2015-2016
Catalog
Teaching and Learning Branch
Delaware Department of Education
401 Federal Street
Dover, DE 19901
Contact:
[email protected]
302-735-4180
Common Ground for Common Core Catalog
2015 – 2016
Dates/Times
COMMON GROUND 3.0 SCHEDULE
Groups/Locations
Week of
August 17, 2015
Clinic
September 22-24, 2015
Convening*
8:00am-3:30pm
Guiding teams lead district/school level check-ins, planning, and collaboration. An opportunity for
revisiting Common Ground plans, sharing evidence, and preparing for Feedforward/Feedback
sessions.
September 22, 2015
September 23, 2015
September 24, 2015
Strand 2
Strand 1
Strand 1
Dover Downs,
Elementary Math & ELA
Secondary Math & ELA
Ballroom A
Dover Downs,
Dover Downs,
Ballroom A
Diamond Rooms 1 & 2
Week of
October 19, 2015
Clinic
November 9-10, 2015
Feedforward/Feedback
4:30-7:30pm
Guiding teams lead district/school level check-ins, planning, and collaboration. An opportunity for
revisiting Common Ground plans, sharing evidence, and preparing for Feedforward/Feedback
sessions using the Guskey Evidence Placemat.
November 9, 2015
November 10, 2015
Content/grade specific evidence &
Content/grade specific evidence & artifact sharing;
artifact sharing; refinement of convening
refinement of convening PD and additional resources
New Castle Guiding Teams
PD and additional resources
Kent/Sussex Guiding Teams
December 8-10, 2015
Convening*
8:00am-3:30pm
Week of
January 18, 2016
Clinic
February 9-10, 2016
Feedforward/Feedback
4:30-7:30pm
March 8-10, 2016
Convening*
8:00am-3:30pm
April 11-15, 2016
Clinic
April 21, 2016
Bright Spots
4:30-7:30pm
December 8, 2015
Strand 2
Dover Downs,
Diamond Rooms 2&3
December 9, 2015
Strand 1
Elementary Math and ELA
Dover Downs,
Diamond Rooms 2&3
December 10, 2015
Strand 1
Secondary Math & ELA
Dover Downs,
Diamond Rooms 2&3
Guiding teams lead district/school level check-ins, planning, and collaboration. An opportunity for
revisiting Common Ground plans, sharing evidence, and preparing for Feedforward/Feedback
sessions using the Guskey Evidence Placemat.
February 9, 2016
February 10, 2016
Content/grade specific evidence &
Content/grade specific evidence & artifact sharing;
artifact sharing; refinement of convening
refinement of convening PD and additional resources
Kent/Sussex Guiding Teams
PD and additional resources
New Castle Guiding Teams
March 8, 2015
Strand 2
Modern Maturity Center
March 9, 2016
Strand 1
Elementary Math and ELA
Modern Maturity Center
March 10, 2016
Strand 1
Secondary Math & ELA
Modern Maturity Center
Guiding teams lead district/school level check-ins, planning, and collaboration. An opportunity for
revisiting Common Ground plans, sharing evidence, and preparing for Feedforward/Feedback
sessions using the Guskey Evidence Placemat.
Bright Spots Celebration!
National Keynote Speaker
Showcase evidence and artifacts for
cross-state sharing at
Dover Downs, Ballrooms A-C.
*Pre-work 2 weeks prior to each convening; virtual coaching 2 weeks after each convening.
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Common Ground for Common Core Catalog
*NOTES:
1) Pre-Work: Reading, viewing, data collection; completed prior to each Convening.
2) Convenings: Full day professional development days (3).
3) Clinics: School-based check-ins between Convenings and Feedforward/Feedback meetings focused
on guiding team planning and problem-solving.
4) Feedforward/Feedback: Evening regional sessions for extended professional development, sharing of
evidence & artifacts across guiding teams, new information on tools and resources.
5) Virtual Coaching: Follow-up within two weeks of each convening to extend professional development,
additional resources, and share lessons learned/next steps.
CG 3.0 Goals and Objectives
The primary goal of Common Ground 3.0 is to continue to ensure successful implementation of curriculum,
instruction, and assessment practices aligned to Common Core Standards to improve student learning. Common
Ground 1.0 focused primarily on curriculum and instruction, Common Ground 2.0 focused on assessment
practices, and now Common Ground 3.0 focuses on approaches to closing the achievement gap and deepening
literacy practices across the content areas. Success at the end of the project will be evaluated by the degree to
which Guiding Teams have linked CCSS aligned instruction across multiple content areas and is inclusive of
exceptional children and English Language Learners.
Strand 1
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Strand 2
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Tap into the expertise of English Language Learner,
Special Education, and math and ELA content specialists
to learn evidence based practices for reaching
struggling students
Implement strategies to teach reading comprehension
and writing
Create strategies to teach math that will benefit all
students
Discover what it looks like when we take into account
the learning needs and diversity of all of our students
Create conditions in their school where all students can
be successful
Learn to bridge the WIDA English Language
Development Standards with the CCSS
Acquire support in aligning curriculum, instruction, and
assessment practices to support the diverse academic
needs of English Language Learners and special
education students
Develop meaningful, measurable goals that are based
on individual needs and CCSS
Select the appropriate data collection type for
measuring progress on individualized goals
Learn how to utilize data for instructional planning
Design an intervention plan and progress record to be
used in daily routines
Develop a short list of what routines need to be
discarded, kept, nurtured, and added to your
repertoire in order to dovetail with the nonnegotiables that form the heart of Common Core
instruction
 Recognize that it is the teacher’s shift in the
philosophical thinking about the nature of teaching
and learning that is the most critical element in
successful implementation
 Participate in examining a traditional lesson and
embedding the changes necessary to align it to
Common Core principles using the Anchor Standards
as the guide—then replicating this system in your own
specific lessons
 Take a closer look at close reading, and at complex
text
to see how they exist across the curriculum and
not just in the English classroom
 Tap into the “wisdom in the room” to address a
carousel of questions, issues, stumbling blocks,
solutions for better implementation for everyone
 Examine what exactly is Academic Vocabulary and the
Three Tiers by finding them in passages, looking at
lists, discussing methods of vocabulary instruction
 Learn the role relevance and purpose play in activating
and assessing student engagement and performance
through project-based instruction
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Common Ground for Common Core Catalog
Our Common Ground 3.0 partners are consultants from Solution Tree; Solution Tree is
a leader in professional development for K-12 educators. Solution Tree is comprised of
many of our nation’s thought-leaders who provide their expertise and resources.
Together, we will work to create innovative, impactful professional development
opportunities for all of our Guiding Teams.
Biographies
Strand 1: Targeted Approaches to Closing
Achievement Gaps
Elementary ELA/Special Education Consultant
Lee Ann Jung, PhD, Special Education
Dr. Jung is an associate professor in the department of Early
Childhood, Special Education, and Rehabilitation Counseling at the
University of Kentucky. Dr. Jung has worked in the field of education
as a special educator, administrator, consultant and researcher. The
methods she has developed respond to schools’ urgent need for solid,
evidence-based intervention planning and progress monitoring, and
they are also responsive to teachers’ need for practicality and
efficiency. She is the associate editor of Young Exceptional Children and she has
authored more than 30 journal articles, books and book chapters, including authoring A
Practical Guide to Planning Interventions and Monitoring Progress.
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Common Ground for Common Core Catalog
ELL Consultant
Margarita Calderon, PhD
Dr. Calderon is professor emerita and senior research analyst at the Johns
Hopkins University School of Education. She has conducted research,
training, and curriculum development for teaching language, reading
comprehension, and content knowledge to K-12 English Learners. She has
experience as a classroom teacher, bilingual program director, professional
development coordinator, and teacher supervisor. Her work has focused on
effective instructional processes, two-way and dual-language programs,
teacher learning communities, and schools with language minority populations and striving
adolescent readers. She is a recognized expert and has done extensive work nationally and
worldwide.
Secondary ELA
Nicole Dimich Vagle
Nicole Dimich Vagle has a passion for education and lifelong learning,
which has led her to extensively explore, facilitate, and implement
innovative practices in school improvement. She works with
elementary and secondary educators in presentations, trainings, and
consultations that address today’s most critical issues all in the spirit of
facilitating improved support of student learning.
Nicole was a high school reform specialist, where she worked closely
with school and district staff to support the implementation of small learning communities. This
work included coaching individual and teams of teachers in assessment, literacy, and high
expectations for all students. Nicole also helped facilitate and implement a data templates project
in collaboration with the University of Minnesota. As training coordinator, she helped
elementary and secondary educators design templates to track and analyze data.
A former middle and high school English teacher, Nicole was also a program evaluator and
trainer at the Princeton Center for Leadership Training in New Jersey. She produced a training
DVD that illustrates a protocol for examining the effectiveness of assessments and student
learning. A featured presenter at conferences throughout North America, Nicole empowers
educators to build capacity for and implement formative assessment practices, common
assessment design and analysis, data-driven decisions, student work protocols, and motivational
strategies.
Nicole earned a master of arts in human development from Saint Mary’s University and a
bachelor of arts in English and psychology from Concordia College. She is pursuing a doctorate.
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Common Ground for Common Core Catalog
Elementary Math
Nanci Smith
Nanci Smith, Ph.D, is currently a full-time consultant in the areas of
Mathematics, Curriculum and Assessment development and
implementation, Common Core State Standards and Differentiated
Instruction. She has been a national and international consultant for
fourteen years, and has provided professional development for districts
and schools in 45 states and 9 countries. Nanci Smith has taught
Differentiated Instruction as a Masters course for Arizona State and
Northern Arizona Universities and for teachers at the Singapore American International School
through Buffalo State University. She is Nationally Board Certified in Adolescent and Young
Adult Mathematics. Smith is an active member of National Council of Teachers of Mathematics,
National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics, ASCD, and is currently the Secretary of the
Arizona Association of Teachers of Mathematics.
Smith received her B.S. in Mathematics Education from Grand Canyon University, M.A.Ed. in
Curriculum and Instruction from University of Phoenix, and her Ph.D. in Mathematics Education
from Arizona State University.
Secondary Math
Mona Toncheff
Mona Toncheff is the mathematics content specialist for Phoenix
Union High School District in Arizona. She oversees the
development and implementation of mathematics curriculum,
instruction, and assessment. Mona also coordinates and instructs
district professional development activities for teachers designed to
improve mathematics instruction and student achievement. She has
served in public education for over 20 years.
Mona has supervised the culture change from teacher isolation to
professional learning communities—creating articulated standards
and relevant district common assessments and providing ongoing professional development for
over 200 high school mathematics teachers regarding best practices, equity and access,
technology, response to intervention, and assessment for learning.
A former secretary of the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics, she is director of the
Western Region I NCSM Board. Mona was named 2009 Phoenix Union High School District
Special Achievement Teacher of the Year.
She received a BS from Arizona State University and a MEd in educational leadership from
Northern Arizona University.
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Common Ground for Common Core Catalog
Strand 2-Deepening Literacy Practices
Across the Content Areas
Mary Kim Schrek
Mary Kim Schreck is a consultant, an author, and a speaker across the United
States. She has more than three decades of experience with literacy instruction at
the high school level.
Over the years, thousands of teachers have attended her motivating, fast-paced
workshops and keynotes that blend current, research-based information on
student literacy, engagement, creativity, and effective teaching practices into
seamless messages. She is involved with the Solution Tree program to
implement the Common Core Standards in New Mexico, where she is working
with districts that have a large number of Native American students. Her ability
to relate to teachers’ needs to translate abstract mandates such as the CCSS into terms that apply to both their
classrooms and their students’ circumstances has proved to be her strength as a presenter and an author.
Mary Kim is the author of Transformers: Creative Teachers for the 21st Century (nominated for the Delta
Kappa Gamma International Educator’s Book Award) and four books of poetry. She has also written articles
for national and state education journals.
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