Have You Unpacked Your Standards? What's Next?

My suitcase is sitting in a corner of my bedroom.  I got back from my trip to Baltimore 11 days ago, but my suitcase is only partially unpacked.  I took out the things I really needed, but haven't had the time or energy to unpack the rest.  This weekend I am going to finally work on unpacking everything.   I also brought back new things from my trip- souvenirs and books, and ideas!  I need to think about what I will do with them too.

Since the spring of 2010, we have been working on unpacking our New Learning Standards.  It has taken us 3 years to completely empty out that suitcase.  First, we unpacked the standards that fit into our existing spaces because they were very similar to what we already had.  We also found that there were some new things to consider as we continued to looked through the standards we unpacked next.  This year, as we fully implement the new standards, we are able to focus on what these new standards really look like, sound like, write like in our classrooms and what instructional shifts need to be happening in our teaching to help our students build the knowledge and skills they need to be have choices in their lives beyond high school.

There are 6 Instructional Shifts, 3 in ELA/Literacy and 3 in Math. These Instructional Shifts are NOT standards. There are a lot of videos, resources and sample activities available to help teachers understand these shifts. It isn't so much the need to understand them as it is the need to reflect on our own teaching practice to decide what these shifts will look in action in our classrooms that is key.  As a teacher, the challenge is to teach our new standards through the lens of the instructional shifts. If we do this, the learning environments that we create in our classrooms will be richer because of it.

I put together a set of Guiding Questions and Resources to help you with your reflection on Instructional Shifts and where they fit into your instructional practice as a teacher.

Guiding Questions
[Based on the Instructional Shifts At A Glance Document]

ELA/Literacy Shifts - Remember, we are ALL teachers of the language of our content. Students need to know how to read, write and speak like artists, historians, scientists, mathematicians.

Shift 1: Regular practice with complex text and its academic language.

• What process and tools will I use to make sure that the text I choose to use in my class matches task and reader, and is in the range of complexity for my grade level?
• How can I best help my students understand the structures and vocabulary of text, graphics, tables, charts or other media presentations that they will be using to build knowledge in my classroom? 
• How can I best help my students to apply what they know about the structures and vocabulary of these content specific texts in their written and spoken communication in my classroom?
• What strategies can I use to help my students build their vocabularies by learning academic and content specific words through the text in my class?

Shift 2: Reading, writing and speaking grounded in evidence from the text both literary and informational.

• How can I use text dependent questions to allow my students to show that they have read/listened to the text carefully and can support their ideas with evidence from the text? 
• What writing tasks can I build into my lesson planning that would allow students to use evidence from text to support their ideas? Write narratives? Do research?
• What text based tasks can I build into my lesson planning that will provide opportunities for collaborative discussions?

Shift 3: Building Knowledge through content- rich nonfiction.

NOTE: The standards themselves include a significant focus on literature in grades k-12, especially in grades k-5 and in ELA classes through middle and high school.

• How can I select a wide variety of text, both written and multi-media, that will help my students build knowledge?
• How can I involve my students in the selection of content rich text materials to help them build their knowledge?
• What sources of content rich non-fiction do I have access to? Do my students have access to? 
• How can I use a text or set of texts as a jumping off point for a research project, discussion, performance task, experimental design? 

Math Shifts:

Shift 1: Focus strongly where the standards focus.

• What is the major work of my grade?
• What opportunities will my students have to apply their math skills to authentic, real world tasks?
• How do I develop an instructional plan around the major and supporting work of my grade?

Shift 2: Coherence: think across grades and link to major topics within grades

• Where does my grade level content fit in the continuum of math learning k-12?
• How can I use performance tasks and real world scenarios to help students connect major topics within my grade level math standards? 
• What process/tools do I use to make sure that math materials I use in my class do not contain content that is outside the major/supporting content of my grade?

Shift 3: Rigor: in major topics pursue conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency, and application with equal intensity.

• How do I design lessons that will allow students to understand key concepts in math not just learn tricks or shortcuts?
• What opportunities can I give my students to do activities that help them  practice important functions like single digit multiplication so that they increase the speed, accuracy and efficiency of their calculations? 
• How can I create authentic tasks that will allow my students to apply their math in problem solving situations. 
• How can I help students learn that math can be used in a variety of content areas to make meaning and build knowledge of content?

Resources:
Instructional Shifts:

• Supporting Ohio's New Learning Standards and Instructional Shifts Resource Page
• Achievethecore.org PD Materials for Making Math Instructional Shifts
• Achievethecore.org PD Materials for Making the ELA/Literacy Instructional Shifts
• Achievethecore.org Coaching Toolkit for Instructional Practice Guides

• EngageNY Video Resource Library - Instructional Shifts
• Colorin Colorado : ELL Resources and Instructional Shifts
• ASCD EdLeadership: The Common Core Standards, Starting Now by Meredith and David Liben Dec 2012/Jan 2013

• ODE Quality Review Rubrics - Section II focuses specifically on Instructional Shifts
• ODE YouTube Video Series http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDB1C5-YO_jhShjYsF2a-yjyA-7CUsLHD

• ELA Rubrichttp://tinyurl.com/o6kpz3
• Math Rubric http://tinyurl.com/mdgpg53
• Science Rubric http://tinyurl.com/q45hbun
• Social Studies Rubric http://tinyurl.com/p6qog7c

Literacy:

• Achievethecore.org Text Complexity Resource Homepage
• Achievethecore.org Text Dependent Question Resources
• Achievethecore.org Info Text Complexity Rubric

Math:

• Achievethecore.org Major Focus By Grade
• Achievethecore.org Math Progressions Documents
• Teaching Channel Beyond Right Answers, Math and CCSS (video)

A Closer Look At the CCSS for Speaking and Listening

There has been a lot of discussion around the CCSS ELA expectation for text complexity, balance of informational and literary text, writing with evidence and vocabulary in context. Not as much attention has been paid to the Speaking and Listening standards.   Although they are embedded in the ELA standards, these skills really are integrated across all content areas. Speaking and listening has moved beyond standing up and giving a speech, having a visual aide, being able to take notes during class or being an active listener. The shift is toward supporting the ability to work collaboratively, use a variety of media tools to gather and share information and develop the skills necessary to make decisions about the credibility and accuracy of information.  One effective way to formatively assess these standards would be to use a variety of performance tasks within a unit rather than an isolated, stand alone activity. Standard 1 is particularly important as a College and Career Readiness skill. It is worth taking a closer look at the 6 standards as teachers continue their work on remodeling and designing lessons to align to Ohio's New Learning Standards.  I have developed a set of guiding questions that can be used to help incorporate the Speaking and Listening Standards into lesson and assessment planning. They can be adapted to meet the expectation of a particular grade level standard.

Standard 1 The focus is on collaborative grade appropriate conversations and group work with peers, with adults and in a variety of settings.   Can the student keep the conversational ball moving down the field? Can the student be an active participant in grade level appropriate team work? 

• Does the lesson/activity:
•  give students the opportunity to have grade level appropriate discussions with peers or adults?
•  allow students the opportunity to do prior reading or research in preparation for a discussion with peers or adults?
• expect students to support their ideas/statements with evidence from their reading?
• allow students to further the discussion/work by asking focused questions, or making appropriate comments?
• allow students to hear and evaluate the opinions, ideas and/or information shared by others and make decisions about how to move the discussion or work forward?
• allow students to practice different roles in a collaborative group?
• allow students to establish group norms or practice group discussion behaviors?

Standard 2 The focus is on acquisition of  knowledge through a variety of visual and auditory media formats. Can the student get information from a variety of both visual and auditory sources? Can the student make decisions about the accuracy and validity of the information?

• Does the lesson/activity:
• allow students to gather information from a variety of media sources - including podcasts, video, digital text, live presentations?
• give students the opportunity to ask clarifying questions and make decisions about the accuracy or relevance of information to the task?
• allow students the opportunity to identify the purpose for the information and investigate possible motives for a particular presentation. 

Standard 3 The focus is on understanding a speaker's point of view and evaluating the credibility of the speaker.  Can the student be a discerning listener? 

• Does the lesson/activity:
• allow students the opportunity to listen to a speaker as a way to gather information?
• include follow-up activities that would help students to develop the ability to identify point of view, evaluate the quality and validity of the information shared, and analyze the evidence presented by a speaker?

Standard 4 The focus is on the presentation of information and ideas.  Can the student present information, evidence and ideas in a way that makes sense to the audience?

• Does the lesson/activity:
• allow the student to plan a presentation for a specific audience and task?
• allow students to identify and utilize the appropriate information and evidence to support their ideas and opinions?
• allow the students to outline or map out a presentation in a logical order?

Standard 5 The focus is on the use of multimedia tools and visual displays to support claims, present evidence or clarify information.  Can the student use a variety of multi -media tools to add interest, support and/or detail to a presentation?

• Does the lesson/activity:
• allow students to choose from a variety of multi-media tools to present data, information and/or support their ideas?
• provide students with an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of a particular multi-media tool or visual display following the presentation?

Standard 6 The focus is on using appropriate speaking skills when communicating both formally and informally. Can the student orally express ideas and opinions clearly and adapt to speaking in a variety of situations?

• Does the lesson/activity:
• allow students to use formal English in conversations with peers or adults as a way to communicate their ideas or opinions?
• allow students to make decisions about what level of spoken English - from formal to informal - would be appropriate to discuss a task or share information?

Resources:

• CCSS for Speaking and Listening - by grade http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/SL/introduction
• Dave Stuart' Teaching the Core Blog - http://www.teachingthecore.com/simple-rubrics-ccss-speaking-and-listening/
• PARCC Model Content Frameworks for ELA - include Speaking and Listening and major grade progressions. Use the sidebar on the left to move to various grades 3-11 http://www.parcconline.org/mcf/english-language-artsliteracy/speaking-and-listening-standards-progression-grade-2-grade-3
• Ohio Resource Center CCSS Aligned Lesson Resources- Speaking and Listening Standards 
• k-5 http://ohiorc.org/standards/commoncore/ela/standard.aspx?id=5008
• 6-12 http://ohiorc.org/standards/commoncore/ela/standard.aspx?id=5013

CCSS Storytime - Using Stories To Explain Why CCSS Are Already Working

"Teacher's voices are a superpower", according to Sandra Alberti, a leader in developing strategies and tools to help teachers make the shift to the CCSS.   There is a lot of truth to this.  I know as a classroom teacher, my students and their parents put a lot of value in what I said - both about my content and about being successful as a middle school student.  Our teacher voice also has a lot of power when it comes to helping our peers and our community understand the shifts in teaching that are taking place in our classrooms. Sometimes the best way to help people understand what it is you are trying to say is to tell a story that helps them to create a mental "visual" of what you want them to know.  I took time to think through three of my own CCSS stories.

The first story focuses on the power of collaboration when it comes to really understanding what students are supposed to be able to know and do - and what instructional tools will be needed to get them to that level of understanding. Notice that I included a specific standard within the story.

One of my first teams to really start to work with shifting to the CCSS was my Kindergarten staff. We all met on a hot afternoon in August to dive into the standards for math. Our goal for the day was to make a map of learning for the first few months of the school year based on our New Learning Standards. We spent time deciding how to best  teach to the standard that expects students to be able to break apart numbers less than or equal to 10 into pairs in more than one way. We looked over all of our materials and decided we needed a different way to help students really understand what a number was before they could break it apart. So we made dot number flashcards out of paper plates and sticky dots similar to the face of die or a domino to help them see that a number is made up of parts. After using the number cards in class, one of the teachers shared this with me, “It is neat to see how their little brains work. When I hold up a dot number card for 5, every kid sees it in a different way. One says, ‘ I see two on top and two on the bottom and I know two and two is four and one more is five’. Another says, ‘ I see three, like on the three card and two more dots is five.’They are using addition skills and building a foundation of what a number is. They are just not memorizing a number.”

The second story emphasizes the power of vertical teams working on the alignment of the standards by focusing on one of the 6 instructional shifts we are implementing with the CCSS. In this story, I also pull in some of my own teaching experience. By sharing your own experience in your own classroom, you add a lot of credibility to your story.

Teachers are working across grade levels since the new standards support collaboration vertically by helping teachers see how what they teach builds on past learning and supports future learning.  My Grade K-12 English team is working together to help their colleagues in all subject areas help students to build vocabulary by reading and writing about all types of challenging materials, both literary and informational, and by making connections between a word and its context.  This is one of the key shifts in the CCSS for English/ Literacy. In the world beyond k-12 education, adults continue to add to their vocabulary by experiencing words through the reading and writing they do on the job and for pleasure. Studies have shown that a child’s vocabulary abilities at grade 1 are a predictor of reading comprehension in grade 11.   As a science teacher, I helped students learn the parts of a cell not by using coloring pages with lists of terms and arrows pointing to parts, but through reading articles about cells. Based on evidence from what we read, we made an analogy that cells are like cities.  In our analogy, the city hall would be like the nucleus, the cell structure that houses the instructions for how to do all of the functions of the cell.  Students really understood the idea of “nucleus” and could understand it in context, and write scientifically using the term correctly.

My third story is meant to show the power of aligning assessments to the standards by looking closely at what the purpose of an assessment is, and what evidence of learning it will provide to the student or the teacher. In this story I use my parent perspective to look at tests through the eyes of my own daughter. Personalizing stories help to make connections to people who are listening to your story.

There are two types of tests that can be used along side the CCSS.   One type helps to guide further instruction. The second type can be used to show mastery of the standards. Both are tests that will help the teachers and the students show evidence that the students really know or can do what we expect.   These are tests worth giving, much like, on a larger scale, our state plan for our Next Generation Assessments.  Students who are 9th and 10th graders need to know how to identify a theme in what they are reading, analyze its development through the text,  include how it is shaped by specific details, and provide a summary of the text. It would be difficult to gather evidence that a student could do this by using a test with just multiple choice questions or short answers.  My daughter’s test over her summer reading material helped her show evidence of where she was in her understanding of how to do the skills defined in the standard. She wrote an essay summarizing the novel in addition to citing specific evidence to support what she felt the theme of the story was and how it developed. This was work worth doing and an assessment worth giving.  It helped her teacher understand her skills and her knowledge. It helped Sarah really focus on where she needed to grow as a learner. The work teachers are doing to help guide the development of the CCSS aligned tests through the  PARCC or Smarter Balanced Consortium is leading to new English and math tests will result in a test that is worth giving and not a distraction from learning.

Teachers are great story tellers. Find ways to begin to share your CCSS stories with your colleagues, your administrators and your parents. I know there are some great things happening in our classrooms! Tell your story!

How To Use Informational Text In Your Classroom

Whether you are reading this at the beginning or end of your work day, take a moment and do a mental "reading list" inventory.  What works of fiction are you currently reading?  During the day, how many news articles, websites, journal articles, non-fiction books, emails, documents, directions, graphs, charts, maps and diagrams will you be looking at to gather information?  What kind of writing and talking will you do? Will any of it require you to go back into the "informational text" materials to find information to support what you are writing or talking about?  I suspect that many of you spend a great deal of your professional and personal time focusing more on the "informational" side of text then the "literary" side of text - maybe by choice, maybe by necessity.  I know I carry my Kindle around just to grab a few minutes of "story time" for myself during the day.   Students in grades k-12 also need to experience a blend of literary and informational text, in many forms and across all subject areas, to help them access knowledge and ideas they will need to be successful in life.

Ohio's New Learning Standards for ELA/Literacy, drawing from the Common Core ELA Standards for Literacy, include the use of informational text in all grades and content areas as a way for students to gather and build knowledge.  Another way of looking at this it to consider yourself a teacher of the language of your content area.  What skills do students need to be able to read and write like a scientist, a historian or an artist? What strategies might you help them learn to access features of informational text - like charts, infographics, maps, diagrams, tags, interactive data tables?  One of our Bay Village Schools District-Wide Goals focuses on the use of Informational Text across our district. To help you with your understanding of this goal, and to begin to share instructional strategies that will help your students access the "language" of your content area, I have compiled some resources for you.

Define  Informational Text:
What informational text will students be able to use to build knowledge in your classroom?  How will you provide access to a variety of informational text?  What strategies might you help your students learn?

• Using Close Reading skills 
• Understanding content vocabulary in context
• Using a variety of rich, complex text

What might this look like in a classroom?
Mr. Hossak's 5th grade Classroom (EngageNY)
Exemplar Lesson Plans - scroll down to see Informational Text (achievethecore.org)

Guiding Questions For Instruction Using Informational Text.  (based on achievethecore.org - Instructional Practice Guides)

• How does the unit allow students to persist in efforts to seek evidence for their responses by returning to the info text when discussing or collaborating?
• What opportunities are provided for students to build on each other's observations or insights around a piece of informational text - including charts, maps, primary docs etc.?
• What tools/strategies will students be able to use to help them gain content knowledge from informational text?
• How are questions and tasks designed to help students build academic vocabulary (content or domain specific vocabulary and syntax)?
• How are questions and tasks designed to require students to use details from the text to demonstrate understanding and support their ideas about the text?
• What factors have been considered to make sure the text used is at or above the complexity expected for the grade level?

Resources
STANDARDS

• Ohio's New Learning Standards - Reading Informational Text k-5 
• Ohio's New Learning Standards - Reading Informational Text 6-12
• Ohio's New Learning Standards - Social Studies Literacy gr 6-12
• Ohio's New Learning Standards - Science and Technical Subj. gr 6-12
• Ohio's New Learning Standards - Content Area Writing - Gr 6-12
• Ohio's New Learning Standards - Writing gr k-5

ARTICLES

• Engage NY - NY Dept of Ed - Selecting Authentic Texts Resource Page
• ASCD Article - The Case for Informational Text (Neil Duke. EdLeadership. March 2004)
• ASCD Article - Closing In On Close Reading (Nancy Boyles. EdLeadership. Dec 2012)
• University of North Carolina Teacher Resources - Reading Info Text k-5
• Informational Text Resource Toolkit - INFOhio
• Building World Knowledge - Getting Children To Read and Enjoy Info Text - Reading Rockets
• Literacy Implementation Guidance for ELA/Literacy Standards - International Reading Association
• Reading Skills - An Introduction to Visual Literacy ( University of North Carolina)
• The Fine Arts 21st Century Skills Map  ( National Art Education Association)

INSTRUCTIONAL PLANNING

• Reading Like A Historian - Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) 
• What's In A Graph? Science NetLinks
• Writing Technical Instructions - ReadWriteThink
• ASCD Book Literacy Strategies for Improving Mathematics Instruction - C2 Reading In the Mathematics Classroom (Diane Metsisto)
• Guide For Writing Text Based Questions - achievethecore.org
• k-8 Lexiled Reading Passages - informational text  readworks.org
• Text Rater website - need to cut/paste in a text sample to assess complexity
• Reading Through the Arts - Kennedy Center ArtsEdge
• Pennsylvania Dept of Education - Phys Ed and Literacy Resource Page
• Think Literacy - Cross Curricular Ideas for Phys Ed developed by Calif. Dept of Ed
• Exemplars of Close Reading - Achievethecore.org gr 3-12
• Exemplar Units For Close Reading - EngageNY gr 6-12

ADDITIONAL BLOG POSTS

• Char's Blog Post on Finding A Balance Between Fiction and Non-Fiction - with lots of Reading and Vocabulary Strategies.
• Char's Blog Post on How To Teacher Readers To Read For A Purpose - with lots of Close Reading Strategy links

PARCC Is Leading To Climate Change

I write this blog from my office near the shoreline of Lake Erie.  On any given day in March, I may look out my window and see snow, rain, sleet, sunshine, gusting wind, or total calm - all within an 8 hour work day.  In Cleveland, we have a saying that if you don't like the weather, just wait 10 minutes and it will change.

I have heard this saying used when talking about the shift to Ohio's New Learning Standards/CCSS and  our Next Generation Assessments/ PARCC  Assessments.  Some people believe that if we just hang tight, that the education "weather" will change and we won't have to make any of these shifts.  I was a science teacher for a good chunk of my classroom career.  Weather is defined as the daily state of the local atmosphere - as measured by temperature, barometric pressure and precipitation.  Weather is variable and can change quickly.  The Cleveland weather analogy doesn't fit with what is happening in Ohio or in education across the US.  Global Climate Change would be a better match.  Climate changes slowly.  It is the average condition of temperature, precipitation and wind patterns in a large region over an extended period of time, beyond even a year.  Human behavior is impacting global climate change. Climate change is happening and we need to adjust accordingly to what the new "normal" is going to be.   

I think that PARCC and the CCSS are helping to shape Educational Climate Change.   Let's look at the components of Educational Climate - student knowledge, assessment of learning, and educational infrastructure and how we can begin to define the new "normal" in education.

 Student Knowledge

• CCSS/Ohio's New Learning Standards are designed to allow students to work on mastering a more focused set of grade level standards.   By vertically aligning these standards preK -12 and into college/career training, teachers will not have to re-teach material from prior years - but instead will be able to build on prior learning. 
•  Educational Climate Change 
• The first few weeks of a course or grade level will be focusing on new material, not review of the prior year.
• Lessons will be designed to allow students more time to practice and explore new knowledge/skills.  
• Students will have opportunities to apply their knowledge to real world problems.
• Lessons will focus on being able to read more complex materials -both fiction and informational.
• Assignments will focus on writing argumentatively using text based evidence to support ideas across all content areas.
• Reading will also center around  building vocabulary in context.
• There will be a balance of learning content and learning thinking skills like problem solving, modeling, analyzing, and questioning skills
• The use of technology to acquire knowledge, collaborate to build knowledge and to share knowledge. 

Assessment of Learning

• PARCC is the consortium of 22 states working together to build assessments around the new standards. Through the process of Evidence Centered Design - assessments will be based on "claims" of what a student should be able to do - these claims come from the standards.  Assessment designers and classroom teachers can look at the "Claims" and come to consensus on what "Evidence" they will look for to show that a student can do what the standards claim they should be able to do/know.  Assessments will be designed to be a tool to "Gather the Evidence" that everyone agrees shows what a student knows/or can do.
• Educational Climate Change
• Increased use of Formative Assessments (assessment FOR learning)  to help teachers and student monitor progress towards meeting the "Claims". Done on a regular basis, not just at the end of a unit (Summative Assessment).
• More use of "Growth Measures" to gather evidence of where a student starts in their learning - and where they finish over a given period of time.
• Technology based assessment tools - that allow for interactive questions, the use of simulations and modeling, built in testing accommodations and engaging questions.
• Assessment results that are more timely and more detailed.
• A balance of End of Course tests that measure content knowledge and Performance Tasks that measure mathematical and English "practices" as well as how well a student can apply knowledge to real world scenarios or problems.
• Shift away from "Teaching the the Test" and toward "Testing to the Teaching"  Assessments that are truly aligned to the standards - so that a teacher who is teaching and assessing in a classroom aligned to the standards should not have to take "time out" to practice for the new assessments.

Educational Infrastructure

• As the Educational Climate changes, we need to also change the way we think about what "school" is and what tools students and teachers need to be effective learners together.  Ohio's Next Generation Assessments/PARCC and  CCSS/Ohio's New Learning Standards both are helping to define these new infrastructures.
• Educational Climate Change
• Blended Learning classrooms where students and teachers use a mix of face to face and web based learning.  This can be done on a small scale, within the context of an instructional unit or on a large scale  within the context of a course by using Learning Management Systems (LMS) to organize student assignment folders, threaded discussion boards, resources and collaborative work.
• Traditional worksheets, practice workbooks and textbooks are now mixed with eBooks, student developed texts and supplemental materials pulled from a wide range of sources.
• Teachers who now have a common set of standards not only within a state, but across state boundaries working within collaborative teams - in district and beyond their district using technology as a communication tool.
• A progression of learning that spans not only the traditional k-12 environment but the preK- College/Career environment.
• Learning opportunities for ALL students, no matter where they are on the learning continuum. 
• More technology integrated into the daily learning process.  To quote Marc Prensky - "Assigning the tasks and not the tools." 
• Data driven decision making with the ability for district and building teams to work together to decide what data is important, how to gather it, where to keep it and how to use it to impact student learning.

As the "winds of change" blow across our state, we can choose to run down into the storm cellar, close the shutters and hope that once the wind stops, we will emerge to find everything just the way it was before OR we can acknowledge that the winds are part of a larger climate change and begin to plan for how to continue to help students grow as learners in our new climate zone.   

Common Core State Standards for ALL Students

The COMMON in Common Core State Standards is not just referring to the fact that the majority of states in the US have adopted these standards for Math and English Language Arts.  Here in Ohio, where Ohio's New Learning Standards include not just the CCSS but also new standards in Science, Social Studies, Fine Arts, Business, Physical Education, Foreign Language and more, the expectation is that COMMON means for all students in all districts.   That's right, ALL students, no matter what their ability level, grade level, economic background, ethnic background or primary language.   The challenge for teachers is not only how to implement the new standards effectively ,focusing on text complexity, depth of learning, mastery of content, vocabulary development, fluency etc. but also making sure that all students are "stretched" as learners and show growth over a year. Wow.  In order to differentiate learning within a classroom to meet the needs of all students, teachers will need to focus on three things - Complexity of Content, Delivery of Content, and Assessment of Learning. 

COMPLEXITY

In any classroom, there will always be some students who could "take the test" on the first day of a unit, and pass it. Those students are showing mastery of grade level standards and need to be given opportunities to build deeper learning of the material.  As you design your lessons, consider how you can build "stretch" moments into the group discussions, small group activities and individual work.  Building deeper learning doesn't necessarily mean moving them forward along the continuum of learning for that particular standard - in other words, don't just give them work from the next grade level or your future units.  Instead, provide them with tasks that encourage them to learn and apply different strategies to solve a problem,  real world scenarios that require them to think about their knowledge differently or the chance to support peers.

On the other end of the learner spectrum are the students who are not able to begin working on the grade level mastery standard because they need additional supports, may be missing key pieces of knowledge, may be ELL or developmentally may not be ready to hit that " mastery" target.  Formative assessments are key to understanding where these students are in their learning.  As you design your lessons, consider how you can include "scaffolding" moments into the group discussions, small group activities and individual work.  Once you identify the starting point for learning for these students - you need to map out a path that will help them move toward success on the grade level standard.  They may need modified materials, extra "scoops" of instruction, different kinds of practice activities and the chance to learn from "think out -louds", peer modeling and model materials/manipulatives.

For that big group in the middle, you also need to map out their path to mastery of your grade level standards. Evidence Centered Design is a great starting point for thinking about lesson design. Start with the learning targets and identify what it is that students need to DO. Decide what you would be able to circle, highlight, point to or observe in their work that will show you  that they can DO it.  Now, focus on building a lesson or series of lessons that will get them to the point that they can DO it.  Consider  lesson pacing, how to include a variety of activities, how to provide effective modeling, when and how to insert feedback that helps them to move their learning forward, scaffolding, and how to build in chances to make connections to real world scenarios. Look for materials that offer grade appropriate text complexity and will help them to build understanding of key content vocabulary.

DELIVERY

How do students build knowledge in your classroom?  During lessons that are teacher driven, are you providing written and oral directions?  Are your directions clear and easy to follow? Do you have consistent procedures in place in your classroom that help students transition from one activity to the next within the lesson.  Lessons that are student driven also need structure. What kind of lesson framework do you have in place that would allow students to anticipate what will happen during a lesson?  Are the resources that you are providing to the students appropriate for the rigor of the standard? Is there more than one way for them to access the material (think eBooks, audio books, hands-on materials, visual prompts) What are you doing to achieve a balance between teacher centered delivery of materials and student centered acquisition of knowledge (independent reading, computer research, group work, peer sharing)

ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING

"One size fits all" strategies for assessing progress towards mastering a standard won't work in our diverse classrooms.  Evidence Centered Design is a useful way to look at designing assessments. Take a look at the learning targets or objectives for your unit. Once you know WHAT a student needs to DO and have identified what this DOING looks like, you can build authentic assessments.  Think about what EVIDENCE you can collect to point back to the "DOING". Formative assessments might include simple "thumbs up or thumbs down" quick checks, entry and exit cards or keeping a checklist during group discussions or small group observations. Summative assessments may be computer based, may be portfolio or project based or may be adapted to offer students some choice in how they will be assessed.  Be flexible.  Some students may not be able share "what they know" in the same ways as the larger group.  Think about how these students CAN communicate, rather than focusing on the can't.  Utilize clickers, picture cues, computer aided communication, modeling and drawing instead of writing or offering a scribe as ways to help these students share their learning with you and their peers.   For some students with Severe Cognitive Disabilities, you may be assessing them along a grade band of standards or by using the "essence" of the standard. ( See - Ohio Academic Content Standards - extended)

As our state shifts to using the new Ohio Teacher Evaluation System (OTES) teachers must become more attuned to making sure all students are showing growth.  By planning  how we are differentiating by complexity, delivery and assessment, we can make sure to meet the needs of all our students.

RESOURCE INFO

 Resources for Differentiation

• CAST UDL Resources  http://aim.cast.org/learn/historyarchive/backgroundpapers/differentiated_instruction_udl#.Uu-8HD2wJTY
• ASCD Resource Page for Differentiation - http://www.ascd.org/research-a-topic/differentiated-instruction-resources.aspx

Evidence Centered Design
This is the process that PARCC is using to design the Next Generation Assessments for Math and ELA.  It starts with "CLAIMS" - very broad statements about what learners should be able to do.  From the claims - Teachers can identify "what can be circled, highlighted, pointed to, listened for, demonstrated" that show that the student is doing what the claim states. Then, teachers decide what EVIDENCE will be collected to prove this. Lesson plans can be developed that will make sure the students have the necessary learning opportunities to ultimately DO what the claim states.  In a classroom setting - the claims can be Learning Targets or Unit Objectives...or SLOs!

CLAIMS 

• PARCC Math Claims
• PARCC ELA Claims
• Science "claims" Based on the ODE Overview of Science Standards
• Social Studies "Claims" - based on ODE Intro to Social Studies Standards

Ohio's Academic Content Standards - extended 
These were initially designed to be a guide for students who would be using the state Alternative Assessment, but the grade band vertical alignment, the essence of the standard (think enduring understandings) and the "continuum of complexity" also makes a great starting point for thinking about how to differentiate by complexity in a diverse classroom.

• Ohio's New Learning Standards - Extended - For Differentiation ODE Homepage

• Ohio's New Learning Standards --For Differentiation Science

• Ohio's New Learning Standards - For Differentiation Math

• Ohio's New Learning Standards - For Differentiation Soc Studies

• Ohio's New Learning Standards- For Differentiation ELA