Teachers from across the state met in Oklahoma City the first three days this week to collaborate on projects that we believed would help new and veteran teachers alike. One of the documents we created is a PASS Alignment Guide for the 5th through 8th grade English Language Arts Standards.
Use this guide to compare the standards across grade levels. I think this guide is very useful for understanding what the kids should already know (regardless of what they tell you!) and what they will need to know in future years. this guide will help me see what concepts need to be reviewed, and which ones I need to prepare the kids for.
Interestingly, the guide also helped highlight some areas in which huge gaps exist between what students are taught what one and what they're expected to do the next.
We highlighted segments in in the standards to emphasize the areas where the standards differ from one year to the next. In some cases, the differences seem to be just semantic. In other areas, the standards are completely different.
You can download this guide to view online or print a hard copy.
Here, you can download the legal size version in landscape mode:
[prettyfilelink size=”2 MB” src=”https://www.rethinkela.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/PASS-Vertical-Alignment-Guide-Grades-5-8-LEGAL-LAND.pdf” type=”pdf”]PASS-Vertical-Alignment-Guide-Grades-5-8-LEGAL-LAND[/prettyfilelink]
Or you can download the letter size version in landscape mode:
[prettyfilelink size=”2 MB” src=”https://www.rethinkela.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/PASS-Vertical-Alignment-Guide-Grades-5-8-REG-LAND.pdf” type=”pdf”]PASS-Vertical-Alignment-Guide-Grades-5-8-REG-LAND[/prettyfilelink]
I had the pleasure of working on this guide (among other things!) with these fine educators. You should follow them on Twitter now. (Links below…)
Michelle Knight, Title I Instructional Facilitator, Kerr Middle School
Michelle Waters, 7th grade ELA teacher, Little Axe Middle School
Kayla Moore, 8th grade ELA teacher, Atoka Middle School