Q. What is necessary to effective reading, composing, and understanding of

informational text structures?A. Five Kinds of Knowledge

Five Kinds of Composing

Jeffrey D. WilhelmBoise State University

From the bookGET IT DONE! Teaching the reading and writing

of informational textHeinemann Publishers

From “Reading Don’t Fix No Chevys”

• “It’s like a teacher takes you out, throws you into the deep end of the pool . . .

• Students want significant challenges but they want proactive help in meeting those challenges.

• “I used to be smart, and then . . .”• 5th grade reading slump/McKenna studies

Preparing kids for success: think of a joke you didn’t understand

• Motivation as the continuing impulse to learn• Be proactive instead of reactive• Reward risks and errors, as errors are a sign of

growth• Provide students with heuristics that will assist

them to expertise and guide them through their zones of proximal development to a new zone of actual development

A Teaching Heuristic: Five kinds of knowledge necessary to all reading and composing

• Knowledge of purpose and context• Procedural knowledge of substance (knowing

how to get the stuff)• Procedural knowledge of form (knowing how

to shape and structure the stuff into a conventional form)

• Declarative knowledge of substance• Declarative knowledge of form

5 Kinds of Knowledge• Purpose/Work that can be done in real

life/disciplinary situations:• WHY and WHEN would we WRITE OR READ THIS KIND

OF TEXT? • Procedural Knowledge of Substance:• HOW CAN WE GET THE “STUFF” TO WRITE OR READ

THIS KIND OF TEXT? (INQUIRY) • Procedural Knowledge of Form:• WHAT DO WE HAVE TO DO WITH THE “STUFF” TO

SHAPE IT INTO A CONVENTIONAL, RECOGNIZABLE ARGUMENT, SATIRE, FABLE, ETC.?

5 kinds of composingInformal Writing:• Composing to plan (purpose and substance)• Composing to practice (substance and form)(Conceptual/Declarative knowledge developed

through Procedural knowledge)Formal Writing/Putting it all together:• Preliminary draft composing• Final draft composing (revise/edit/proofread)• Composing to transfer (reflect and consolidate

all 5 kinds of knowledge)

HEURISTICS vs. Algorithms

• Heuristics are flexible problem-solving repertoires based on principles so can be developed and transformed and transferred to new situations

• Algorithms are inflexible, lock-step, one-size fits all protocols for use.

Connections to the CCSS and the next generation of standards/assessments

• Focus on Informational/Explanatory and Argument text structures

• Focus on Research and Inquiry (short and extended)

• Focus on Rhetorical Stance: Authorial choice, purpose, voice, audience consideration

• Focus on how authorial choices and text patterns lead to meaning and effect

• Focus on production, revision, presentation

The What Comes through the Why and the How

The declarative becomes conceptual and transferable when it is practiced in a meaningful context of use

Informational text structures mentioned in the CCSS

• Naming/listing• Description/Process Description (How-to)• Summary• Definition/Extended Definition• Comparison• Classification (Grouping, Differentiatiion)• Cause and effect• Problem-solution

Knowledge of Purpose and ContextAsk an essential question that requires and rewards thinking and

composing in informational thought patterns/text structures: What makes and breaks a good relationship? Requires and rewards Argument of Judgment; reframe to:What is a good relationship? A healthy relationship? What is a

good friend? (extended definition)What kinds of relationships are there? healthy relationships?

(classification)What are the major causes relational problems? (Cause and effect)What could society do to promote good relationships/solve

particular relational problems? (problem-solution)

Situated Cognition

• Teach all strategies and concepts in service of addressing the essential question

• What kinds of writing, multimedia composing, and social action would address the question and use what was learned about the question?

Knowledge of purpose and context• Brainstorm for a unit or text you

already teach• What kind of essential question

could you ask that would require and reward the reading and writing of informational thought patterns and text structures?

• REQUIRING LISTING: “What do we need to survive and thrive?” can easily be adapted for use in all content areas: “What do we need to survive and thrive . . . on a camping trip, in outer space, in algebra class, in the future (e.g. in a career), in case of a terrorist attack, as a sustainable planet, while living in another culture, on a trip to Italy?"

• REQUIRING DESCRIPTION: “What is the best possible school? ” “How can we become the best possible school?” (process description)

• REQUIRING SUMMARY: What do we need to know to be an informed voter?

Knowledge of purpose and context• Brainstorm for a unit or text you

already teach• What kind of essential question

could you ask that would require and reward the reading and writing of informational thought patterns and text structures?

Essential questions that require and reward comparing

• What is the most powerful chemical? Who is the greatest military leader? What are the most significant animal adaptations? What were the most important mathematical insights? Greatest love poems? Overachieving athlete/teams? Most innovative musicians? Most memorable villains? Most influential artworks?

Why would you ever want to compose a comparison-contrast?

• What work does composing or reading a C/C actually get done?

• It’s a horse race – to make a decision - which one is better? • Despite differences, there are these similarities• Despite similarities, there are these differences• To understand subtext and juxtapositions• To persuade someone else about these prior reasons• To evaluate – compare to a rubric/standards• Achieves status – differentiates self/ crowds• Highlight and placehold key details, see patterns, create

new insights• Show difference over time• To discover/problem-solve: difference between animal

and plant cell structure• Procedural differences: dealing with single vs. multiple

variable- show equations side by side• See multiple perspectives to understand and analyze – e.g.

why differences matter

How do we get the stuff to write a c/c about skateboards/cell phones/whatever?

• Where can I get the data; what data sources are available to me?

• How can I extract the data? What do I have to do to make it available to me?

• Interview with informants/experts?• Internet research: Thrasher.com, Zillions• Experimentation – test driving• Read – Thrasher, thrasher.com, Tony Hawk’s

biography, Zillions• Visual museum of skateboard development• Watch movies like Dog Town, Z boys, etc.• Go to the skateboard park, talk to friends• Watch skateboard demos – take data down• Look at current data sets: extrapolate,

interpolate

What do we need to do to boil down and form the stuff into a coherent and compelling c/c?

• How do we choose what stuff to use? What stuff tells “the” story?

• How do we shape the stuff in a form our audience can understand?

• Discern what is comparable/what is worth comparing

• Identify key features and corresponding features of the things you are comparing (Cost)

• Fact vs. opinion – reliability of data• Rank importance of features• Analyze differences and similarities and

consequences of these• Use Venn Diagram or SFAs or T-charts• Consider your audience and what evidence is

going to convince them• Frame as a claim with evidence and explanations

of the evidence• XXX – YYY or XYXYXY

Process of comparing• Id a purpose for comparing (CCSS WS 4, 10)• Id at least 2 things worth comparing and be able

to justify why these are worth comparing (2)• Gather data (8)• Id meaningful points of comparison related to the

purpose (3, 5, 6, 9)• Rank/prioritize points of comparison• Decide how to present the points (WS 4 at all

grade levels, Speaking 4)• Use appropriate graphic organizers (multimodal)• Make value judgments and some kind of

conclusion or choice (evidentiary reasoning)• See multiple perspectives

Meeting all the conditions of FLOW

Clear purpose and feedbackAppropriate challenge and assistanceDeveloping control and competence

Immersion in the immediateThe social

Teaching Extended Definition

Teaching Extended Definition

• Purpose/Context? What problems are addressable through extended definition? What work can it do and in what contexts? Why is the defining so important?

• Food: what is organic? What is processed?• School: what is appropriate behavior? Dress?

Grading – what is an A, B? What is ADHD, LD? What is English/ reading?

• Law: What is guilty? Not guilty? Balanced budget?

Brainstorm

• For a text or unit you already teach• Frame with an essential question that will

require and reward reading, composing and thinking with “definition” thought patterns and text structures

• “What makes a good friend?” • “What is an effective leader?”

Which is the best extended definition?

• The question of what makes a good teacher is really open to interpretation. What leads to learning in one student might not lead to learning in another person. Maybe a teacher is a great lecturer and one person likes to learn that way and another student prefers hands-on learning. That teacher is good for one student and not for another. What a good teacher is really is just a personal preference.

• A good teacher is one who promotes deep passion for a subject and deep understanding of it among her students. This means the students of a good teacher will have a desire to continue learning AND a growing understanding along the lines of how experts understand. For example, a good teacher of history will help students to feel that history really matters, and the students will know how this is actually so by being helped to think historically. The student will know why we study history, how historians think and use knowledge and when they can use it in his life. A good teacher is not someone who teaches to the test or whose students can recall information. A good teacher works for much higher purposes than this. . . .

What are the features of a good extended definition?

Challenges to defining

• Best possible answer quiz

Crux Moves of Short Definition

• Identify Term/Concept to be defined (water)• Identify the Class to which the term belongs

(liquid)• Identify differentiating and distinguishing

characteristics making this term unique among the class (2 hydrogen molecules and 1 oxygen)

• “Water is a liquid that consists of 2 hydrogen molecules and 1 oxygen molecule.”

Critical Standards/Criteria of extended definition

• Term – Class – Differentiation• Basis of the differentiation• Criteria of definition/differentiation• Examples that meet criteria• Counterexamples• Examination of grey areas/test cases• Explanations/warrants re: explaining required

differences• Conclusion

Purpose: To know how to . . . To be able to . . .

DECLARATIVE PROCEDURAL

FORM Name the features of an extended definition

How to generate the substance of the extended definition by:Articulating a basis for the definitionClassify dataDifferentiate examples Relate examples to articulated criteriaAnalyze borderline cases and clarify limits of the term

SUBSTANCE Name the concepts related to the defining problem.Name how the definition is constructed in a particular form to make a particular point

Gather data related to the definitional problem by:Get models of exemplars of the typeGet contrastive examples by asking students, reading, look at SAT and UPASS definitions Generate examples: real, hypotheticalAsk experts, read, search internet

Close to home: Practice identifying what’s essential?

• Defining the self: Jeff is essentially a very active person. He is active of mind and body. Activity is his elixir. He is quick-thinking and quick witted and likes to tell jokes and pull funnies. He likes to read and write and think about things like how to teach and how to live in more sustainable ways but he always puts his ideas into action. He likes to teach and do it through activities like drama and art and making videos and websites. He likes to bike and ski and he likes to do them fast. He does not like . . . He is not . . . When it comes to . . .

Bio-poem (with concepts, practice identifying what’s essential)

• First name:• Who is a kind of/(member of the class of):• Descriptive words: traits:• Who needs: Friend of:• Who feels: Foe of:• Who fears:Lover of:• Who gives:Who believes• Who would like to see: Who gave:• Who is definitely NOT: Who is considered by others to

be:

Practice identifying meaningful groupings: The pyramid game

• Panda

Practice classifying the data: The pyramid game

• Panda• Rabbit

Practice classifying the data: The pyramid game

• Panda• Rabbit• Chevette

• Now identify the criteria for being on the list

Practice identifying contrastive examples and explanations

• Twinkie• Mudpie• Apple• Little Debbie• Snickers • Jolly Ranchers• IDENTIFY THE CRITERIA FOR BEING ON THE LIST,

AND DISQUALIFYING CRITERIA - WHY ONE DOES NOT FIT THE LIST AND IS A CONTRASTIVE EXAMPLE

• Cf. Collaboration, speaking and listening standards

Practice: Knowing the limits of the class – Name that group activity

• Provide groups of students with a collection of objects like shells or CD or video game covers, or other concrete objects – or photos of such objects. Ask each group of students to divide the objects into two groups without any item being left out. Then ask the group to explain the characteristics of each grouping and how they are different. You can quickly move to piles of books about leaders or news magazines that obviously will have stories about leaders, etc.

• As a follow up, students could be asked to create groupings for their closet at home, a cupboard or drawer. They could write brief explanations of each grouping’s common characteristics, as well as noting violations of the general grouping criteria.

• (CCSS Writing 5, 7)

Name that group, the sequel• An activity that ups the ante. Students can use the same

collection of objects but now are asked to create multiple criteria for difference such as function, appearance, history, material, etc. Their job now is to create new classifications and ways of classifying. Model for students first, then encourage them to create elaborate criteria for groupings. We ask only that at least two items belong to each group and it is OK if an item belongs to more than one group. The purpose here is generating criteria for grouping.

• When students have created characteristic criteria for a grouping, they can trade objects and criteria, asking the new group to classify their items according to the offered criteria. This will demonstrate how clear and usable the criteria are for noting important similarities and differences that might be important to including or excluding an item from a class of objects.

Oaths, contracts• I do solemnly swear and affirm, for the privilege of being a friend

to my friend Dale, I promise:• I will support my friend in his interests, beliefs, family and job

responsibilities;• I will promote his talents and abilities and his becoming his truest

self;• I will respect my friend and protect his beliefs and reputation with

diligence;• I will never mislead or judge or get upset with my friend according

to unknown and unshared criteria.• I will protect my friend’s secrets and will expect the same as

compensation;

Frayers

Declarative Procedural

Form Quotation marks enclose speakers words and end punctuationTag lines can be at beginning, middle, or end of speakingNew paragraph (indent) every time speakers change

How do we help kids practice using the correct conventions:Provide modelsapplying rules to borrowed dialoguewrite notes back and forth and then transfer it to a dialogueKinesthetic mystery potProduce a dialogue together and punctuate it togetherPractice editing own work for punctuation and tag lines

Substance Tag lines: should reveal emotion, subtextQuote: be substantive, move things forward, revealingVoice: should be dramatic, reveal character, dialectSubstance: Talk should matter/be about something, reveal character

How can we make it happen? Practice generating dialogue by: Dramatize a scene or problemRole Play *ScenariosPicture talk activityStep into the picture activityFill in missing dialogue in a cartoon, fill in some of the missing dialogue Turn the volume down on a video and students provide the dialogue

Purpose To reveal character, and further plot, provide background information in a way that is lively to read and contextualized in human interactions

Create and intensify conflict, use of multiple voices and perspectives, eliminate texture and streamline the writing, dramatize interaction, show vs. tell

Principles of Sequencing

• Move from easy to hard; close to home to further from home• Visual and visually supported to purely textual• Oral to written• Short to long/lots of repetition• Concrete to abstract• Directly stated to implicit meanings• Collaborative to independent• Scaffolded to independent• Build a heuristic - a problem solving repertoire - through

repeated practice

More thoughts on sequencing• Sequence by complexity within type

1- Students likely to know evidence/data already 2- Teacher provides evidence/data

3- Students draw on single text4- Students draw on range of secondary sources5- Students draw on range of primary sources6- Students generate new data through their own critical inquiry

From the forthcoming books:

Oh Yeah? Teaching ArgumentGet it Done! Teaching Informational Texts

Tell me a Story: Teaching NarrativeBy Jeff Wilhelm, Michael Smith and Jim

FredricksenHeinemann PublishersAvailable summer 2012

Think about it!!!

• 4 postulates for change!• Unreasonable to expect to change much more

than 10% a year• Unreasonable and unprofessional to change

LESS than 10% of year• If you change 10% a year, you change much else

because knowledge and practice much more because knowledge and practice is a network!

What is a heuristic?• A simple transportable thinking tool –

conceptual or procedural• E.g. the 5 W’s + H in journalistic writing• E.g. the five kinds of knowledge• E.g. five themes of flow that foster engagement• E.g. what makes you say so- so what? (Toulmin’s

notion of argument)• E.g. If anything is odd, it’s probably important

(in a literary text)

Achieving Flow• A clear Purpose, Goals, Reward for Risks and

Immediate Feedback• A Challenge that requires an appropriate level of skill

and Assistance to meet the challenge (as needed to be successful)

• A sense of Control and Developing Competence -voice, opinion, identity staking, choice, naming growing competence

• A focus on Immediate Experience -current relevance, make things, do things, immediate function, fun, humor

• Importance of the Social -group work, peer assistance, social purpose