HFM BOCES news

Common Core Learning Standards shifting emphasis of instruction

Pace slows in classrooms as teachers and students dig deeper into material

It’s not quite business as usual this fall as area teachers rethink how they provide instruction in the classroom.

The implementation of federal Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS) has teachers looking at their curriculum from a different perspective in order to make the necessary changes, or “shifts,” needed to meet those standards. CCLS will be phased in over the course of the next two years, replacing New York Learning Standards completely by the 2013-2014 school year.

Common Core Learning Standards is part of Race to the Top, a $4.35 billion U.S. Department of Education initiative designed to equip students with 21st century skills such as critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration and creativity and innovation.

New York allocated its share of federal funds to school districts throughout the state to implement CCLS. HFM BOCES component districts chose to pool funds and establish a Network Team responsible for overseeing implementation of CCLS requirements.

The CCLS has defined 12 instructional shifts—six in ELA/Literacy and six in math—that represent changes in what and how teachers present their curriculum in the classroom. The shifts provide a framework for teachers to help students think more analytically and gain a deeper understanding of the material they’re learning.

“We want teachers to slow down and dig more deeply into instruction,” said HFM BOCES Network Team Administrator Lee Shaver, who with Network Team Teacher Maryann Ivancic works directly with educators to provide consistent, high-quality professional development and related training.

“We need to help students develop skills that will prepare them for college and/or the workplace,” said Mrs. Shaver. “Common Core puts the focus on applying evidence from the text when it comes to student reading and writing.”

Students should be able to “read like detectives and write like investigative reporters,” Mrs. Shaver said.

The first ELA/Literacy shift requires that teachers create a balance between informational and literary texts. “The goal is that we’re not just using fiction in the classroom,” said Shaver.

This shift requires that 50 percent of an elementary student’s classroom reading is informational text. The objective is to build background knowledge necessary for upper grades and to bring science and social studies back into classrooms.

Informational text can be defined as a kind of non-fiction that conveys information about the natural or social world. It is different from non-fiction stories, biographies or how-to articles. Informational text has distinctive purposes and features, and can be found in several different formats - magazines, handouts, brochures, CD-ROMs, the Internet – along with books.

ELA Shift 4 is called Text-based Answers. “This shift encourages teachers to create lessons that foster rich and rigorous conversations that are dependent on a common text,” said Mrs. Shaver. “Teachers will insist that classroom experiences stay deeply connected to the text on the page.”
Students are expected to develop habits that require them to go back into the text in search of evidence rather than make personal connections to their own experiences, she said.

Math Shift 2 is Coherence, in which teachers connect learning across grade levels, building year by year on students’ previously mastered understanding of core math principles. Math Shift 4, called Deep Understanding, is designed to help students grasp concepts more completely and apply what they know to new situations. They should be able to describe their problem-solving processes and their understanding through writing and speaking.

The Race to the Top initiative includes implementation of the Common Core Learning Standards as well as:

• Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR). New accountability criteria for teacher and principal evaluations that rates teachers and principals in four categories: Highly Effective, Effective, Developing, and Ineffective

• Data Driven Instruction (DDI). Using data and research to improve instructional methods.