N E T L E A DW I N T H R O P U N I V E R S I T Y

A U G U S T 2 0 1 2

INFORMATIONAL TEXT

SURVEY

• How many of you have some knowledge of what Informational Text means?

• How many of you have looked at the CCSS to read about IT?

• What do you hope to accomplish today that will give you a better understanding about how to work with Informational Text?

PLAN FOR TODAY

• Background about Informational Text

• A definition for Information Text

• How to improve comprehension of Informational Text

• Work collaboratively to develop strategies

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DUKE-2005

• Studies have long shown that the majority of the reading and writing adults do is nonfiction (Venezky, 1982).

• Approximately 96% of sites on the World Wide Web contain nonfiction, informational text (Kamil and Lane, 1998).

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DUKE-2005

• Nearly 44 million American adults cannot extract even a single piece of information from a written text if any inference or background knowledge is required (Levy, 1993).

• Large proportions of American students have weak informational reading and writing skills (e.g., Applebee, Langer, Mullis, Latham, and Gentile, 1994; Daniels, 1990; Langer, Applebee, Mullis, and Foertsch, 1990).

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DUKE-2005

• Academic achievement in a range of school subjects and academic fields relies heavily on informational reading and writing.

• Informational literacy is so crucial to

success in American higher education, citizenship, and work that our current era is widely known as the "information age."

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NAEP-INFORMATIONAL TEXT

• When reading for information, readers need to know the specific text patterns, or forms of organization (e.g., cause and effect, sequential order, comparison/contrast, opinion and supporting arguments), to develop understanding.

• People frequently have different purposes for reading text of this nature (e.g., to find specific pieces of information, answer a question, or get some general information when glancing through a magazine article). Reading informational text calls for orientations to the text that differ from those used in reading for literary experience because readers are specifically focused on acquiring information. When people read for information, they may select parts of the text they need, rather than reading from beginning to end.

What are the instructional implications?

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READING FOR INFORMATION NAEP

Some features that distinguish informational text from literary text are organization and the way information is presented:• Informational text is organized by topic and supporting

details • Literary text is organized by the structure of a story, poem,

or drama.

Some commonalities exist between literary and informational text and the skills and strategies required for reading each. • Both require people to analyze critically the text, reflect on

it, and draw conclusions.

A DEFINITION OF INFORMATIONAL TEXT

• Texts with the function of conveying information about the natural or social world, typically from one presumed to be more knowledgeable on the subject, to one presumed to be less so. (Duke, 2002)

• Informational text is not synonymous with “nonfiction”. Rather, Informational text is a type of nonfiction.

SO, WHAT’S THE PLAN?

1. Increase access to informational text.

2. Increase instructional time with informational text. 3. Increase explicit teaching of comprehension

strategies, along with lots of opportunities for guided and independent practice.

4. Increase attention to the characteristics of informational text.

5. Ensure that informational text is used for authentic purposes as much as possible.

INCREASE ACCESS

• Make informational text available in classroom libraries

• Use informational text in guided reading groups

• Fill libraries with informational text

• Fill the walls of the classroom/school with informational text

INCREASE INSTRUCTIONAL TIME

• CCSS will call for teaching reading in all subjects (increased time)

• Guided reading groups for all students on a regular basis

• Reading opportunities at the individual level

Can you think of others?

EXPLICIT TEACHING OF COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES

• There is more to teaching reading than decoding.

• A growing body of research demonstrating effective approaches to comprehension instruction.

• Much of the research has not made its way into practice

SOME COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES WORTH TEACHING

• Monitoring and adjusting comprehension• Activating relevant prior knowledge• Metacognition Strategies – “thinking about

thinking”• Attending to and uncovering text structure• Drawing inferences• Generating and answering questions• Summarizing

INCREASED ATTENTION TO CHARACTERISTICS OF INFORMATIONAL TEXT

• Need for skills like skimming and scanning

• Graphical devices to convey information

• Particular kinds of language and text structures

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TEXT FEATURES THAT SIGNAL IMPORTANCE

• Fonts and Effects• Cue Words and Phrases• Illustrations and Photographs• Graphics• Text Organizers• Text Structures

from Strategies that Work, Harvey and Goudvis, 2000

INFORMATIONAL TEXT USED FOR AUTHENTIC PURPOSES

• Pleasure

• Increase general knowledge

• Convey information to someone who does not know

Can you think of others?

LEXILE LEVELS

Lexile ranges have been realigned to match the Common Core Standards text complexity grade bands and adjusted upward. The trajectory of reading comprehension development through the grades will indicate that all students should be reading at the college and career readiness level by no later than the end of high school.

TEXT COMPLEXITY

• The Common Core Standards devote as much attention to the text complexity of what students are reading as it does to how students read.

• As students advance through the grades, they must both develop their comprehension skills and apply them to increasingly complex texts. The proportion of texts that students read each year should come from a particular text complexity grade band. Students must also show a steadily increasing ability to discern more from and make fuller use of text.

TEXT COMPLEXITY

The combination of the increased text complexity and the depth of cognitive demand within the task, such as incorporating discipline-specific questions, generates higher levels of rigor.

WHAT DETERMINES TEXT COMPLEXITY?

• As we continue our move toward implementing CCSS, it is important for teachers to begin evaluating the complexity of texts we use in our classroom.

• The CCSS evaluate a text’s difficulty by analyzing three components of the text: 1) Quantitative Measures, 2) Qualitative Measures, and 3) Reader and Task Considerations.

MODEL OF TEXT COMPLEXITY

QUANTITATIVE MEASURES

The following are used to determine the Lexile level of the book:

Word Frequency – Number of times that a word appears in textSentence Length – words chunked together to form a principal ideaWord Length – Number of syllables in a wordText Length – Measured in wordsText Cohesion – How well a text holds together

QUALITATIVE MEASURES

• The following are used to determine text complexity:

• Level of meaning or purpose of text – some harder to interpret than others

• Structure – Low or high complexity depends on devises used to disrupt the sequence or understanding.

• Language Convention and Clarity – Texts that deviate from contemporary use of English

• Background Knowledge – Texts that require background knowledge are more difficult to read for students with no prior knowledge of the topic.

READER AND TASK CONSIDERATION

Ask these questions:

• What is the intended learning?

• How can I maintain this student’s engagement?

• How do I help the struggling reader?

ACTIVITY TEXT MAPPING

CLOSE READING ACTIVITY

TEXT-DEPENDENT QUESTIONS…

are questions that can only be answered correctly by close reading of the text and demand careful attention to the text.

require an understanding that extends beyond recalling facts.

often require students to infer. do not depend on information from outside sources. allow students to gather evidence and build knowledge. provide access to increasing levels of complex text. call for careful and thoughtful teacher preparation. require time for students to process. are worth asking.

Rhode Island Department of Education 2/2012

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?

• Rich and rigorous evidence-based conversations about text among students and with teachers

• Discussions that stay deeply connected to the text so that students make evidentiary arguments

• Students revisiting text for evidence to support their argument in a thoughtful, careful, and precise way

• Students slowing down to explore and learn from the evidence

Rhode Island Department of Education 2/2012

WHICH QUESTION REQUIRES STUDENTS TO READ CLOSELY FOR TEXT-SPECIFIC INFORMATION?

Questions based on: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass

How did Frederick Douglas’ ability to read contribute to his emotional struggle for freedom?

After reading Frederick Douglas’ narrative, in what way does America represent the hope for freedom that lived in the heart of Frederick Douglass? Cite examples from

the text to support your answer.

Rhode Island Department of Education 2/2012

A CONVERSATION ABOUT TEXT-BASED ANSWERS

This 11 minute video features a discussion between New York State Commissioner of Education John B. King Jr., David Coleman (contributing author to the Common Core) and Kate Gerson (a Sr. Fellow with the Regents Research Fund) that addresses the shift to Text-Based Answers.

www.engageny.org/resource/common-core-in-ela-literacy-shift-4-text-based-answers/

Rhode Island Department of Education 2/2012

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER AFTER VIEWING VIDEO

Independently answer the following questions and then discuss with a colleague:

• What does it mean to ask text-based questions?• How will this impact our instruction?• What challenges will we face as we make this shift?• What are the implications for teacher planning and

for teacher planning time in schools? • What questions will take the students deeper into

this text and cause them to pay careful attention to it?

Rhode Island Department of Education 2/2012

CREATE TEXT DEPENDENT QUESTIONS

Activity …

Read/(Close Read)a text and, as a team, design questions around that particular text.