What are the “Six Shifts”?

I first heard the “Six Shifts” mentioned by Mike Schmoker in his presentation to the Michigan Reading Association’s annual conference a couple months ago. However, I’ve only recently discovered where they’re located on the internet! For the sake of improving the internet, I want to link to them (on that page, you’ll find links to videos in which John B. King Jr., David Coleman, and Kate Gerson discuss the shifts), and I also want to take a minute to briefly describe the shifts. In general, it looks like the EngageNY.org website is a rich source of implementation resources.

Overall, these “shifts” are the instructional shifts needed to effectively implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in ELA / Literacy desires in PK-12 schools. You’ll notice that the first two are grade-specific, and the final four are general for K-12.

• Shift 1: PK-5, Balancing Informational Texts and Literature
• Shift 2: 6-12, Building Knowledge in the Disciplines
• Shift 3: Staircase of Complexity
• Shift 4: Text-Based Answers
• Shift 5: Writing from Sources
• Shift 6: Academic Vocabulary

I hope this post contributes to the improvement of Google’s algorithm. Then again, now when I search for “six shifts,” I go straight to EngageNY.org. But that could be because Google is stalking me / every individual on the planet.