Ninth Grade
Illinois Student Assessment Division
Update
Guest Columnist Mary O’Brian
I appreciate the opportunity to
welcome everyone back for
the 2013-2014 school year!
This will be an exciting year
for all of us. We want to
provide
some
updates/
reminders from the ISBE
Student Assessment Division.
We continue to align our
assessments
with
the
Common
Core
State
Standards (CCSS) in English/
language
arts
and
mathematics. We know that
you have been working hard
to incorporate the CCSS
shifts in your classrooms and
we
want
the
state
assessments to reflect those
shifts. So, for 2013-2014 the
Illinois State Achievement
Test (ISAT) will contain all
items that connect to the
CCSS. We will be providing a
test blueprint to reflect these
changes very soon. We
continue to work with the
Partnership for Assessment
of Readiness for College and
Careers (PARCC). Many
Illinois educators have been
involved in item reviews and
creation of various
supporting materials, such as the
Accessibility and Accommodations Manual.
We will be participating in the
field test of the PARCC
assessment in March and
May of 2014. The schools
that are chosen for participation in this field test will be
notified at the end of August/
beginning of September. If
you are working with students
who have the most significant
cognitive disabilities, we have
adopted the Common Core
Essential Elements as our
standard in English/language
arts and mathematics. We are
also
working
with
the
Dynamic
Learning
Maps
(DLM) consortium for our
alternative
assessment
A Publication of the Illinois
State Board of Education
Statewide System of Support
Content Specialists
September 2013
replacing
the
Illinois
Alternate Assessment (IAA).
The DLM assessment is
pilot testing in October of
2013 and field testing in the
spring of 2014. Please
check out our website for
more information:
http://www.isbe.state.il.us/
assessment/default.htm
Mary O’Brian is the Director
of Assessment for the Illinois
State Board of Education.
Additional Resources
Capture the Core Archives
Newly released
PARCC sample tasks
Inside this issue:
Data and
Assessment
1
English/
Language Arts
2
Mathematics
3
Learning Supports
4
Free Resources for Teachers
Several valuable tools for
implementing the English
Language Arts Common
Core State Standards
(CCSS) at all grades levels
are available for teachers
and administrators.
PARCC Resources, teaching
strategies and webinars
based on the CCSS are
among the resources which
can be found on the website
for the Illinois State Board of
Education at http://
www.isbe.net/common_core/
htmls/resources.htm#ela
The Teaching Channel provides
teachers with an opportunity to
share ideas and view videos of
classroom practices. Educators
can submit questions for their
colleagues as well as obtain great
lesson ideas from this site. Its
goals include building resources
that teachers want, improving
opportunities for teacher learning
and elevating as well as
celebrating teachers.
Source:
www.theteachingchannel.org
Edmodo provides a safe and
easy way for students to
collaborate, share content,
and access homework,
grades and school notices.
Teachers can continue
classroom discussions
online and provide polls to
check for student
understanding. It allows
teachers to connect to
valuable resources as well
as track student progress.
Source:
https://www.edmodo.com/
Connecting Speaking to Writing
The Writing Standards require
students to support their claims
with evidence. Teachers can
provide students with practice in
presenting such support by
having discussions prior to asking
them to do this in writing. Allowing
time for classroom conversations
can also be an opportunity for
students to listen to each other,
think more carefully and speak
more precisely.
The following prompts should be
posted in the front of the class
prior to beginning a discussion:

I agree/disagree
with___because…

I have a different opinion…

I have something to add…

Please explain your answer.
Source: http://
www.theatlantic.com/
magazine/archive/2012/10/
the-writingrevolution/309090/3/
The Gift of Time in History Class
“Transforming our
classrooms to align with
the Common Core may
appear daunting, but the
paybacks are tremendous.
Give yourself the gift of
time to make the switch…”
Lyn Cannaday
Social Studies Teacher
Page 2
The Common Core Reading
Standards require teachers to
spend more time allowing
students to understand texts.
Rather than initially expecting
students to draw meaning from
a text on their own, teachers
can first assign the task to pairs
or small groups of students.
1. Provide students with
questions which will require
close reading.
2. Have students reread the
text and discuss possible
answers to the questions
in pairs or small groups.
3. Allow students time to
form their own answers
and then compare their
answers with fellow
students.
Source: http://
www.achievethecore.org/elaliteracy-common-core/
shifts-practice/
Grade 9
CCSSM Practice Standards
This year begins full
implementation of the Common
Core State Standards throughout
Illinois. Teachers and students
will notice changes in their math
classrooms with the transition to
CCSSM. Teachers will want to
ask open-ended questions,
provide group work activities,
use precise language, and
modify lessons to include both
content and practice standards.
For some, the addition of
practice standards to the
curriculum will be a new
challenge. In a recent survey,
“71 percent of teachers “agreed”
or “strongly agreed” that the
focus on math practices is the
“biggest innovation” of the
standards” (Robelen July 29,
2013).
There are eight practice
standards, which are the same
for all grades K-12. These
practice standards are equally
important to the grade- or
course-level content standards,
and as such, are integrated into
the PARCC assessment.
Teachers are encouraged to
hang a poster of the practice
standards in their classroom,
complete professional
development on the practice
standards, and to investigate
new ways to address all eight
practice standards in their
classroom.
Recommended Resources
Illustrative Mathematics
http://
www.illustrativemathematics.or
g/
Tools for the Common Core
Standards http://
commoncoretools.me/
Progressions documents
http://ime.math.arizona.edu/
progressions/
Student Achievement Partners
www.achievethecore.org
Inside Mathematics
http://insidemathematics.org/
Achieve
http://achieve.org/achievingcommon-core
MP1. Make sense of problems
and persevere in solving them.
MP2. Reason abstractly and
quantitatively.
MP3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning
of others.
MP4. Model with mathematics.
MP5. Use appropriate tools
strategically.
MP6. Attend to precision.
MP7. Look for and make use of
structure.
MP8. Look for and express
regularity in repeated reasoning.
For grade level examples of
each practice standard, look at
previous newsletters.
“In a great act of foresight by
this nation, most of the states
have now adopted a
consistent set of
expectations for school
mathematics, called the
Common Core State
Standards.”
Statement by Presidents of
CBMS Member Professional
Societies
Parent Resources
As we start the new year, we
have multiple opportunities to
interact with parents through
curriculum nights, open houses, and meet the teacher
events. Now is a great time
to share some information
about the CCSSM.
both English and Spanish.
The roadmaps provide a brief
overview of the CCSSM,
The Council of Great City
grade-level topics, and parent
Schools has released grade-teacher collaboration tools.
and subject-level specific
Parent Roadmaps available in http://www.cgcs.org/Page/244
Volume 1 Issue 1
PTA also provides grade-level
specific Parents’ Guide to
Student Success including
information on both ELA and
Mathematics, available in
Spanish and English
http://pta.org/content.cfm?
ItemNumber=2796
Having an informed parent
community will lead to a
smoother transition to the
CCSSM.
Page 3
Comprehensive System of Learning Supports
Setting Expectations in the Classroom
Along with feeling excited at the start of the school year, students may also feel anxious when
they are uncertain of the behaviors that each teacher expects from them. In order to ease this potential
anxiety and establish an environment that is conducive to learning, teachers can begin the process of
setting clear and consistent expectations in the classroom on the very first day of class. Some common
expectations frequently set are:



Come prepared to class;
Ask questions and participate in discussions;
Respect self, others & property.
Strategies teachers may find helpful include:




Encouraging students to help develop ground
rules for the classroom;
Asking students to brainstorm why each
classroom rule may be important;
Developing a list of agreed expectations
instead of “rules” for student interactions;
Posting agreements and referring to them
consistently throughout the year.
To learn more about how to meaningfully include students in setting classroom expectations, refer to
Discipline with Dignity. (Curwin, R. L., Mendler, A. & Mendler, B. D., 2008.)
“High achievement always
takes place in the framework of
high expectation.”
Charles Kettering
Words, Words, Words
In addition to setting clear and consistent
expectations, a teacher can help establish a culture
of learning by using choice words. Peter Johnston
(Choice Words, 2004) urges educators to consider
that “…the language that teachers (and their
students) use in classrooms is a big deal… words
and phrases exert considerable power over
classroom conversations, and thus over students’
literate and intellectual development…” Vygotsky
(1978) encapsulated this idea when he stated,
“Children grow into the intellectual life around
them.”
In the table to the right are examples of
language that can help connect students to a
positive and strength-based classroom. Language
DOES make a difference in how students learn and
relate to others.
References:
Johnston, P. H. (2004). Choice words, how our language affects children\'s learning.
Teachers Pub Group Inc.
Curwin, R. L., Mendler, A. N., & Mendler, B. D. (2008).Discpline with Dignity. (3rd
ed.). Alexander, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Develop.
FOCUS
RESPONSE
Behavioral Correction
Your choices are based
on what reasons?
Did you get what you
needed?
What’s another more
appropriate way to get
what you need?
Encouragement
You are really staying
focused on that!
Reattempt
What’s another way you
might say/do/write that?
Direction
What comes next?
Concern/Diagnostic
What kind of help do
you need today?
Visit www.isbe.net to download this newsletter.