Center for Standards, Assessment, and Accountability

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Grade Level: High School (9-12)

‘Both and’ Literacy Instruction K-5: A Proposed Paradigm Shift for the Common Core State Standards ELA Classroom

This article proposes a language arts curriculum congruent to the new, English/language arts (ELA) college and career ready standards, particularly to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The idea of behind “‘both and’ literacy instruction” is that all of the following elements are needed for students to form a coherent literacy experience:

Foundational literacy practices: alphabetic knowledge, phonological processing, vocabulary, fluency
Reading comprehension: the role of read alouds/shared reading of grade-level text, building knowledge, attending to syntax
High volume of reading: using the technique called Guided Reading with Accountable Independent Reading

The purpose of this article is “to help teachers determine which aspects fo their current practice are inherently aligned with the CCSS and which aspects of existing practices must be added to, adapted or shifted” (p. 1).

Mathematics Grade Level Considerations for High School

In contrast to the kindergarten through grade 8 Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, high school level standards are not grade-specific. Instead, the standards specify learning expectations upon graduation from high school. This presentation provides an introduction to grade-specific considerations for item and task development for the Smarter Balanced assessments. These include guidelines for the following:

appropriate grade-level and mathematics vocabulary
appropriate representation of numbers in items and tasks
grade appropriate contexts
item difficulty
grade-level specific assessment targets

The presentation is available in the following formats:

YouTube Video
SchoolTube Video

Helping ELLs Meet High Standards

This presentation, centered around the Gettysburg Address, provides an overview of general techniques for providing English language learners (ELLs) with a content preview. Methods include: the use of guiding questions; building background knowledge; bootstrapping on L1 knowledge and skills; pre-teaching academic and domain-specific vocabulary; and instruction in word learning strategies.

Lesson-Sized Learning Goals and Success Criteria

This tool is used to record the Learning Goals and Success Criteria of lesson-sized stacks of Building Blocks. Teachers may choose to use one template per stack or record multiple stacks on the same template.

Long Term Goals-Math Yearlong Plan

This tool is designed to be used in tandem with the Gazette and helps teachers arrange the CCRS in math into a yearlong sequence of learning.

Supporting Language Learners to Meet the Demands of the CCSS ELA

The “Supporting Language Learners with Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts” module has four objectives: (1) situate the support of language learners within Wisconsin’s education initiatives; (2) review the different types of language learners; (3) gain familiarity with research on instructional needs of language learners; and (4) integrate research on language learners with standards-based instruction and assessment.