Rowan Literacy Consortium

1. SESSION TWO- October 5, 2012 Exploring Text Complexity Rowan Literacy Consortium

2. AM Revisiting the Common Core and Reading Strand: Expectations and Shifts in Instruction Understanding Text Complexity PM Team Planning RLC Group Presentation Today’s Agenda

3. Deeper understanding of teaching and learning implications of the Common Core RLC position on Common Core “Distinguished” Teaching District-specific action plans around Common Core teaching and Learning Compendium of Common Core Lessons as researched and studied by RLC members objectives of rlc 2012-2013

4. College and Career Ready State Standards

5. The Standards define the knowledge and skills students should have within their K-12 education careers so that they will graduate from high school able to succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing academic college courses and in workforce training programs. K-12 Standards • Mathematics • English Language Arts (Reading, Writing, Speaking & Listening) • Includes: Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects, 6-12 • CCSS are about accelerating student achievement to help create systems of continuous improvement.

6. Common Core Standards for English Language Arts • College and Career Readiness (CCR) Standards • Overarching standards for each strand that are further defined by grade-specific standards • Represent overall outcomes • Grade-Level Standards in English Language Arts • K-8, grade-by-grade • 9-10 and 11-12 grade bands for high school • Four strands: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language • Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects • Standards are embedded at grades K-5 • Content-specific literacy standards are provided for grades 6-8, 9-10, and 11-12 • Media and Technology are integrated throughout the standards. • Three appendices • Appendix A:Research and evidence; glossary of key terms, overview of each strand • Appendix B: Reading text exemplars; sample performance tasks • Appendix C: Annotated student writing samples OFFICE OF SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION

7. Common Core Standards – English Language Arts K-12 The standards are organized into three main sections Standards for English Language Arts —and— Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects GRADES K-5 Standards for English Language Arts GRADES 6-12 Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects GRADES 6-12 Each section is divided into strands Reading Writing Speaking & Listening Language Reading Writing Speaking & Listening Language Reading Writing Each strand features grade-level standards that are anchored in college and career readiness standards

8. Text Complexity Inclusion of nonfiction or informational texts Spiraling Instruction Text-based analysis and close readings Academic Language Emphasis on evidence Digital literacies Critical Literacies Shifts in Teaching Required of Common Core

9. 1. Meaning-making2.  Developing Independence3.  Transfer of Learning across Content Areas4.  College and Career Readiness Common Core Student-Focused Shifts

10. Sept. 21st:      Close Reading and Textual Oct. 5th:        Text Complexity Dec. 14th:      Digital Literacy and Critical Literacy Speaker Sylvia RosenthalJan. 18th :     Speaking and Listening                               Lesson StudyFeb.  22nd:     Content Literacy                               Workshops based on needsMarch 15th:   Writing: Speaker Kelly Gallagher April 26th:      Digital Presentations: Common Core                                             Lessons  and Action Plans           RLC Sessions Aligned to Shift

11. Reading Comprehension (standards 1−9) • Standards for reading literature and informational texts • Strong and growing across-the-curriculum emphasis on students’ ability to read and comprehend informational texts • Aligned with NAEP Reading framework (link to NAEP as resource in team understanding and planning) see next slide Range of reading and level of text complexity(standard 10, Appendices A and B) • “Staircase” of growing text complexity across grades • High-quality literature and informational texts in a range of genres and subgenres (Paradigm shift) Ranger Rick National Geographic for Kids Scholastic Upfront (for teenagers only) Special Interest Journals Digital Reading

12. NAEP Reading Frameworks

13. Text Types

14. “SUCH ASSESSMENTS ARE BEST MADE BY THE TEACHERS EMPLOYING THEIR PROFESSIONAL JUDGEMENT, EXPERIENCE, AND KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THEIR STUDENTS AND THE SUBJECT.” -CCSS FOR ELA, APPENDIX A, P. 4 WHAT ABOUT THE CCSS LISTS OF EXEMPLARS?

15. How much of each? • Publishers Criteria for the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts and Literacy – grades 3-12: • Elementary – 50% literature, 50% informational text • Grades 6-12 – a shift toward substantially more literary non-fiction. These documents include essays, speeches, personal narratives, seminal historical documents, editorials, opinion pieces… • Requires collaboration • Teaching of units and themes • Implement student “Book Clubs”

16. How much is substantial? Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium presented these recommendations for assessment emphasis in the August 9, 2011, draft of “Content Specifications for Content Mapping and Summative Assessments” : Grades 3-5 : 50% informational, 50% literary Grades 6-8 : 55% informational, 45% literary Grade 9-12: 70% informational, 30% literary

17. Overview of Text Complexity • The Common Core Standards are emphatic that students experience increasingly complex tests with increasing independence as they progress toward college and career readiness (Reading Standard #10). • Text complexity is defined by: Quantitative measures – readability and other scores of text complexity Qualitative measures – levels of meaning, structure, language conventionality and clarity, and knowledge demands Quantitative Qualitative Reader and Task – background knowledge of reader, motivation, interests, and complexity generated by tasks assigned Reader and Task

18. What can be misleading about the use of a triangle?

19. Adjusting for text complexity rigor

20. Kansas Department of Education Maine Department of Education South Carolina Engage NY Wisconsin Department of Education ElfreidaHeibert Resources

21. Why Lexile Alone Isn’t Enough These books are typically taught in high school literature classes … The Grapes of Wrath – 680 L – 4th grade Fahrenheit 451 – 451 L – between 2nd & 3rd grade Fallen Angels – 650 L – 4th grade A Farewell to Arms – 730 L – between 4th & 5th grade Lord of the Flies – 770 L – between 4th & 5th grade Brave New World – 870 L – between 5th and 6th

22. Scholastic Book Wizard Okapi Readability Coh-Metrix Study outlining reliability of Quantitative Measures Quantitative Level Resources

23. Familiarity with rubrics for literary and informational texts Complex text activity Select a text; work in pairs to determine its complexity using appropriate rubric Unpacking text complexity: What Do teachers need to know?

24. Quantitative Qualitative • Lexile Level • 730 • Use the Gradients in Complexity Rubric • What did you discover? WintergirlsLaurie Haas Anderson

27. What did we find?

28. Stanford University "Read Like a Historian"

29. Jigsaw Articles: Each team member take a different article to read over lunch After lunch discussions Reading for lunchtime enjoyment

30. Provocative Questions: School Library Monthly • There is a public debate about the appropriate level of scaffolding that teachers should provide to make complex texts accessible to struggling readers. • How do you know how much is just right? • How do you see the question of text complexity as simpatico with reading incentive programs like Accelerated Reader? •  How do they come into tension with one another?

31. One concern about text complexity is the worry that this will be a return to the classics and to a world where, for the most part, everyone is white and middle-class.   • Are there specific world culture texts that you think raise the bar, at any grade level, for text complexity? • What are you doing to ensure that students experience a more diverse world through the words they read? Provocative Questions: School Library Monthly

32. Close Readings of the Common Core:what are others saying? • Team members synopsize and share reactions to selected article. • What are the issues related to text complexity? • What are people in the field of literacy saying about text complexity? • Pros? Cons?

33. “An extrinsic, formal approach to curricular choices cannot work, because key elements of complexity, like the key elements of inference, lie less in the formal characteristics of the text than in the contents of the reader’s or listener’s mind. The psychological difficulty of a text is determined less by its computer-measurable syntactical features than by the reader’s relevant prior knowledge.” -E.D. Hirsch Jr. First Do No Harm Education Week

34. One text that is said to meet the criteria of “quality, range, and complexity” is Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The opening paragraph is quoted in the standards document to illustrate the difficulty of Austen’s syntax.

35. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” JANE AUSTEN’S Pride and Prejudice

36. Team talk to determine RLC focus Consider the shifts in teaching and learning when implementing the Common Core Draft a plan/review various templates Describe team focus and plan on googlepowerpoint What’s a District to Do?

37. Digital compendium of K-12 Common Core Lessons Action Plans for each district to implement in 2013 RLC website where members can blog, post resources, and support each other in the work of Common Core teaching and learning. RLC 2012-2013 Vision