PCI TESOL 2014 Portland OR Cynthia Wiseman, Linda Pelc, & Fernando Zaike

1. Aligning teaching, learning, and
assessment with student learning
outcomes in the Common Core
Linda A. Pelc, LaGuardia Community
College CUNY
Cynthia S. Wiseman, CUNY BMCC
Fernando A. Zaike, Urban Action
Academy, NYC DOE
PCI TESOL March 2014

2. Three-part Workshop
Part I:
• Introduction to the Common Core
Part II:
• Development of units & lesson plans aligned to the
Common Core Standards
Part III:
• Examination of assessments related to the
Common Core
• Blueprint for the Common Core
• Structure of the Standards
• Big Shifts for ELLs
• Student learning outcomes
• Model units & lesson plans
• Assessments

3. Introductions

4. Introductions
♦How does this video resonate with
you? Introduce yourself to a
partner and share your thoughts
with each other and then with the
larger group. (15m)
KWL: Common Core (15m)
–What do you know?
–What do you want to know?

6. Introductions
–How does this video resonate with
you? Introduce yourself and share
your thoughts with a partner. (15m)
KWL: Common Core (15m)
–What do you know?
–What do you want to know?
–What have you learned?

7. Part I: Common Core (CCSS)
Rationale: Language Arts: Literacy in a global 21st
century world
♦ Close attentive reading to understand and enjoy complex
works of literature
♦ Critical reading for important points
♦ Able to handle large amounts of information
♦ Actively seek wide, deep, thoughtful engagement with
high-quality literary and information texts that builds
knowledge, enlarges experience & broadens worldviews
♦ Reflexively demos cogent reasoning and use of evidence
essential to private deliberation and responsible
citizenship in democracy

8. Common Core
Organization
StrandsStrands
ClusterCluster
ClusterCluster
StandardStandard
StandardStandard
StandardStandard
Sub-
Standard
Sub-
Standard
Sub-
Standard
Sub-
Standard
Sub-
Standard
Sub-
Standard
Sub-
Standard
Sub-
Standard

9. Writing Standards K-5 Text Types and Purposes
Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5
1. Write opinion pieces on
topics or texts, supporting a
point of view with reasons.
1. Write opinion pieces on
topics or texts, supporting a
point of view with reasons &
information.
1. Write opinion pieces on
topics or texts, supporting a
point of view with reasons
and information
a. Introduce the topic or text they
are writing about, state an opinion,
and create an organizational
structure that lists reasons.
a. Introduce a topic or text clearly,
state an opinion, and create an
organizational structure in which
related ideas are grouped to
support the writer’s purpose.
a. Introduce a topic or text clearly,
state an opinion and create an
organizational structure in which
ideas are logically grouped to
support the writer’s purpose
b. Provide reasons that support
the opinion.
B Provide reasons that are
supported by facts and details.
b. Provide logically ordered
reasons that are supported by acts
and details
c. Use linking words and phrases
(e.g., because, therefore, since, for
example) to connect opinion &
reasons
C. Link opinion and reasons using
words and phrases (e.g., for
instance, in order to, in addition)
c. Link opinion and reasons using
words, phrases and clauses (e.g.,
consequently, specifically)
d. Provide a concluding statement
or section.
d. Provide a concluding statement
or section related to the opinion
presented.
d. Provide a concluding statement
or section related to the opinion
presented.

11. Common Core Standards
♦ http://www.corestandards.org/in-the-states

12. Part I:
The Common Core State
Standards (CCSS)
♦The BIG Shifts:
Six Shifts in ELA/Literacy
–Text complexity
–Close Reading

14. Text Complexity
Qualitative X Quantitative

15. Qualitative Attributes Text
Complexity
– Words with multiple meanings
– Nominalization
– Complex syntax
– Linking ideas
– Referential chains
– Organizational structure
– Academic stance
Fisher, D., Frey, N. & Lapp, D. (2012) Text complexity: Rasiing rigor in
reading. Newark, DE International Reading Association.

16. Text Complexity: Qualitative
♦ Structure
– Low Complexity (simple, well-marked, and conventional
structures
– High Complexity (complex, implicit, and unconventional
structures in literary texts – from chronological order to
frequent use of flashbacks, flash-forwards, multiple points
of view an and other manipulations of time and sequence)
♦ Norms and conventions
– Simple: no deviation from common genres and subgenres
– Complex: norms of specific discipline; variety of
structures
♦ Graphics
– Low complexity: simple or not necessary
– High complexity: complex graphics independent source
of information, essential to understanding a text

17. Text Complexity: Qualitative
♦ Language Conventionality and Clarity
– Easier to read: literal, clear, contemporary, and
conversational
– Harder to read: figurative, ironic, ambiguous, purposefully
misleading, archaic, unfamiliar language, e.g., general
academic and domain-specific vocabulary
♦ Knowledge demands
– Less complex: few assumptions about readers’ life
experiences and depth of their cultural litarary and
content/discipline knowledge
– More complex: many assumptions in 1+ areas
♦ Levels of meaning or purpose
– Easier: literary with single level of meaning; explicitly stated
purpose
– Harder: multiple levels of meaning, e.g., literal message
intentionally at odds with underlying message – satire or
irony; informational texts with implicit, hidden or obscure
purpose

18. Analysis of Texts
Read and determine the level

19. Qualitative Measures/
Text
Your
World
Eleven A Rain of
Daffodils
My
Child is
Missing
CCSS What
they
fought
for
Structure of text, e.g., simple or
complex, chronological order
Norms & Conventions
Graphics, e.g., Limited use of
text features and graphics
Language, e.g., significant use
of dialect or figurative language
or archaic language, ambiguity
Background knowledge required
Sentence structure, e.g.,
complex & varied
Vocabulary range

20. Quantitative Analysis of Texts
♦ ATOS
♦ Lexile

21. Text
complexity
♦Quantity:
– Text Complexity
– Word frequency
– Sentence length
♦www.lexile.com
♦www.renlearn.com/ar/overview/atos/
♦www.readingmaturity.com
♦www.questarai.com

22. ATOS
Text ATOS
Level
Word
Count
Avg Word
Length
Avg
sentence
length
Avg Vocab
level
Your World 9.4 78 4.2 19.5 4.1
Eleven 4.7 258 4 14.2 1.7
Daffodils 4.8 263 3.9 12.9 2.2
Missing
Child
5.0 207 4 11.2 2.7
CCSS 10.1 248 4.3 27.6 3.8
What They
Fought For
10.0 238 4.9 21 3.8

23. Lexile
Text Lexile
Measure
Mean
Sentence
Length
Mean Log
word
frequency
Word Count
Your World 1130L 19.50 3.62 78
Eleven 810L 13.58 3.76 258
Daffodils 950l 17.29 3.85 242
Missing Child 830L 14.31 3.80 186
CCSS 1460l 27.56 3.42 248
What They
Fought For
1190l 19.83 3.50 238

24. NewsELA.com
♦ Helping Homeless College Students by
Lexile Level
♦ TweenTribune

25. Functional Analysis: Sentence in your own
words
Who? What
happened?
What? Where? When?
Descriptor Detail(s)

26. Part II: Aligning Lesson
Plans with the Common Core
– Common Core-friendly lesson plan template (NYCDOE)
– Identifying content and theme within the unit
– Identifying student learning outcomes
– Identifying CCSS/College Readiness Anchor Standards
– Choosing/evaluating appropriate texts: Text Complexity
– Instruments and models in K-12 that support evidence-based
learning
• DOK (Depth of Knowledge, a.k.a. Bloom’s Taxonomy)
• Mind Mirror
• Script Writing Exercise
• ICE paragraph
• Sample lesson: The Golden Touch
– Creating Tasks

28. Readers & Text
♦ Gauge Student Ability, Learning Styles &
Interests
♦ Determine Text Complexity
♦ Create opportunities for engagement &
comprehension
– Close Reading
– Critical Thinking
– Evidence-based learning

30. Common Core
College Readiness Anchor
Standards

31. Anchor Standards for Writing 6-12
(Insert p. 54 writing anchor standards)

33. Depth of Knowledge DOK

35. Mind Mirror
♦ Tool for differentiating instruction
♦ Enables students to showcase understanding
of unit
♦ Integrates critical thinking into the ESL
classroom
♦ Sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch
♦ Ss create a poster and presentation
♦ Thinking into the English Language
Classroom: Mind Mirror

36. Script Writing Exercise

37. ICE Paragraph:
The Golden Touch
Activity for evidence-based learning
– Introduce a claim
– Provide (Cite) evidence
– Explain how the evidence supports the claim

40. Create a task that….
♦ Fits a theme or unit
♦ Identifies instructional objectives
♦ Is aligned with Common Core standards
♦ Requires process skills for critical thinking
AND
♦ Engages students

41. PARCC: Partnership for Assessment of
Readiness for College and Careers
♦ PARCC Core Commitments
♦ Key shifts in the Standards
♦ Advances
– Innovative item types
– Summary of PARCC components
– Literary analysis task
– Research simulation task
– Narrative writing task
– End of year assessment

42. PARCC: Design to reward quality instruction
aligned to the Standards
♦ Texts worth reading: authentic texts vs.
artificially produced or commissioned
♦ Questions worth answering: sequences of
questions that draw out deeper encounters
with texts rather than random questions of
varying quality
♦ Rooted in language of the standards
♦ Model Content Frameworks: key elements
of excellent instruction aligned with
Standards

43. The CCSS Shifts Build Toward
College and Career Readiness
for All Students

44. 1. Complexity: Regular practice with
complex text and its academic language.
2. Evidence: Reading and writing grounded
in evidence from text, literary and
informational.
3. Knowledge: Building knowledge through
content rich nonfiction.
What Are the Shifts at the Heart of
PARCC Design (and the Standards)?
44

45. Shift 1: Regular practice with complex
text and its academic language
♦ Staircase of complexity to ensure college
and career reading
♦ Rewards careful, close reading rather than
racing through passages
♦ Systematically focuses on the words that
matter most – not obscure vocabulary but
academic language that pervades complex
texts

46. Shift 2: Reading & writing grounded in
evidence from text, literary and informational
♦ Rigorously citing evidence from texts
throughout assessment (selected-response
items)
♦ Questions w/ more than 1 right answer to
allow Ss to generate a range of rich insights
that are substantiated by evidence from texts
♦ Writing to sources rather than writing to
decontextualized expository prompts
♦ Rigorous expectations for narrative writing,
e.g., accuracy and precision in writing

47. Shift 3: Building knowledge
through content rich nonfiction
♦ Assesses ELA + full range of reading and
writing across the disciplines of science and
social studies
♦ Simulates research on the assessment, e.g.,
the comparison and synthesis of ideas
across a range of informational sources

48. ♦Evidence-Based Selected Response (EBSR)—Combines a traditional
selected-response question with a second selected-response question
that asks students to show evidence from the text that supports the
answer they provided to the first question. Underscores the
importance of Reading Anchor Standard 1 for implementation of the
CCSS.
♦Technology-Enhanced Constructed Response (TECR)—Uses
technology to capture student comprehension of texts in authentic
ways that have been difficult to score by machine for large scale
assessments (e.g., drag and drop, cut and paste, shade text, move
items to show relationships).
♦Range of Prose Constructed Responses (PCR)—Elicits evidence that
students have understood a text or texts they have read and can
communicate that understanding well both in terms of written
expression and knowledge of language and conventions. There are four
of these items of varying types on each annual performance-based
assessment.
Three Innovative Item Types That Showcase
Students’ Command of Evidence with Complex
Texts
48

49. Literary Analysis Task (Grade
10):
Ovid’s “Daedalus and Icarus” and
Sexton’s “To a Friend Whose Work
Has Come to Triumph”
49

50. •Students carefully consider two literary texts
worthy of close study.
•They are asked to answer a few EBSR and
TECR questions about each text to demonstrate
their ability to do close analytic reading and to
compare and synthesize ideas.
•Students write a literary analysis about the two
texts.
Understanding the Literary Analysis
Task
50

51. ♦ Range: Example of assessing literature and helping to satisfy the
70%-30% split of informational text to literature at the high school
grade band.
♦ Quality: The story of Daedalus and Icarus from Ovid's
Metamorphoses is a classic of the genre and has proven to be
inspirational to painters and poets alike, and no poet’s version is
more striking than that of Anne Sexton. Her “To a Friend Whose
Work Has Come to Triumph” refashions the themes of the myth in
dramatic fashion, providing a powerful counterpoint for students
to explore.
♦ Complexity: Quantitatively and qualitatively, the passages have
been validated and deemed suitable for use at grade 10.
Texts Worth Reading?
51

52. On the following pages, there are two
Evidence-Based Selected-Response Items
and one Prose Constructed Response
Item that challenge students’ command
of evidence with complex texts.
Questions Worth Answering?
52

53. Use what you have learned from reading “Daedalus and Icarus” by
Ovid and “To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Triumph” by Anne
Sexton to write an essay that provides an analysis of how Sexton
transforms Daedalus and Icarus.
As a starting point, you may want to consider what is emphasized,
absent, or different in the two texts, but feel free to develop your
own focus for analysis.
Develop your essay by providing textual evidence from both texts.
Be sure to follow the conventions of standard English.
Grade 10 Prose Constructed-
Response Item
53

54. ♦ Specific CCSS alignment to:
– RL.10.1 (use of evidence); RI.10.9 (comparison of authors’ presentation);
RL.10.10 (complex texts).
– W.10.2 (writing to inform and explain); W.10.4 (writing coherently); W.10.9
(drawing evidence from texts).
– L10.1-3 (grammar and conventions).
♦ Measures the ability to explain how one text transforms ideas from
another text by focusing on a specific concept presented in the texts
(the transformation of ideas with regard to the experience of flying).
♦ Asks students to write to sources rather than write to a de-
contextualized prompt.
♦ Focuses on students’ rigorously citing evidence for their answer.
♦ Requires students to demonstrate they can apply the knowledge of
language and conventions when writing.
Aligns to the Standards and
Reflects Good Practice
54

55. Part A
Which of the following sentences best states an important theme about human behavior as described in Ovid’s “Daedalus
and Icarus”?
a.Striving to achieve one’s dreams is a worthwhile endeavor.
b.The thoughtlessness of youth can have tragic results.*
c.Imagination and creativity bring their own rewards.
d.Everyone should learn from his or her mistakes.
Part B
Select three pieces of evidence from Ovid’s “Daedalus and Icarus” that support the answer to Part A.
a.“and by his playfulness retard the work/his anxious father planned” (lines 310-311)*
b.“But when at last/the father finished it, he poised himself” (lines 312-313)
c.“he fitted on his son the plumed wings/ with trembling hands, while down his withered cheeks/the tears
were falling” (lines 327-329)
d.“Proud of his success/the foolish Icarus forsook his guide” (lines 348-349)*
e.“and, bold in vanity, began to soar/rising above his wings to touch the skies” (lines 350-351)*
f.“and as the years went by the gifted youth/began to rival his instructor’s art” (lines 376-377)
g.“Wherefore Daedalus/enraged and envious, sought to slay the youth” (lines 384-385)
h.“The Partridge hides/in shaded places by the leafy trees…for it is mindful of its former fall” (lines 395-
396, 399)
Gr 10 Evidence-Based Selected-
Response Item
55

56. Creating a task to test L2
♦ Describe the population you teach
♦ Define the purpose for an L2 writing
assessment task
♦ Define the construct that you are measuring,
e.g., ability to support with evidence or
compare and contrast text
♦ Design a task that would require the
demonstration of these skills/knowledge
♦ Share your task with a partner

57. Useful Links
♦ http://www.corestandards.org/
– Common Core State Standards Initiative
♦ www.lexile.com
♦ www.renlearn.com/ar/overview/atos/
♦ www.readingmaturity.com
♦ www.questarai.com
♦ Thinking into the English Language
Classroom: Mind Mirror

58. Self-Assessment
♦ I have a greater understanding of the Common Core State Standards
♦ I have an understanding of the Big Shifts in the Common Core
♦ I understand the general approach to assessment in the Common Core
♦ I understand text complexity and tools for determining appropriate text
level.
♦ I have some tools and models for aligning lessons/units with Common
Core Standards.
♦ I have some samples of lessons/units/assessment that ae aligned with
Common Core Standards.
♦ I have an approach for mapping unit/lessons onto the Common Core
Standards.
♦ I have an idea of formative assessments aligned with CCSS.

59. THANK YOU
for your participation!