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ODE Tip Sheets–What Teachers Can Do Now to Prepare for 2014-2015 : Language Arts Blog Here at the ORC we hear it a lot: What can I do now to get ready for the new standards, the new evaluations, the new assessments, the new… (the list goes on). The Ohio Department of Education recently answered this question with a tip sheet for teachers, superintendents, and boards of education. Tip Sheet from ODE Because the categories provided by ODE are somewhat broad in scope, we wanted to point you in some more specific directions and guide you to additional information that might be helpful as you continue to progress over the next two school years. 1. ODE encourages you to “Review, collaborate, implement” through the standards crosswalks.

Four Major Shifts in Literacy This video mini-series has been designed to provide an efficient pathway for understanding and implementing the most significant shifts in English/language arts and literacy instruction. Ranging from seven to ten minutes in length, each video tackles one important topic and then provides tools that educators can begin using in their classrooms immediately. The order in which the videos are watched in not critical, so please feel free to start with the one that seems the most intriguing. Major Shift 1: Emphasizing Informational Text The Common Core State Standards insist on the use of more information texts throughout the school day. This video discusses why and provides educators guidance on where to find high-quality informational texts. California Learning Resource Network (CLRN) Are you looking for standards-aligned electronic learning resources to help your students? Here, you can find free Open Educational Resources, reviews of Online Courses, and commercial Electronic Learning Resources. OnlineCourse Reviews Online course reviews aligned to content standards and iNACOL's online course standards.

Common Core Curriculum Maps These digital resources and tools for creating, collaborating, researching, and sharing can be found in the Common Core Curriculum Maps. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list, as the technologies are constantly evolving. Consider it a beginning! Free Online Resources Common Core Support Tools Below you will find unpacking standards documents to support teachers in their understanding of the common core and essential standards. The unpacking documents demonstrate at a granular level the knowledge and skills students are expected to master at a particular grade. Important Note: The current Standard Course of Study will continue to be taught and tested during the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years. New standards and assessments are to be implemented for the first time beginning with the 2012-13 school year. Please send any thoughts, feedback, questions and ideas about additional resources that would help you start preparing to teach the new standards to feedback@dpi.nc.gov.

Balancing Informational Text and Literature This is a 10 minute video which features a discussion between NYS Commissioner of Education John B. King Jr., David Coleman (contributing author to the Common Core) and Kate Gerson (a Sr. Fellow with the Regents Research Fund) addressing Shift 1 – PK-5: Balancing Informational Text and Literature. By unpacking Shift 1, the discussion addresses the role of the elementary teacher and the benefits of giving informational text the time it deserves in the elementary classroom. Creative Commons license This video explains how Creative Commons licenses can be used in conjunction with commercial licensing arrangements. Creative Commons licenses are explained in many languages and used around the world, such as pictured here in Cambodia. A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted work. A CC license is used when an author wants to give people the right to share, use and build upon a work that they have created. CC provides an author flexibility (for example, they might choose to allow only non-commercial uses of their own work) and protects the people who use or redistribute an author's work, so they don’t have to worry about copyright infringement, as long as they abide by the conditions that are specified in the license by which the author distributes the work. There are several types of CC licenses.

Common Core Resources: DarkeNet Resources for the Common Core English Language Arts Standards We are in a very transitional time with revised standards in the state of Ohio. We (the State of Ohio) have adopted the common core standards as our English Language Arts Standards. This page is intended to provide resources and links to other pages where you will find information about the common core standards for English Language Arts. I have created some of these resources, others have been created by various other entities.

s New Learning Standards: K-12 English Language Arts The State Board of Education has adopted the Common Core State Standards in English language arts as part of Ohio's New Learning Standards for academic learning. The Kindergarten - Grade 12 standards will be fully in use in Ohio classrooms by 2014-2015, when assessments that align to the standards are in place. ODE encourages districts to start implementing the Ohio's New Learning Standards now to better prepare students for 2014-2015 and beyond. Introduction to Ohio's New Learning Standards for ELA, Model Curriculum, and Assessment Text Difficulty and Adolescents I recently received the following letter and thought you might be interested in my responses: "I found your August 21, 2011 blog post on "Rejecting Instructional Level Theory" eye-opening and helpful. I'm a high school English teacher and instructional coach specializing in adolescent literacy remediation, so I've worked with leveled text a lot. If you have a moment, I'd love to hear your thoughts on a couple of follow-up questions:"