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CCSS Implementation: Designing Significant Learning Experiences

Les BoisMarch 5, 2013

Boise State Writing Project

+Designing significant learning experiences using inquiry

+Why Inquiry?

Being told is the opposite of finding out –Jimmy Britton

Correspondence Concept – student thinking matches expert thinking

Engaging Relevant – motivating! Works for deep understanding AND application

—transfer to new and authentic situations Allows for differentiation Meeting the Common Core State Standards Authentic collaboration

(SMITH AND WILHELM, 2002; 2006)

+Step 1: Select your standards

Step 1: Select a rich, complex standard that could serve as the focus of a unit.

Then select one or two standards from each of the strands that logically fit with your central standard. Pull those cards.

These standards will serve as the foundation of your unit

+Coding of the standards

RL.8.1

R=Reading (writing, speaking/listening, language)L=Literature (Informational, historical, science/technical)8=8th grade1= standard #

Strand

Type of text

Grade level

Standard number

+Step 2: Draft the inquiry question that will frame your unit

Essential questions invite students into disciplinary conversations and drive their learning throughout the unit.

PurposeRelevanceMotivation Coherence

+Characteristics of essential questions

Engaging. That is, it offers potential for intriguing students and motivating student learning

Enduring. That is, it leads to learning big ideas that have value beyond the classroom

At the heart of a discipline. That is, it is used by practitioners to do the subject, and solve problems and create knowledge in that subject area

In need of discovery. That is, it involves a background of foundational principles, rich concepts, theories and procedures that require unpacking.

+Elements of good essential questions

•center on major issues, problems, concerns,

interests

relevant to students' lives and to their

communities

open-ended

non-judgmental

meaningful and purposeful

emotive force and intellectual bite

invite an exploration of ideas

encourage collaboration among students,

teachers, and the community

+Essential questions are not…

Answerable through information retrieval; they require operating on information to see patterns and implications, and often requires developing new sets of data through critical inquiry on the part of students

Understood in one day or even one week

Easily agreed upon

+Examples of good essential questions

In what ways does art reflect culture as well as shape it?

What are the costs and benefits of genetic engineering?

Is it ever acceptable to resist an established government?

What are the pros and cons of technological progress?

What determines value?

What makes a good relationship?

What geometry concepts would be essential to build a

new gymnasium, including the ordering of materials?

How does our culture shape and limit our beliefs and

actions?

+Common problems with essential questions

•Merely information retrieval; question does

not require creating data or constructing new

understanding

•Leading

•Too generic

•Too narrow and specific

•Not intriguing

+Revising essential questions

Topic: RelationshipsQuestion: Where do our marriage questions come from? (info retrieval)Revision: What makes a good relationship?

Topic: Civil RightsQuestion: How did we win the fight for civil rights? (begs the question)Revision: What are basic human rights and how can they be secured and protected?

Topic: SurvivalQuestion: Why is it bad that animals are going extinct? (leading)Revision: Who survives?

Topic: IdentityQuestion: Who am I? (generic)Revision: Where do I belong? What shapes our view of the world?

+Step 2: Draft an Essential Question

Which essential question is the most powerful?

A) How can we be leaders?

B) What makes a great leader?

C) Was President Lincoln a good leader?

+Step 2: Draft an Essential Question

Which essential question is the most powerful?

A) What is a story?

B) How do stories change us?

C) What makes a story memorable?

+Step #2: Draft an Essential Question

Which essential question is the most powerful?

A) What needs to be changed in the world?

B) Should people change the world?

C) How can people change the world?

+Step #2: Draft an Essential Question

Which essential question is the most powerful?

A) Who should have access to the American

dream?

B) Does everyone have an opportunity to achieve the American dream?

C) What is the American dream?

+Step 3: Design the performance task

+Performance Task

Purposes:

Summative Assessment – Allow students to demonstrate (and deepen!) their understanding of concepts and processes.

Create an immediate venue for application of learning.

Establish a goal students are working towards throughout the unit

+Step 3: Design the performance task Components of a Performance TaskSTIMULUS INFORMATION

PROCESSINGPRODUCT / PERFORMANCE

Readings Video clips Audio clips Graphs, charts,

other visuals Research

topic/issue/ problem

etc.

Research questions

Comprehension questions

Simulated Internet search

etc.

Essay, report, story, script

Speech with/without graphics, other media

Responses to embedded constructed response questions.

etc.Use 1-2 stimuli for Grade 3. Use up to 5 stimuli for high

school. Emphasis on stimuli related to science history and social

studies

+Step 3: Design the performance task

Specifics of Task

Topic: Food production

Product/Performance: Argument Audience: Idaho Statesman readers Purpose: Argue for or against current system of food production Speaker/Role: Concerned citizen whose future is impacted

+Performance task template

+Step 4: Select a frontloading activity to activate students’ prior knowledgeWhy frontload?

Supports students in the acquisition of new contentProvides motivationBuilds sense of purposeHelps students make critical connections to contentActivates procedural knowledgeMakes material more personal and accessibleHelps prepare students for what’s to come

+Step 4: Select a frontloading activity to activate students’ prior knowledge

KWL chartRanking scenarios

OpinionaireQuick writes

Anticipation GuideList, group. labelSilent discussion

Etc…….

+Frontloading example: See, Think, Wonder

What do you See?

I see girls yelling.

What are you thinking?

Why are they yelling at the

girl in front?

What are you wondering about?

I wonder how the girl in front feels?

+Frontloading example: Frayer Model

Square

Square

SQUARE

A shape with 4 sides and 4 lines

My bedroom wallTable topSticky noteAmerican cheese slices

4 lines4 sides4 cornersParallel lines

CubeBallStop sign

+Frontloading example: Opinionaire

Opinionnaires are excellent frontloading devices because students are required to make and justify decisions regarding the inquiry. This requires activating their background beliefs and experiences. They can return to the opinionnaire through the unit to discuss the responses of various characters, authors, or experts. As they do, they are practicing making inferences, seeing connections, justifying conclusions, and creating mini-arguments using data and interpretive warrants – all necessary to develop informed positions and afford true understanding.

1. The Smiths bought a new swing set for their children and put it near the back edge of their property. The Jones, who lived in the lot behind them, installed a six-foot wooden fence along the back border so they would not have to see the swingset or listen to the children. If they saw the Smiths walking in the street, however, the Jones would wave. Are the Jones good members of the community?

Yes ___ No ___ Criterion: _____________________________________________________________________________________

2. Mrs. Kravitz is concerned. Her new neighbor – name unknown – has a motorcycle and wears all black leather. He sports a beard, wears sunglasses on cloudy days as well as sunny ones and sometimes roars home at odd hours of the night. Out of concern for herself and her other neighbors, Mrs. Kravitz keeps a close eye on the motorcyclist by gazing out her window every chance she gets. Is Mrs. Kravitz a good member of her comminity?

Yes ___ No ___ Criterion: _____________________________________________________________________

+Frontloading: Opinionaire

Identify whether you agree (A) or disagree (D) with each statement. Put a star next to the statements about which you feel strongly. 1. _______ Other people define you by the people you hang out with. 2. _______ Physical appearance doesn’t matter among friends. 3. _______ I have many friends who are nothing like me. 4. _______ Kids who act “weird” deserve the treatment they get from their peers. 5. _______ A person’s parents are his/her best friends. 6. _______ It’s better to have a large group of friends than just one or two. 7. _______ Your status in your peer group affects how you feel about yourself. 8. _______ It’s okay to change how you act in front of different groups of peers. 9. _______ There are people in my close peer group whom I do not like. 10. ______ The people that you’ll be friends with in the future will probably be similar to the people you’re friends with now.

+Step 5: Plan instructional sequence

Provide extended practice in miniature to help students gain practical expert knowledge, especially

through meaningful social activity. Principles of sequencing:

Easy to Hard     

Immediate to Imagined

Close to Home to Far From Home

Familiar to Unfamiliar

Oral to Written

Short to Long

Scaffolded/Supported to Independent

Collaborative and Socially Supported to Individual

Concrete to Abstract

Visually Supported to Purely Textual

(Ideas for sequencing from Wilhelm, 2007; Smith and Wilhelm, 2003; Wilhelm, Baker and Hackett, 2001)

+Instructional Strategy Bank

The instructional strategy bank can be found on our wikispaces page. It has links, descriptions and examples.

http://lesboiscommoncore.wikispaces.com/

+Romeo and Juliet Unit

Before the CCSS

9.LA.2.3.2 Determine characters’ traits by what the characters say about themselves in narration, dialogue, and soliloquy. Introduce Shakespeare by viewing a biography of his life Read selected sonnets Using the sonnet template, write a sonnet of your own Translate and mark iambic pentameter in sonnets Read Romeo and Juliet. Take quiz over Act I etc Using Romeo’s soliloquy in Act III list the character traits

he reveals. Write an essay and compare and contrast two themes

found in R & J (dark/light; love/hate; fate/free will; secrets/public knowledge)

Review for EOC

Knowledge/Comprehension (9)

+Healthy Relationships Unit

After the CCSS

Essential Question: What defines a healthy relationship between friends, parents girlfriends/boyfriends?

Frontload: Prioritize relationship assets in groups. Support your groups’ decisions with specific examples.

Using only the Prologue to Act I, make inferences about the culture and the time of the play. What can you expect from this piece? What assumptions does the chorus make about the audience?

View Act I of Zeffereli’s version of Romeo and Juliet. In groups, summarize. Compare this to Act I of the play.

Assess the quality of the relationship Romeo and Juliet have during Act III.

+Healthy Relationships Unit

After the CCSS

Justify Lord Capulet’s choice of Paris a a husband for Juliet in groups. Support your justifications with inferences and evidence from the play.

Analyze how Juliet develops over the course of the play using her interactions with with other characters as well as specific soliloquies. How does her character’s development advance themes of the play?

Judge the effectiveness of asides in character development in Acts II and III.

Argue for the validity or invalidity of teenage love using concepts about relationships and ideas from Romeo and Juliet.

Prioritize your own healthy relationship requirements. What are your must haves? Are they negotiable?

Culminating Project: Create a multi modal portfolio (video, art, writing) which answers the essential question for you. What defines a healthy relationship for you?

+Africa Unit

Before the CCSS

Watch a video about ancient Timbuktu. Answer questions.

Read the textbook chapter about colonialism in Africa.

Listen to a lecture about colonialism in Africa.

Take a quiz.

Listen to a about the African slave trade.

Take a quiz in which students label a map with the slave trade.

Take a multiple choice and short answer test.

+Change Unit

After the CCSS

Essential Question: How does change happen?

Frontload: Participate in a land-grab activity.

See-Think-Wonder with the political cartoon “The Rhodes Colossus.” Make connections between the land-grab and the cartoon.

Students engage in a Berlin Conference simulation. Compare the results of our Berlin Conference with what really happened.

Compare a picture of Johannesburg in 1886 with a picture of Johannesburg in 1896. Students create hypotheses about what happened.

Jigsaw articles from different perspectives – Africans, miners, colonizers. Students revise their earlier hypotheses.

+Change Unit

After the CCSS

In small groups students collaboratively craft a speech that they will present to fellow historians at an African history conference about why they believe that the discovery of gold was a turning point in the history of Africa.

Students read about the African slave trade and create maps to show the countries involved and the movement of people and goods.

Culminating project: Students work in small groups to research different countries in Africa. Each group creates a page on our class wiki about their country with their analysis of how it has changed over the course of history.

+Frame the Unit with an Essential Question

Sequenced, Cyclical, Engaging Instruction to Practice Concepts and Procedures

Gradual Release of Responsibility as Students Work Toward Culminating Project, Collecting Feedback

Assess Learning with a Culminating Project that represents the students’ answer to the EQ

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Frontload Concepts, Procedures and Prior Schema and Motivate

Adapted from Jeffrey Wilhelm’s texts Engaging Readers and Writers Through Inquiry & Inquiring Minds Learn to Read and Write by Anna Daley, BSWP TC

+Deliverables

March 5th – Overview - Transforming a unit

March 12th – Draft essential question

Create performance task

March 19th – Plan frontloading activity

Plan instructional sequence

April 2nd – regular PLC

April 9th – Share units within PLC groups

April 16th – Share units within PLC groups

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+Check-In

How can we prepare students to successfully perform the culminating task?

Learning Goals & Targets . . . . . . . . . . Culminating Performance Tasks

Daily Learning Experiences

+Step #6: Design Learning Experiences – Example

Primary Source Document Exploration:

The Context

Essential Question: How should we use our power?

Culminating Project: Poster presentation comparing historical and contemporary human rights violations and analyzing how we can use our power to promote and protect human rights.

Lesson: Analyze primary source documents concerning the Voyage of the St. Louis and develop a response to the guiding question.

+Overview

Essential Question:

How can we use the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) to guide us in engaging students in significant learning experiences?

Learning Targets:

Define “significant learning experiences” and generate principles of practice based on your definition.

Develop an instructional unit that is aligned with the CCSS and engages your students in significant learning experiences.

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Handouts Ccss cards Ccss planner –on which they will list their standards ? Claims list (math and reading) Step by step cheat sheet Performance task template Performance task example (warnock & Paula) Writing essential questions article Example units – Africa and Romeo and Juliet Instructional strategies bank Performance assessment ideas Brainstorming sheet ?? Math planning sheet (Ramey)

+Introductions

What do I want the kids to knowHow are they going to know itWhere do they get the stuff how do they get the stuffSelect your standardFraming the xxx with an essential questionsWrite your Performance assessment - genre sheet?Fill in the middleBefore and after examplesMath will be a little different

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There are a lot of resources out there – we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. But it is important to go through the process so when we come across those resources we know what to look for and we know how to tweak in and make it our own. Rarely is there something out there that I use exactly as is.

Think about how you currently design a unit. Most of plan around specific content we want/need to teach – maybe a book we want to read with the kids. Try something different – start with one of the ccss standards.

Think about one of your own signigcan learning experiences…