 Thanks for joining me for this week's ESU 8 Wednesday webinar. Today we're going to talk about college and career ready English language art standards that were adopted in Nebraska in 2014. I've included a Google link at the top here in black. Go ahead and write that down so that you can access this presentation. I have a lot of different links throughout so that you can access all those links and resources for you. I am Steph Wannick from ESU 8, part of the professional development team, and I've been working with these standards a lot since 2014 when they were first adopted by NDE. Please email me any questions you might have as we go through the information today. So the new standards are college and career ready. In other words, we're preparing kids to leave 12th grade and be college and career ready. Of course, we don't expect kindergartners to leave kindergarten being in college already, but all of these standards will build on skills so that they are ready. I have a link there to the standards and then a link to the standards crosswalk. One thing that you're going to notice on these standards in being college and career ready is that they increase the rigor for students or might increase the difficulty and complexity of each of these standards. When you look at the crosswalk, you'll be able to see the 2009 standards in a column followed by the 2014 standards followed by the common core standard that aligns. We're not a common core state and we would probably never be a common core state. However, lots of our textbooks are common core and are aligned to those standards and so we can kind of compare and see where we fall. NISA in 2017 and the new NCAS test do assess these standards. And it was kind of a wake up call to some of our schools last spring that, wow, those standards really did change and so did our scores. A lot of schools saw a dip in scores and we're kind of surprised by that. So I want to try to point out some things for you to look at and also offer some resources that might help you as you go forward teaching these standards. So we're going to go ahead and examine that crosswalk a little bit better, that link from the last slide. And as we do so, I really want you to focus on what words have changed and we're going to pay attention to the verbs and the depth of knowledge. Or in other words, what kids are being asked to do there. What tasks are they asked to do or information are they asked to give? And then really think about what implications does that have for my instruction? Do I need to change what I'm doing? Because maybe what I was doing for the 2009 standards isn't exactly addressing the 2014 standards or are they very similar and I don't need to switch up much. So let's take a look here at a list of the depth of knowledge levels quickly. It's always nice to have a little refresher on these. Nysa assessed and Enscas will assess depth of knowledge levels one through three. And we'll actually look at the table of specifications in a bit and see which depth of knowledge for each of the standards. But on a level one, kids are asked to do some pretty basic things. And it might even be finding answers that were listed in the text. So they might have to do things like make a list or match or tell or recall. So basic things and the answer is probably somewhere in the text that they've read. By level two, they start to come up with a little bit more on their own. They might have to classify things, tell a cause and effect, compare. Maybe they're going to have to construct or organize something. But they start to come up with a little bit more on their own. And by level three, we get to more complex work. They might be revising. They might have to critique. They might have to compare and contrast, draw conclusions where that is really coming up with the information on their own. Now, this chart is written in pretty small prints. If you click the link at the bottom of the page, you will be able to see this a little bit larger. And also at the bottom, that chart gives some examples of actual tasks that they might be asked to do on each of those depths of knowledge levels. So as we look at the crosswalk here in a moment, I really want you to pay attention to those steps of knowledge. Verbs and see what your students will be asked to do. So here we are at the crosswalk and I have two sixth grade standards that I just screen-shotted for us. The first is LA 6.1.4.B. And the first column again is 2009, second column is 2014, and the third column is the Common Core Standard. So we'll read the standard for 2009. It asks students to adjust oral or silent reading pace based on purpose, text, difficulty, form, and style. In 2014, it changed to use reading strategies to persevere through text of increasing length and or complexity. Okay, so that standard changed somewhat, but not a lot. The basic meaning is still there. They used a few different words to describe that one, but in general, that standard isn't very different. We'll see some more change when we look at LA 6.1.6.I, and that all the standards that are 1.6 and then a letter, those are the comprehension standards, and I seem to think that that is a place where we see more of the change. So in 2009, the standard said, Describe the social, historical, cultural, and biographical influences in a variety of genres. Now, in 2014, you'll notice even the last letter changed to H, but the standard now says, Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in literary and informational texts, citing textual evidence to develop a regional, national, and international multicultural perspective. So I think that you'll agree with me that this standard changed quite a bit and got quite a bit more complex for students. First of all, they have to explain, and explain and describe are quite similar if we think about the depth of knowledge. However, they're just asked to describe on the 2009 standard, where on the 2014 now they have to start to use evidence from the text. And they also have to develop that multicultural perspective, which for some students might be a new concept. We don't see anything about multiculturalism in the 2009 standard. So in teaching this, you're probably going to have to change what you've been doing to include that multiculturalism and include, you know, taking kids back into text and asking them to draw out some evidence. So as you go through that link to the crosswalk, please pay attention to your own grade level standards, the verbs used, and any of the implications that I'll have for your instruction. What are you going to have to change to meet that standard? Well, let's take a look at some resources I have for you that you can use as you get more in touch with these standards and with the new NSCAS test. First of all, we have a glossary. So we'll go ahead and click on that. NDE has made a nice glossary to describe some of the terms within the standards. Now, these terms are teacher terms, not student vocabulary terms. So that's something to kind of think about that these are not all the words that kids are expected to know for NSCAS, but really words for teachers to know to best teach these standards. So you might be reading along and you think, oh, aphics, what now, what does that mean again? And then you read that, oh, it's a non-word morpheme that changes the meaning or function of a root or system, like a prefix or suffix. Okay, that's an aphics. All right, so that's a word that teachers would need to know on these standards. And you can see we can go through the whole list here, but they have a nice comprehensive list for you. They also list the first standard where that word appears. Okay, so we'll go back to our resource list here. And the next link is to the student-friendly standards. Now, our 2009 standards also had student-friendly standards. And these 2014 ones were just finished this fall. So we can go ahead and click on a certain grade level. We've been talking about grade six, so we'll go there. And the standards are actually written, one for each of our standards listed on the teacher document, but that for students are written as ICANN statements. And I've even worked with teachers who say, hey, I understand the standard better when I read that ICANN statement. Also, if you're a Marzano school, you might be thinking a little bit about your learning goals and how those could translate for you with the ICANN statements. They're also formatted so that they can be three-hole punched. And we see our reading standards followed by writing, speaking and listening, and finally multiple literacies that are all part of our ELA standards. Now, with spring conferences coming up, I might ask my students to read over their student-friendly standards and maybe highlight in green three things that they felt like that they've improved on this year and maybe in pink two things that they would like to continue to work on. And share this out with parents. Also, like I said, they're principal and you can punch them, so keep them in a folder and have kids look over them every now and then and see what have I been working hard on or what have we been addressing in class. So again, this is a great resource for you from NDE. Next, we have the standards instructional tool. And the standards instructional tool will actually let you search out ELA standards that you've been working on. Let me see here at the bottom of the page, a link. And then you can actually have different resources to help you teach that. So my keyword might be cause and effect. Okay. I want a language arts lesson that teaches cause and effect. And most of the sit tools geared towards high school at this time. So I'm going to go ahead and click that and search for when you want to introduce some of the standards into your lesson. All right, now we'll go back to our resource list again. And actually, there's another part of the standard instructional tool that includes some webinars. So we'll go there and NDE has produced some great webinars for you to use to help you teach. A lot of them are different teaching methods that will help with the standards. Like for instance, earlier we were talking about using text evidence to prove your learning. And close reading is a method that you can use with your students to really go back in a text and find that meaning. So if you want to learn more about that, you can click on this webinar. And there's a viewing guide and an actual PowerPoint presentation to follow along with. They even have a survey that they'd like you to take. But these webinars are developed for you to even do with a group. So you might as a staff decide to watch close reading. And there's different times that they pause and ask you to talk about something or think about something together. So many different teaching methods that you could use through this. Okay, and we'll go back to our resource list one more time. And next we have the table of specifications. This link actually takes you out to the NSCAS resource page. Because the table of specifications lists the standards taught on NSCAS as well as their depth of knowledge, how many questions will be there. So we'll scroll down here on the page a little bit. And you'll see there's actually two different tables of specifications. One is for NISA. It does still say NISA, not NSCAS. However, it is the same table of specifications for NSCAS. And there is also the alternate assessment that some of your special ed students might use. So go ahead and click the correct table of specifications you want. And I'm going to go ahead to grade six again. When we get there, you'll notice there's a column with the standard number. The words to describe that standard. Then we see a column that has literary or informational passage. So it'll tell you what kind of text the students will be asked to read for that standard. Next is the item type. And we're going to go over those in a moment. Multiple choice, MC means multiple choice. That's one that we really understand. And the next one is a technology enhanced item. We'll look at that. It really asks you or tells you how the students will be asked a question. Next, we notice depth of knowledge levels that will be assessed on that standard. And next is how many item types you'll see. Some of the standards have a kind of bar across them that say that they're assessed at the local level. So that's not one that will be on NSCAS. Now as we scroll down, we talked about depth of knowledge and we're seeing some ones and twos when we are on our vocabulary standards. But as we get to our comprehension standards, we see a lot more that creep up into that two and three range. So we are increasing that complexity for students. So I used to print out my table of specifications in the classroom and I would have them on my desk and I'd use it as kind of a checklist to make sure I'm teaching all the standards. Sometimes I drop down dates that I taught each of those standards. It's a really nice tool to have around for you. One thing to note also is that some of these standards list TDA, text dependent analysis, which has been big in the last few years here. However, because we have switched assessment vendors to NWA, we will not have a text dependent analysis this year. So fifth through eighth grade took that last year. You will not have that this year on the NSCAS assessment. All right. And if I go back to my links once again, I'll see samplers and actually the link for samplers is the same for table specifications. It takes us back to this NSCAS page. And if I scroll down here, again, I can find the NISA samplers. Samplers give me a little sample of what a test might look like. So again, I'm going to choose grade six. All right. So I can go down. They give me some background information on the test. Then they talk about item format and scoring guidelines. Like I said, MC means multiple choice. That's the same kind of question type that we've been seeing for years with maybe A through D or A through E answer choice for students to select. On evidence based selected response, students have a part A and part B. They must receive or get the answer correct for part A to receive credit for part B. So a question might say something like, how did the man feel at the beginning of the story? What word and then part B would say what words told you he felt that way. So again, they must get part A right to get part B right. Autoscored constructed response are those technology enhanced items. They might be things like drag and drop. That's particularly useful, I think, for something like a sequencing question that they have to put the items in order. There's also hot spot, an inline selection. And so they might find multiple answers that were right or do some highlighting within the text. Again, text dependent analysis will not be on this year's test. And then the sampler lists some of the depth of knowledge that you'll see. Alright, now as we keep scrolling down, sorry, I don't mean to make you sick as you watch. There is a passage. Maybe that passage would be very typical for your grade level. Next, on this one, you see that they even have a bit of a diagram here. And then they start in with the different kinds of questions that you would see on that test. Each of the answer types or question types are listed here so you can understand what your students might encounter. I'm going to scroll down a little quickly, sorry. If it's going too fast here, there is still an example of a TDA and I recommend still asking your students to write these. They're really a great assessment of their learning and their understanding of a text. So there's an example of a TDA followed by the rubric that would be used to score it. And then there's an example of a paper that would receive a 4, a 3, a 2, and a 1, so each of those different papers. So this will really get you in touch with your grade level's test. Alright, I'll go ahead and click back to our resource link here. Those are the resources from NDE and now we'll just take a look at a couple others. First we have an Anita Archer standards document. Now Anita Archer is just a reading guru who's worked a lot in our state and reorganized our standards for us, for ELA. And she reorganized those into standards that address all text types, literary text types, informational text types, across text, and research. So you might say, well, you know what, I'm not an English or reading teacher, so I don't really use literary texts, but boy, I use informational texts every day with my students. I could put some of those standards into my instruction and I also ask my students to research them. So we would teach with that research standard. Okay, she also has more of a chart format. And then, okay, now you might need to close your eyes. I'm going to scroll kind of quickly here and I'm going to go to page number 24 where Anita actually made us a vocabulary list for our standards. Now this is a vocabulary list to use with your students. And we'll let the page load here for just a moment. Alright, so here's the third grade list. And these are the words that she picked out the students would need to know to be proficient in that standard. And when we worked with Anita, she had us actually go through the list and kind of think what words would really trip up my grade level kids. So you go through and really circle those words that you think, wow, you know, third graders, I don't think that they know what persuade means. I think that they would really have trouble with perspective, with sequence. And then those are the words that you're going to want to directly teach your students. Some of the words will have been taught in a previous year, so maybe you can just review those. But certain ones you're going to really want to have some emphasis on. And next we also have a link. I won't click it right now, but it goes out to an ACT vocabulary list. So for secondary teachers, you might want to be looking at that since ACT is our new state 11th grade test. So I just want to remind you that the future belongs to those who prepare for it today. We really want to really focus on having our students be college and career ready. And you can do a lot to prepare your kids for that. And by focusing on these standards, that will really help. Think about what changes you can make to fully incorporate that NISA ELA standards. I heard someone recently say, if you're not teaching differently than you taught with the old standards, then you're probably not teaching these standards. So really think about what do you need to change up? What do you need to do slightly differently? And remember that I'm here for any questions anytime. Please give me a call at the ESU or email and I would be happy to work with you. So thanks so much for joining me today. Have a great one.