Mapping Units of Instruction:
The Critical Pathway to Linking ELA
Common Core Standards
with Quality Curriculum
School Improvement Network
July 12, 2011
Presented by
Kathy Glass
www.kathyglassconsulting.com
[email protected]
1
• Brief Primer on ELA Common Core
• Unit Map Components:
– standards
– knowledge
– essential understandings
– guiding questions
– skills vs. activities
– resources
– formative and summative
assessments
– differentiated instruction
ELA Common Core Strands
• Reading
–Literature
–Informational Text
–Foundational Skills
• Writing
• Speaking and Listening
• Language
CCR Anchor Standard for Reading
3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over
the course of a text.
Reading Standards for Literature K-5
K
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
3. With
prompting
and support,
identify
characters,
settings, and
major events
in a story.
3. Describe
characters,
settings, and
major events
in a story,
using key
details.
3. Describe
how
characters in
a story
respond to
major events
and
challenges.
3. Describe
characters in a
story (e.g., their
traits,
motivations, or
feelings) and
explain how
their actions
contribute to
the sequence of
events.
3. Describe in
depth a
character,
setting, or event
in a story or
drama, drawing
on specific
details in the
text (e.g., a
character’s
thoughts, words,
or actions)
3. Compare and
contrast two or
more characters,
settings, or
events in a story
or drama,
drawing on
specific details in
the text (e.g.,
how characters
interact).
© Kathy Glass ▪ www.kathyglassconsulting.com
“…while the reading demands of
college, workforce training programs,
and citizenship have held steady or
risen over the past fifty years or so,
K-12 texts have, if anything, become
less demanding.”
Common Core Appendix A, pg. 2
Distribution of Literary and Informational Passages by
Grade in the 2009 NAEP Reading Framework
Grade
4
Literary
50%
Informational
50%
8
45%
55%
12
30%
70%
Source: National Assessment Governing Board. (2008) Reading framework for the 2009 National
Assessment of Educational Progress. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Informational Text
all about books
informational reports
brochures
Internet websites
CD-ROMs
magazine articles
encyclopedias
newspaper articles
field guides
pamphlets
flyers
research papers
handouts
science textbooks
history textbooks
technical manuals
© Kathy Glass ▪ www.kathyglassconsulting.com
Types or Genres of Literature
Fictional Literature (or narrative
literature)
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children’s literature
contemporary realistic fiction
drama/plays
fantasy
folklore (myths, legends, fables,
trickster tales, fairytales)
historical fiction
mystery
novel
novella
realistic fiction
science fiction
short story
tall tales
Nonfiction Literature (or Narrative
Nonfiction or Literary Nonfiction)
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autobiography
biography
diary
essay (e.g., response to literature,
persuasive, comparison/contrast)
how-to paper
journal
magazine
memoir
newspaper
personal narrative
speech
© Kathy Glass ▪ www.kathyglassconsulting.com
What the standards don’t cover
• Curriculum/Instruction
• Going Beyond
• Differentiation
• The Whole Child
Backward Design
Concept-Based Curriculum/Instruction
Differentiation
• What should students KNOW? (facts,
vocabulary, definitions)
• What should students UNDERSTAND?
(generalizations, big ideas of the discipline)
– Essential GUIDING QUESTIONS
• What should students be able to DO? (skills,
processes)
11
IDENTIFY STANDARDS
AND WHAT STUDENTS
SHOULD KNOW
20
THANKSGIVING: A Tradition from Long Ago
SOCIAL STUDIES Standard 1. Understands family life now and in the past, and family life in
various places long ago.
3. Knows the cultural similarities and differences in clothes, homes, food, communications,
technology, and cultural traditions between families now and in the past.
SS Standard 2. Understands the history of the local community and
how communities in North America varied long ago.
2. Understands the contributions and significance of historical figures of the community.
3. Understands the daily life and values of [early Hawaiian or] Native American cultures.
4. Understands the daily life of a colonial community (e.g., Plymouth, Williamsburg, St.
Augustine, San Antonio, Post Vincennes).
SS Standard 3. Understands the people, events, problems, and ideas that were significant in
creating the history of their state.
1. Understands through legends, myths, and archaeological evidence the origins and culture of
early Native Americans [or Hawaiians] who lived in the state or region.
2. Knows ways in which early explorers and settlers adapted to, used, and changed the
environment of the state or region.
Source: McREL Standards
THANKSGIVING: A Tradition from Long Ago
ELA CC Reading Standards for Information Text (R)
ELA CC Speaking and Listening Standards (SL)
1. With prompting and support, ask and answer questions
about key details in a text. (NOTE: includes literature, as
well)
2. With prompting and support, identify the main topic and
retell key details.
3. With prompting and support, describe the connection
between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of
information in a text.
7. With prompting and support, describe the relationship
between illustrations and the text in which they appear.
9. With prompting and support, identify basic similarities in
and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g.,
in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).
10. Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose
and understanding.
1. Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners
about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small
and larger groups.
2. Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information
presented orally or through other media by asking and answering
questions about key details and requesting clarification if something
is not understood.
ELA CC Language Standards
1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English
grammar and usage when writing or speaking. (b.) Use frequently
occurring nouns and verbs. (e.) Use the most frequently occurring
prepositions.
2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English
capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. (a.)
Capitalize the first word in a sentence and the pronoun I. (b.)
ELA CC Reading Standards: Foundational Skills (F)
Recognize and name end punctuation. (c.) Write a letter or letters
4. Read emergent-reader texts with purpose and
for most consonant and short-vowel sounds (phonemes). (d.) Spell
understanding.
simple words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of sound-letter
relationships.
ELA CC Writing Standards (W)
5. With guidance and support from adults, explore word
1. Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to
relationships and nuances in word meanings. (a.) Sort common
compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic
objects into categories (e.g., shapes, foods) to gain a sense of the
or the name of the book they are writing about and state an
concepts the categories represent.
opinion or preference about the topic or book.
Grouping Standards: COMPLEX SENTENCES
• Complex Sentence: Produce complex sentences
(L.3.1i)
• Dependent Clauses: Identify the structure of
dependent clauses and their role in complex
sentences; Use subordinating conjunctions (L.3.1h)
• Independent Clauses: Define independent clause
(i.e., complete sentence with a subject and verb)
• Subordinating Conjunctions: Use subordinating
conjunctions (L.3.1h)
• Commas after a dependent clause that begins a
sentence: Use a comma to separate an introductory
element from the rest of the sentence (L.5.2b)
© Kathy Glass ▪ www.kathyglassconsulting.com
What do you want students to
KNOW?
• Facts
• Dates
• Terms/Vocabulary
• People
• Places
Knowledge: Thanksgiving Unit
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Individuals: Squanto and Wampanoag (Native Americans), Governor
William Bradford, Captain Miles Standish, Pilgrims (Puritans)
Place/Time (Setting): Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, 1621
Vocabulary: holiday, feast, appreciation, thankful, daily life (clothing,
home, food, communication, transportation, traditions)
Holiday: Thanksgiving and other American holidays
Fact: Each November on the fourth Thursday of the month, Americans
celebrate a holiday called Thanksgiving. This national holiday honors
early settlers and the feast they had with their first harvest.
Fact: The Native American tribe called Wampanoag, particularly Squanto,
helped these settlers learn to use the land for survival.
© Kathy Glass ▪ www.kathyglassconsulting.com
Creation Myths: A Window into Culture
CC Reading Standards (4th)
Knowledge
1. Refer to details and examples in a text when
explaining what the text says explicitly and when
drawing inferences from the text.
2. Determine a theme of a [myth] from details in the
text.
3. Describe in depth a character, setting, or event,
drawing on specific details in the text.
4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they
are used in a text, including those that allude to
significant characters found in mythology (e.g.,
Herculean).
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5. Explain major differences between [myths], and refer
to the structural elements when writing or speaking
about a text.
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6. Compare and contrast the point of view from which
different stories are narrated, including the difference
between first- and third-person narrations.
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9. Compare and contrast the treatment of similar themes
and topics and patterns of events in myths from
different cultures.
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key details and examples
reading strategies: inferences
mythology: stories of a particular
culture focusing on its origin
(“creation myths”), history, deities,
ancestors, and heroes
allusion: a reference within a literary
work to another work of fiction, a
film, artwork, or a real event
elements of literature: character,
theme, point of view, setting, plot
mythological characters
common themes across myths
structure of creation myths
cultural perspectives of different
myths
point of view: 1st and 3rd person
pronouns: 1st and 3rd person
pronouns
narrator: who is telling the story
© Kathy Glass ▪ www.kathyglassconsulting.com
The Development of Early Man
Standards
Knowledge
6.1 Students describe what is known
through archaeological studies of
the early physical and cultural
development of humankind from
the Paleolithic era to the
agricultural revolution.
1. Describe the hunter-gatherer
societies, including the development
of tools and the use of fire.
2. Identify the locations of human
communities that populated the
major regions of the world and
describe how humans adapted to a
variety of environments.
3. Discuss the climatic changes and
human modifications of the
physical environment that gave rise
to the domestication of plants and
animals and new sources of clothing
and shelter.
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As early humans developed, their social groups
expanded and they became more sophisticated
in how they could use resources, make tools,
rely on each other for survival.
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The advent of agriculture led to the transition
from the Paleolithic Age to the Neolithic Age.
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people: archeologist, historian, geographer,
anthropologist
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terms: archaeology, civilization, prehistoric,
artifacts, ritual, migration, bipedal, domesticate,
agriculture, nomad, resource, cultural diffusion

location: Early man originated in Africa,
migrated to Europe and Asia, and eventually to
other parts of the world.
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location: Dar the Spear-Thrower - region that is
in southeastern France today called Massif
Central
© Kathy Glass ▪ www.kathyglassconsulting.com
DEVELOP ESSENTIAL
UNDERSTANDINGS
29
Essential Understanding Examples
1. Authors use dialect to reflect culture and
sometimes era thereby authenticating the
voice.
2. Settings influence characters’ actions and
perspectives.
3. Nutrition and substance abuse impact the
body’s ability to participate in physical
activity.
4. Religions can spread and survive despite
conflicts.
© Kathy Glass ▪ www.kathyglassconsulting.com
30
LE: Lynn Erickson
Find or create essential understandings to
address these types of questions:
• What do you want your students to really remember long after they have
forgotten the discrete facts?
• What is your goal for student understanding based on the standards?
• What is the essence of this particular unit of study?
• What differentiated resources will you use to illuminate the standards?
• What textbook is at your disposal?
• Are you team teaching with other staff members who will address
standards?
• How can you help students transfer the knowledge they learn across
subjects and grades?
• How can you help students make various connections: text-to-self, text-totext, text-to-world?
© Kathy Glass ▪ www.kathyglassconsulting.com
What unit might a teacher conduct
to address this essential
understanding?
Intolerance leads to unspeakable
actions which can desensitize a
community.
© Kathy Glass ▪ www.kathyglassconsulting.com
Concept List: Early Man
Archeologists
Humans/Humankind
Physical development
Tools
Community
Physical environment
Climate
Natural resources
Domestication
Adaptation
Evolution/change
Survival
Movement
Diet
Migration
© Kathy Glass ▪ www.kathyglassconsulting.com
34
EU Brainstorming Exercise
1. Archaeological excavations
reveal information about the
past.
2. Archaeologists make
inferences about humankind
through excavated evidence.
3. Archaeologists rely on both
evidence and inference to
understand the past.
Archaeologists rely on
both excavated
evidence and
inference to reveal
information about the
past.
© Kathy Glass ▪ www.kathyglassconsulting.com
EU Brainstorming Exercise
1.
The use of tools allows humans to
secure resources more efficiently.
2.
The evolution of more
sophisticated tools contributes to a
community’s growth and
development.
3.
Humans seek needed resources
and develop technology to secure
and exploit those resources.
4.
People use the physical
environment for survival.
As humans evolve,
they develop the
technology to use
resources in more
sophisticated ways to
survive and grow.
© Kathy Glass ▪ www.kathyglassconsulting.com
Does your essential understanding…
► focus on at least two concepts?
► form a relationship between the concepts using
strong verbs?
► have transfer value? avoid proper nouns?
avoid being locked in time or place?
► represent what you really want students to
understand about the unit?
► answer the big question that you want them to
realize?
© Kathy Glass ▪ www.kathyglassconsulting.com
37
What are the differences between entries in Columns A and B?
A
B
#1 Paragraphs are organized in a
logical order in an informative
paper.
#2 Context clues are what readers
use to help understand words.
#3 New York communities have a
long history and have changed
greatly from the time of early
explorers to today.
#4 In The Hundred Dresses, Maddie
realizes that standing by while
Wanda was bullied made her an
accomplice and just as guilty of
bullying as the other girls who
taunted her.
Logically organizing paragraphs in a
sequential fashion facilitates
comprehension.
Context clues provide readers with a
means for deciphering unknown
words which supports overall
comprehension.
Communities change and grow
throughout time by the cultural and
religious contributions of people who
live there.
Those who stand by and witness an
act of bullying perpetuate the
negative behavior thereby serving as
accomplices in persecuting others.
© Kathy Glass ▪ www.kathyglassconsulting.com
DEVELOP ESSENTIAL
GUIDING QUESTIONS
(Unit and Lesson)
39
Essential
Understandings
Members of a
society conduct
their lives based on
cultural influences.
Folktales reveal
people’s cultural
practices.
People throughout
time depend on
others to help them
survive.
Essential Unit
Guiding Questions
Lesson
Guiding Questions
#1: How are
1.1: What is culture?
people shaped by
1.2: What can we learn about
their culture?
the Native American culture
through folktales?
CONCEPTS
1.3: How did Native Americans
live? What was their culture?
#2: How do
people depend
on each other to
live?
2.1: How did Native Americans
use resources to make food?
2.2: How did Native Americans
help Pilgrims survive?
© Kathy Glass ▪ www.kathyglassconsulting.com
Essential
Understandings
Essential Unit Guiding
Questions
Lesson
Guiding Questions
ELEMENTS OF
LITERATURE
All forms of literature
share common elements
and serve as a unifying
structure.
GQ #1: How do
types of literature
share common
elements?
Lesson 1.1: What are types of literature?
CHARACTERS
Authors develop
characters in many ways
including imagery, a
device to help readers
visualize characters.
GQ #2: How do
writers create
descriptive
characters?
Lesson 2.1: What is characterization?
1.2: What are the elements of literature?
2.2: How do writers use sensory details to
describe characters?
2.3: How do writers invent characters for
their stories?
2.4: How do writers format their writing to
describe a characters?
SETTING
GQ #3: How does
Writers use historical
historical setting
setting to help readers
impact characters?
envision an era and learn
how it impacts characters.
Lesson 3.1: What is historical setting? What
are examples of historical settings?
3.2: How do authors create historical
settings?
3.3: How does the historical setting of this
novel impact characters?
© Kathy Glass ▪ www.kathyglassconsulting.com
Essential
Understanding
Essential Unit
Questions
The materials that
make up the
surface of the
earth have been
formed over long
periods of time by
various processes.
GQ #1: How do
geologists use
properties to
identify rocks and
minerals?
Essential
Understanding
Essential Unit
Questions
The materials that
make up the
surface of the
earth have been
formed over long
periods of time by
various processes.
GQ #3B: How are
rocks formed?
Lesson Guiding Questions
 1.1: What is a geologist?
 1.2: What are the properties of
rocks and minerals?
 1.3: What is the difference
between rocks and minerals?
Lesson Guiding Questions
 3.1B: What are the three basic
types of rocks called?
 3.2B: What are the natural
processes that form the three basic
types of rocks?
 3.3B: How are rocks formed
from one another?
Source: FOSS resources as basis for work
Knowledge
 Rocks have many properties, including
shape, color, and texture.
 Rocks are made of ingredients called
minerals; minerals are made of only
one substance.
 Mineral crystals have identifiable
shapes.
 Some ingredients can be identified by
breaking rocks apart or by dissolving
the ingredients in water.
 Geologists use rock properties to help
identify different rocks.
Knowledge
• Rocks are made of ingredients called
minerals.
 Minerals can be identified by their
properties (e.g., hardness, luster, streak,
fizzing in acid).
 The three basic rock types are igneous,
sedimentary, and metamorphic.
 The rock cycle is a way to describe
how the three types of rocks form from
one another.
CULMINATING
ASSESSMENT OPTIONS
43
GUIDING
QUESTIONS:
Students
create pages
of a book
using a
combination
of drawing,
dictation,
and writing
throughout
the unit in
response to
guiding
questions;
use this
rubric to
score
How are
groups of
people
different and
the same then
and now?
Why and how
do people
celebrate
holidays?
How do
people make a
difference?
© Kathy Glass ▪ www.kathyglassconsulting.com
By Lucy Tuchman, 1st grade
RAFT: Defend Your Position During the American Revolution
Role
Tory, Patriot, or Neutralist
Audience
people who have a different opinion than
you
Format
propaganda or editorial piece for a
newspaper
Topic
You need to convince those with opposing
views that your position is the right way to
think.
The Writing Task: Write an opinion piece using evidence that
includes examples, facts, and opinions to support your position.
Use informational text and reference your evidence so readers are
aware that you can solidly defend your position. Your response
should be at least two typed double-spaced pages in 12 point
Times Roman or Arial font. Use the checklist to guide you while
© Kathy Glass
48
writing.
[email protected]
© Kathy Glass ▪ www.kathyglassconsulting.com
Choose one …
Write an article about
how characters in the
novel are influenced
positively and
negatively by
the historical setting.
Lead a class discussion
focusing on how the
protagonist and antagonist are
each influenced by the
historical setting.
Make up analogies to
compare how characters
are influenced by
historical settings in this
novel and others.
Create a PowerPoint
or photo album to
show the positive and
negative influences of the
historical setting on
characters.
Design a poster, bulletin
board, or mural showing
how characters are positively
and negatively influenced by
the historical setting.
Give a presentation
with musical
accompaniment to
express the influence of
the historical setting.
Create a musical
collage to depict the
historical setting.
Teach one or two others
about how the historical
setting was an influential factor
in characters’ actions.
Describe how you feel
about the ways characters
reacted to their historical
setting.
49
© Kathy Glass
IDENTIFY
KEY SKILLS or
ACTIVITIES,
RESOURCES, and
ASSESSMENTS
50
Read the next two slides
for “Skills” and “Activities.”
What is the difference between
skills and activities?
51
Skill Examples
• Interpret graphs and
analyze data
• Distinguish between fact
and opinion
• Summarize current events
• Critique a play
• Collect data
• Tally results
• Create a timeline
• Construct a model
• Predict outcomes
• Work collaboratively
• Formulate hypothesis
• Arrive at consensus
• Compare perspectives
• Group objects according to
shape
© Kathy Glass ▪ www.kathyglassconsulting.com
52
Activity Examples
• Interpret graphs of U.S.
population growth and
analyze data
• Distinguish between fact
and opinion in Beauty and
the Beast and Cinderella
• Summarize current events
about South American
immigration
• Tally results of students’
favorite activities
• Create a timeline of the
Middle Ages
• Predict outcomes of
characters in Stone Fox
• Construct a model of a
double helix
• Compare perspectives of
the British and American
colonists
© Kathy Glass ▪ www.kathyglassconsulting.com
53
ASSESSMENT EXAMPLES
Assessments are expressed as nouns.
• student participation in class
discussion
• involvement in small group tasks
and discussions
• homework assignments
• entries in journals or logs
• Venn diagram
• written summary scored against a
rubric
• formal presentation scored
against student-generated criteria
• reading response notes
• graphic organizer
• drawing with sentence captions
• PowerPoint presentation
• mini-dictionary of foreign
language terms and their usages
• objective test
• student handout
• analytical essay response
• district math prompt scored
against a rubric
© Kathy Glass ▪ www.kathyglassconsulting.com
55
© Kathy Glass ▪ www.kathyglassconsulting.com
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If you want to feel safe and secure,
continue to do what you have always
done. If you want to grow, go to the
cutting edge of our profession. Just
know that when you do, there will be a
temporary loss of sanity. So know
when you don’t quite know what you
are doing, you are probably growing.
- Madeline Hunter
58