September 24th Professional Learning Schedule

Below is the schedule for our professional development on Monday, September 24th.  The district focus of the day will be dedicated to learning more about our new data solution tool, Data Director. Models will be provided through a demo site, so we are asking participants not to bring laptops, iPads, etc., so as to not overload the site. When not at the district-level session, you will have opportunities to engage in professional development within the PLC structure at the building level.

8:00-10:00--All Secondary Staff--HS Auditorium

Data Director Training--Kari Barber, Midwest Trainer, SEP Curriculum Team

• Accessing Data Director from SEP Portal
• Usernames and passwords
• Dashboard/Icons
• How to create assessments (all subject areas)
• Performance Levels
• Review sample set of data

10:30-12:00--SEP Administrators--HS Auditorium

Data Director Training--Kari Barber, Midwest Trainer, SEP Curriculum Team

• Accessing Data Director from SEP Portal
• Usernames and passwords
• Permission protocols
• Model by coaches of assessment design and standards alignment for SEP reading and math assessments

1:00-3:00--All Elementary Staff--HS Auditorium

Data Director Training--Kari Barber, Midwest Trainer, SEP Curriculum Team

• Accessing Data Director from SEP Portal
• Usernames and passwords
• Dashboard/Icons
• Design of SEP reading and math assessments
• Performance Levels
• Review sample set of data

 We are looking forward to a day of learning--please let us know if you have any questions about the day.

Resources to Support the Iowa Core

Implementing the Iowa Core

As we move into the 2012-2013 school year, we are implementing the newly designed units that were collaboratively designed to align with the revised expectations of the Iowa Core.  This shift to common expectations is new to us in Iowa, so while most of us appreciate the focus and precision these standards provide, it does require renewed efforts in lesson planning and design. The good news is that since 45 states have joined this initiative, there are multiple resources to support this transition.  We will continue to showcase these tools in this week's as well as upcoming blogs.

• Nine Ways the Common Core will Change Classroom Practices
• ASCD's New EduCore tool--FREE!
• Mindshift--Best Practices for Deploying iPads
• Knowmania--Using iPads to plan and record lessons

Do you have some favorite Common Core support tools?  Please share them at the end of this blog.

Nine Ways the Common Core Will Change Classroom Practices by Robert Rothman 

In a recent survey, William Schmidt, a University Distinguished Professor of Education at Michigan State University, found some good news and bad news for supporters of the Common Core State Standards. The good news was that the vast majority of teachers have read the Standards and nearly all like them. The bad news was that about 80 percent of mathematics teachers said the Standards were "pretty much the same" as their current state standards.

Those teachers might want to take a closer look. While the Common Core State Standards share many features and concepts with existing standards, the new standards also represent a substantial departure from current practice in a number of respects. Here are nine important differences:

In Mathematics

1. Greater Focus

The Standards are notable not just for what they include but also for what they don't include. Unlike many state standards, which include long lists of topics (often too many for teachers to address in a single year), the Common Core Standards are intended to focus on fewer topics and address them in greater depth. This is particularly true in elementary school mathematics, where the standards concentrate more on arithmetic and less on geometry. Some popular topics (like time) are not included at all, and there are no standards for data and statistics until sixth grade-a controversial change. The reasoning is that teachers should concentrate on the most important topics, like number sense, in depth so that students develop a real understanding of them and are able to move on to more advanced topics.

2. Coherence

One of the major criticisms of state standards is that they tend to include the same topics year after year. The Common Core Standards, by contrast, are designed to build on students' understanding by introducing new topics from grade to grade. Students are expected to learn content and skills and move to more advanced topics. The Standards simultaneously build coherence within grades-that is, they suggest relationships between Standards. For example, in seventh grade the Standards show that students' understanding of ratio and proportion-used in applications such as calculating interest-is related to their understanding of equations.

3. Skills, Understanding, and Application.

The Standards end one of the fiercest debates in mathematics education-the question of which aspect of mathematics knowledge is most important-by concluding that they all are equally central. Students will need to know procedures fluently, develop a deep conceptual understanding, and be able to apply their knowledge to solve problems.

4. Emphasis on Practices

The Standards have eight criteria for mathematical practices. These include making sense of problems and persevering to solve them, reasoning abstractly and quantitatively, using appropriate tools strategically, and constructing viable arguments and critiquing the reasoning of others. These practices are intended to be integrated with the standards for mathematical content. To provide students opportunities to demonstrate the standards of practice, then, teachers might allow students more time to work on problems rather than expect them to come up with solutions instantaneously. Or they might provide students with a variety of tools-rulers and calculators, for example-and ask them to choose the one that best fits the problem rather than requiring them to choose a tool in advance.

In English Language Arts

5. More Nonfiction

Reflecting the fact that students will read primarily expository texts after high school, the Standards call for a much greater emphasis on nonfiction. The document proposes that about half the reading in elementary school and 75 percent in high school should be nonfiction. This would include informational texts in content areas as well as literary nonfiction in English language arts; publishing companies are likely to respond by revising their textbooks. Narrative fiction will become less prevalent. The Standards also expect students to write more expository prose. 

6.  Focus on Evidence

In reading, students will be expected to use evidence to demonstrate their comprehension of texts and to read closely in order to make evidence-based claims. To prepare them to do so, teachers will need to take time to read carefully with their students and in many cases reread texts several times. In writing, students are expected to cite evidence to justify statements rather than rely on opinions or personal feelings.

7. "Staircase" of Text Complexity

Students will be expected to read and comprehend increasingly complex texts in order to reach the level of complexity required for success in college courses and the workplace. The Standards document cites evidence that the complexity of texts used in schools has actually declined over the past forty years. To reverse this trend, teachers will have to choose materials that are appropriate for their grade level; states and organizations are now developing tools to help teachers evaluate complexity.

8.  Speaking and Listening 

The Standards expect students to be able to demonstrate that they can speak and listen effectively-two aspects of literacy rarely included in state standards. One of the consortia developing assessments to measure student performance against the Standards will create a speaking and listening assessment. Expect to see teachers asking students to engage in small-group and whole-class discussions and evaluating them on how well they understand the speakers' points.

9.  Literacy in the Content Areas 

The Standards include criteria for literacy in history/social science, science, and technical subjects. This reflects a recognition that understanding texts in each of these subject areas requires a unique set of skills and that instruction in understanding, say, a historical document is an integral part of teaching history. This means that history teachers will need to spend time making sure that students are able to glean information from a document and make judgments about its credibility. Science teachers will need to do the same for materials in that discipline. 

To prepare teachers to make these shifts, states and private organizations are planning and implementing substantial professional development efforts. In Kentucky, for example, the state department of education is undertaking a massive campaign to inform teachers about the Standards and their implications for practice and is making available sample lessons and other materials on a website. But these efforts will only be successful if all teachers understand the Standards and how they differ from current practice.

Robert Rothman is a senior fellow at the Alliance for Excellent Education and the author of Something in Common: The Common Core Standards and the Next Chapter in American Education 

(Harvard Education Press, 2011)

MindShift

With many schools at Southeast Polk beginning to use iPads to support instruction, it is useful to learn from each other as well as from other schools some ideas that support use and implementation.  MindShift shares a summary of best practices for deploying iPads.   

ASCD has released EduCore - a new, free digital tool designed to help educators implement both the English/language arts and math Common Core State Standards.  The EduCore tool houses instructional strategies, videos, and supporting documents that facilitate educators' transition to the new standards. Check it out!  It's free! 

If you're thinking about trying some "flipped" lessons this year, take a look at Knowmia and the Knowmia iPad app. And if you're not using the flipped model, Knowmia has promise as a good place to find educational videos that your students can use to review or get "on demand" help when they cannot connect with you.

  

Knowmania

Teachers are looking for effective ways to use iPads as well as exploring the growing concept of 'flipped classrooms'.  

The Knowmia iPad app is a new free lesson planning and recording tool for teachers. It helps you create short video lessons on any subject and publish them on knowmia.com so your students and the public can find them. Knowmia Teach makes it easy to bring in visual aids from multiple sources, organize them in steps (like slides in a presentation) and use your own voice and fingers to bring your lesson to life. You can design each step in the lesson, record illustrations as you draw them, and create sophisticated animation sequences with a simple stroke of a finger. You have the ability to describe your lesson with details that make it simple for any student who is interested in the subject to find it. 

What are your favorite tools for implementing the Common Core standards and technology integration?