Introduction
In 2014, the Shelby County Schools Board of Education adopted a set of ambitious, yet attainable goals for school and student performance. The District is committed to these goals, as further described in our strategic plan, Destination 2025. By 2025,
§ 80% of our students will graduate from high school college or career ready
§ 90% of students will graduate on time
§ 100% of our students who graduate college or career ready will enroll in a post-secondary opportunity.
In order to achieve these ambitious goals, we must collectively work to provide our students with high-quality, College and Career Ready standards-aligned instruction. Acknowledging the need to develop competence in literacy and language as the foundations for all learning, Shelby County Schools developed the Comprehensive Literacy Improvement Plan (CLIP). The plan ensures a quality balanced literacy approach to instruction that results in high levels of literacy learning for all students and across content areas. Destination 2025 and the Comprehensive Literacy Improvement Plan establish common goals and expectations for student learning across schools and are the underpinning for the development of the English/Language Arts curriculum maps.
Designed with the teacher in mind, the English/Language Arts (ELA) curriculum maps focus on literacy teaching and learning, which include instruction in reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language. This map presents a framework for organizing instruction around the TN State Standards so that every student meets or exceeds requirements for college and career readiness. The standards define what to teach at specific grade levels, and this map provides guidelines and research-based approaches for implementing instruction to ensure students achieve their highest potentials.
A standards-based curriculum, performance-based learning and assessments, and high quality instruction are at the heart of the ELA Curriculum guides. Educators will use this guide and the standards as a road map for curriculum and instruction. Carefully crafted curricular sequences and quality instructional resources enable teachers to devote more time and energy in delivering instruction and assessing the effectiveness of instruction for all learners in their classrooms, including those with special learning needs.
How to Use the Literacy Curriculum Maps
Our collective goal is to ensure our students graduate ready for college and career. This will require a comprehensive, integrated approach to literacy instruction that ensures that students become college and career ready readers, writers, and communicators. To achieve this, students must receive literacy instruction aligned to each of the elements of effective literacy program seen in the figure to the right.
This curriculum map is designed to help teachers make effective decisions about what literacy content to teach and how to teach it so that, ultimately, our students can reach Destination 2025. To reach our collective student achievement goals, we know that teachers must change their instructional practice in alignment the with the three College and Career Ready shifts in instruction for ELA/Literacy. We should see these three shifts in all SCS literacy classrooms:
(1) Regular practice with complex text and its academic language.
(2) Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational.
(3) Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction.
Using the Curriculum Maps, Grades 6-8
· Begin by examining the text(s) selected for the week. Read them carefully and become familiar with both the text(s) and the “big idea.”
· Locate the TDOE Standards in the left column. Analyze the language of the standards, and match each standard to an evidence statement in the center column.
· Consult your Pearson Literature Teachers’ Edition (TE) and other cited references to map out your week(s) of instruction.
· Plan your weekly and daily objectives, using the evidence statements to help.
· Study the suggested writing prompts/performance assessments in the right-hand column, and match them to your objectives.
· Plan the questions you will ask each day using these three types of questions: those that derive general understanding, those that address craft and structure, and those that elicit an overall meaning of the text. Be sure that the questions you ask will lead students to success on your selected performance assessments.
· Examine the other standards and skills you will need to address—writing, vocabulary, language, and speaking and listening skills.
· Using your Pearson TE and other resources cited in the curriculum map, plan your week using the SCS lesson plan template. Remember to include differentiated activities for teacher-led small group instruction and literacy stations.
Throughout this curriculum map, you will see high-quality texts that students should be reading, as well as some resources and tasks to support you in ensuring that students are able to reach the demands of the standards in your classroom. In addition to the resources embedded in the map, there are some high-leverage resources around each of the three shifts that teachers should consistently access:
The TN English Language Arts State StandardsThe TN ELA State Standards:
http://www.tn.gov/education/article/english-language-arts-standards / Teachers can access the TN State Standards by clicking on the link.
Shift 1: Regular Practice with Complex Text and its Academic Language
Student Achievement Partners Text Complexity Collection:
http://achievethecore.org/page/642/text-complexity-collection / Teachers can learn more about how to select complex texts (using quantitative, qualitative, and reader/task measures) using the resources in this collection.
Student Achievement Partners Academic Work Finder: http://achievethecore.org/page/1027/academic-word-finder / Teachers can copy and paste a text into this tool, which then generates the most significant Tier 2 academic vocabulary contained within the text.
Shift 2: Reading, Writing and Speaking Grounded in Evidence from the Text
Student Achievement Partners Text-Dependent Questions Resources:
http://achievethecore.org/page/710/text-dependent-question-resources / Teachers can use the resources in this set of resources to craft their own text-dependent questions based on their qualitative and reader/task measures text complexity analysis.
Shift 3: Building Knowledge through Content-Rich Non-fiction
Student Achievement Partners Text Set Projects Sequenced:
http://achievethecore.org/page/1098/text-set-project-sequenced-under-construction / Teachers can use this resource to learn about how to sequence texts into “expert packs” to build student knowledge of the world.
Text Complexity in the Pearson Textbooks
Shelby County Schools adopted the Pearson Literature textbooks for grades 6-12 in 2012-2013. The textbook adoption process at that time followed the requirements set forth by the Tennessee Department of Education and took into consideration all texts approved by the TDOE as appropriate. The textbook has been vetted using the Instructional Materials Evaluation Tool (IMET) developed in partnership with Achieve, the Council of Chief State Officers (CCSSO) and the Council of Great City Schools. The textbook was rated as meeting all non-negotiable criteria and some indicators of superior quality.Non-negotiable criteria are Foundational Skills (as applicable),Complexity of Texts,Quality of Texts, andText-Dependent Questions.
All schools have access to these textbooks, so the Curriculum Maps draw heavily from them. Texts selected for inclusion in the Curriculum Maps, both those from the textbooks and external/supplemental texts, have been evaluated by District staff to ensure that they meet all criteria for text complexity--Quantitative, Qualitative, and Reader & Task Factors. Lexile Levels are listed on the Curriculum Maps, and additional information about other factors can be found on designated pages in the Pearson textbooks for those selections.
Using the WIDA MPIs
WIDA English Language Development (ELD) standards and example Model Performance Indicator (MPI) strands appear within this document to provide teachers with appropriate scaffolding examples for ELLs and struggling readers. Strands of MPIs related to the domain of Reading are provided and linked to the corresponding set of CCR standards. By referencing the provided MPIs and those MPIs within the given links, teachers can craft "I can" statements that are appropriately leveled for ELLs (and struggling readers) in their classrooms. Additionally, MPIs can be referenced for designing new and/or modifying existing assessments.
First Quarter / TN State Standards / Evidence Statements / Content /Week 1-3
Reading Selections
Option 1
· “What is the Electoral College?” by Elizabeth Deatrick (ATOS 10.1; informational)
· “Counterpoint: Why We Need the Electoral College” by Jeffrey Bowman and Tracey M. DiLascio (ATOS 11.0; informational) / Option 2
· from A Wrinkle in Time exemplar (Lexile 740; fiction) and The 11:59 (ATOS 7.1; fiction)
· Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson (lexile 1100)
Big Question: Is the truth the same for everyone? (Unit 1)
Reading Complex
Texts
Reading Complex
Texts
Reading Complex
Texts
Reading Complex
Texts / Informational
RI8.1
Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
RI8.2
Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to supporting ideas; provide an objective summary of the text.
RI8.6
Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints.
Option 2
Literature
RL8.1
Cite textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
RL8.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the character, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text.
These standards are constant and should be taught throughout each quarter.
Cite Evidence: RL1, RI1
Analyze Content: RL/RI.8.2-9 / Informational
Evidence Statements
· Provides textual evidence that most strongly supports analysis of what the text says explicitly. RI8.1
· Provides textual evidence that most strongly supports analysis of inferences drawn from the text. RI8.1
· Provides a statement of a central idea of a text. RI8.2
· Provides an analysis of the development of a central idea over the course of the text including its relationship to supporting ideas. RI8.2
· Provides an objective summary of a text. RI8.2
· Provides a statement of an author’s point of view in a text.
· Provides a statement of an author’s purpose in a text.
· Provides an analysis of how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence and/or viewpoints. RI8.6
Option 2
Literature
Evidence Statements
· Provides textual evidence that most strongly supports analysis of what the text says explicitly. RL8.1
· Provides textual evidence that most strongly supports analysis of inferences drawn from the text. RL8.1
· Provides a statement of a theme or central idea of a text, based on textual evidence. RL8.2
· Provides an analysis of the development of the theme or central idea over the course of the text. RL8.2
· Provides an analysis of how the theme or central idea relates to the characters, setting, and/or plot. RL8.2
· Provides an objective summary of a text. RL8.2 / Prentice Hall Literature- Reading Selections
Option 1
Analyzing Text for Comprehension
“What is the Electoral College?” by Elizabeth Deatrick RI8.1, RI8.2 (ATOS 10.1; informational)
http://edutoolbox.org/system/files/rasp_file/Grade8Practice1ElectoralCollege.pdf
· Skills: elements of nonfiction, determining central ideas, making inferences, strategies for student analysis of text
o Glossary of Informational and Literary Terms
§ http://cdn.scope.scholastic.com/sites/default/files/uploads_scope/issues/library/pdfs/SCOPE-Library-NonfictionTerms.pdf
§ http://lizphillips-ela.weebly.com/uploads/7/0/0/4/7004988/nonfiction_vocabulary.pdf
§ http://www.bathcsd.org/webpages/edepartment/literary_terms.cfm
§ http://www.ode.state.or.us/teachlearn/subjects/elarts/reading/resources/readingglossary.pdf
§ http://www.darke.k12.oh.us/curriculum/la/glossary.pdf
· Text Dependent Questions
Key Ideas and Details
· What is the central idea of the text?
· What key details does the author use to support the central idea?
· The reader can infer that the process of developing the system for electing a president was a long and arduous task. Provide 2-3 details from the text to support this conclusion.
· How are electors allocated?
· What makes voting for a president complicated? Cite evidence from the text.
· According to the text, how did the Founding Fathers develop the system for electing a president? What were their concerns and challenges as they developed the system?
· What is the difference between the popular vote and the Electoral College?
Craft and Structure
· What is the meaning of allocated as it is used in the text? What in the text helped you to understand this word?
· How does the author help us to understand the meaning of the Electoral College?
· What is the difference between the Electoral College vote and the popular vote?
· What is most likely Deatrick’s purpose for writing this text? Provide one detail from the text to support your answer.
· How did the author organize the ideas in the article as she explained the Electoral College?
Integration of knowledge and ideas
· What is the author’s tone in the text? How do you know?
· What mood does the author create? What details in the text help to create the mood?
· Does the author prefer the Electoral College or voting for one candidate? Which line(s) in the text support your answer? Identify the reasons that author gives to support this key point.
· At the end of the text, the author discusses the problems that exist with the Electoral College system. How does she feel about the possibility of reforming the Electoral College? Cite evidence from the text.
“Counterpoint: Why We Need the Electoral College” by Jeffrey Bowman and Tracey M. DiLascio
RI8.1, RI8.2, RI.8.6 (ATOS 11.0; informational)
http://edutoolbox.org/system/files/rasp_file/Grade8Practice1ElectoralCollege.pdf
· Skills: elements of nonfiction, determining central ideas, making inferences, strategies for student analysis of text, point of view
o Glossary of Informational and Literary Terms
§ http://cdn.scope.scholastic.com/sites/default/files/uploads_scope/issues/library/pdfs/SCOPE-Library-NonfictionTerms.pdf
§ http://lizphillips-ela.weebly.com/uploads/7/0/0/4/7004988/nonfiction_vocabulary.pdf
§ http://www.bathcsd.org/webpages/edepartment/literary_terms.cfm
§ http://www.ode.state.or.us/teachlearn/subjects/elarts/reading/resources/readingglossary.pdf
§ http://www.darke.k12.oh.us/curriculum/la/glossary.pdf
· Text Dependent Questions
Key Ideas and Details
· What claim do the authors make in the text?
· According to the text, what factor(s) were taken into consideration when the framers created a system to elect a president?
· What inference can you make about how the authors feel about the idea of reforming the Electoral College? Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.