Common Core Assessment (Afternoon portion of Workshop)


Common Core Staff Development Morning


  • Computerized testing will NOT take place this year in grades 3-5
Hallmarks of the Core

  • Less is more - fewer standards that are more focused
  • Aligned with college and workforce expectations
  • Rigorous content and higher order thinking skills
  • Focus on the "end" result rather than the means to get there
  • Room for teachers to develop how they want to get the kids to the end goal
  • Reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language are to be taught across all disciplines
  • Upper elementary reading - 50% literature 50% reading for information
  • There are 3 appendices (900 pages) - Reading/Writing
    • Research and evidence - glossary of key terminology
    • Reading text exemplars and sample performance tasks
    • Annotated student writing samples
Common Core English/LA

  • Focus on complexity, quality and range of reading material (based on Lexile levels)
  • Reading across content areas
  • Anchor Standards - college and career readiness standards (by the end of high school) CCR's
  • Grade Specific Standards fall under the Anchor Standards - what students should be learning at each grade level to meet the Anchor Standards by end of high school - CCSS's
  • Reading, Writing, Speaking/Listening, Language are the 4 strands in ELA standards
  • Reading Domains (Overarching Idea)
    • key ideas and details
    • craft and structure
    • integration of knowledge and ideas
    • range of reading and level of text complexity
  • Balance between literature and informational text
  • Text complexity!!
  • Writing - emphasis on argument and informative/explanatory writing; writing about sources
    • text types and purposes
    • production and distribution of writing
    • research to build and present knowledge
    • range of writing
  • Speaking and Listening - formal and informal talk
    • comprehension and collaboration
    • presentation of knowledge and ideas
  • Language - general academic (ie. compare/contrast) and domain-specific vocabulary
Common Core Math Standards

  • Math Practices instead of Anchor Standards
    • create solid foundation in whole numbers, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, and decimals
    • 50% of 4th grade test will be fractions
    • 8 important math practices
    • Domains - Standards make up Clusters - Each cluster begins with a Cluster Statement
Dropbox
dropbox@lee.k12.nc.us
newPassword123

  • Based on Webb's Depths of Knowledge (only 4, but they correspond with Bloom's Taxonomy) DOK will appear in Level of Thinking Box on RESA document.

It's Official

I'm marking the date, once again this summer. Last night I had the official school nightmare! Those of you who are teachers know what I'm talking about. Only this year's was a slight bit different than the dreams I've had every other summer about this time. I guess I must be a little concerned about the amount of kids that are on my role this year, as my nightmare began with an auditorium FULL of 5th graders. As always occurs in "the dream" they wouldn't stop talking, they were disrespectful, they wouldn't complete activities I had worked hard to create for them. It was truly a teacher's nightmare!

Have you had "the dream" yet? If so I'd be interested to know how similar/different they all are!

Advice from Alan November

One of the highlights of going to ISTE12 was attending Alan November's sessions. I went to two of his sessions and throughout his talks he stressed the need for students to become better researchers, especially when it comes to the Internet.
Alan November at ISTE12 (this guy is telling him he loves him!)

Alan stated that the second day in every classroom we should "teach the kids how to become awesome researchers and how to pull apart the Internet layer by layer." He then went on to share lots of ideas and examples (many Google search tips I didn't know!).

So I've decided to take his advice. In addition to the usual Internet safety activities in which my class participates (we are a 1:1 netbook classroom and the kids take their computers home each night, so this is especially important), I'm going to integrate more researching/analyzing website skills this year during our first week. I've decided to start with the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. If you haven't see this site, it's hysterical. However, sadly, so are many sites our kids use as authentic research sources. I found this wonderful unit plan on ReadWriteThink.org with some great lessons that incorporate this hoax site. I think the activities will be a fun way to introduce my kids to effective Internet research. All About Explorers is another wonderful site designed to teach kids these skills.

 In addition here is my page of Internet Safety sites, many of which I use in activities during the first week of school. I would love to hear what kinds of Internet safety and research skill activities you introduce to your kids at the beginning of school. Please share!


Welcome to our new home!

Thanks for coming to our new home! I am hoping this move will motivate me to let you know all the wonderful things that are happening in our 1:1 classroom. The kids are doing amazing things! Please come back often and leave us some comments!

Sites From Today's Surfing! (weekly)

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.