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Archive for the ‘CCSS’ Category

ELLs: Thinking Skills and Common Core State Standards

ELLs: Thinking Skills and CCSS for ELAWe thought we’d end the 12 Days of NPR Inc., with our most recently released laminated reference guide. In ELLs: Thinking Skills and CCSS Focus on the Six Shifts, by author Estee Lopez, you’ll find evidence-based instructional approaches as well as best practices for helping English Language Learners meet the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.

The Common Core State Standards for ELA requires students to engage higher level thinking skills and language, as well as have an understanding of complex works of literature. Dr. Lopez structured the guide around the 6 shifts embodied in the CCSS for ELA. You’ll find explanations, implications for ELLs, best practices, and examples of scaffolding for ELLs.

This is a great reference guide for teachers and administrators to ensure all students, including ELLs succeed in the new Common Core State Standards for ELA.

We hope you’ve enjoyed exploring the variety of resources available to educators at NPR, Inc. We  encourage you to take a look at all the classroom and professional development resources available at www.nprinc.com.

IEPs and Common Core State Standards: Specially Designed Instructional Strategies

IEPs and Common Core State StandardsWe’ve got just 2 days left in the 12 Days of NPR, Inc. We’ve taken on the Common Core State Standards for Math and ELA. Today, we look at IEPs and Common Core State Standards (IEPs and CCSS).

IEPs & CCSS: Specially Designed Instructional Strategies is a recently released reference guide from author Toby Karten. This guide provides a variety of instructional strategies and interventions teachers and IEP team members can use to connect the IEPs of students with disabilities to the Common Core State Standards.

This guide is a valuable reference tool for IEP team members. Karten explains the importance of developing a student’s IEP with regards to the CCSS. Find examples of accommodations and instructional supports to help a student meet IEP goals as well as math and literacy standards outlined by the Common Core. You’ll also find scenarios to demonstrate different ways instruction can be individualized for students with specific classifications, strengths and interests.

Find this product and more like it in the Special Education department at www.nprinc.com.

Common Core State Standards for ELA – Grades 6-12

Common Core Standards - ELA Grades 6-12States across the country are adopting the Common Core State Standards, which identify what students are expected to know in English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics. In Common Core Standards & English Language Arts: Strategies for Student Success (Grades 6-12), author Toby Karten provides an overview to help middle and high school teachers understand application for diverse students, including those with special needs.

Toby Karten presents an overview of CCSS for ELA, which covers topics such as college and career readiness, challenges of the cross-disciplinary design of CCSS for ELA at the secondary level, differentiating instruction for students at different reading levels, and strategies for helping students with disabilities achieve ELA standards.

CCSS for ELA has raised the bar to ensure students master the writing, reading, speaking and listening skills they need to be ready for college and careers. NPR, Inc. has lots of great resources to help prepare educators with the Common Core State Standards for ELA.

Common Core State Standards for Math (Grades 6-12)

Common Core State Standards Math Grades 6-12Before the 12 Days of NPR, Inc. are over, we’d like to introduce you to 2 more guides from author Toby Karten. We previously discussed Common Core Standards and Math for Grades K-5, and today we give you Common Core Standards & Mathematics: Strategies for Student Success for Grades 6-12.

This guide was created to help both middle and high school teachers understand organization and application of the CCSS for Math. Karten provides ideas for helping all students in an inclusive classroom meet their grade-level standards. You’ll find quick-reference charts depicting Standards for Mathematical Practice, and Standards for Mathematical Content.

Toby Karten also offers 10 tips connecting math standards to students’ lives, as well as providing an extensive list of additional online and print resources for teachers in secondary schools.

Get all the Common Core State Standards resources you need at www.nprinc.com.

Common Core State Standards for Mathematics

Common Core Standards - Mathematics Grades K-5Happy New Year! We’re starting off 2014 the same way we ended 2013, with a laminated reference guide from author Toby Karten! Yesterday we discussed Common Core and ELA, and today we talk Common Core and Math!

In Common Core Standards: A Step-by-Step Approach – Mathematics, Toby Karten provides teachers with information on implementing instruction to help students obtain the full range of mathematics skills outlined in the CCSS for Mathematics. Find strategies for individual grade-level teaching from kindergarten through fifth grade. You’ll also get examples and suggestions for differentiating instruction to meet the needs of diverse students in inclusive classrooms.

Find this and other Common Core Resources for Educators at www.nprinc.com!

Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts (ELA)

Common Core State Standards - ELA, English Language ArtsWe can’t have a discussion of professional resources for educators without talking about the Common Core! So this last day of 2013 we look at Common Core Standards: A Step-by-Step Approach – ELA, Enlglish Language Arts, Grades K-5.

In this laminated reference guide, author Toby Karten provides classroom management tips, core materials and resources, as well as good teaching and assessment practices. Karten also provides a step-by-step approach to teach students in grades K-5 the literacy skills they need to meet the English and Language Arts Standards according to the CCSS.

Find out more information about this guide, or browse through our entire selection of resources on the Common Core State Standards!

Two New Resources for Teachers of ELLs, Helping ELLs Meet CCSS

Just-released laminated guide “ELLs: Thinking Skills and CCSS,” and guide “CCSS & ELLs,” help teachers prepare English Language Learners to meet Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS), by design, elevate academic rigor and further challenge educators and students, with the goal of better preparing them for the demands of college and career. The challenge is especially great for students or whom English is a second language, or English language learners (ELLs), and the teachers who are responsible for helping them meet core standards.

The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts (CCSS-ELA) increase comprehension and language demands, requiring ELLs to learn language and
 grade-level content simultaneously and to use higher level thinking skills to activate their academic understanding of content or text. It is critical that teachers understand the CCSS-ELA and the “Six Shifts” in teaching/learning the ELA standards require, and that they utilize an array of evidence-based instructional approaches and best-practices that have been shown to help ELLs integrate academic language,  literacy and cognition, and achieve the high and deep levels of learning articulated in the standards.

Estee Lopez

Estee Lopez

Dr. Estee Lopez’s laminated reference guides, CCSS and ELLs and the just-released ELLs: Thinking Skills and CCSS, are easy-access, quick-reference tools designed to help educators understand the CCSS-ELA, their implications for ELLs, and how to design instruction and utilize best practices to supports ELLs in developing critical thinking skills necessary to meet ELA standards.

ELLs-Thinking-Skills-and-CCSS-layout-ETSCIn ELLs: Thinking Skills and CCSS, Lopez identifies the six shifts of the CCSS-ELA, which include:

  1. Increasing reading of informational text/balancing informational and literary texts
  2. Knowledge in the disciplines
  3. Staircase of complexity
  4. Text-based answers
  5. Writing from sources
  6. Academic language

This six-page (tri-fold) laminated guide explains each shift, its implications for ELLs, and what is required of teachers. For each shift, the guide lists best practices, examples of scaffolding for ELLs, and things that teachers and administrators must to do create conditions that ensure that ELLs succeed.

CCSS-and-ELLs-layout-CCELCCSS and ELLs, also a six-page (tri-fold) laminated guide, guide emphasizes the need for teachers and school leaders to:

  • Connect with ELL students and integrate them in meaningful learning experiences with other students;
  • Implement curriculum and tasks that are cognitively demanding and include scaffolded strategies;
  • Construct lessons that are interactive and collaborative;
  • Recognize that families can have a positive effect on the education of ELLs.

It provides an at-a-glace overview off the CCSS for ELA, and identifies the six shifts that must be considered when deciding upon appropriate instruction, scaffolding and differentiation for English language learners. Corresponding best practices are listed for each shift. The guide also details a proven 4-phase, 7-step model for designing lesson plans that clearly and explicitly state content and learning objectives in order of importance.

With the explosion of the ELLs population in schools across the country, it is crucial for all teachers to have easy access to best practices for helping ELLs achieve content and learning objectives simultaneously and develop the critical thinking skills necessary to meet the CCSS for English Language Arts. Estee Lopez’s laminated guides, CCSS and ELLs and ELLs: Thinking Skills and CCSS, are practical and affordable tools that school administrators can provide to busy teachers who are grappling with the CCSS’s complex new criteria for teaching and learning to help them and their students succeed.

Author Spotlight: Dr. Angel Barrett, Turning Around Low-Performing Schools Serving Students in High Poverty Districts

angel-barrett-author

Spotlight on NPR, Inc. Author, Dr. Angel Barrett

Almost exactly two years ago, an article published in the Los Angeles Times caught our attention here at NPR, Inc. The article, entitled “Where poor students soar: What works at a school dealing with poverty and a lack of English fluency? Tough love, hard work and a laser focus on achievement,” looked at Plummer Elementary School in North Hills (Los Angeles County, CA), where 90 percent of student body consists of students in poverty, and two-thirds of students are English language learners.  Over the course of four years, the school’s Academic Performance Index score had risen more than 200 points, making it one of the district’s highest-scoring elementary schools.  The article’s author, Sandy Banks, pointed to the strong leadership of the school’s principal, Dr. Angel Barrett, as a crucial factor in its turn-around success. Barrett cultivated a culture of high expectations and maintained “a laser focus on student achievement,” the key to which was data. “We are a data-driven campus,” Barrett was quoted as saying. “We look at everything,” (from discipline reports to test scores) “to make sure we’re working hard on the right things.”

Impressed with what we read, we proceeded to search google for more information on Dr. Angel Barrett. Our search turned up additional positive media coverage that offered greater insight into the secrets of her success.  For example, we learned that, in addition to rigorously focusing on data as a means of improving instruction, Barrett also made a priority of increasing parent involvement and promoting student responsibility and accountability through community service programs and student-led conferences. Above all, “Everything is about the children.”

It seemed only fitting that Barrett was named the National Distinguished Principal for California in 2009, in addition to receiving other honors for her work. It also seemed to us that she would be a perfect person for National Professional Resources to contact about developing resources for school leaders working in high poverty districts. We could not have been more thrilled when she agreed to author the laminated guide RTI and Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Students. In this easy-access, six-page (tri-fold) laminated guide, Barrett presents a range of evidence-based Tier 1 and Tier 2 Response To Intervention (RTI) strategies that are targeted to address the educational needs of students in poverty and help them achieve core standards. The guide also provides teachers and school administrators with strategies for increasing parent engagement and supporting a college and career-ready environment.Angel-Barrett-laminated-guide

Last year, after 15 years at Plummer Elementary School, Barrett assumed the role of lead instructional director in LAUSD’s Innovation and Intensive Support Instructional Service Center (ISIC). In this capacity, she works with over 100 innovative schools that include alternative governance and partnerships, and nurtures schools that historically have not been successful within traditional educational operations. Recent high profile projects include overseeing the restart of 24th Street Elementary School after a successful petition by parents to enact major changes at their low-performing school via the parent-trigger process.

These days, Angel Barrett is on the move—quite literally. In October she was in Albuquerque, NM for a presentation to the Council of Great City Schools. On November 1 she was in Los Angeles to receive the 24th Annual Distinguished Educators Award, a prestigious honor that recognizes the professional achievements of highly accomplished educational leaders. This week she is in San Jose, where she is making three presentations at the ASCA leadership summit, immediately followed by a presentation in San Francisco at the Coalition of Essential Schools Fall Forum.

Back here on the east coast at National Professional Resources, we remain in frequent contact with Angel and are looking forward to moving ahead on one of the many projects we have discussed pursuing with her in the near future. In the meantime, we invite you to check out her guide, RTI and Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Youth, on our website, and stay tuned to our blog and new product feed, and to Angel’s author page for updates on her activities, awards and projects.

Connecting the Common Core State Standards to Inclusive Classrooms

Toby Karten

Toby Karten

Guest Blog by Toby Karten

Toby Karten, author of several laminated guides on inclusion and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), as well as the Inclusion Lesson Plan Book (standard edition and teacher training edition), published by NPR, Inc.  She offers professional development workshops on how to promote inclusion strategies in the classroom.

Toby will be presenting at an educator reception at the Barnes & Noble at the Palisades Center in West Nyack on Wednesday, October 16. The event begins at 3:30; Toby’s presentation begins at 5 p.m. For additional details and to register for this event, please see the educator reception event page on the Barnes & Noble website.

 

Connecting the Common Core State Standards to Inclusive Classrooms

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) articulate reading, writing, language, speaking and listening, and mathematical knowledge and skills that students are expected to master each year to ensure college and career readiness (CCR). The CCSS apply to all students, including students with disabilities who have IEPs and 504 plans, students with average skills, and those students who are labeled profoundly exceptional.

To prepare students to meet the standards of the Common Core, educators must increase academic rigor for all students. It is essential that the same rigorous standards apply to students with disabilities who receive special education services. When schools implement inclusive principles and strategies, they give students with special needs the opportunity to learn the critical skills and knowledge of the CCSS alongside their peers. These schools use appropriate, specially designed instructional delivery methods to scaffold student learning, without sacrificing content.

Inclusion allows students to achieve learning and behavioral strides alongside their peers, who will one day be their co-workers and neighbors. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates educating students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment (LRE), with the general education classroom as the preferred placement option. Inclusion reflects a commitment to educate each child, to the maximum extent appropriate, in the general education classroom, bringing support services to the child, rather than sending the child out of classroom to receive special services.  Key features of inclusion are individualizing instructional approaches and providing necessary accommodations within the general education classroom.  Furthermore, all learners, not just those with documented disabilities, learn in many different ways and benefit from inclusive principles.

Although inclusion is an effective way of implementing the CCSS, some educators still think that the CCSS prescribe not only what students must learn, but also how teachers must teach. The Common Core website directly debunks this myth, clearly stating: “These standards will establish what students need to learn, but they will not dictate how teachers should teach.” Instead, administrators, teachers, school staff, students, and families collaboratively decide how best to achieve the standards.

It is important for educators to understand that there is nothing in the standards that prevents them from using an inclusive model to teach students what they need to learn. To the contrary, many inclusive schools where CCSS have been adopted have discovered that inclusive principles and practices are well suited to preparing students with disABILITIES to meet the rigorous state standards. Research-based inclusive strategies help students with and without IEPs achieve successful learning outcomes. When schools embrace inclusion and provide specially designed instruction to accommodate students with different learning needs, they prepare all students to be successful in the real world once they exit school doors

In several of the laminated guides I have written for National Professional Resources on CCSS and inclusion, I recommend that teachers use a step-by-step approach to help learners meet the rigorous standards of the Common Core.  These steps include

  • Reviewing standards from prior, current, and following year;
  • Slating topics for each quarter, month, and week;
  • Sharing the standards with learners in student-friendly language;
  • Monitoring student progress;
  • Revisiting and adjusting whole class, small groups and individual student lessons based upon formal and informal instruction-based assessments.

In one of the professional development workshops I recently led, I demonstrated how teachers can differentiate instruction by modeling a lesson on inclusive vocabulary. My objective was to appeal to the adult learners through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile modalities. I initially displayed the content on a PowerPoint slide. The “students” (adult educators) were then given various options for learning the words. These included jumping on the words, which were written on paper plates; pantomiming the words; composing sentences; reviewing digital flashcards on Quizlet; illustrating the vocabulary with captions; and watching a YouTube Video on inclusion. Students worked together as a whole class of learners, were divided into cooperative groups, and completed tasks individually to honor the principles of differentiated instruction.

The take away of this blog post: Learners of all ages and all levels of ability and skill benefit from inclusive approaches to teaching that honor the diverse ways in which individual students learn. Even when pursuing common learning standards, inclusive practices are appropriate and effective. True inclusion, however, involves more than just individual teachers using evidence-based inclusive practices. To be truly inclusive, schools must adopt a collaborative approach that fosters a schoolwide philosophy that firmly believes in high expectations for all learners.

You can find Toby at: