ODE: Introduction to Ohio’s Learning Standards for English Language Arts: STRUCTURE AND SHIFTS

>> The Ohio Department
of Education presents

an introduction to Ohio's
learning standards

for English Language Arts.

My name is Chantelle Hill,

and I am a professional
development and

stakeholder outreach
consultant in

the Office of Curriculum
and Assessment.

And I'm here to walk
viewers through

the organization of the
Standards document.

The focus of
this PowerPoint

is to present
learners with

the overall structure of

Ohio's learning
standards for

English language
arts and examine

the components that make

up the standards document.

Ohio's learning
standards for

English Language
Arts are located on

the Ohio Department of

Education's

English Language
Arts landing page.

Once there,
click the button

to access the
standards document.

Ohio's learning
standards for

English language arts are

organized by strands.

The strands are the
major areas of study.

They include
reading, writing,

speaking and listening,
and language.

The next component
that builds

this framework
are the topics.

The topics are the
organizational

groupings of the
standards which

examine the main focus of

the content within
each standard.

And finally, they

are the standard
statements.

The standard statement

presents the
essential knowledge

and skills to
be learned at

each grade level
or grade band,

and they demonstrate what

students should
be able to do.

When thinking about

the standards
document as a whole,

this illustration paints

a picture of the strands,

topics, and
standard statements

at its most basic level.

While the number
of topics and

standard statements is not

exact in this
illustration,

this helps to see how

the document is organized.

As previously mentioned,

there are four strands or

disciplines within Ohio's
learning standards

for English language arts.

Again, they are
reading, writing,

speaking and listening,
and language.

Each strand is organized
by the topics within

the strand and
are followed

by the standard
statements.

Again, this graphic only

reflects the
organizational structure.

It does not include

the exact number of
topics for each strand.

However, this graphic does

highlight the
unique qualities

within the reading strand.

The reading strand is the

only strand that
has substrands.

The sub-strands,

which include
reading literature,

reading
informational text,

and reading foundations,

have their own set of
associated standards

which supports its focus.

Reading literature
and reading

informational texts each

contain 10 standards that

are very similar and

are meant to work together

as K-12 teachers

develop units
of instruction.

Reading foundations
contains four standards

that are focused only

in grades K through five.

These standards focus
on skills needed

to guide student
understanding

of concepts of print,

phonological awareness,

phonics, word recognition,

and finally, fluency.

So when looking at

the actual
standards document,

this is what the
components look like.

The heading is the strand.

In this case,
the major study

of focus is reading
literature.

The topics or
focus groupings

are highlighted in black.

And finally, there
are the standards

that support those topics.

One other area of interest

on this page is the
fact that readers

are able to look at how

the standards progress
at each grade level.

In this case,
a kindergarten

teacher would be able

to easily see what is

expected of the students
in first grade.

Likewise,
first-grade teachers

are able to look
back and see

what was expected
of the students

prior to their arrival
to their course.

The standards have
a coding system

that's used to signal
specific standards.

The code includes the
strand, in this case,

RL or reading
literature, the grade,

which is grade one
or first grade,

and the standard number,
which is standard 2.

And it's usually
stated as Rl 1.2.

There are additional
components to

Ohio's learning
standards document.

At the beginning
of each strand,

anchor standards
are present.

The anchor standards
are broad statements

that present

the overall skills
students should have

learned by the
culmination of

their senior year
to demonstrate

college and
career readiness.

There's a broad
anchor standard for

each standard covered
in every strand.

For example, there are

110 standards for
reading literature,

so there are ten
anchor standards.

The only exception to this

are the reading
foundation standards.

There are no
anchor standards

for this particular
set of skills.

In addition to the
anchor standards,

Ohio's learning
standards for

English language arts also

includes literacy
standards for history,

science, and other
technical subjects

for grades six through 12.

The standards insist
that literacy

is a shared responsibility
in the school.

So these standards were
adopted to support

English language
arts teachers in

their efforts to further
prepare students.

There are also
three appendices

that can further
assist teachers.

Appendix A provides
research supporting

key elements of
the standards

such as text complexity.

It also provides a
glossary of key terms.

Appendix B provides

sample or grade-level
text exemplars.

These titles are not meant

to be used as a
reading list.

They are examples of

texts that meet the
grade level complexity.

Appendix B also
provides examples of

performance
tasks related to

the exemplar text for
each grade level.

And finally, Appendix C

provides student
writing exemplars

for each grade level.

It has been a
pleasure serving

as a guide in
walking through

the format of Ohio's
learning standards

for English language arts.

Should any
questions arise,

please feel free
to contact one of

the English language arts

consultants listed above.