Keep Calm and Lead On

1. Disciplinary Literacies and the CCSS. Keep Calm and Lead On Guiding Colleagues through the CCCSS Reading and Writing Standards Kathleen D. Rowlands Director, the Cal State Northridge Writing Project krowlands@csun.edu http://cate2013rowlands.wikispaces.com

2. Agenda • Key Concepts • The Power of Anchor Standards • Text Complexity • Connecting Writing to Reading • Resources

3. Introductions

4. How Much Do You Know 1-3?

5. How Different ARE the CCSS?

6. The CCSS in General • Integration of reading, writing, speaking, and listening

7. Shifts in the Literacy Standards

8. Evidence-based Writing from Sources • Argument is EVIDENCE-BASED. • Narrative strategies are an important component to developing both argumentative and explanatory writing.

9. Shift Balancing Informational & Literary Texts

10. The CCSS in General • From teacher led… • To learner-centered. • From delivery to teaching. • From “task” to learning.

11. Curricular Implications • Less dependence on textbooks. • Using text complexity as a way to spiral students’ intellectual growth. • Broader understanding of “text” and wider use of multiple text genres. • Increased use of multiple texts within an instructional sequence. • Writing, writing, writing, writing! • Cross-disciplinary discussions about literacy development.

12. Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical SubjectsGrades 6-12 - a focus on discipline-specific vocabulary • an acknowledgement of unique text structures found in informational text • the expectation that students will read and write in non-ELA classrooms • the expectation that students will develop informational/technical writing skills • a focus on critical analysis and evidence

13. Digging In

14. Guess the Grade Level • DO NOT TURN THE PAGE UNTIL TOLD TO DO SO!! • Read each standard and try to identify its appropriate grade level.

15. How many of you teach these skills? (1 some-3 most or all)How many of your colleagues in history or science teach these? (1-3)

16. What did you learn?

17. Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects • A focus on discipline-specific vocabulary; • An acknowledgement of unique text structures found in informational text; • The expectation that students will read and write in non-ELA classrooms; • The expectation that students will develop information/technical writing skills, and • A focus on critical analysis and evidence.

18. Key Concept • The K-12 ELA Anchor Standards for reading and writing, and in the Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects section are IDENTICAL.

19. Spiraling Skill Development

20. Reading Standards: Key Ideas and Details

22. Unpacking a Standard in 10 minutes • Choose on Grade Group • 6-8 • 9-10 • 10-12 • With a partner, try to complete the first two chart columns • If you finish, work on the next column(s)

23. Sharing Out by Grade Grouping • 6-8 nouns and verbs • 9-10 nouns and verbs • 11-12 nouns and verbs • What are the progressions?

24. Moving students out of their comfort zones… Complex Texts reading complex texts

25. Text Complexity • https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/simplifying-text-complexity?fd=1 • ALL disciplines being asked to give students PRIMARY DOCUMENTS.

26. From Lexile.com • The text complexity of K-12 textbooks has become increasingly "easier" over the last 50 years. • The Common Core Standards quote research showing steep declines in average sentence length and vocabulary level in reading textbooks.

27. From CCSSO • Vocabulary demands have declined. • 8th grade textbooks = former 5th grade texts • 12th grade anthologies = former 7th grade texts • The complexity of what students can read is the greatest predictor of college success (ACT).

28. From Lexile.com • The text demands of college and careers have remained consistent or increased over the same time period. College students are expected to read complex text with greater independence than are high school students. • There is a significant gap between students' reading abilities and the text demands of their postsecondary pursuits.

29. History of Readability Formulas • From the 1920s through the 1980s, readability formulas were viewed to be so definitive that syntactic and semantic features were manipulated to produce texts with specific readability levels (Green & Davison, 1988).

30. As cognitive psychology perspectives became prominent in the 1970s and 1980s, researchers reported that such manipulations could hinder rather than facilitate comprehension.

31. Critique of Readability Formulas • “…short sentences and frequent words that result in an “easy” designation of text complexity do not necessarily support high levels of comprehension.” • --ElfriedaH. Hiebert. “Using Multiple Sources of Information in Establishing Text Complexity Topics.” Reading Research Report 11.03 (June 2011). http://www.textproject.org.

32. An Example: Judy Blume Modification

33. “Look What They’ve Done to Judy Blume” by Kenneth Goodman

34. “The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo” Original (Blume 1981) Revision (Holt, Level 8) Freddy Dissel had two problems. One was his older brother Mike. The other was his younger sister Ellen. Freddy thought a lot about being the one in the middle. But there was nothing he could do about it. He felt like the peanut butter part of the sandwich, squeezed between Mike and Ellen. Maggie had a big sister, Ellen. She had a little brother, Mike. Maggie was the one in the middle. But what could she do?

35. Once Freddy tried to join Mike and his friends. But Mike said, “Get out of the way, kid.” So Freddy tried to play with Ellen. Ellen didn’t understand how to play his way. She messed up all of Freddy’s things. Freddy got mad and pinched her. Ellen screamed. “Freddy Dissel!” Mom yelled. “You shouldn’t be mean to Ellen. She’s smaller than you. She’s just a baby.” Maggie tried to play with Ellen and her friends. But Ellen said, “Go away, Maggie. Run and play with your own friends. This is not a game for little girls.” Maggie tried to play with Mike. It was no fun. Mike would not play right. He ran away with Maggie’s games. He put them in his room. “The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo”

36. Content Area Examples??? Coverage!

37. “Staircase” of Text Complexity K-12 English Language Arts and Literacy Standards

38. Quantitative and Qualitative Measures to measure text complexity Identification of what the READER can bring to the task and the complexities presented by the TASK. Measuring Text Complexity

39. How to Measure Text Complexity • Use a quantitative analyzer tool to place text in a complexity band level. • Use qualitative analysis to determine upper, lower, or middle section of the band. Whole Class Placement

40. Qualitative considerations can TRUMP QUANTITAIVEconsiderations. READER/TASK considerations can TRUMP both qualitative and quantitative considerations.

42. What We Know… • Harder texts DO NOT make better readers.

43. What We Know… • Most reading for students should be easy reading. • An 80/20 ratio of easy-to-hard allows for high accuracy and good comprehension.

44. How Should Instruction Address Text Complexity? Read Along Some scaffolding, as needed, for decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension Read Aloud Modeling of decoding and fluency Heavy scaffolding for vocabulary and comprehension Read Alone Independent, autonomous reading Little to no scaffolding Student Autonomy Teacher Scaffolding Gradual Release of Responsibility (I do, we do, you do)…

45. Readability Test for Readers

46. Close Reading

47. Key Question • What in the text makes you say that?

48. Both in Speaking and Writing • Where did you find that? • What is your evidence? • Research-based writing

50. Developing Writing Prompts that Require Evidence