar. 3. The beggar needs food to eat. 4. A selfish man was mean to the beggar. 5. The people were digging in the woods for treasure. 6. The selfish man is stupid and mean to the beggar, the old

man, and the old woman.

Core Six Potpourri

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A teacher encourages students to participate in classroom discussions by creating a Wheel of Response Techniques. The students spin the wheel and then respond using the technique the spinner lands on.

Core Six Potpourri

A group of middle-school students are given a set of clues to organize into

groups so that they can make hypotheses about the demise of the dinosaurs.

Below are some of students’ grouped clues and hypotheses .

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• Iridium is quite common in objects from space such as meteors and asteroids.

• In the late 1900’s, scientists discovered a thin layer of clay that had been laid down during the end of the Cretaceous Period. The clay was rich in mineral called iridium.

• Iridium is very rare on earth. • Iridium rich clay has been found in Italy and Montana.

• Cycads need high temperatures day and night to survive.

• A principal food for plant-eating dinosaurs was cycads (large

tropical plants).

• In 1815, Mount Tamora, a volcano in Indonesia, erupted turning

billions of tons of rock into dust which was hurled into the

atmosphere.

• When an asteroid hits a planet, it throws massive amounts of dust

into the atmosphere. Dust reflects sunlight.

Meteors and Asteroids seemed to have hit the earth at the time of the dinosaurs due to the presence of Iridium.

Plants disappeared over time due to temperature and light change.

Hypotheses: • Dinosaurs began to disappear because the temperature and light on earth changed causing the cycads—

plants— to die thereby depleting a food source .

• Meteors and asteroids began to hit the earth causing dust clouds that created a temperature change which began the depletion of plants.

Core Six Potpourri

Effective Discussion Report Card

High-school students review the report card before the discussion, refer to it during the discussion, and use it to assess their performance afterward.

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Core Six Potpourri

A 3rd grade student is using a variety of linking and organizing words to improve her writing.

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Core Six Potpourri

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A 2nd grader writes a simple comparison essay explaining how spheres and prisms are both alike and different.

Core Six Potpourri

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A middle school teacher begins a lesson using a Vocabulary Knowledge Rating (VKR). She presents the key terms that they will be using during their study on fractions. Students assess their understanding of the terms at the beginning of the unit, regularly throughout the unit, and at the end of the unit to assess their growth.

Core Six Potpourri

High school English students collect evidence from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (Act III, Scene II)

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Core Six Potpourri

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A student uses an Association Triangle to show his understanding of the terms percentage, proportion, and fraction.

Core Six Potpourri

A second-grade student uses the technique of grouping to help organize her thoughts and assist her in writing her opinion essay.

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Core Six Potpourri

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A student uses Math Notes to solve a word problem on measurement.

Core Six Potpourri

A middle school teacher used the Common Core Writing Standards to help him develop a list of assessment criteria for persuasive essays. He then converted this list into a feedback form that students could use to review each other’s drafts throughout the year.

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Core Six Potpourri

A first-grader receives Glow & Grow feedback to improve her writing.

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Core Six Potpourri

A middle school teacher designed the following comparative writing task around a segment of Piers Paul Read’s Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors.

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Introduction to the Core Six

Now let’s watch a brief clip from ASCD’s video, The Core Six, which introduces the strategies and their power to improve teaching and learning.

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Does anything in the Core Six introduction video make you want to modify your groupings?

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• Reading for Meaning

• Compare & Contrast

• Inductive Learning

• Circle of Knowledge

• Write to Learn

• Vocabulary’s CODE

The Core Six includes six essential strategies for achieving excellence with the Common Core

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Let’s use one of the tools from the Write to Learn strategy, called 4-2-1 Summarize, to read the foreword to the book.

Let’s review the tool before we use it.

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4-2-1 Summarize

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A tool that solidifies and tests students’ grasp of what they’ve learned from readings, lectures, etc., by having them identify, discuss, and summarize the key points with their classmates.

Summarizing skills:

Emphasized in the Common Core Positive impact on student achievement

Page 157

4-2-1 Summarize

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What are the basic steps?

Record the 4 most important lines from the text.

Share, compare, agree on the 2 inferences.

Share, compare, identify the 1 big idea.

Write a summary paragraph focused on the main idea.

4-2-1 Summarize

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On your own

With a partner

In groups of four

4-2-1 Summarize

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Builds explanatory writing skills (CC Writing Anchor Std 2)

Teaches students to develop and strengthen their writing via planning (CC Writing Anchor Std 5)

Engages students in peer-to-peer conversations about grade-appropriate texts & topics (CC Speaking & Listening Anchor Std 1)

Develops students’ ability to identify & summarize key ideas from a text (CC Reading Anchor Std 2)

Common Core Connections:


1. Read the foreword to The Core Six by Heidi Hayes Jacobs.

2. Use the 4-2-1 Summarize organizer in your packet to collect the four big ideas.

3. Meet with a partner. Share, compare, and synthesize your big ideas into two big ideas.

4. Meet with a pair. In groups of four, decide on the single most important idea.

5. Use what you’ve learned to write a brief summary.

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4-2-1 Summarize

How does the 4-2-1 Summarize tool address the Common Core literacy skills for reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language development?

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Core Six Strategies

Now that we have uncovered the Core Six strategies and the impact they can have on student learning, let’s review each one.

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Reading for Meaning in a Nutshell

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Source: The Core Six: Essential Strategies for Achieving Excellence with the Common Core by Harvey F. Silver, R. Thomas Dewing, and Matthew J. Perini. © 2012 by ASCD. Adapted with permission. Learn more about ASCD at www.ascd.org.

Reading for Meaning is a research-based strategy that helps all readers build the skills that proficient readers use to make sense of challenging texts. Regular use of the strategy gives students the opportunity to practice and master the three phases of critical reading that lead to reading success, including

• Previewing and predicting before reading.

• Actively searching for relevant information during reading.

• Reflecting on learning after reading.

http://www.ascd.org/

Core Six Potpourri

High school English students collect evidence from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (Act III, Scene II)

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Core Six Potpourri

After listening to the Native American folktale “Turtle Races with Beaver,” a second-grade student drew the evidence that led him to agree or disagree with statements that the teacher generated.

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Core Six Potpourri

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An elementary school student analyzes an imaginary creature called a “Woggle.”

Core Six Potpourri

A middle school science teacher helps students collect evidence during a lab.

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Compare and Contrast in a Nutshell

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Compare & Contrast is a critical thinking strategy designed to build students’ memories, eliminate confusion, and bring crucial similarities and differences into sharp focus. The strategy maximizes the effectiveness of the natural human capacity to make comparisons by guiding students through a four-phase learning process: • Description Phase—students describe each item using criteria.

• Comparison Phase—students use a Top Hat Organizer to record key similarities and differences.

• Conclusion Phase—students discuss their findings and draw conclusions.

• Application Phase—students synthesize their learning by completing an application task.


Core Six Potpourri

A second-grade teacher addressed Common Core RL.2.9 by helping students compare two different Cinderella stories

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1. Description Phase

2. Comparison Phase 4. Application Phase

3. Conclusion Phase

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A 2nd grader creates a Flip Strip to show how frogs and toads differ using appropriate transitional words.

Core Six Potpourri

A 5th grader draws conclusions about renewable and nonrenewable energy.

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Core Six Potpourri

Core Six Potpourri

A middle school teacher designed the following comparative writing task around a segment of Piers Paul Read’s Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors.

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A middle school student compares the educational philosophies of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois on a Y Organizer. At the end of the lesson, students had to decide how Booker T. Washington and W.E.B DuBois would weigh in on the current educational debate: What are the most important 21st century skills?

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Core Six Potpourri

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Core Six Potpourri

A high school student compares two literary movements: Naturalism and Realism. At the end of the lesson, students were asked to choose from a selection of short stories and explain which story best represented the Naturalist movement and which best represented the Realist movement.

Inductive Learning in a Nutshell

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Inductive Learning is a powerful strategy for helping students deepen their understanding of content and develop their inference and evidence-gathering skills. In an Inductive Learning lesson, students examine, group, and label specific “bits” of information to find patterns. Inductive Learning does not stop at categorization, however: it also asks students to use their labeled groups to develop a set of working hypotheses about the content to come. Then, during the learning, students collect evidence to verify or refine each of their hypotheses.


Core Six Potpourri

Before reading the folktale called “Spiders and Diamonds” elementary students are presented with a group of words from the story and are asked to group and label the terms. After making their groupings they are asked to make predictions. As they read the story, they look for evidence to support or refute their predictions.

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Our Predictions 1. The story takes place in the woods and in a house. 2. The characters are a selfish man, an old man, an old

woman, and a beggar. 3. The beggar needs food to eat. 4. A selfish man was mean to the beggar. 5. The people were digging in the woods for treasure. 6. The selfish man is stupid and mean to the beggar, the old

man, and the old woman.

Core Six Potpourri

A group of middle-school students are given a set of clues to organize into

groups so that they can make hypotheses about the demise of the dinosaurs.

Below are some of students’ grouped clues and hypotheses .

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• Iridium is quite common in objects from space such as meteors and asteroids.

• In the late 1900’s, scientists discovered a thin layer of clay that had been laid down during the end of the Cretaceous Period. The clay was rich in mineral called iridium.

• Iridium is very rare on earth. • Iridium rich clay has been found in Italy and Montana.

• Cycads need high temperatures day and night to survive.

• A principal food for plant-eating dinosaurs was cycads (large

tropical plants).

• In 1815, Mount Tamora, a volcano in Indonesia, erupted turning

billions of tons of rock into dust which was hurled into the

atmosphere.

• When an asteroid hits a planet, it throws massive amounts of dust

into the atmosphere. Dust reflects sunlight.

Meteors and Asteroids seemed to have hit the earth at the time of the dinosaurs due to the presence of Iridium.

Plants disappeared over time due to temperature and light change.

Hypotheses: • Dinosaurs began to disappear because the temperature and light on earth changed causing the cycads—

plants— to die thereby depleting a food source .

• Meteors and asteroids began to hit the earth causing dust clouds that created a temperature change which began the depletion of plants.

Circle of Knowledge in a Nutshell

102 Source: The Core Six: Essential Strategies for Achieving Excellence with the Common Core by Harvey F. Silver, R. Thomas Dewing, and Matthew J. Perini. © 2012 by ASCD. Adapted with permission. Learn more about ASCD at www.ascd.org.

Classroom discussions help students develop new insights and perspectives, yet they can easily be thrown off track. Learning how to conduct an effective classroom discussion is an essential skill for any teacher to master. Circle of Knowledge provides teachers with a strategic framework for planning and conducting discussions that foster student participation and critical thinking.

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Core Six Potpourri

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A teacher encourages students to participate in classroom discussions by creating a Wheel of Response Techniques. The students spin the wheel and then respond using the technique the spinner lands on.

Core Six Potpourri

Effective Discussion Report Card

High-school students review the report card before the discussion, refer to it during the discussion, and use it to assess their performance afterward.

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Core Six Potpourri

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Core Six Potpourri After studying the causes of the Civil War, students are participating in a Socratic Seminar to discuss and take a position on the primary cause of the Civil War. The following is an excerpt from the discussion.

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Mr. A: I see a lot of interesting ideas out there – lots of different points of view – and that’s great! Does anyone want to share?

Dwayne: I believe that slavery was one of the major causes of the Civil War, but I do not think it was the primary cause of the war because the North was willing to tolerate slavery as long as slavery was limited to the Southern states. In my opinion, the primary cause of the war was the different economic systems that had emerged in the North and the South.

Mariko: I agree with Dwayne that the divergent economic interests of the North and South were a major source of conflict. Darryl: Mariko can you explain WHY you agree with Dwayne? Why do you think that economic issues played a more important role than slavery? Mariko: Because in Lincoln’s speech the “House Divided,” he says, I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.

Write to Learn in a Nutshell

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Write to Learn is a set of nested tools for writing and learning in all content areas. Careful use of the tools embedded in this strategy can dramatically improve students’ thinking, deepen their comprehension of content, and help teachers conduct the kind of formative assessment needed to improve student writing without getting caught in an endless cycle of paperwork. These tools support three different types of classroom writing, including

• Provisional writing

• Readable writing

• Polished writing



Core Six Potpourri

A first-grader receives Glow & Grow feedback to improve her writing.

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Core Six Potpourri

A first-grade teacher completes an argument opinion organizer prior to writing a position piece on whether children should have a bedtime.

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Core Six Potpourri

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A 2nd grader writes a simple comparison essay explains how spheres and prisms are both alike and different.

Core Six Potpourri

A second-grade student uses the technique of grouping to help organize her thoughts and assist her in writing her opinion essay.

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Core Six Potpourri

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Core Six Potpourri

A middle school teacher used the Common Core Writing Standards to help him develop a list of assessment criteria for persuasive essays. He then converted this list into a feedback form that students could use to review each other’s drafts throughout the year.

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Vocabulary’s CODE in a Nutshell

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Page 65


Vocabulary’s CODE is a strategic approach to direct vocabulary instruction that helps students master crucial concepts and retain new vocabulary terms. Students work their way from initial exposure to in-depth understanding through a series of progressive learning activities, which help students “crack” Vocabulary’s CODE.

• Connecting with new words.

• Organizing new words into meaningful categories.

• Deep-processing the most important concepts and terms.

• Exercising the mind through strategic review and practice.


Tools for Implementing Vocabulary’s CODE

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What is the Relationship Between an Instructional Tool and a Strategy?

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Tool

Strategy

Strategy

Tool

Strategy

Tool

C O D E

Tools

Tools are typically less complex than strategies.

Tools can be used with a strategy.

Tools can be used on their own.

Multiple tools can also compose a single strategy.

Core Six Potpourri

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A middle school teacher begins a lesson using a Vocabulary Knowledge Rating (VKR). She presents the key terms that they will be using during their study on fractions. Students assess their understanding of the terms at the beginning of the unit, regularly throughout the unit, and at the end of the unit to assess their growth.

Core Six Potpourri

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A student uses an Association Triangle to show his understanding of the terms percentage, proportion, and fraction.

Core Six Potpourri

In preparation for a courage-themed literature unit, a student was asked to map and define the term courage. At the end of the unit, they were encouraged to revisit and refine their initial definitions.

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Examining Assessments

Now let’s examine some of the sample assessments released by PARCC and Smarter Balanced and compare the critical thinking and literacy skills that are embedded in these new assessments.

How do they compare to the type of work students are engaged in when using the Core Six instructional strategies, Tools for Thoughtful Assessment, and Tools for Conquering the Common Core?

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A Sample PARCC Assessment

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Constructed-Response ELA | 3rd Grade

Grade 3 Prose Constructed-Response

You have read two texts about famous people in American history who solved a problem by working to make a change.

Write an article for your school newspaper describing how Eliza and Carver faced challenges to change something in America.

• In your article, be sure to describe in detail why some solutions they tried worked and others did not work.

• Tell how the challenges each one faced were the same and how they were different.

http://parcconline.org/

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(Excerpted from: http://www.smarterbalanced.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/performance-tasks/animal-performance.pdf)

Sample Performance Task ELA | 4th Grade

A Sample Smarter Balanced Assessment Your Assignment Your class is preparing a museum display that will include photos of a variety of animals and interesting facts about them. You have been asked to write an article for the museum display explaining about animal defenses.

In your article Choose one animal from the article "Animal Roll-Ups" and one animal from the video "Animal Defenses." In your article, identify your two animals, explain how each animal protects itself from its enemies, and explain how the two animals’ defenses are similar to or different from one another. Include details from your sources.

http://www.smarterbalanced.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/performance-tasks/animal-performance.pdf








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Constructed-Response ELA | 7th Grade

Grade 7 Analytical Prose Constructed-Response

Based on the information in the text “Biography of Amelia Earhart,” write an essay that summarizes and explains the challenges Earhart faced throughout her life. Remember to use textual evidence to support your ideas.


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(From: http://www.parcconline.org/samples/english-language-artsliteracy/grade-7-tecr-research-simulation-task)

Research Simulation Task ELA | 7th Grade

CLAIMS Earhart and Noonan lived as castaways on Nikumaroro Island.

Earhart and Noonan’s plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean.

People don’t really know where Earhart and Noonan died.

A Sample PARCC Assessment Below are three claims that one could make based on the article “Earhart’s Final Resting Place Believed Found.”

Part A – Highlight the claim that is supported by the most relevant and sufficient evidence within “Earhart’s Final Resting Place Believed Found.”

Part B – Click on two facts within the article that best provide evidence to support the claim selected in Part A.

http://www.parcconline.org/samples/english-language-artsliteracy/grade-7-tecr-research-simulation-task

















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Constructed-Response ELA | 7th Grade

You have read three texts describing Amelia Earhart. All three include the claim that Earhart was a brave, courageous person. The three texts are:

• “Biography of Amelia Earhart”

• “Earhart's Final Resting Place Believed Found”

• “Amelia Earhart’s Life and Disappearance”

Consider the argument each author uses to demonstrate Earhart’s bravery.

Write an essay that analyzes the strength of the arguments about Earhart’s bravery in at least two of the texts. Remember to use textual evidence to support your ideas.


Looking for the Common Threads

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What Are the Common Threads?

In analyzing the Common Core State Standards and the new assessments, we have identified eight essential academic skills woven throughout the standards and tasks. Place a star next to the two skills that you pay the most attention to in your classroom or school. Then place an empty box next to the two skills that you feel need more attention.

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The Core Six Tapestry Skills

• Evaluating evidence and using it to support positions • Reading and understanding rigorous texts • Understanding and contributing to meaningful discussions

about content • Finding important patterns and structures built into content • Mastering academic vocabulary and integrating it into

speaking and writing • Using writing to advance learning and clarify thinking • Writing comfortably in the Common Core text types:

argument, informative, and narrative • Conducting comparative analysis

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The Core Six Tapestry

How can the Core Six Strategies help you weave the tapestry of your classroom or school?

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Why Strategic Teaching Now More Than Ever?

Why do you think strategic teaching is necessary today more than ever before?

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“A teacher’s effectiveness has more impact on student learning than any other factor controlled by school systems.”

The Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Project,

a national multi-year study to “improve…teacher effectiveness.”


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As the McKinsey & Co. study of the world’s top 25 school systems concluded:

“The only way to improve outcomes is to improve instruction.”

McKinsey & Company (2007)


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Teachers need tools, strategies, a

common language, and colleagues to

reflect upon their practice in order to

promote high levels of learning and

quality teaching in every classroom.

Silver and Perini (2008)


“The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers.”

McKinsey & Company (2007)

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Thoughtful Spelling Quiz

Spell the following word:___________________

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Respons-able

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Thank you for attending!

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Website: www.ThoughtfulClassroom.com

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 1.800.962.4432

Date post:	21-Apr-2018
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