ISHMAEL TABALES, PRINCIPAL: We're
very dedicated to the process of setting
high expectations for all of our students here in Massachusetts.
SYDNEY CHAFFEE, TEACHER: Massachusetts really
has an amazing reputation in our country for having
a great educational system, and a really big part of that
are our standards.
TABALES: For us it's a great feeling
to know that we have the support of the state that's
always looking to progressively meet high expectations.
MELISSA CULKIN, TEACHER: We believe
that every student should engage with grade appropriate text
every day and I think when that happens,
you see the kids really engaged in what they're doing.
You see the connections that they are making
and you push their thinking in new ways,
whether is fiction or non-fiction.
ROXANNE ARCHIBALD, LITERACY COACH:
To shift your perspective and to see that standards
can be this equalizing force to say
by the end of a students educational career,
they will be able to do X, Y, and Z, is transformative.
RACHEL BRADSHAW, MA DESE: And that's all students,
so students with disabilities, multi-lingual students,
students struggling for various reasons,
students in every district in the state
no matter their income level.
CARLINE PIGNATO, PRINCIPAL: Our students
deserve and are entitled to the right to equity in education,
with the rigor that comes with it,
irrespective of the district, or the school.
KARLA OKALA, TEACHER: When I'm teaching
ELL, the standards for all the subject areas
are really part of my planning and thinking and goal-setting.
As an ELL teacher I'm able to help
them access the curriculum, and achieve these standards.
First of all, just by believing that they can.
BRADSHAW: Students really need access
to cognitively demanding and linguistically demanding
text, every single day of their schooling.
LAURA RICHARDSON, TEACHER: It's really critical
that you match students with materials
that are on their independent as well
as their instructional reading levels
and by doing that you give them opportunities
to read independently to build that confidence and fluency.
CHAFFEE: When kids are really engaged
with a text, not just reading it;
that's why I like this verb, "engage",
when they're really engaged with a text, it's awesome to see.
It's magical.
PIGNATO: The student is making personal connections,
the student is making text to text connections,
the student is showing empathy in what
they are reading, recognizing conflict, using evidence
from the text.
BRADSHAW: So, reading is always at the center of English
Language Arts but we do want to make the point that texts come
in various forms, they can involve videos,
they can be multimedia and students
engage with those texts at a grade appropriate level.
As well as with words on a page.
ARCHIBALD: Engagement within literacy is so important,
and what that looks like are four tenets of literacy;
reading, writing, speaking and listening.
RICHARDSON: It all really works together
to build strong literacy.
CHAFFEE: My big hope for my students
and for all of our students is that they'll
be able to use these skills that they've learned, that are based
on these really strong standards,
to go out into the world and change it.
CULKIN: A classroom that is aligned to these ELA standards
is a classroom where students are making connections
between the different things that they're
reading, between their own lives,
and I think it's a classroom where light bulbs going off.
ARCHIBALD: And I think that it's just so important
that we are raising the next generation of future leaders
and learners and critical thinkers
and I think the standards do support that.