Chris Jakicic

Chris Jakicic, EdD, an author and a consultant, was principal of Woodlawn Middle School in Illinois from 1999 to 2007. She began her career teaching middle school science.

Our State Adopted the Common Core Standards—Now What?

Many schools and districts that have been implementing the PLC process are now wondering how to respond to the new Common Core Standards that their states have adopted. They’ve worked hard to respond to the four critical questions teams ask themselves: What do students need to know and do? How will we know if they have learned? What will we do if they didn’t learn? What will we do for those who already proficient?  They’ve developed common formative assessments and intervention opportunities based on their current state standards. They wonder how the Common Core will affect their work and whether they need to start from the beginning to redo the products they’ve created.

As we’ve worked with schools/districts making this transition, there are some common questions/issues we’ve encountered. In the PLC model, teams create a list of essential outcomes which address the most important learning targets that the team guarantees all students will know at the end of the year, and then establishes the skills they will teach, unit by unit. With the advent of Common Core standards, the question arises as to whether this process should continue. Should teachers merely be given a copy of the Common Core Standards for their grade level and then be directed to teach those standards, or should they engage in analysis of and dialogue about the standards?

Our experience has been that teams that engage in collaborative discussions regarding new standards (whether they are state standards or Common Core standards) build a shared understanding regarding the meaning of the standards, the priorities assigned to each standard, the common pacing required for teaching each standard, ways to assess student mastery, and the focus of intervention when students struggle. This team dialogue is essential to offering students a guaranteed implemented curriculum that assures students will move to the next course or grade level having had access to the same knowledge and skills. Teachers who study the standards in isolation are unable to provide students with this guaranteed curriculum.

Another frequent question we encounter deals with the assessment of the Common Core standards. Both of the consortia designing assessments (PARCC and Smarter Balanced) have agreed that multiple choice questions cannot be the only type used for these more rigorous standards.  In a PLC, collaborative teams ask themselves question two “How do we know whether students have learned our essential outcomes?”  Teams who are answering this question for the new Common Core Standards are finding that the learning targets they are assessing expect higher cognitive demand in many cases than their current learning targets. These teams are learning how to create better “constructed response questions.” They recognize that they must present students with a novel situation in the assessment and one or more rich questions that call upon students to provide a clear explanation for the answer.  They are hunting for pieces of text with higher complexity for both instruction and assessment. Assessment experts agree that teachers who work in collaborative teams are more successful in designing high-quality formative assessments that will provide them the information they need to know what to do next.

So, where should we start? We recommend that teams get started on the process now so that they are learning more about what they will need to do as a result. Beginning steps include:

  1. Begin with a review of the structure of the new standards—the idea of College and Career Readiness is an important thread beginning even in kindergarten.  Read one standard all the way through from Kindergarten to 12th grade to understand how they build on each other.
  2. Become familiar with the Appendices for each set of standards. There are hidden gems in each one: Appendix A in ELA has some important vocabulary and discussion about text complexity and the structure of the standards, Appendix B in ELA provides samples pieces of text and ideas for assessment, Appendix C in ELA provides samples of student writing and scoring ideas which can lead to rubrics, and Appendix A in Math explains how the standards are structured for each grade level and the two different tracks for high school math.
  3. Identify the power or essential standards for your course or grade level.  If you are an elementary school, choose one area (math or ELA) to begin with. Get good at the process, and the next subject will be much easier. Unwrap these standards into their learning targets. Don’t rush this step: getting clarity about the meaning of these standards will take some time. Talk about what your expectations for proficiency will be and what instructional strategies will be most effective to get students there.  Look at the grade level before and after yours to assure your expectations are vertically aligned.
  4. Begin writing short common formative assessments for a small number of learning targets (1 to 3 maximum). Become confident writers of constructed response questions.  Examine the student responses collaboratively to make sure you are all applying the rubric the same way.

Professional Learning Communities understand that the “L” in the title refers to both student and adult learning.  They believe that by working together to learn how to most effectively use these new standards, the ultimate products of their work will be better as a result.  This work will take time but each meeting brings new learning to the group. It is better to work carefully and purposely than to rush to “check off” completed tasks. Because you are a PLC, the pay off will be worth it!

Comments

Chris Jakicic

hgonzalez, High Schools across the country are having to re-evaluate their approach to ELA because the Common Core Standards are asking for a greater emphasis on Informational Text reading rather than literature. In fact by high school, the expectation is greater than 50% of the materials will be informational text. The "good news" is that this means resources beyond novels will have to be added. Schools are finding these resources by going into Appendix B in the Common Core for ideas...speeches, newspaper articles, research reports, etc. I put "good news" in quotes because your issue with not having enough copies of novels will be minimized, but this also means a huge revamp of the English program. However, it also means that collaborative teams will share ideas and resources more easily. One place I've found to get started is a website call Edsitement. It has lots of primary and secondary source documents for your colleagues in science and social studies, and lots of humanities connections for your department. Good luck..this will take time so don't expect to get everything done in a year!

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rgidley

I am very concerned about the approach my district is taking with the Common Core just around the corner. Two years ago, we were identified as an Illinois Horizon School and yet no one wants to discuss the negative implications that switching to the Common Core will have on student achievement, especially in the first couple years. We were also told by the Superintendant that no new materials will be purchased to align with the Common Core Standards. I ralize that I can familiarize myself with the standards but it would be highly beneficial to address the issues with other teachers to build a level of comfortability with the transition. If we as teachers are not learning then how can we expect the students to learn.

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hgonzalez

My school is in the process of creating PLCs within departments in order to encourage collaboration in rewriting our curriculum to align with the Common Core. I teach high school Language Arts and we currently have a novel-based curriculum. We do not have textbooks, but have a number of core works that support the units we have been required to teach; how and when we teach those works is at the discretion of each teacher. As part of our curriculum revisions, have been told to create common formative assessments as that is an essential piece to implementing the common core; however, our problem lies in the integrity and the authenticity of students’ responses. Since we are novel-based, we do not all teach the same unit at the same time. We do not have enough copies of each work to support all students across the grade levels at the same time. Adding books at this time is nearly impossible with the tax cap and the state’s (NJ) current slash on education. If we create common assessments, teachers will end up administering those assessments at different times of the year, thus allowing students to discuss test materials prior to completing the assessment. Is there a solution to this problem, short of investing money that the school does not have into textbooks or additional novels?

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khopson001

I think that it is great debmersmom5 that your school is offering training. Our district is doing the same. We actually had an inservice day to look at the standards and see in what ways we could meet them in our classroom. We made a list of resources we could use in each standard. For example if one person had a book or sctivities for a unit on community helpers, we would know who to go to for those activities.

I agree that working together with other teachers is HUGE and that by coolaborating this change will be less stressful and maybe even more beneficial. We are looking into purchasing flip books of the standards for each grade level as well instead of the large books per subject area K-12.

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debmersmom5

Our state is also implementing common core over the next few school years. Thankfully we are being trained throughout the process. We have held several trainings to learn the standards, the reasoning behind the change, and how to implement them. I look forward to the change and know it will be a stress free process since my district is ensuring our understanding. I feel as if they have truly made us a part of the process which is a key component.

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Chris Jakicic

asnider, You are correct that the work of developing a guaranteed and viable curriculum is a foundational step in addressing how the Common Core Standards will be used in your school and district. Most of us are struggling with how we will make that transition over the next several years. How do we continue to address our own state standards, while including the new--perhaps more rigorous ones? The term viable implies that we have enough time and can effectively teach (and have students learn) the standards we include. This is why PLC schools ask their teachers to identify the "essential" standards. These are standards we all agree are the most important for all students.

I encourage you to get involved in your district's work so that you benefit from the collaborative discussions that will occur as teachers talk about what these standards mean and how instruction will change as they are implemented. Representative teams throughout the district can choose their essential standards, share their draft with the rest of the district teachers, and solicit advice and feedback before agreeing on a final product. Your list should still be considered a "draft" as teachers implement them in their work. By working with other teachers, instead of in isolation, you will understand more deeply what these new standards mean and what they will look like when students can achieve them!

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jlhamm

In South Carolina, we also plan to adopt the Common Core Standards in 2012-2013. There are many mixed feelings about the change but, as an ELA teacher, I am excited. The core standards seem very practical and well thought out. They also have abundant resources up and coming. I like that nation-wide, we can compare our students. To prepare for the changes, our district is training a team of teachers in each school on the new standards who bring the information back to their schools. Within our school, we are beginning to align the Common Core standards with our state standards to help us get used to them. Even if you can't do this school-wide, I think that is a great way to become familiar with the standards. After all, we teach our students to apply their learning- we should, too!

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khopson001

Asnider...if you want more information on our curriculum binder...let me know and I can elaborate more:-)

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khopson001

Our school district and state of Ohio also are adopting the Common Core Standards and they will be implemented 2012-2013. I also began teaching 4 years ago and in college it was hammered into us that we had to know the standards. I learned them back and forth and implemented them in my lesson plans my first year of teaching. Our gradecard is standards based and we teach to the standards frequently but not as often as we learned in college that we would need to. One thing we do like about the common core is that more of the science and social studies standards are built into our reading standards. They almost intertwine. asnider, I think that it would deeply benefit your studnets for collborating. Our gradelevel came up with a curriculum binder. We have each week our theme, LA, science ect listed and what standards we are meeting. This helped us all be on the same page as well as meet the childrens needs according to the standards. Of course this now will all be chaning along with the standards:-)

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asnider

Washington has published learning requirements for each grade level too. When I became a teacher four years ago. I was handed the state standards as you described and told this is what students needed to learn. As my district is focusing more on developing a garanteed and viable curriculum, we have discussed the standards some. For the most part though, they are not often referred to. The times I have looked through them I thought they were too vague to hold much meaning for me. If I could collaborate with first grade teachers across the district to deepen my understanding it would beifit my students. How can you organize such a broad collaboration among staff?

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