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Supporting LASS High Schools

21st Century Skills, Technical Writing, and Lexile Scores

Lakeshore Alliance for Student Success, Inc

Edward Schoenfelt, Executive Director

220 S. 13th Street, Chesterton, IN 46304-2104

Wednesday, March 9, 2011 9:00 a.m. – Noon CST

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21st Century SkillsTony Wagner skills for survival

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS2PqTTxFFc

Over coming the global achievement gap with a learning fill.

All students/adults need new skills.

A high school diploma is a ticket to a minimum wage job, nothing else.

Schools need to be reinvented not just reformed.

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1 Critical Thinking and Problem Solving 2 Collaboration across Networks and Leading by

Influence 3 Agility and Adaptability 4 Initiative and Entrepreneurialism 5 Effective Oral and Written Communication 6 Accessing and Analyzing Information 7 Curiosity and Imagination

21st century skills learned through the curriculum, which is interdisciplinary, integrated, project-based, and more, include and are learned within a project-based curriculum by utilizing the seven survival skills advocated by Tony Wagner in his book, The Global Achievement Gap:

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On the next slides state what is occurring in your school. Items 1 & 2, Items 3 & 4 what would you like to see happening.

ASIGNMENT

Pair up and share.

Document ways these skill are occurring at

your school and how you can enhance them

at your school.

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Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

1.

2.

3.

4.

6

Collaboration across Networks and Leading by Influence

1.

2.

3.

4.

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Agility and Adaptability

1.

2.

3.

4.

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Initiative and Entrepreneurialism

1.

2.

3.

4.

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Effective Oral and Written Communication

1.

2.

3.

4.

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Accessing and Analyzing Information

1.

2.

3.

4.

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Curiosity and Imagination

1.

2.

3.

4.

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Technical Writing

Teach students to compare and contrast topics of global interest/to gain competitive rigor. Teach studentshow to use:*Chicago Manual of Style handbook

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html *Modern Language Association (MLA) style.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/*American Psychological Association (APA) style

scientific writing process http://www.apastyle.org/learn/index.aspx

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Lexile Scores / SRI

A Lexile measure is a valuable piece of information abouteither an individual's reading ability or the difficulty of a text,like a book or magazine article. The Lexile measure isshown as a number with an "L" after it — 880L is 880 Lexile

The idea behind The Lexile Framework for Reading issimple: if we know how well a student can read and howhard a specific book is to comprehend, we can predict howwell that student will likely understand the book. Knowing a students lexile measure will help school challenge growth !

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Stay On Message

LEADERSHIP

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Five Minds for the Future

Discipline Mind – basic literacy mastered (10 years to master one discipline + additional = premium)

Synthesizing Mind – searchlight or laser intelligence

Creative Mind – attempt new things, monitor whether they work, and keep trying

* Respectful Mind – diversity is positive

* Ethical Mind – admire good work and want to achieve

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Crisply Summarized

Discipline Mind = DepthSynthesizing Mind = BreadthCreative Mind = Stretch

Up until ten years ago research would of stopped here.Because of social and political trends two more types wereintroduced after 15 years of additional study.

I believe in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s assertion that “Character is higher than intellect”

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* Respectful Mind (Human Sphere)

Starts with the assumption that diversity is positive and that the worldwould be a better place if individuals sought to respect one another.

Coming to respect others once feared, distrust, or disliked Is not easy. Yet in this interconnected world the potential for growth ispositive.

No quick fixes, only genuine respect, nurtured and earned over thedecades can reduce the appeal to violence / terrorism.

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* Ethical Mind (Human Sphere)

Most individuals admire good work and want to achieve it.Determining what is ethical is not always easy.

What kind of professional do I want to be?What kind of worker do I want to be?What kind of person do I want to be?What kind of students do we want in our schools?

Create an ethical environment for principals, teachers, staffs andstudents to learn in may be a starting point.

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Lexile Scores

The median Lexile® measure for Military texts is 1105L, while the medianmeasure for Citizenship texts is 1230L. Workplace texts—with a mediandifficulty of 1260L—have the broadest range of difficulty, extending both belowand above all of the other text collections. Further, though the median textdemand is fairly uniform across the workplace, military and citizenshipdomains, it is higher for postsecondary education:

1295L for two year institutions and 1395L for four-year institutions.

Do you know this?Where do your students rate?Can this help to create an urgency for SIP?

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Reading Facts:

- HS graduation no longer guarantees students are prepared for postsecondary challenges

- Graduation rates have declined- Common Core Standards grade by grade K-12 Eng and Math released

and adopted- High percentage need remedial courses in reading, writing, and math upon

entering tech school, community college, of four year universities- 42% entering community college take at least one remedial course.- 20% entering universities take at least one remedial course.- 91% of HS teachers believe they are preparing students for college work.- 26% of College professors believe students are ready.- Over the last 50 years the text complexity of K-12 texts have trended

downward. Where as the text complexity for reading demands in college,careers, and citizenship have held steady or increased.

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Shift is happening!

Text Complexity Grade Bands and Associated Lexile Ranges (in Lexile measures)

Text Complexity Previous Lexile Ranges Aligned Grade Bands Lexile Ranges to CCR Expectations K–1 N/A N/A 2–3 450L–725L 450L–790L 4–5 645L–845L 770L–980L 6–8 860L–1010L 955L–1155L 9–10 960L–1115L 1080L–1305L 11–CCR 1070L–1220L 1215L–1355L

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Measure your Students

College and Work Readiness Assessment (CWRA)

http://www.cae.org/content/pro_collegework.htm

Measures - critical thinking, analytic reasoning, problem solving, and written

communication ($40 per student with minimum of 100 tested)

National Student Clearinghouse

http://www.studentclearinghouse.org/ $450 per report, start with last five

Connect your graduates to postsecondary accomplishments, not based on

students surveys.

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References

21st Century Skills Rethinking how students learn, James Bellanca and Ron Brandt editors

Alliance for Excellent Education. (2006). Paying Double: Inadequate High Schools and Community College Remediation. Washington, DC: Author.

ACT. (2009). ACT National Curriculum Survey® 2009. Iowa City, IA: Author.

Howard Gardner identifies five types of minds society should encourage in future generations.

Daniel Pink, (2006) A whole new mind: Why right brainers will rule the future. New York: Riverhead.

Tony Wagner, (2010) The Global Achievement Gap, CELL Conference 2010.

Hirschman A. O. (1970) Exit, voice and loyalty: responses to decline in firms, organizations, and states. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press

Mr. Edward Schoenfelt, Executive Director, LASS, Inc. Lake, Porter, and LaPorte Counties of North Indiana www.mvsc.k12.in.us/lass schoenfelteddeb@yahoo.com