1. The California Common Core
Standards
Literacy in History/Social Studies,
Science and Technical Subjects

3. Agenda
• Literacy and the CCCSS
• Implications for Curricula
• Pedagogical Implications
• Smarter Balance Assessments
• Unpacking a Standard

4. LITERACY AND THE CCCSS

5. Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science,
and Technical Subjects
• “In a departmentalized school,
responsibility for improving reading
comprehension of instructional
materials should be shared by
teachers of all subjects, particularly
teachers of history-social science and
science.”
– Reading/Language Arts Framework, pp.
175, 192.

7. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
STANDARDS AND LITERACY IN
HISTORY/SOCIAL STUDIES,
SCIENCE AND TECHNICAL
SUBJECTS

8. Common Core State Standards for English
Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social
Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects
• Three main sections
– A comprehensive K-5 section (includes
standards for foundational skills)
– English language/arts
– Literacy in history/social studies, science,
and technical subjects

9. What‟s New?
• Increased commitment to technology
• Value of group dynamics (speaking
before listening)
• Standards for writing in the disciplines
• Explicit attention to informational
texts (beyond textbooks and not just
in English classes)

10. Reading Standards
• Reading standards are in two
components:
– Literature
– Informational text
• And also in two literacy components
(6-12):
– Literacy in History/Social Studies
– Literacy in Science/Technical Subjects

11. Let‟s Take a Look
• Read the Anchor Standards for
Reading K-5 (p. 10) and in the
Literacy in History/Social Studies,
Science and Technical Subjects section
(p. 60).
• What do you notice?

12. Let‟s Take a Look
• Read the Anchor Standards for Writing
K-5 (p. 18) and in the Literacy in
History/Social Studies, Science and
Technical Subjects section (p. 63).
• What do you notice?

13. Reading Standards
• Literature and Informational Text K-12
• Literacy Standards (grades 6-12) ONLY
Informational Text

14. Text Complexity

15. Key Ideas and Details
Grade 7 Grades 9-10
Cite several pieces of Cite strong and thorough
textual evidence to support textual evidence to support
analysis of what the text analysis of what the text
says explicitly as well as says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the inferences drawn from the
text (7. RL & I.1) text. (9-10. RL&I.1)
Grade 8 Grades 11-12
Cite the textual evidence Cite strong and thorough
that most strongly textual evidence to support
supports an analysis of analysis of what the text
what the text says says explicitly as well as
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the
inferences drawn from the text, including determining
text. (8RL&I.1) where the text leaves
matters uncertain. (11-12.

16. Writing Standards: Text Types
and Purposes
• Students (in all grades) focus on three
types of writing:
– Arguments
– Informative/explanatory texts
– Narratives

17. Writing Standards: Production &
Distribution of Writing
• Overall development and
organization—emphasis on
clarity
• The writing processes of
planning and revision
• Use of technology for
production and publication both
of individual and, for the first
time, group writing projects

18. Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science,
and Technical Subjects
• A focus on discipline-specific vocabulary
• An acknowledgement of unique text
structures found in informational text
• The expectation that students will read
and write in non-ELA classrooms
• The expectation that students will
develop information/technical writing
skills, and
• A focus on critical analysis and evidence

19. IMPLICATIONS FOR
CURRICULUM

20. A Foundational Premise
• “Meeting the demands of the Literacy
Standards requires substantially
expanding the literacy requirements in
history/social studies as well as in
science and technical subjects. The
adoption of the Literacy Standards in
History/Social Studies, Science and
Technical Subjects therefore requires
several significant shifts in these
curricula.”
– Source: Publishers‟ Criteria for the Common Core State
Standards in English Language Arts and Literacy, Grades 3-12

22. Curricular Implications
• Part of “content knowledge” becomes:
– understanding disciplinary genres;
– understanding disciplinary language
conventions; and
– understanding disciplinary language.
• Cross-disciplinary discussions about
literacy development.
• Students at the center.

23. Curricular Implications
• Less dependence on textbooks.
• Using text complexity as a way to
spiral students‟ intellectual growth.
• Broader understanding of “text” and
wider use of multiple text genres.
• Increased use of multiple texts within
an instructional sequence.
• Writing, reading, reading writing!

24. Curricular Applications
• Literacy everywhere
• Real world applications
• Project-based learning
• Cross-disciplinary collaborations

25. IMPLICATIONS FOR PEDAGOGY

26. Pedagogies
• Speaking and Listening
• Teaching for Transfer
• Writing to Learn
• Reading to Write
• Student-centered Learning
• Hands-on Learning

27. DISCIPLINARY LITERACY
AN INTRODUCTION

28. “Content Literacy: A Definition and Implications”
(Michael C. McKenna and Richard D. Robinson)
• The ability to use reading and writing
for the acquisition of new content in a
given discipline
• Includes 3 principle cognitive
components:
– General literacy skills
– Content-specific literacy skills
– Prior knowledge of content

29. “Imagining a New Kind of Self: Academic
Language, Identity, and Content Area Learning”
(Jeff Wilhelm)
“We need to think of teaching…as
inducting students into new ways of
being, apprenticing them into new roles
and identities, acculturating them into
new „communities of practice‟ (i.e.
groups of people who do real
disciplinary work).”

30. “Imagining a New Kind of Self: Academic
Language, Identity, and Content Area Learning”
(Jeff Wilhelm)
• In any discipline, the learner‟s doing
and thinking is expected to gradually
approximate that of the experts.”

32. SMARTER BALANCE
ASSESSMENTS

34. Interim Benchmark Assessments
• These are formative assessments
– Repository of tools available to teachers
to support quick adjustment and
differentiated instruction
– Help define student performance along
the CCSS learning progressions

35. Interim Benchmark Assessments
• Allow for finer grain of measurement
(e.g., end of unit)
• Inform teachers if students on track to
be proficient on summative
assessments
• Multiple opportunities for students to
participate
• Scale scores help inform growth model

39. Summative Assessment
• Measure full range of CCCSS
• Computer Adaptive Testing for
precision
• Timely results
• Engage Institutions of Higher Education
to ensure achievement standards
reflect college and career readiness

40. Performance Tasks
• To assess aspects of CCCSS difficult or
impossible to assess traditionally;
• “They will involve student-initiated
planning, management of information
and ideas, interaction with other
materials and/or people, and
production of an extended response
such as an oral presentation, exhibit,
product development, or an extended
written piece.”

41. Performance Tasks
• One in reading
• One in writing
• Two in mathematics
• Roughly half of the performance tasks
for grades 9-11 will assess ELA or
math within the context of science or
social studies.

43. A Performance Task for ELA
Using Science Content

47. End-of-Year Summative
Assessments
• Final 12 weeks of school year

48. An Opportunity
• Comments and
Questions?

49. Thank You!