EngageNY.org

Common Core: What can Parents Do?

Session 2

Welcome!

Tonight’s Objectives• Help parents understand how the Common Core

State Standards are different from traditional NY educational standards.

• Help parents understand what the shift to the new standards will mean for their kids.

• Help parents understand how they can help their kids at home.

 

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Quick Review• What is college readiness? • What are the Common Core

State Standards? • How do the new standards

differ from the old ones?

 

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So, what can parents really do to help?

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• Read as much non-fiction as fiction

• Learn about the world by reading

• Read more challenging material closely

• Discuss reading using evidence

• Write non-fiction using evidence

• Increase academic vocabulary

A Closer Look: ELA/Literacy Shifts

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Parents SHOULDStudents MUST• Read more non-

fiction

• Understand how non-fiction is written and put together

• Enjoy and discuss the details of non-fiction

• Supply non-fiction texts to read

• Read non-fiction books aloud or with your child

• Have fun with non-fiction in front of your children

ELA Shift #1: Read as much non-fiction as fiction

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Parents SHOULDStudents MUST• Learn more about

Science and Social Studies through reading

• Use “primary source” documents

• Get smarter through the use of texts

• Supply texts on topics that interest your child

• Find books that explain how things work and why

• Discuss non-fiction texts and their ideas

ELA Shift #2: Learn about the world by reading

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Parents SHOULDStudents MUST• Re-read

• Read books at their comfort level and more challenging texts

• Not just read, comprehend

• Handle frustration and keep pushing to improve

• Provide more challenging texts their children want to read in addition to books they can read easily

• Know what is grade level appropriate

• Read challenging books with your child

• Show that challenging books are worth reading

ELA Shift #3: Read more complex material carefully

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Parents SHOULDStudents MUST• Find evidence to

support their arguments

• Form judgments and opinions

• Become scholars• Discuss what the

author is thinking• Make predictions

• Talk about texts• Demand evidence in

everyday discussions, debates and disagreements

• Read aloud or read the same book as your child and discuss with evidence

ELA Shift #4: Discuss reading using evidence

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Parents SHOULDStudents MUST• Make arguments in

writing using evidence

• Compare multiple texts in writing

• Learn to write well

• Encourage writing at home

• Write “books” together using evidence and details

• Review samples of student writing: http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_C.pdf

ELA Shift #5: Write from sources

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Parents SHOULDStudents MUST• Learn the words they

will need to use in college and career

• Get smarter at using the “language of power”

• Read often and constantly with young children

• Read multiple books about the same topic

• Let your children see you reading

• Talk to your children, read to them, listen to them, sing with them, make up silly rhymes and word games

ELA Shift #6: Build an academic vocabulary

Activity: Fun with non-fiction

• With a partner, review the list of suggested non-fiction texts

• Working together, identify 2-3 that you think would be of interest to your children

• How often do you let your kids see you read? • Discuss ways you can encourage your children to

read those books, and what you can do to make sure they understood what they read

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So? What are your ideas?

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• Focus: learn more about less

• Build skills across grades

• Develop speed and accuracy

• Really know it, Really do it

• Use it in the real world

• Think fast AND solve problems

A Closer Look: Mathematics Shifts

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K 12

Number and Operations

Measurement and Geometry

Algebra and Functions

Statistics and Probability

Traditional U.S. Approach

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Common Core State Standards approach

Operations and Algebraic Thinking

Expressions and Equations

Algebra

→ →

Number and Operations—Base Ten →

The Number System

→

Number and Operations—Fractions

→

K 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 High School

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Parents SHOULDStudents MUST

• Keep building on learning year after year

• Be aware of what your child struggled with last year and how that will affect ongoing learning

• Advocate for your child and ensure that support is given for “gap” skills: negative numbers, fractions, etc.

Math Shift #1: Focus: Learn more about less

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Parents SHOULDStudents MUST

• Spend more time on fewer concepts

• Go more in-depth on each one

• Know what the priority work is for your child at their grade level

• Spend time with your child on that work

• Ask your child’s teacher about his or her progress on the priority work

Math Shift #2: Learn skills across grades

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Parents SHOULDStudents MUST

• Spend time practicing by doing lots of problems on the same idea

• Push children to know, understand and memorize basic math facts

• Know all of the fluencies your child should have; prioritize learning of the ones they still find difficult

Math Shift #3: Develop speed and accuracy

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Parents SHOULDStudents MUST

• Make the math work, and understand why it does

• Talk about why the math works

• Prove that they know why and how the math works

• Notice whether your child really knows why the answer is what it is

• Advocate for the time your child needs to learn key math skills

• Provide time for your child to work at math skills at home

• Get smarter in the math your child needs to know

Math Shift #4: Really know it, really do it

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Parents SHOULDStudents MUST

• Apply math in real world situations

• Know which math skills to use for which situation

• Ask your child to do that math that comes up in your daily life

Math Shift #5: Use it in the real world

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Parents SHOULDStudents MUST

• Be able to use core math facts quickly

• Be able to apply math in the real world

• Notice your child’s strengths and weaknesses in math

• Make sure your child practices the math facts that prove most difficult

• Make sure your child thinks about math in real life

Math Shift #6: Think fast and solve problems

Activity: Finding math in everyday life

• Working at your table, identify a list of ways you use math in everyday life (e.g. counting money, dividing a pie, etc.) and how you can involve your kids each day

• Be creative! Think of situations that use Addition Subtraction Division Multiplication Algebra

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Any ideas?

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Resources for parents

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EngageNY

• www.achievethecore.org

• www.pta.org/4446.htm

• http://www.cgcs.org/Domain/36

• http://parcconline.org/parcc-content-frameworks

Additional resources

Closing discussion

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• What strategies did we discuss today that you think you might use with your children?

• What other information would be helpful to you? • What other questions do you have?

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Thank you