Student Standards and Benchmarks Fall 2015 In the Eau Claire school district, we have spent many professional development days looking at the common core standards. We have been working at understanding the connection between the standards and our learning objectives from the curriculum. While in these meetings, the connections feel isolated and then put on the shelf until the next meeting. Id like to have a deeper understanding of the common core state standards and the connections to the curriculum. Progress has been made in this area but there is definitely room for improvement. I will focus on the following standards this year. Common Core State Standards in Language Arts Writing W.4.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly. a. Introduce a topic clearly and group related information in paragraphs and sections; include formatting (e.g., headings), illustrations, and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension. b. Develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples related to the topic. c. Link ideas within categories of information using words and phrases (e.g., another, for example, also, because). d. Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic. e. Provide a concluding statement or section related to the information or explanation presented. ECASD is in the process of adopting Lucy Calkins as the writing curriculum. This year teachers have the choice if they want to use Lucy but next year all teachers will be required to use it. I decided to give it a try this year and it hasnt been without growing pains. We are giving the on demand writing prompts as a pre and post assessment. We will also monitor the student work in class. Students may not meet the end of the year benchmarks in all areas but the they will show more than one years growth in writing. At this time, I am teaming with a SPED teacher which requires we meet every day no matter what. Also, we are spending 45 minutes a day on writing instruction compared to the 30 minutes 3 days a week from previous years. Writing instruction has been on the back burner for many years so our students have a significant need for improvement. Common Core State Standards in Language Arts Reading: Literature RL.4.2 Key Ideas and Details
a. Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in a text
b. Summarize the text Writing a summary is something 4th graders struggle with the entire year. We work on scaffolding the instruction to assist in the process. Students identify main ideas and details in every subject I teach. Reading and social studies are the most common subjects we use summary writing in. Instruction in this area will be through whole group, small group, and individualized instruction. Student progress will be monitored through the DRA2 (diagnostic reading assessment), grade level common assessments, guided reading assignments, and the STAR assessment. The DRA2 and STAR assessment are given three times a year. Guided reading assignments are monitored daily and grade level common assessments happen 5-6 times per year. The data collected at the beginning of the year showed a weakness in summary writing.