On Standards

Hello All,

http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_A.pdf

I haven’t taken the time to sit down and read the Center on Education Policy’s Year 3 of Implementing the Common Core State Standards: An Overview of States’ Progress and Challenges.  I made a quick scan of the 20 page report after reading the article, Admins Predict Changes in Rigor, Instruction Under Common Core by Laura Devaney in eSchool News August 8, 2013 that referenced it.  While there is no ground breaking information in the article beyond the link to the report, it does remind me that the CCSS have a direct impact on science education.  After all, I have spent time tying CCSS into a unit plan with state standards and local learning targets.  The CCSS have me paying more attention to where and how colleagues work literacy into their content areas, not necessarily science.  I’ve been much more aware of the role literacy plays in my own preparations.  I cannot deny the changes in rigor seeing the increase in Lexile range for grade levels and the writing emphases.  Being associated with some that provide professional development, I’ve been able to hear about the challenges and progress being made in school districts in our state.  I realize my thoughts are focusing more on the Language Arts side of the Common Core State Standards; I appreciate and value math in science education as well. It seems the math side of science has had more attention with STEM in the news for many years.  As an educator, I am thankful there has been effort placed in referencing the Common Core State Standards in the Next Generation Science Standards as I expect there to be a push to align curriculum with NGSS over the next few years.  I have to admit including that information may make the transition to NGSS move along faster coming out so close to the implementation of CCSS.

Happy reading,

Mrs. A

Common Core State Standards and Readability

Hello All,

With the implementation of Common Core State Standards, it occurred to me secondary science teachers are likely thinking more about the readability of materials chosen for the classroom.  If you are not familiar with Lexiles or the changes in the Lexile ranges for grade bands, a great place to learn more is The Lexile Framework for Reading.  The site allows one to search for books by Lexile measure or grade level.  The title of a book can also be entered to find the Lexile measure if the information has been documented.  The site further provides the option of a Lexile Analyzer to find the Lexile measure of text from other sources.  Personally,  I prefer Readability-Score.com for analyzing text since I can simply copy and paste the text to be analyzed.  The Lexile Analyzer from the previous site requires one to format the text a certain way before submitting for analysis.  Readability-Score.com also evaluates the text according to a number of readability formulas along with providing text statistics such as words per sentence and sentence count.  Word and Outlook utilize the Flesch Reading Ease formula, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level formula, and text statistics to determine the readability of the text.  

Readability Statistics in Word

In both Word and Outlook, go to the Review tab, click on Spelling and Grammar, go to Options, and check the Show readability statistics box – may also need to check the Check grammar with spelling box in order for the Show readability statistics box to allow a check.  

Feel free to research the various readability tests further on your own.  There is plenty of debate in the areas of literacy, Lexile, other readability tests, and education within the United States.

Happy analysis,

Mrs. A