Literacy Shifts in Content Areas: P-2Network Team Institute July 7, 2014

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Think about your grade…What do you need to teach students so they will be successful independently reading literary nonfiction?

K -2? How can you begin to prepare children to meet this standard?

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Reading to Learn, the 6 ShiftsBalance of Informational and Literary Texts

Knowledge in the Disciplines

Staircase of Complexity

Text-Based Answers

Writing from Sources

Academic Vocabulary

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RI Standard K.10K Actively engage in group reading activities with

purpose and understanding.

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RI Standard 1.10K

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With prompting and support, read informational texts appropriately complex for grade 1.

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RI Standard 2.10K

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By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, in the grades 2–3 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

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Condensing for Conversation at the Early Level

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Listen to Complex text with rich vocabulary and academic language.

Be able to talk about the text using the text to support opinions.

Be delighted by text.

Be engaged enough in the text to do the work required to comprehend it when listening to it.

Build background knowledge through exposure to – not mastery of – texts that have rich themes based in Science and Social Studies.

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The CCSS Requires Three Shifts in ELA/Literacy1. Regular practice with complex text and its

academic language

2. Reading, writing and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational

3. Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction

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Shift #1: Regular practice with complex text and its academic language

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Regular Practice With Complex text and Its Academic Language: Why?• Gap between complexity of college and high school

texts is huge.

• What students can read, in terms of complexity, is greatest predictor of success in college ( 2006 ACT study).

• Too many students are reading at too low a level.

• Standards include a staircase of increasing text complexity from elementary through high school.

• Standards also focus on building general academic vocabulary so critical to comprehension.

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Determining Text Complexity

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Which text is more complex?

Lincoln was shaken by the presidency. Back in Springfield, politics had been a sort of exhilarating game; but in the White House, politics was power, and power was responsibility. Never before had Lincoln held executive office. In public life he had always been an insignificant legislator whose votes were cast in concert with others and whose decisions in themselves had neither finality nor importance. As President he might consult with others, but innumerable grave decisions were in the end his own, and with them came a burden of responsibility terrifying in its dimensions.

According to those who knew him, Lincoln was a man of many faces. In repose, he often seemed sad and gloomy. But when he began to speak, his expression changed. “The dull, listless features dropped like a mask,” said a Chicago newspaperman. “The eyes began to sparkle, the mouth to smile, the whole countenance was wreathed in animation, so that a stranger would have said, ‘Why, this man, so angular and solemn a moment ago, is really handsome.’”

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Text 1 Text 2

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What are the Qualitative Features of Complex Text?• Subtle and/or frequent transitions

• Multiple and/or subtle themes and purposes

• Density of information

• Unfamiliar settings, topics or events

• Lack of repetition, overlap or similarity in words and sentences

• Complex sentences

• Uncommon vocabulary

• Lack of words, sentences or paragraphs that review or pull things together for the student

• Longer paragraphs

• Any text structure which is less narrative and/or mixes structures

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Close Analytic Reading

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• Requires prompting students with text-dependent questions to unpack complex text and gain knowledge.

• Text dependent questions require text-based answers – evidence.

• Not teacher summarizing text, but guiding students through the text for information.

• Virtually every standard is activated during the course of every close analytic reading exemplar through the use of text dependent questions.

• Supports fluency

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Scaffolds for Reading Complex Text

• Chunking• Reading and rereading• Read aloud• Strategic think aloud• Scaffolding questions• Heterogeneous small groups• Recording• Pre-prepping struggling readers to support confidence and

participation• Annotation strategies• Cornell notes• Paraphrasing and journaling

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Shift #2: Reading, Writing and Speaking Grounded in Evidence From Text, Both Literary and Informational

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Reading, Writing and Speaking Grounded in Evidence from Text: Why?

• Most college and workplace writing requires evidence.

• Evidence is a major emphasis of the ELA Standards: Reading Standard 1, Writing Standard 9, Speaking and Listening standards 2, 3 and 4, all focus on the gathering, evaluating and presenting of evidence from text.

• Ability to cite evidence differentiates strong from weak student performance on NAEP.

• Being able to locate and deploy evidence are hallmarks of strong readers and writers. 17

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Distribution of Communicative Purpose

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Writing

Speaking and Listening

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Content Shift #2

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In “Casey at the Bat,” Casey strikes out. Describe a time when you failed at something.

In “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Dr. King discusses nonviolent protest. Discuss, in writing, a time when you wanted to fight against something that you felt was unfair.

In “The Gettysburg Address” Lincoln says the nation is dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Why is equality an important value to promote?

What makes Casey’s experiences at bat humorous?

What can you infer from King’s letter about the letter that he received?

“The Gettysburg Address” mentions the year 1776. According to Lincoln’s speech, why is this year significant to the events described in the speech?

Not Text-Dependent Text-DependentText-Dependent Questions

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High school students read an excerpt of James D. Watson’s The Double Helix and respond to the following:

James Watson used time away from his laboratory and a set of models similar to preschool toys to help him solve the puzzle of DNA. In an essay discuss how play and relaxation help promote clear thinking and problem solving.

Sample Informational Text Assessment Question: Pre-Common Core State Standards

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High school students read an excerpt of James D. Watson’s The Double Helix and respond to the following:

By the end of this article, James Watson felt that "the answer to everything was in our hands."

What was the answer? What problem was Watson trying to solve? What steps or process did he use to discover the answer?

Sample Informational Text Assessment Question: Common Core State Standards

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From The Adventures of Tom SawyerHave the students identify the different methods of

removing warts that Tom and Huckleberry talk about. Discuss the charms that they say and the items (i.e. dead cats) they use. Ask students to devise their own charm to remove warts. Students could develop a method that would fit in the time of Tom Sawyer and a method that would incorporate items and words from current time. Boys played with dead cats and frogs, during Tom’s time. Are there cultural ideas or artifacts from the current time that could be used in the charm?

Sample Literary Question: Pre-Common Core Standards

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Sample Text Dependent Question: Common Core Standards

From The Adventures of Tom SawyerWhy does Tom hesitate to allow Ben to paint the

fence? How does Twain construct his sentences to reflect that hesitation? What effect do Tom’s hesitations have on Ben?

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Shift #3: Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction

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Building Knowledge Through Content-rich Nonfiction – Why?

• Students are required to read very little informational text in elementary and middle school.

• Non-fiction makes up the vast majority of required reading in college/workplace.

• Informational text is harder for students to comprehend than narrative text.

• Supports students learning how to read different types of informational text.

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Content Shift #3

Content-Rich Nonfiction

• 50/50 balance K-5

• 70/30 in grades 9-12

• Students learning to read should exercise their ability to comprehend complex text through read-aloud texts.

• In grades 2+, students begin reading more complex texts, consolidating the foundational skills with reading comprehension.

• Reading aloud texts that are well-above grade level should be done throughout K-5 and beyond.

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Distribution of Literacy and Informational Texts

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All Teachers Support Literacy

• This interdisciplinary approach to literacy stems from extensive research establishing the need for college and career ready students to be proficient in reading complex informational texts, independently, in a variety of content areas.

• Most of the required reading in college and workforce training programs is informational in structure and challenging in content

• Postsecondary education programs typically provide students with both a higher volume of such reading than is generally required in K–12 schools and comparatively little scaffolding.

• The 2009 reading framework of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) requires a high and increasing proportion of informational text on its assessment as students advance through the grades.

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Shifts Mean a Change in Practice!

From…

Content knowledge primarily from teacher-led lecture

To…

Content knowledge comes from a balance of reading, writing lecture, and hands-on experience

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“Process the Shifts” Activity

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Processing Prekindergarten Ocean Unit

How do students who cannot read draw evidence from text?

How do students who cannot read get regular practice with complex text and academic

vocabulary?

How do they do these things…and have fun?