Taking Center Stage – Act II (TCSII)

A Portal for Middle Grades Educators

“Institutionally, we do not yet realize that 12 years of generous, daily amounts of
in-school reading, writing, and discussion, built around good questions (shared and refined by teams and networks of teachers), would create unimagined intellectual, academic, and professional possibilities for our children.”1

Recommendation 1—Rigor. Hold high expectations and provide numerous avenues of support so that each middle grades learner succeeds. Use California’s content standards, frameworks, adopted and aligned instructional materials, and common formative assessments as the coherent foundation for rigorous curriculum and instruction.

Rigor is one of the Recommendations in the Focus Area on Academic Excellence.

Contents

• An Academically Rigorous Program for All Students
  • High-impact schools
  • High expectations for all students
  • Numerous avenues of support
  • Academic literacy
    • Vocabulary development
    • Critical thinking
    • Reading across the curriculum
      • Reciprocal teaching
      • Oral reading
    • Writing across the curriculum
    • Academic discourse
    • Information literacy
    • Ethics and plagiarism

• California’s Standards System—A Coherent Foundation
  • Content standards and curriculum frameworks
  • Alignment with the standards
  • Instructional materials
  • Assessments
  • Accountability
  • Performance levels
  • State policy on standards
  • Local options related to the standards
  • Educating students and parent/guardians about standards

• Curriculum
  • A focus on learning—habits of mind
  • Academic areas
  • Curriculum maps
  • Backward mapping
  • Pacing guides
  • Grades and effective standards-based reporting
  • Conclusion

Recommendations for Success Index

Footnote
1Mike Schmoker, Results Now: How We Can Achieve Unprecedented Improvements in Teaching and Learning. Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2006, 56.

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