Common Core State Standards Professional Learning Series

1. Common Core State Standards Professional Learning Series English Language Arts: Informational Text — Reading Unit 3: Supporting Student Comprehension September 2012

2. Unit 3 Objectives • Define and understand close reading of text • Understand how to use text-dependent questions to closely read text through lesson exemplars • Identify structures of informational text

3. What is Close Reading? Close reading requires students to be actively involved in the text that they read, drawing understanding, inferences, and meaning directly from the text.

4. How to do a Close Reading Video: “How to do a Close Reading” http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=adXdTXEzmzE

5. How to do a Close Reading?(Cont.) Video: Douglas Fisher Interview, Part I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w9v6-zUg3Y Video: Douglas Fisher Interview Part II http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhGI5zdjpvc

6. Close Reading and the Common Core State Standards CCR Anchor Standard 1 "Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text."

7. Close Reading and the Common Core State Standards (Cont.) Standard 2 "Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas." Standard 8 "Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence."

8. Model of a Close Reading Conducting close reading of a text in a classroom requires preparation. The teacher must be familiar with the text and prepare text-dependent questions in Advance. Video: “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” http://engageny.org/resource/middle-school-ela-curriculum-video-close-reading-of-a-text-mlk-letter-from-birmingham-jail

9. Commonalities in Close Reading • The focus is on text meaning • Background preparation/explanation is minimized • Students must do the reading/interpretation • Teacher’s major role is to ask text-dependent questions • Multi-day commitments to texts • Purposeful rereading Short reads

10. Close Reading Strategies Video: “Close Reading Strategies with Informational Text” http://engageny.org/resource/close-reading-strategies-with-informational-text-by-expeditionary-learning

11. Close Reading for English Learners In your packet, let’s read the article, “Understanding Language: What does Text Complexity Mean for English Learners and Language Minority Students” by Fillmore and Fillmore.

12. Table Discussion Turn to a table partner and discuss these two questions: • What types of attention to language do Fillmore and Fillmore recommend when supporting English learners in their reading of the Letter? • How can you begin to implement this type of language support?

13. Text-Dependent Questions “Text-dependent questions specifically ask questions that can only be answered by explicitly referring back to the text being read.” Source: Achieve the Core, “A Guide to Creating Text Dependent Questions for Close Analytic Reading

14. Text-Dependent Questions(Cont.) Effective text-dependent questions probe into a text in order to guide students to pluck out key meanings or ideas found in the text.

15. Text-Dependent Questions(Cont.) The following questions from “Achieve the Core” can help generate a core series of questions to support the close reading of any text: • Identify the Core Understandings and Key Ideas of the Text • Start Small To Build Confidence • Target Vocabulary and Text Structure • Tackle Tough Sections Head-on • Create Coherent Sequences of Text-Dependent Questions • Identify the Standards That Are Being Taught • Create the Culminating Assessment

16. Lessons Featuring Text-Dependent Questions Achieve the Core has developed several exemplars that feature the following: • Reading tasks in which students are asked to read and reread passages and respond to a series of text dependent questions • Vocabulary and syntax tasks which linger over noteworthy or challenging words and phrases • Discussion tasks in which students are prompted to use text evidence and refine their thinking • Writing tasks that assess student understanding of the text

17. Lessons Featuring Text-Dependent Questions(Cont.) Review one of the following lessons featuring text-dependent questions developed by Achieve the Core that model how teachers can support students as they read. • Grade 3: “Because of Winn-Dixie” • Grade 6: “The Making of a Scientist” • Grade 8: “The Long Night of the Little Boats”

18. Lessons Featuring Text-Dependent Questions (Cont.) The CCSS for ELA/Literacy Appendix B includes text exemplars and performance tasks to guide educators in both selecting text at the appropriate complexity band and to ensure the tasks they assign students promote the standards and close reading of texts.

19. Informational Text Structures Informational text structures provide the framework for an author to share information with a reader for a particular purpose: a job application, a recipe, a map, a direction sheet for assembling a toy, a speech, or a research paper have different structures because the purpose of each text is different.

20. Informational Text Structures(Cont.) Find your grade level for Standard 5 in California's CCSS for ELA/LiteracyReading for Informational Text • Elementary pages 3-4 • Secondary pages 21-22

21. Informational Text Structures(Cont.) • Explicit teaching of text structures supports students in accessing text to understand its purpose. • Generally, informational text contains signal words and phrases that cue the reader to the text’s structure and purpose.

22. Info. Text Structures (Cont.)

23. Info. Text Structures (Cont.)

24. Strategically Teaching Informational Text Video: "Comic Book Templates: An Entry Pointinto Nonfiction." https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-nonfiction-entry-points

25. Text Exemplars and Performance Tasks, Appendix B • Elementary: Grades K–1 and 2–3 exemplars include informational text and read-aloud informational text. For grades 4–5, the exemplars are informational text, including performance tasks for each one. • Middle School: The grades 6–8 exemplars are divided into content areas: English Language Arts, History/Social Studies, Science, Mathematics, and Technical Subjects, with performance tasks for each exemplar. • High School: Exemplars for grades 9–12 are also divided into content areas: English Language Arts, History/Social Studies, Science, Mathematics, and Technical Subjects, with performance tasks for each exemplar.

26. Text Exemplars and Performance Tasks, Appendix B (Cont.) • Grades 4-5: Students identify the overall structure of ideas, concepts, and information in Seymour Simon’s Horses (based on factors such as their speed and color) and compare and contrast that scheme to the one employed by Patricia Lauber in her book Hurricanes: Earth’s Mightiest Storms. [RI.5.5] • Grades 9-10: Students evaluate the argument and specific claims about the “spirit of liberty” in Learned Hand’s “I Am an American Day Address,” assessing the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence and the validity of his reasoning. [RI.9–10.8]

27. Module Summary This module has prepared you to: • Identify the informational text standards associated with your grade-level classroom. • Select the tools you need to identify students’ reading skills and increase their ability to read more complex text. • Implement strategies in your classroom that support students in reading more complex text.

28. Post-Assessment Let’s take a few moments to take the module’s post-assessment found in your participant packet.

29. Conclusion of Module You have successfully completed English Language Arts: Informational Text-Reading professional learning module.