1. Common Core Learning Standards:
Literacy
March 23, 2012

2. Does It Matter Whether God Exists?
“Discussions of religion are typically about God. Atheists reject religion
because they don’t believe in God; Jews, Christians and Muslims take belief in
God as fundamental to their religious commitment. The philosopher John
Gray, however, has recently been arguing that belief in God should have little or
nothing to do with religion. He points out that in many cases — for
instance, “polytheism, Hinduism and Buddhism, Daoism and Shinto, many
strands of Judaism and some Christian and Muslim traditions” — belief is of
little or no importance. Rather, “practice — ritual, meditation, a way of life — is
what counts.” He goes on to say that “it’s only religious fundamentalists and
ignorant rationalists who think the myths we live by are literal truths” and that
“what we believe doesn’t in the end matter very much. What matters is how we
live.”

4. Literacy in the Common Core:
• “Reading is critical to building knowledge in
history as well as science and technical
subjects.”
• Students need an appreciation of:
– the norms and conventions of each discipline
– an understanding of domain-specific words and
phrases
– the capacity to evaluate intricate
arguments, synthesize complex information, and
follow detailed descriptions of events and
concepts

5. Instructional shifts necessary
for students to attain the standards
6 Shifts in ELA/Literacy
Regents R
Balancing Informational and Literary Text
Building Knowledge in the Disciplines
Staircase of Complexity
Text-based Answers
Writing from Sources
Academic Vocabulary
Students need to “gain knowledge from challenging texts.”

6. Literacy Shifts in the Common Core:
• ELA Shift Two: Knowledge in the Disciplines
– Content area teachers outside of the ELA classroom emphasize
literacy experiences in their planning and instruction.
– Students learn through domain specific texts in science, social
studies, and technical subjects– rather than referring to the text,
they are expected to learn from what they read.

7. Literacy Shifts in the Common Core
• Shift 3 Staircase of Complexity
– In order to prepare students for the complexity
of college and career ready texts, instruction
must be centered around, grade appropriate
texts.
– Teachers create more time and space in the
curriculum for this close and careful reading
and provide appropriate and necessary
scaffolding and supports so that it is possible
for all students to access the texts.

8. Literacy Shifts in the Common Core
• Shift 4 Text-based Answers
– Students have rich and rigorous conversations
and writing opportunities which are dependent
on a common text.
– Teachers insist that classroom experiences stay
deeply connected to the text on the page.
– Students develop habits for making evidentiary
arguments both in conversation, as well as in
writing to assess comprehension of a text.

9. Rethinking Content Literacy
• Secondary students have a challenge:
– In some classes, they MUST follow written instructions
to the letter of the law.
– In other classes, students are taught to read skeptically.
– In still others, they are asked to question the author’s
assumptions.
– Perhaps in some they are asked to analyze an author’s
style.
• Moving from one subject area to the next, they
must tap into entirely different sets of vocabulary,
background knowledge, and reading skills.
• Every academic area has its own set of
characteristic reading and writing practices.

10. Art

11. Musee Des Beaux Arts—W.H. Auden
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking
dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

12. Mathematics
1. Describe two different methods for solving
the equation X2- 4 = 0. Include the steps for
each method.
2. A cliff diver dives off a cliff 40 feet above
water. Write an equation giving the diver’s
height (h) in feet above the water after t
seconds. How long is the diver in the air?

13. Science
Directions: Each question below consists of two
statements, I in the left-hand column and II in the right-
hand column. For each question, determine whether
statement I is true or false and whether statement II is
true or false and fill in the corresponding T or F circles on
your answer sheet.
I II
1. The rate at which BECAUSE stirring exposes the
sugar dissolves in surface of a solute
water increases crystal to a less
with stirring concentrated layer of
solution

14. Discipline-Specific Reading?
• Algebra: focuses on interactions among real or
imagined objects, and it translates those into a
shorthand that describes how any give “A” relates
to “B” or “C”.
• History: focuses on events rich in human
significance and prefers to elaborate on them
through description, narrative, and logical
exposition so as to determine an overarching
thesis
• Chemistry: tends to value extremely precise
description to compose an accurate record of
procedure and events

15. Discipline-Specific Reading
• An algebra student:
– Translates word problems into an understanding of
the problem being posed
– Represents the problem in algebraic terms
– Works to arrive at a correct, mathematical solution
• A modern poetry student:
– Reads closely with sustained attention to word choice
and tone
– Analyzes the relationship between form and content
– Evaluates the use of metaphor and symbol to convey
meaning
– Grapples with ambiguity

16. Discipline-specific reading?
• Every content area has its own vocabulary, textual
formats, stylistic conventions, and ways of
understanding, interpreting, and responding to words on
the page.
• In each discipline, authors choose particular sorts of
words, arrange them in particular sorts of ways, imagine
a particular audience, and bend their language to suit the
particular values and purposes of the discipline.
• The way knowledge is acquired, developed, and shared in
a given field often requires discipline-specific skills.

17. Why Content-Area Literacy?
• It is most helpful to teach comprehension
strategies, text-structures, and word-level strategies
while students are engaged in reading
challenging, content-rich texts.
• These strategies include pre-reading
activities, activities during reading, and post-reading
activities.
• Students learn these strategies best when they have
compelling reasons, such as the desire or need to make
sense of interesting content-rich materials.
• Time spent engaging in bland, skills-focused reading
exercises instead of time spent engaged in
reading, writing, and discussing content only reinforces
the misconception that reading amounts to nothing
more than pronouncing the words on the page.

18. Why Content Literacy?
• The rationale for organizing content around core
ideas comes from studies that show that one
major difference between experts and novices in
any field is the organization of their knowledge.
• Experts understand the core principles and
theoretical frameworks of their field. Their
retention of detailed information is aided by their
understanding of its placement in the context of
these principles and theories.
• Novices tend to hold disconnected and even
contradictory bits of “knowledge” as isolated
facts, and struggle to find a way to organize and
integrate them.

19. Why Content Area Literacy
• The goal of content area instruction is to
introduce students to the ways in which
experts in core disciplines:
– Look at the world
– Investigate the world
– Use language to communicate to one another
– Form evidence-based arguments
– Establish authority

20. A Vision for Instruction
• Individuals must be engaged and involved in the
process of learning – actively creating knowledge by
reading closely, examining evidence, thinking
critically, and problem-solving.
• Learners must participate in context‐bound, real-world
reading, writing, and problem solving.
• To promote greater comprehension and mastery of
content, we must emphasize depth of understanding
rather than a superficial treatment of subject matter.
• Educators are encouraged to refashion their roles to
become learning facilitators acting as a “guide on the
side” instead of a “sage on the stage.”

21. A Vision for Instruction
• The key is to strike an appropriate balance so that
teacher‐directed and student‐centered learning
activities complement one another.
• Teachers purposefully select strategies during
lesson preparation, not because they are
“hands‐on” and use up time, but because they
are designed to help students construct meaning
from the curriculum.
• Teachers organize information around big ideas
that engage the students' interest, assist
students in developing new insights, and help
students to connect those ideas with their
previous learning.

22. The Task at Hand
• We cannot align everything in a single session.
• Instead, identify some concerns with student
proficiency and use the Common Core as a
springboard to discuss and address challenges
with teaching and learning as currently
structured.

23. Common Core Questions
• Have we identified the content knowledge
students will need?
• Have we created activities in support of those
goals which will help our students to grow as
independent learners?
• Have we identified the thinking skills that will be
required to give meaning to the content?
• Have we identified the literacy skills required and
incorporated activities that will help with the
development of such skills?

24. Where do we begin…
• For content area teachers, a key challenge is to
articulate and make concrete the skills, knowledge, and
concepts you have internalized, but that many students
need to be shown explicitly.
1. Understand and define what is distinct about reading
and writing in your discipline.
2. Consider how to make those “expert”
rules, conventions, and skills apparent to students.
3. Integrate comprehension strategies into ongoing
instruction to help students access the academic content
for themselves.
4. Start with the challenge to upgrade one lesson by
identifying where the Common Core Literacy Shift is
present and how it will be addressed in the classroom.

25. What does it look like?
• Surprisingly, familiar.

26. Some Reminders
• It is not your responsibility to be a reading teacher who
remediates basic skills.
• It is our opportunity, however, to help students to see
and understand the knowledge and reasoning skills
that are specific to our particular disciplines.
• It is not your responsibility to “prove” to New York
State that we are Common Core aligned.
• It is our opportunity, however, to talk with colleagues
from our own disciplines about the specific literacy
challenges we face in the classroom and the specific
approaches we can use to try to solve them.