But I’m looking forward to learning from the kids now.

I’m eager to test some of the practices that we’ve been investigating. I’m eager to pay attention to them. I’m eager to listen to them. After all, how can we really help them if we are not including them in the work?

We’ve made some predictions about what we might find as we enter the classroom. We need to remain open to the unexpected too, I know. I don’t think that we can deem a practice promising until it demonstrates potential for the learners we serve.

I’m wondering where we will fail and what we will learn in the process. This is critical to our learning. How will our struggles change our perspectives? How will they influence our practice? How can we persevere when things don’t work they way we intended them to?

Earlier this week, I spent the day exploring the difference between clarity and certainty with some of the fellows of my learning community. Often, teachers invite coaches to work with them in order to achieve some sense of certainty about what to do next. But coaching, when it’s done well, is about helping people pursue clarity rather than demanding certainty. I’m thinking hard about how I can inspire this shift.

I’m looking forward to supporting teachers as they try some things, pay attention, and learn what they can about how to help children better…..from the children they serve.

Protocols can ensure that coaching experiences are equitable and productive. They can also enable a gradual release of responsibility from coach to teacher and from teacher to learner. Some of my favorites are here. I’ll share more as I continue my work this year.

It also raises some important questions, which many of the teachers that I am working with raised throughout our unit design sessions this fall.

The teachers that I am working with are eager to know what the six instructional shifts will look like in their classrooms with their students. Some are a bit uncertain about how all of this might play out. They know that their first attempts to shift in any of these ways might be less than successful. They know that they need time to research and test new strategies, watch how they influence kids and learning, and then plan next steps. For these teachers, it’s not just about getting the shifts done. It’s about knowing what it means to do this work well, reflecting on practice, and continually improving based on what is learned.

It’s very difficult to do this kind of work alone and do it well.

Teachers need colleagues to collaborate with. They are asking for varied perspectives, insight, and a lot of feedback.

For this reason, many of the people that I began working with this fall will be spending the winter and spring testing the units they designed in their classrooms and inviting others to observe, provide feedback, and coach them.

There are a variety of a collegial learning protocols and processes that could support this work, and it will look a bit different in each school I am working in, I know.

Right now, I’m considering some form of lesson study, though.

I’ll share the details and specifics as I go here, but if you have resources to recommend or know anyone who might be willing to share their experiences with lesson study with me, please let me know.

This week, I’ll be sharing a bit about the next steps that several schools I am working with are taking: lesson study and instructional coaching relevant to the shared reading of complex text.

See you tomorrow!

• We predict that all readers may experience increased levels of frustration as they begin confronting curricula and immersing themselves in resources that are more rigorous than they are accustomed to. Some teachers have anchored the units they are designing in the honest exploration of that reality, and these units are framed with essential questions such as, “What does learning feel like?” Experienced and reflective learners know that it often feels like uncertainty, frustration, and even at times, fear. How do we persevere as learners who experience these feelings? What strategies work best? What can happen within the classroom to help learners to persevere? These are important considerations for our work with the Common Core.

• We predict that struggling readers might experience increased levels of frustration and shame if instruction uncovers their difficulties in very public ways. Differentiating the process by which varied levels of learners engage with complex text could be helpful in situations like these. For instance, parallel teaching might allow different levels of readers to access the text and make meaning from it at a time, at a pace, and using processes that are varied. Tackling the text in this way first can empower these readers to offer meaningful contributions to full group discussions that can follow. Jigsaw can accomplish similar objectives if it used strategically. It’s important to understand flexible grouping and to commit to using it consistently throughout the year in order to maximize the potential of differentiated instruction. Throwing struggling readers into homogeneous groups for parallel teaching or text-based discussions could only serve to reinforce stereotypes and intensify potential problems if we aren’t taking the time to learn the strengths of these same students and to teach in ways that genuinely leverage those strengths and the status of those students. What are the true gifts of those readers who struggle most? What are they good at? Where are we attending to those strengths and capitalizing on them in service to all of the learners in the room? These are critical questions.

• We predict that teacher-centered instruction could disengage many kids and make it difficult for us to achieve total participation or formatively assess all learners. It’s possible to engage in a shared reading of complex text without positioning ourselves at the front of the room, firing challenging questions at a crowd of unprepared or even inattentive kids, or pulling teeth in order to get answers. We’ve been discussing the importance of providing readers time to process the text and our questions, formulate evidence-based responses and their own questions, and share their thinking and work with partners or small groups prior to a full group discussion. Doing so will provide teachers time to check each learner’s understanding, formatively assess, and when necessary, shift instruction. It also attends to another hunch we have…..

• We know that when teachers direct learning from the front of the room, they tend to be the ones posing all of the questions, they are tempted to call exclusively on those who raise their hands, and they can quickly succumb to the pressure to deliver the answers themselves when no one else does. These tendencies train students to hide during teacher-directed discussions and to wait us out when answers are hard to form. They also pay little respect to the interests, experiences, and expertise that all learners have. Discussing these potential pitfalls has us thinking deeply about the differences between lecturing/telling/leading a class and truly facilitating learning. We’re rediscovering the best of what we’ve learned about engagement, student-directed learning, and formative assessment practices as a result.

• Jim Burke’s text, The English Teacher’s Companion (which my former grad students will remember fondly), his work relevant to teaching with questions, and his use of sentence frames (which he touches on in page 34 of this document). Burke also founded the English Companion Ning, where literacy-minded folks can connect with others, share ideas, and problem solve together.

• Resources relevant to rhetoric, some of which I have bookmarked here.

• Resources relevant to rhetorical fallacies–our study has begun with logical fallacies specifically.

Helping readers follow writers into the depths of the arguments that they make or the stories they unfold requires skill. Adopting practices that are grounded in the use of specific strategies seems to be empowering the teachers I am working with to approach this shift with greater confidence. The study of these practices is also preparing us to help every reader become a writer who can execute a powerful argument and write from sources as well.

For instance, we know that many readers are struggling to access grade-level text. We know that when this text is expository, the problem seems even more profound. Many of us lived through the awakening of the field to reading levels and the realization that many of our content area text books were written at far higher levels than kids could read independently. This, coupled with curricula that was loaded with content that demanded coverage, seemed to contribute to the demise of expository reading experiences in many classrooms.

Inviting all readers to access complex text is a daunting challenge, but most of the teachers that I am working with are eager to begin investigating and testing some different practices in service to this mission. This has looked a bit different in each district I am working in, and I will share some of these specific experiences in the days ahead. In the mean time, these approaches and resources have guided many of our beginnings:

• First, we’re finding it critical to start very small. Rather than tackling all of the shifts at once or attempting to overhaul an entire unit or semester’s worth of instruction in an effort to align to them, we’re beginning with the thorough study and implementation of a single shift: number three. Teachers have been charged with the task of fully aligning their curricula to the Common Core over the next year, and our work with unit design is enabling this well. When it comes to shifting instruction, however, attending to the development of a single plan or extended task seems to be far more appropriate. As teachers finish framing their first Common Core aligned unit, they are beginning this next phase.

• We’ve begun this work with an investigation of what this shift entails and conversations about what this will require of us individually and collectively. Teachers are being as specific as possible about what they  feel they will need to learn, test, and receive feedback on in order to help all students climb this staircase of complexity as readers.

• We’ve also begun sharing our own expertise, pooling resources and strategies, and locating others that might support our efforts. Some initial recommendations for others who are interested in helping kids access complex text: Kelly Gallagher’s Deeper Reading, How to Do a Close Reading by Patricia Kain, What is Close Reading? (tutorial, samples and guidance notes included), Advancing Our Students Language and Literacy: The Challenge of Complex Texts by Marilyn Jager Adams, Elfrieda H. Hiebert’s Text Project (including her considerations for struggling readers),  and The Art of Close Reading from the Critical Thinking Community.

What resources do you recommend? Which thinkers and experts in the field could inform work with this shift further? What are your experiences with readers who are sizing up this staircase of complexity?

My work with this shift has me thinking deeply about frustration tolerance. How do we help readers build it? How do we do so ourselves? What does it mean to persevere and which strategies can empower all of us?

So, reactions like these (in response to this video) didn’t surprise me one bit:

“Wow. I don’t read like he does,” a few people admitted.

“I don’t read much at all, these days” others have said. “Who has time to read like that?”

“Well, I don’t. And if I am reading, it certainly isn’t anything as cerebral as King’s Letter From Birmingham Jail,” someone joked and then added quickly, “I’m not joking.”

“This is sad,” someone sighed. “I used to love reading. I guess I’ve been treating it as an unnecessary luxury.”

That is sad.

Really sad.

How can we create “beautiful questions about things worth reading” for our students when we’re not doing this for ourselves?

And so it is with unit design. My previous posts have spoken to the pre-design phase of this process and the benefits of investing time and energy in the establishment of vision and the definition of standards that should be attended to in addition to the CCLS. As we’ve continued deepening our understanding of high quality learning experiences, we’ve investigated the work of varied experts who came before us and the perspectives and processes they’ve shared relevant to unit design. We’ve also begun exploring the following instructional shifts, which underpin the standards themselves and influence unit design with the CCLS in significant ways.

Designing ELA units of instruction with the Common Core compels us to:

• Balance the study of literature with the study of expository text
• Use reading to build knowledge in content area classrooms
• Engage learners in the shared reading of grade level appropriate text
• Ask questions that require learners to return to the text in order to shape responses
• Write from sources
• Build academic vocabulary

Each of the links above will direct you to video clips intended to provide clarity around what each shift means. David Coleman also models what these shifts might look like in the classroom here.

In the coming days, I’ll share more about what we’re discovering as we unpack these shifts and begin aligning our units and instructional practices to them.

I have always had a passion for curriculum design. Like writing, it inspires us to think of our audience first: who they are, what they love, what they need, and how we can tuck important lessons into even the darkest corners of the experience. Designing quality units requires us to consider what’s most essential, which understandings must endure, and how we can create opportunities for all learners to use their gifts and talents in service to themselves and others as they learn. It also empowers us to act as diagnosticians, particularly when we attend carefully to the alignment between what we write, teach, and assess.

All of the teachers that I am working with began approaching curriculum design by exploring the modules (which most characterize as lesson plans or extended tasks) provided by SED. They watched David Coleman’s Introduction to the Common Core Learning Standards and his demonstration of close reading as well. We also unpacked the exemplars provided at EngageNY and identified how the practices revealed within these pieces align to the CCLS and to the six big shifts. Many questions emerged from these experiences and because people were forthright about their needs, we’ve been able to begin providing targeted support relevant to those practices that teachers are feeling less confident about.

A unit is far more comprehensive than a lesson plan or an extended task, and as we design them together, I feel this is helping teachers come to know the standards and the instructional shifts that underpin them much better than lesson or task planning alone might. I know that unit design isn’t mandated within the Race to the Top initiative this year, but I’m confident that working with the CCLS in this way has inspired important shifts in perspective and practice. It’s also enabled me to identify where deeper work must continue, in order to fully align curricula.

Over the years, I’ve experimented with different unit design processes, protocols, templates, and tools. Last week, I shared some specifics about the processes I’ve begun with teachers.  My processes do not replace those that districts already value,though. They align with them and enrich them in ways that serve everyone well. Each of the districts that I am working in this year rely on approaches and tools that are heavily influenced by the Understanding by Design process conceptualized by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins. I’ve bookmarked some of my favorite UbD resources here, for those who may be interested.

Eager to deepen your understanding of high quality unit design even further? Begin with this sample chapter of Changing the Way You Teach, Improving the Way Students Learn, and when you are done, go ahead and pick up the whole book.

You may also want to consider Anthony Petrosky’s perspectives on rigor and the way he approaches scaffolding within unit architectures.

My work with teachers has been significantly influenced by these experts and the examples, tools, and resources they’ve shared with me in different settings over the years. I know that others in our region are relying on the work that has emerged from The Thoughtful Classroom as well.

We began and will continue our work with unit design because doing so enables us to frame a year of coherent learning and assessment experiences. After individual units are completed collaboratively by teams,  each teacher then designs an aligned lesson plan or extended task that applies the recommended instructional shifts.

How are you approaching unit design with the Common Core?

If you are approaching similar work in your role as a teacher or facilitator, I’m eager to connect with you! Over the last few months, I’ve received invitations to collaborate with others in spaces beyond this blog, and I’m learning a great deal as a result. Please let me know if you’d like to add your voice to this conversation. I hope you’ll add a comment below or email me at stockmanangela@gmail.com. Here’s what I’ve been up to over the last few months:

I began the work of Race to the Top by helping the teachers that I am working with define a vision for the graduate they hope to shape and the teacher they hope to become:

• It was important to me that everyone involved in our work treat Race to the Top as a means to those greater ideals, not an end unto itself.
• We began by Envisioning the Top
• Getting Race Ready involved conceptualizing our personal frameworks for professional practice and considering the positive influence that other frameworks might have on our own.
• We defined HOW we wanted to accomplish this work in addition to WHAT needed to be done. 
• And in doing so, we realized how important it was to reflect, strategically plan, and attend to sustainability.

As each initiative has unfolded inside of the districts I am serving we’ve begun:

• Developing a Fluency with the Common Core Learning Standards
• This involves more than a perfunctory gap-analysis, and while unwrapping the standards can deepen our understanding of them, we’ve found that the timing of this work can have a significant influence on how valuable it becomes to teachers.

As a facilitator, one of my primary objectives is to help teachers work in ways that increase job satisfaction.

• Sharing protocols that enable teachers to align to their vision as well as the CCLS has been a critical part of this process.
• This involves fleecing out indicators of vision and thinking in bigger ways about standards, too.

Last week, I shared the way that I’ve begun approaching curriculum design with the teachers I serve. This week, I’ll blog about the products that are emerging from this work and how I’m using formative assessment to inform my practice and professional development planning.

If there are specific aspects of this work that you’d like me to speak to more or questions you’d like me to address, please feel free to leave them below or drop me an email at stockmanangela@gmail.com. Responding helps me clarify my own thoughts, and the questions that I’ve been receiving challenge me to consider some very different perspectives and approaches. I’m learning a great deal–thanks!