By Lisa DiGaudio, Founding Principal of New Dawn Charter School

To implement the Common Core, you need to think in terms of 12 “shifts” that need to be made—6 in math and 6 in English language arts. In this blog entry, I’m going to focus on Common Core Shift 2: Knowledge in the Disciplines for Grades 6-12.

Okay content area teachers, take a few deep breathes. Shift Two is not as bad as you think it is (and yes, Math teachers, that includes you too!). The goal is to have students reading and using what they have read in their discussions and writing assignments. Essentially it is a more aggressive push at showing evidence. Instead of saving this skill for writing assignments, students have to use it all of the time in the classroom. I wanted to give a few ideas on what this would look like and how it can be done. In an earlier blog I talked about “themes” for the whole building to work on, and used The Hunger Games as an example. This can certainly be done on some level at certain times during the year, but in reality, you’re all responsible for tests here. Getting results is the bottom line, and planning to use curriculum within this shift to yield results can seem daunting, especially for a new teacher.

So let’s start with Math. If you log into the EngageNY site (www.engageny.org), you’ll see that New York State gives you a few lovely exemplars to consider implementing at specific levels. It’s a great sample of units, but you’re not going to see much literature from it. In fact the resources mainly  direct you to your SMARTboard resources--that is, if you have one in your room. This is about literacy. If you’re teaching your students about polynomials, then what literature, outside of the textbook, would you introduce? Well there are a few places to go. First, particularly if you are a middle school teacher, you can go to Scholastic and look at the resources for MATH magazine. Not only do they have age appropriate articles and scenarios for the students to read, but they also include the CALCULIT section, which gives you fiction and nonfiction books to introduce to your students when teaching a unit.

For high school teachers, you have a little more clicking of the mouse to do. Amazon offered several different titles on how to teach polynomials, and books for students to read. Articles from magazines that could help produce mathematical scenarios would probably work best. At the Network Team Institute in Albany in November, we learned in math how to take a question from the concrete to the abstract. We worked formulas based on the information provided, and as the scenario got more difficult, there was less information to call upon for reference. This would be a good place to start with high school students. The scaffolding for the students having a hard time, to the students who need to be challenged, can be easily situated when you plan ahead.

The thing is this: whether it is math, science, social studies or any other elective, you want to start thinking about how you are going to introduce literature. A small passage may be a great opener, reading a paragraph and then reading related materials for homework, along with the mechanical elements (such as math problems or science labs). The key is shifting the balance to more and more informational text, and using it as the central focal point to what you are teaching. If you are teaching about the Civil War, then what piece of informational text best exemplifies the complexities of the war and Lincoln’s position about secession? What fictional texts could be used to support these big ideas? How can students reference these works in their conversations with you and with peers? How can they reference these works in their writing? By shaping out the scope of use for literature, we gain a better picture of how to implement the big ideas, scaffold for acquisition level and then move to deeper places, where the pieces will continue to resonate with students.

Our high school students do have to become better at referencing materials they are working with. Getting in the habit of citing informational text during conversations with peers and teachers, and in their writing assignments, will build analytical skills that will carry through for college. The ability to use many resources as a backup to original thoughts is important. As a freshman in college, I struggled with recalling information to defend my stance on things. I got better as the semester wore on, but it took a lot of reading, and a lot of arguing with my professor, to get in the habit of referencing text to back up my views. One of my professors back then used to say, “who are you and why are you an expert”? It angered me then, but it was true. Students at that age aren’t creating new information, they are agreeing or disagreeing with it, and “because I said so” doesn’t really pass muster for an argument. They need to use relevant works that support their claims, and that ability is what builds skills in analysis, synthesis and ultimately, ownership of the concepts.

Lisa DiGaudio
Curriculum Developer for Charter Schools

I want to get the dialogue going around the curricular shifts for Common Core. This can be so difficult for schools that are well-entrenched in their own curriculum, especially as their resources are already aligned to support that curriculum. I’m going to start by reflecting on what I wrote for my grade level teams at Lefferts Garden Charter School and sharing what some of their feedback has been.

First, I’m not a big believer, particularly at the Elementary level, of a standardized textbook. Facts are left out, topics are watered down into these miserable little passages. I don’t remember what textbook it was, but I remember being totally shocked at the one paragraph in a sixth-grade textbook that described the Holocaust as “reference material”. That being said, my curriculum maps outline the topic and essential questions, along with different resources, primary and secondary, to use for support. Of course, because I am writing it, I didn’t think twice about whether this would be complex or not for a new teacher to visualize. Low and behold, after a training courtesy of our participation with the Network of Independent Charter Schools, feedback included a need for a textbook or additional resources.

My first reaction was one of surprise. Why would a textbook be useful when they are so limited? But then I started thinking about my first year as a teacher. I was hired the day before school started. I was petrified. I had no curriculum, and there were no books. I was lucky I had great teammates that gave me a curriculum map from the year before so I could start planning. That’s when it hit me. The resources were given out, but maybe I needed to better explain how to use them. This led me right into curricular shift one for Common Core: the balance between fiction and nonfiction texts for instruction.

At the elementary level, the goal is to use 50% informational and 50% fictional text to support your lessons. For my team that needed the extra support in using resources, the first order of business is to do an inventory of fictional and nonfictional texts to use during the units of instruction and how to use them. What will the teaching points be? What are the goals for student learning? How should these resources extend into other subject areas? Starting with the overarching questions is key to building a strong foundation for new teachers,as well as giving seasoned teachers new ideas from different perspectives.

I was thinking about the first unit that we all seem to teach on some degree the first month of school: All About Me. Every year, the kids come strolling in and we have them write some fluff piece on their summer vacation or something that happened to them while they were out of school so we can see to what degree they can put words together in sentence form. Then from there we build on that to establish the classroom community, the school community, the local community and then larger and larger, state, country, continent, world. For our early elementary children, spatial awareness in this direction helps them see beyond themselves, and become aware that there are children next to them who can be just like them or be different. It’s with this very basic outline that we can begin to investigate resources to teach children how to expand their awareness beyond themselves.

The first place to go for resources is your classroom. Take an inventory of your nonfiction books first since that may be a challenge for some of your staff. When we hear nonfiction, we think “textbook”. We have to remind ourselves that literacy is more than just reading fictional materials, and it’s more than just reading. It’s discussing, it’s writing, it’s talking all the while using text evidence to support what you’re trying to say. After gathering nonfiction books on the topic, now pick the same amount of books in fiction. There’s your 50% balance. For every piece of informational text, a fictional text should also be used. Need help getting ideas? Log into the Scholastic website (www.scholastic.com). They have a book wizard function for teachers and administrators looking for different resources. In some cases you can access free downloads. (Free is always good!) Other great resources? Try YouTube. There are a number of teaching channels that include all sorts of resources to support your teaching students to learn more about themselves and the world around them. If you have a subscription to Discovery Education (www.unitedstreaming.com), there are literally thousands of videos with lesson plans included to teach just about any topic you can imagine.

The biggest resource we forget is the students themselves. The best way to show them the difference between a primary and secondary resource is to play a game of telephone with them. The first person to speak the message is the primary source. Everyone else is secondary, and to verify what they say is correct, they have to cite who they got the information from (their friend next to them). When so many things get all jumbled up, it’s funny to track who heard what in the circle. Student experience is the strongest teacher, and they will always remember the difference between primary and secondary sources! (Trust me, I have kids who are now almost out of high school asking me if I remember doing that with them, along with making the loser sign for right angles; making an “L” with your thumb and forefinger and placing it on your forehead).

When you break down Shift One of the Common Core in this way--whether you are a brand new school or you have been around for some time and still worried about how this is all going to work--it becomes more manageable.

Next week, Shift Two, Knowledge in the Disciplines for Grades 6-12!