Design and Organization

College and Career Readiness (CCR) Anchor Standards provide focus and coherence

Design and Organization

K−12 standards

Grade-specific end-of-year expectations

Cumulative progression of skills and understandings

One-to-one correspondence with CCR standards

Fundamental Shifts in the CCSS

Addressing literacy across-the-curriculum

Spotlight on text complexity

New grounding in informational texts (50:50; 75:25)

Writing about texts (drawing evidence from texts)

Particular emphasis on marshaling arguments

Conducting short, focused research projects

Focus on academic vocabulary

Evidence, evidence, evidence!

Likely Key Shifts on Assessments

Most Current Tests

Next Generation Assessment

s• Measure ELA only • Measure ELA, Historical,

Scientific and Technical Literacy (informational text)

• Write to de-contextualized prompts

• Respond in writing to authentic texts

• Write narratives • Write arguments

• Measure academic vocabulary • Measure text complexity

• Assess complex, integrated performances (research, multi-media)

• Paper and Pencil • Computerized assessment

• One EOY assessment

• Several assessments

Ten Guiding Principles for Literacy Across the

Curriculum 1. Structure instruction so all students read grade

level complex texts

2. Provide texts that are valuable sources of information and provide opportunities for students to gain knowledge from careful reading

3. Provide scaffolding that does not preempt the text in the form of high quality text-dependent questions

4. Include opportunities to combine quantitative information from charts and graphs with information derived from the text

Ten Guiding Principles, cont’d

5. Focus on academic vocabulary (in addition to domain-specific vocabulary)

6. Provide extensive research and writing opportunities for students to draw evidence from texts

7. Understand and engage in arguments

8. Questions and tasks require careful comprehension of the text before asking for comparisons with other texts

9. Design whole-group and small-group instruction that cultivates student responsibility

10. Cultivate students’ independence

The Crisis of Text Complexity

Gap between college and high school texts is huge:o HS textbooks have declined in all subject areas over

several decades

o Average length of sentences in K-8 textbooks have declined from 20 to 14 words

o Vocabulary demands have declined, e.g., 8th grade textbooks= former 5th grade texts; 12th grade anthologies=former 7th grade

How much should we worry about this?

ACT Study Tells Us To Worry A Lot

Not the type or level of Question…

…But the degree of Text Complexity that students could handle that predicts their success!

Recap of ACT Findings

Question type (main idea, word meanings, details) is NOT the chief differentiator between students scoring above and below the benchmark.

Question level (higher order vs. lower order; literal vs. inferential) is NOT the chief differentiator between students either.

What students could read, in terms of its complexity--rather than what they could do with what they read--is greatest predictor of success.

Likelihood of success under 50-50 unless students answer at least 40 percent of complex text questions correctly.

Too Many Students Reading at Too Low a

LevelOnly half of high school graduates are able to read college and career ready text

Deficiencies are not equal opportunity. . .

Why Not Use Simplified Texts?

Simplified texts often synonymous with restricted, limited, and thin in meaning

Academic vocabulary can only be learned from complex texts

Mature language skills can only be gained by working with demanding materials

No evidence that struggling readers—especially at middle and high school—catch up by gradually increasing the complexity of simpler texts

Shared Challenge: What Can We Do?

Bust the myth that development of reading skills must be sequential--allow students to practice with complex texts while they get extra support

Practice with lots of short texts

Slow down, read and re-read

Offer sequences of engaging questions (not explanations)

Place a premium on stamina and persistence

Offer extra support to students who need it

Other Complexity Considerations

Percent of informational text assigned

Writing arguments about texts read

Academic vocabulary!

Vital to Focus on Informational Text

Harder for students to comprehend informational text than narrative text due to its features

Much of our knowledge base comes from info text

Academic vocabulary comes largely from info text

Makes up vast majority of the required reading in college/workplace (80 percent)

Yet students are asked to read very little of it in elementary and middle school (7 to 15 percent)

CCSS moves percentages to 50:50 at elementary level and 75:25 at secondary level

Writing Arguments About Texts

“Soul of Education”Standards ask students to master three types of writing

Narrative writing gives way to arguments and writing to explain/inform by high school (80:20)

But not writing to decontextualized prompts

Only 20 percent of those who enter college are “argument literate”

Persuasion vs. Logical Arguments

Appeal to character or credentials of the writer Appeal to audience’s self-interest or emotion Can be based on personal opinion un-tethered to evidence

vs.

Convince because of perceived merit and reasonableness of the claims and proof Support claims with evidence Something far beyond surface knowledge is required Based on analyzing research and data

Critical Role of Academic Vocabulary to Reading

ComprehensionInstruction needs to be developed from text (frequency of rare words in even educated adult conversation is 17.3 per 1000 words)

Needs to include a heavy dose of informational text

To be college and career ready, students need to learn 2000 words per year. . .can only do from reading a lot

Needs to teach how meanings of words vary with context (e.g., Texas was admitted to the union, he admitted his errors, admission was too expensive)

What Is General Academic Vocabulary?

Words that are likely to appear frequently in a wide variety of texts/disciplines (utility & importance)

Words that are necessary for understanding a text and allow for rich representations (instructional potential)

Words that relate to other words and offer students more precise ways of referring to ideas they already know about (conceptual understanding)

Systematic Vocabulary Study is Key

For each text students read, Beck suggests:

o Listing all words likely to be unfamiliar to students (academic and domain-specific)

o Choosing academic vocabulary necessary for comprehension

o Choosing domain-specific terminology that requires a definition to be understood

o Then determining which words need brief attention and which need extended attention

Gettysburg Address Exemplar

Lavish love and attention on the text (3 days of study)

Interplay of scaffolds and building students’ independent capacity

Represents several key shifts in the CCSSo Text is central to the lesson (read, re-read, slow down)o Focus on complex text. . .complex, informational text

(R.10)o Questions require evidence (R.1)o Focus on academic vocabulary (R.4; L.6)o Analyze the text in writing (W.9)

Overview of the Three Days

Day One: What’s at stake: A nation as a place and as an idea (first two paragraphs)

Day Two: From funeral to new birth (third paragraph)

Day Three: Dedication as national identity and personal devotion

So where to start?

Well, first where not to start. . .

The lesson does not:

Provide context about Lincoln or the Civil War

Provide the main idea, purpose, or theme

Ask students to predict what Lincoln will say

Recap of Instructional Moves

First move: teacher does little to introduceSo as not to simplify the text or rob students of discovering things for themselves

Second move: students read to themselvesResearch shows students reading and re-reading improves their comprehension

Third move: teacher reads portion of speech out loud

Research shows that teachers reading out loud improves fluency and builds vocabulary—smoothes out comprehension bumps caused by dysfluency, allowing all to access challenging text

Recap of Instructional Moves

Fourth move: students paraphrase or translate into own words

Research shows asking students to write about what they read strengthens their comprehension of texts

Fifth move: teacher asks a series of specific, text-dependent questions

Text-dependent questions serve as the scaffolding. They sustain focus on the paragraphs, sentences and even words of the text. They ask for evidence to support claims.

Sixth move: students write an independent essay on what Lincoln says is the task left to those listening to his speech

Day Three: Trace How the Power of a Word Grows

How many times does Lincoln use the word dedicate?

What verb is first associated with dedicate?

What verb is associated with the next two uses?

What word is associated with the final two uses of dedicate?

Importance of Text-Dependent Q’s in the

LessonRequire students to follow the details of what is explicitly stated and make valid claims that square with text evidence

Do not require information or evidence from outside the text

Linger over specific phrases and sentences

Questions build on each other so students stay focused on the text & learn fully from it

80--90% of reading standards require text-dependent analysis yet about over 30% of Q’s in major textbooks do not

Let’s look at some samples from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. . .

Text Dependent Questions?

What are the people who are assembled at Gettysburg there to do?

Have you ever been to a funeral?

What is the unfinished work that Lincoln asks those listening to commit themselves to at the end of the speech?

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

Did Lincoln think that the north was going to “pass the test” that the civil war posed?

Why did Lincoln give this speech?

Explain the logical progression of Lincoln’s argument.

Follow-Up Activities

Compare Lincoln’s five drafts of the Gettysburg Address

Compare reactions to the Gettysburg Address:a Chicago Times editorial written shortly after Lincoln delivered his speech

a historical study of Lincoln’s speech written some one hundred and thirty years after (Garry Wills)

What words might one expect Lincoln to use that don’t appear? (slavery/slave, North/South, soldier)

Note What the Lesson Does:

Allows the mystery to unfold

Includes scaffolding that doesn’t simplify the text (series of specific questions)

Asks questions that require evidence

Provides keen focus on paragraphs, sentences, and even words

Note What the Lesson Doesn’t Do:

Doesn’t ask students for their personal opinion or what they are feeling

Doesn’t ask big, broad questions just to get students talking (no bigger questions than how Lincoln secures his claim)

Doesn’t ask students to compare another text to Lincoln’s speech

What Can States Do Now?

Focus!

Take Complexity Inventory of what students are reading in each grade and make adjustments

Do not deny students access to complexity—ask all students to stretch to read short texts (with supports)

Adjust balances of texts so students are exposed to more informational texts k-12 in and out of English classes

Teach students to read closely. . .to slow down to understand key points and to re-read passages

What to Do Now, cont’d.

Focus PD on teaching complex texts, building text-dependent questions, teaching vocabulary and writing to sources

Attend to building general academic vocabulary systematically across-the-board (Make word learning part of the school culture!)

Give frequent formative assessments that present students with standards based tasks and provide no direct teacher support (reading, then writing to sources)

Beware of publishers who proclaim their materials are already aligned or simply add chapters/material—more is not better (use Publisher’s Criteria)

Questions & Comments