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Common Core Mind Shifts

The Common Core State Standardsinitiative has the potential to cause some ofthe most influential changes in teaching andlearning our country has ever experienced.The purpose of this monthly e-newsletter isto explore, from the perspectives ofadministrators, teachers, parents, andstudents, strategies for the implementation ofthe Common Core State Standards in waysthat lead to those changes.

While much has been written about theinstructional shifts embedded in thestandards, little has been written about themind shifts that need to occur to successfullyimplement these standards that raise the barfor our students in terms of college andcareer readiness. Educators must change theirthinking about how they design curriculum,plan instruction, choose resources, deliverlessons, respond to learners, and use evidenceto inform further teaching. Administratorswill need to collect evidence about teachingand learning that looks different frompreviously collected data, and parents will bechallenged to support their children’s learningin different ways. Students must now takemore responsibility for their own learning.

In this, the first issue of Making theCommon Core Come Alive!, we identifyand reflect on Mind Shifts that are essentialfor the successful implementation of thisimportant work.

The goal of curriculum should not be the

coverage of content, but rather the

discovery of content.

The Common Core State Standards(Common Core) provide districts with aroadmap, a clear set of shared goals, andexpectations for what knowledge and skillsstudents need in order to achieve and besuccessful in college and career. While the

standards dictate what students should learn,they do not outline how the content shouldbe taught. Districts, have the important jobof deconstructing these standards andmaking decisions around how they will bemet.

Traditionally, curriculum has been developedaround lists of major topics to be covered incertain subject areas. As teachers cover eachtopic, it is checked off of the list and the nexttopic is presented. Students are told what’simportant about the content to be learned,and do far less construction of their ownthinking about content.

What the Common Core has done for ushas broadened our view of what curriculumshould accomplish for students. If done well,the Common Core will elevate our teachingto new heights, and emphasize theconstruction of meaning, while deepeningour understanding of our students. What isnecessary for this to happen, is a shift in howcurriculum is designed and implemented.Instead of writing a curriculum aroundcontent mastery, it should instead be writtenaround the performance desired from ourstudents as a result of their investigationsinto a variety of concepts, skills, andstrategies.

The Common Core addresses individualgrade levels for Kindergarten through eighthgrade, and two year bands for ninth throughtwelfth grade, in order to allow flexibility inthe design of courses. Furthermore, each setof standards is intentionally written toinclude coherence between skills and aprogression of difficulty as students movethrough each grade level. In this day and age,when designing curriculum, a focus onconnected deep understandings versuscontent coverage is essential. As Robert

Heather, the author ofMaking the CommonCore Come Alive! isthe principal ofMendon CenterElementary School inPittsford CentralSchool District, NewYork. She is also a co-author of Creating aCulture for Learningpublished by Just ASK.

In This IssueP.3 Web Resources P.4 Future Issues of

Making the CommonCore Come Alive!

P.5 Lessons from theField

October 2012

Mind Shift OneThe goal of

curriculum should

not be the coverage

of content, but

rather the discovery

of content.

Heather Clayton Kwit

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Marzano states, “A guaranteed and viablecurriculum is the number one school levelfactor impacting student achievement.”

Points to ponder when developing acurriculum based on the discovery of contentin lieu of the coverage of content are asfollows:• What authentic, performance based

assessments are driving the learning?• Do the assessments emphasize critical

thinking and the transfer of knowledge?• Do the assessments emphasize meaning

making and deep understanding?• Is the curriculum written with a focus on

larger, overarching concepts?• Have you focused these concepts with

essential questions?• Does the curriculum align vertically? Is

there a careful consideration of pre-requisite skills and knowledge?

• Is student engagement central to theteaching and learning?

• Has there been an emphasis placed on 21st

century skills such as critical thinking,problem solving, creativity, innovation,collaboration, and research?

A deep understanding of the content to

be taught is paramount. (Or, we cannot

teach what we do not understand.)

In order to effectively plan lessons, deliverhigh quality instruction, and analyze studentprogress, we need to have a deep and flexibleunderstanding of the content we teach. Withthis deep understanding comes the ability toanticipate students’ misconceptions, see thelinkages between ideas, and make explicitconnections to real life.

The Common Core State Standards arerich and complex, and in order for teachers totransform this knowledge in a way that isaccessible to all learners, they themselves

must have a solid understanding of what is tobe taught. With this understanding will comethe ability to represent and communicate thecontent in meaningful ways for all students.

The optimal way for teachers to build thisdeep content knowledge is throughprofessional learning over a period of time.Teachers will benefit greatly by learning fromexperts and research, and by collaboratingwith colleagues.

In our classrooms, it is the students’

voices, not the teachers’, that are heard.

Not only do teachers need to be skilled atquestioning and leading meaningfuldiscussions, but students need to assumeresponsibility for asking important questionsand initiating rich conversations as well. Whatthe standards demand from our students is agreater focus on metacognitive activities thatencourage them to reflect and talk about theirown understandings and beliefs, whilelistening to the understandings, reactions, andmotivations of others. It can be as simple asusing “Why” questions or asking studentswhat they notice about something that canhelp to propel students’ conversationsforward.

The Common Core demands that ourstudents continually gather evidence, makegeneralizations, apply concepts, and representtheir thinking in different ways. Students areexpected to actively construct meaning fromcontent, a process which is strengthenedthrough student dialogue. Throughmeaningful, planned time to talk, students aregiven the opportunity to reflect on theirunderstandings and confusion, whileelaborating on their own ideas and buildingon others’ thinking using evidence from theirlearning.

Mind Shift TwoA deep understanding

of the content to be

taught is paramount.

(Or, we cannot teach

what we do not

understand.)

Mind Shift ThreeIn our classrooms, it

is the students’

voices, not the

teachers’, that are

heard.

Just ASK consultants are ready to help you develop

new or refine old units to align with the Common

Core State Standards. For more information contact

us at www.justaskpublications.com/ccparty

Access unit templates and other copyright-free tools

in the Just ASK Resource Center at

www.justaskpublications.com/ccss-sbe.htm

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We are preparing our students to do the

learning without us.

By design, the Common Core StateStandards emphasize proficiency andmeaning making. Students are expected tonegotiate texts and tasks of increasingcomplexity more than ever before. Ourstudents need to be taught persistence andthe importance of stamina. The ability toapply strategies, construct arguments, createrepresentations, persevere when solvingproblems, employ technology, critique, andunderstand the perspectives of others, willcome from the sophisticated work thateducators do in preparing students to beindependent.

The gift of multiple opportunities to “swimin the deep end,” will help our students toemploy strategies that will empower them tobe successful. For instance, if given frequent

experiences reading challenging texts closely,students will be able to encounter new textswith confidence. They will know theimportance of needing to read slower whilebuilding a deep understanding. It is qualityinstructional experiences that will help turnstudents’ strategies into skills. These skills canthen be translated into new or novelsituations, without the teacher needing toguide the work.

We are educating our children for an

unknown future.

The Common Core State Standards arerobust, rigorous, and relevant in the realworld. As the change agents in the educationof our children, we need to push ourselves toconsider a new direction for our teaching andits impact on our children’s tomorrow. We areno longer educating for today, but ratherpreparing our students for a future where

www.corestandards.orgThe website of the initiative: read the Common Core’s mission statement,download the standards, and access the informative appendices.

www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/myths-vs-factsMyths about the Common Core, along with the facts to dispel those myths areavailable here.

engageny.org/resource/common-core-shiftsLearn more about the six instructional shifts needed for the effectiveimplementation of the Common Core.

www.youtube.com/user/TheHuntInstituteView short, accessible videos that explain the Common Core State Standards.

Web Resources

Mind Shift FourWe are preparing

our students to do

the learning

without us.

Mind Shift Five

We are educating

our children for

an unknown

future.

Teachers in Greece Central School District, New York, celebrate the

development, implementation, and peer review of their units.

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they will need to think, innovate, collaborate,problem solve, and compete globally. Weneed to embrace our existing technologiesand see their potential. Along with teachingsocial responsibility that goes along with theuse of these tools, we need to teach ourchildren how to navigate and evaluateinformation online.

We have a responsibility to help each

student reach higher.

Great respect should be awarded for thecomplexity of the art of teaching. In orderto move our students to rigorous standards,we need an even more extensive repertoireof instructional strategies than ever before.After all, any given classroom can have avariety of levels and magnitude of studentneeds. We have a responsibility to make thelearning accessible to our students, and tofind ways to measure, support, and extendeach student’s growth.

In order to do this, the Common Core hasprovided us with clear standards, oroutcomes, to anchor our units and lessons.These standards also provide learningbenchmarks and a roadmap of the necessaryskills required for all students, includingthose with disabilities, in poverty, or fromnon English speaking homes. Byunderstanding this clear progression of skillsover time, we are better able to not onlyrecognize important pre-requisite skills tohelp us support our fragile learners, but toidentify complex learning goals that reachabove and beyond for our accelerated learners.

We can’t ignore the evidence before us.

The standards themselves were created usingan extensive body of evidence. It is thissame evidence that will guide our teachingof students. Research indicates that the useof formative assessment to guide instructioncauses great gains in student achievement.At the outset of any unit or lesson shouldbe the identification of evidence that thestudents’ will have successfully metexpectations.

Standards also set the benchmark for thequality of student work. In order for workto be meeting standards, it mustdemonstrate the rigor and expectations setforth in the Common Core. In theAppendices of the Common Coredocument, the authors provide specificityaround the types and demands of tasks thatwill provide evidence of students havingreached standards.

In conclusion, we have the innate ability tochange our mindset if it no longer helps usaccomplish our goals. Our current beliefsare grounded in the prior knowledge we’vegained through our administrative andteaching experiences, our lives as students,and our collaboration with educators. Ourbeliefs impact all that we do, how we act andreact, and the potential we see in others.When we can successfully shift our mindset,we are ready to form new lines of thinkingand abandon old habits. By doing so, wehave successfully positioned ourselves to dothe work required by the Common Core.

Mind Shift SixWe have a

responsibility to

help each

student reach

higher.

Mind Shift SevenWe can’t ignore the

evidence before us.

Just ASK Publica�ons &ProfessionalDevelopment (JustASK) is based inAlexandria, Virginia,USA. Established in1989, Just ASKprovides products andservices for educatorsin formats thatfacilitate a sharedunderstanding and useof best prac�ce inteaching, learning, andleading in classrooms,schools, and districts inthe 21st century.

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Lessons from the Field - Curriculum Work in Pittsford Central School District, New York

During the 2011-2012 school year, PittsfordCentral School District, in Pittsford, NewYork, embraced the opportunity to breathelife into their existing curriculum processesand products for K-12 in all content areas.The group spearheading the work was led byAssistant Superintendent for Instruction,Melanie Ward, and included DistrictStandards Leaders and teachers in a varietyof content areas throughout grades K-12,our Teacher’s Center Director, and a buildingadministrator (me!).

The goal of our task force was to makerevisions to our curriculum processes andproducts, in order to more effectivelyintegrate the Common Core LearningStandards and reflect the next generationskills required of our students. We began ourwork by creating a vision of what we hopedour curriculum would accomplish forstudents, teachers, parents, and leaders.Weread a variety of research, leaned on thecollective knowledge of our group, and hadmeaningful discussions. Included in ourconversations was what evidence we feltwould give us an indication of how we weredoing relative to accomplishing our vision.

As we rolled up our sleeves to accomplishthe work, a great deal of thought was givento the constructs that would inform us, as

well as time spent creating commonunderstandings of the critical vocabularyrelative to those constructs. Anotherimportant step in our endeavor wasdetermining a process for proposing,completing, and reviewing curriculumprojects. Lastly, we created drafts of whatour curriculum template would look like,thinking deeply about how it would embednext generation skills, be aligned vertically bysubject area, while also supporting contentintegration and the emphasis on literacy skillsacross each discipline.

Ultimately, we created the PittsfordCurriculum Template which is available asa Word document in the Just ASK ResourceCenter. The next step for us will be for ourcurriculum, in this format, to be uploadedinto NYLearns.org, a customizable NewYork State curriculum management system.While our template appears simple, thethinking and planning behind it were not.However, the shot of adrenaline we gave ourcurriculum processes and products will serveus well in our future Common Core alignedteaching and learning in Pittsford Central.

Access the Pittsford Curriculum Templateand many other Common Core resources inthe Just ASK Resource Center atwww.justaskpublications.com/ccss-sbe.htm

www.justaskpublications.com | Phone: 800-940-5434 | Fax: 703-535-8502

© 2012 Just ASK Publications & Professional Development

Permission is granted for reprinting and distribution of this newsletter for non-commercial use only.

Please include the following citation on all copies:Kwit, Heather Clayton. “Common Core Mind Shifts.” Making the Common Core Come Alive!October 2012. Available at www.justaskpublications.com. Reproduced with permission of Just ASKPublications & Professional Development (Just ASK). ©2012 by Just ASK. All rights reserved.

To subscribe to this free monthly e-newsletter please visit:

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Future Issues of

Making theCommon Core

Come Alive!

• Habitual Thinkers:Crea�ng ClassroomCultures

• MeaningfulQues�ons: Engagingthe Mind

• Upli�ingConversa�on:Promo�ngMeaningfulDiscourse

• Naviga�ngUncharteredWaters: CloseReading of ComplexTexts

• Thinking Outside ofthe Box: FosteringCrea�vity

• And the WindsChanged Direc�on:Using Data toInform Prac�ce

• Catching a FallingStar: DesigningQualityInterven�ons

• Mirror, Mirror, Onthe Wall: Promo�ngReflec�on