{

Helping English Learners Access Complex Text in the

Common CoreCATE-FACET: Yosemite ConferenceAlesha M. Ramirez, Tulare County Office of Education

http://bitly.com/bundles/aleshar/2

Instructional Shiftsin Literacy with Common Core

Build knowledge through reading.

Extract and employ evidence from text.

Engage with complex text.

Reading to learn through a variety of text

Reading deliberately and

revisiting text

Responding to text-

dependent

questions

Just as it's impossible to build muscle

without weight or resistance, it's

impossible to build robust reading skills

without reading challenging text.

(Shanahan, Fisher, & Frey, 2012)

Text ComplexityQualitative: Levels of meaning, structure, language conventionality and clarity, and knowledge demands

Quantitative: Readability measures, (words per sentence, length of words, etc.)…ATOS, Lexile, etc.

Reader & Task: Reader motivation, background knowledge, purpose for reading, etc.

Source: corestandards.org, CCSS, 2010

For more info, see CCSS ELA Appendix B

We, as educators, must “recognize the role played by language itself in literacy.”

This is more than simply vocabulary.

(L. Wong Fillmore & C.J. Fillmore, 2012)

EL Students & Complex Text

Vocabulary Sentence structure Coherence Organization Background knowledge

Factors Contributing to Complexity

Foster & facilitate “sticktuitness”

Address the challenges of challenging text: “Create successive successes.”

(Shanahan, Fisher, & Frey, 2012)

Establish PurposeWhat kind of text?, What will we do with what we read?

Build SkillsDecoding, fluency, vocabulary

“To communicate complex ideas and information calls for the lexical and

grammatical resources of mature discourse – students must master these if they are to succeed in school and career. Note that we do not say that students need to learn the grammatical and linguistic terms... Rather, they

need to learn how to gain access to the ideas encoded in this complex language. “

(L. Wong Fillmore & C.J. Fillmore, 2012)

“There is only one way to acquire the

language of literacy, and that is

through literacy itself. Why? Because the only place students are likely to encounter these structures and patterns is in the materials they read. And that is possible only if the texts they read in school are written in such language. Complex texts provide school-age learners reliable access to this language, and interacting with such texts allows them to

discover how academic language works.”

Complex Texts = Models

Choose shorter texts that are sufficiently complex and worthy of close reading. Use those text with increasing complexity.

Determine why a particular text might be difficult, i.e., language features

“Let the author do the talking.” Allow time for reading and

rereading text with purpose. Plan for time to examine text down

to the sentence level. Build in time for processing orally

& in writing

As teachers we can…Engage All Domains of

Literacy:Listening, Speaking

Reading, Writing, Viewing

1. Preview the text2.Partner talk: What makes this text complex? What might be the challenges for

English Language Learners?

Let’s practice.

DO THIS: Number paragraphs Read (skim) text individually Underline unknown words that (may)

inhibit comprehension

Buffalo Soldiers in Yosemite

Mark the text

! Something that surprises you? Confusion that arose or

question you have* Discussion point or main idea Connection made

THINK-WRITE-PAIR-SHARE:

Summarize Understanding: It is my understanding that

________________.

Question: I am confused by

_________________________.

Buffalo Soldiers in Yosemite

Focus on a short excerpt at a time:Paragraph 5: Examining sentence by sentence

“Even though the Buffalo Soldiers wore the uniform of the U.S. Army, their ethnicity combined with the racial prejudice of the time made the performance of their duties quite challenging...”Buffalo Soldiers in Yosemite

Focus on a short excerpt at a time:Paragraph 5:QUESTIONING What did the author say? How did the author say it? What is the value of the text? How does it

connect to other texts or understandings?

Buffalo Soldiers in Yosemite

Helping English Learners Access Complex Text in

the Common CoreAlesha M. Ramirezaleshar@ers.tcoe.org

Access resources from this session at http://bitly.com/bundles/aleshar/2

THANK YOU!