Discovery Education Common Core Academy:Making the Common Core Make Common Sense in Your Classroom: A CCSS Academy for ELA and Content Area Teachers

Johnna Weller, Ed.D.Johnna_weller@discovery.com

Not-So-Common Leadership Strategies for Successful Common Core Implementation

Karen M. Beerer, Ed.D.Karen_beerer@discovery.com

Karen M. Beerer, Ed.D.28 years in public education:- classroom teacher- reading specialist- building principal- PD supervisor- curriculum director- assistant superintendent

Johnna Weller, Ed.D.20 years in education:- classroom teacher- reading specialist- literacy coach- curriculum supervisor- graduate-level instructor- assistant to the superintendent

The Good News!“Children’s books sales are up across the board, with increases ranging from 12% to 37% for paper books and 250% for children’s ebooks.”Source: US eBook Sales Were Up in the First Half of 2012, October 15th, 2012 by Nate Hoffelder

“U.S. Math, Science Achievement Exceeds World Average”Source: Ed Week, Published Online: December 11, 2012

And Some More… “U.S. fourth graders are definitely looking better. From 2006 to 2011, their math performance on TIMSS bumped up twelve points and now trails that of their counterparts in just seven other lands (in East Asia and Northern Ireland). Even more remarkable results come from PIRLS: Of the fifty-three systems participating, only four from abroad bested the U.S.’s score (Hong Kong, Russia, Finland, and Singapore). Further, Singapore is the only foreign system to surpass us at the “advanced” level, where an impressive 17 percent of American fourth graders can be found.”Source: Robelson, E., “U.S. Math, Science Achievement Exceeds World Average,” Education Week, December, 2012

You Knew It Was Coming:Total percentage of American adults who can’t understand the labels on their prescriptions.

46%

Community College students were shown a number line from -2 to 2 and asked to draw a line marking the approximate location of two numbers: -0.7 and 13/8.

21%

Total percentage of U.S. adults who are unable to read an 8th grade level book. 50%

U.S. adults able to pick out two items on a menu, add them, and calculate a tip. 42%

Total percentage of adults that have not been in a book store in the past 5 years. 70%

U.S. adults who could reliably calculate mortgage interest or those who could not calculate weekly salary when told an hourly pay rate.

20%

Total percentage of books started that aren’t read to completion. 57%

Source: Read Faster, Reading Stats, 2012; Richland, Stigler, & Holyoak, 2012); Department of Education's National Assessment of Adult Literacy

Jobs That Will Boom In 20201. Data Crunching2. Counseling and Therapy3. Scientific Research4. Computer Engineering5. Veterinarians6. Environmental and Conservation Science7. Healthcare fields8. Management9. Finance10. EntrepreneurshipSource: Newman, R. “10 Businesses that Will Boom in 2020,” U.S. News, September 2012

• Chief Information Officer• Career Counselor• Computerized 3 D Modeling

Machinist• Senior Technology Security• Molecular Beam Epitaxy

Technician and/or Engineer• Epitaxial Engineer• DNA Lab Technician• Nano-Technician• Endoscopy Technician• Bio-Engineer• Instrumentation Technician• Intermediate Biomedical

Engineer Technician

• Medical Ethicist• Sarbanes-Oxley Auditor• GEO Technical Technician• Quality Process Engineer• Fabrication Operator Wafer • Optical Maintenance Technician• Office Space Coordinator• NOC Specialist (Fiber Optics

Technician)• Telecommunications Engineer• Optical Manufacturing Technician• Controls Technician• Administrative Eligibility

Specialist• Computer Forensic Analyst

What Are The New Jobs?

The Common Core State Standards: Reach Higher, Learn Deeply

Can you guess which word appears in the ELA standards 122 times?

Sources: 61 timesResearch: 57 timesTechnology: 22 timesMultimedia: 22 timesDigital: 42 times

Evidence

The Changing Landscape of Literacy

Habits are Changing

The Changing Landscape of Literacy

Pedagogies are Changing

RECIPROCAL TEACHING INTERNETRECIPROCAL TEACHING

Questioning Questioning

Predicting Locating

Clarifying Synthesizing

Summarizing Communicating

[Palinscar & Brown, 1984] [Leu, Castek, Hartman, Coiro, Henry, Kulikowich & Lyver, 2005]]McVerry, Zawilinski, O’Byrne, 2009]

The Changing Landscape of Literacy

Assessments are Changing

The Changing Landscape of Literacy

Definitions and Standards are Changing

1985 2013

Definition

“Reading is the process of constructing meaning from written text.”

Definition

• Reading of multiple, multi-modal texts

• Reading in a specific context, for a specific purpose

• Disciplinary Literacy

Key Question:What about the Common Core

State Standards keeps you awake

at night?

What Do

Teachers Think

About the CCSS?

• How do we begin and how do we implement over the whole K-12 spectrum?• Lack of clarity on what direction I am supposed to take from this point

forward• Firm, specific examples of steps to take to reach the desired target and a

timeline to focus on.• The time to explore and learn the CCSS and the support needed to

implement them correctly.• We are unsure of what curriculum to look at and begin to pilot in order to

best meet the CCSS.• One of the biggest challenges is for all disciplines to understand that ELA is

not only limited to the "English" department, but that it is a skill set that all departments need to own.

• The time factor to juggle educating myself in CCSS while still teaching• How to prioritize what aspects of the CCSS to convey to the teachers in

terms of professional development.• Increasing knowledge of CCSS to support content-area teachers in the

implementation of CCSS in their courses. • Building the teacher and administrative capacity and understanding among

our leaders.