An Educator’s Guide to the Common Core

1. An Educator’s Guide to the Common Core

2. Module 3 CCSS ELA Shifts 2 and 3

3. Complex Texts Complex Texts 3 Key ELA Shifts

4. Complex Texts Complex Texts 3 Key ELA Shifts Grounded in evidence from texts

5. Complex Texts Complex Texts 3 Key ELA Shifts Grounded in evidence from texts Building knowledge through nonfiction

6. Shift 2: Reading, writing, and speaking are grounded in evidence from texts

7. Picture and Right Sidebar 3 Grounded in Evidence from Texts “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs” by John Scieszka

8. Picture and Right Sidebar 3 Grounded in Evidence from Texts “Everybody knows the story of the Three Little Pigs. Or at least they think they do.”

9. Picture and Right Sidebar 3 Grounded in Evidence from Texts “But I’ll let you in on a little secret. Nobody knows the real story, because nobody has ever heard my side of the story.”

10. Strategies for Helping Students Gather Evidence from Grade-Appropriate Texts

11. Please read Christina Hank’s blog post on “Defining ‘Deep Reading’ and ‘Text-Dependent Questions,’ in which she discusses a lesson on satire based on Dr. Seuss’s The Butter Battle Book.   Think about Ms. Hank’s suggestion that her very robust pre-reading discussions left her students with “ only the bones of a Thanksgiving turkey, having picked away all the meaty parts myself.” Do you agree? Text-Dependent Questions

12. Click on the video image following Ms. Hank’s blog to see a lesson in which a high school teacher helps her students uncover the “subversive” meaning in Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken.” About 6 minutes into the 8-minute video she asks the big questions: • What words or phrases do you think Robert Frost has used to suggest that there’s really no difference between the two roads? • What words or phrases does Robert Frost use to signal that the narrator might have a feeling of regret? • Note how astute the students are in identifying the words that reveal the narrator’s feelings. • ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ms. Hank is the Secondary Curriculum Director for Medina City Schools (Ohio) and a former teacher of English language arts. Text-Dependent Questions

13. Reading of a complex text may take place over several days, with each re-reading providing an increasingly sophisticated level of understanding. Here are some guidelines provided by Jennifer Neff in her article, “Depend on the Text! How to Create Text-Dependent Questions,” based on the work of Dr. Doug Fisher and Dr. Nancy Frey. READING 1: Literal-level questions promote general understanding and focus on key textual details so students grasp the main idea. READING 2; Fosters deeper thinking, focusing attention on vocabulary, text structure, and author's purpose. Questions ask students to think about the author's decisions, to consider the purpose. READING 3: Students answer questions requiring inferences and the formation of opinions and arguments about the text, using textual evidence for support. SOURCE: www.readwritethink.org Creating Questions

14. Let’s consider a passage from the 4th-5th grade band, Informational Text, in Appendix B of the Common Core. Please list three text-dependent questions you could ask based on this passage. Make sure to ask one question that highlights essential vocabulary, one that focuses on main idea, and one that requires students to make an inference about the author’s purpose. Creating Questions

15. Here are some possible text-based questions to accompany Joy Hakim’s text exemplar. Your questions may be different. • Vocabulary: • In Paragraph 2, what does the author mean by the word “bountiful”? What evidence does the text provide? • What does the author mean by “swarming with animals”? How do you know? • Main Idea: • What is the main idea of the second paragraph? What details does the author provide to support this idea? • Author’s Purpose: • In Paragraph 3, why does the author repeat the words “giant” and “gigantic”? What else does she do to illustrate the size of the redwood forest? • What is the author’s purpose in writing “Chapter 7: The Show-Offs”? Why has she chosen this title? How does her evidence support this idea? Self-Evaluation

16. Please review the text-dependent questions you created for the previous activity, then check “yes” or “no” for each of the statements below. • For more information about creating text-dependent questions, please see the following: • www.readwritethink.org • www.achievethecore.org Self-Evaluation

17. Ask text-based questions.

18. Ask text-based questions. What if students don’t have the answers?

19. Think-Alouds

20. What do we mean when we talk about teaching reading comprehension?

21. What was the girl wearing?

22. Why was Jack’s mom angry? What was the girl wearing?

23. Why was Jack’s mom angry? What was the girl wearing? What did the author mean by . . . ?

24. What’s the capital of Idaho? Why was Jack’s mom angry? What was the girl wearing? What did the author mean by . . . ?

25. Twenty years later . . .

26. Teaching comprehension

27. Testing comprehension

29. Think-Alouds

30. Think-Alouds: A Strategy for Building Reading Comprehension

31. Picture and Right Sidebar 3 Think-Aloud A Think-Aloud provides explicit instruction that makes visible the thinking processes of effective readers.

32. Please read the article on Think-Alouds written by C. Glass and V. Zygouris-Coe. • In it, you’ll find information on the following: • How to Use the Strategy • Think-Aloud Examples • Passing Strategic Expertise to Students • Assessment. • Following the reading, you’ll see a teacher using Think-Alouds in an elementary classroom, and you’ll write a Think-Aloud suitable for use with students you teach. • SOURCE: https://www.ocps.net/cs/services/cs/currareas/read/IR/bestpractices/SZ/Think%20Alouds.pdf Think-Aloud How-To’s

33. In this video, a primary teacher uses a Think-Aloud to demonstrate strategies for reading informational texts. As you watch, please note the information-gathering strategies she models. Elementary Think-Aloud

34. Now, watch the annotated version of the video to compare your observations with those we’ve noted. Elementary Think-Aloud

35. Picture and Right Sidebar 3 Think-Aloud • The Glass and Zygouris-Coe article lists nine Think-Aloud strategies: • Make a prediction • Ask a question • Clarify something • Make a comment • Make a connection • Figure out if I need to re-read • Ask myself if I understand what I’ve read • Make mental pictures • Compare what is being learned with what has been learned previously

36. Picture and Right Sidebar 3 Think-Aloud Let’s return to the Joy Hakim reading to consider an example of a Think-Aloud. A teacher using this passage with his students might use a Think-Aloud to show students what to do when they encounter an unfamiliar word like “bountiful.”

37. Picture and Right Sidebar 3 Think-Aloud [Reads the first three sentences.] “I’m reading Paragraph 2 in the Hakim article, and I’m stuck on the word ‘bountiful.’ I’ve never seen the word before and I feel a little lost. So I re-read the beginning of the paragraph to see where the author is headed, and I see that she says ‘life is easy for the Indians,’ and she calls them ‘affluent,” which means ‘wealthy.’ So I’m thinking ‘bountiful’ is probably a good thing, and I read on.”

38. Picture and Right Sidebar 3 Think-Aloud “The author says, ‘the rivers are full of salmon and sturgeon’ – I’m thinking those are fish. Then she says the ocean is ‘full of’ a bunch of sea animals. She says the woods are ‘swarming’ with game animals. I know the word ‘swarm’ means a whole bunch, like bees. I like that. Everywhere you look, there are animals. Ok, now she’s talking about berries and nuts, and I’m lost again.”

39. Picture and Right Sidebar 3 Think-Aloud “But wait. Look at these last two sentences. ‘They are not farmers. They don’t need to farm.’ Why is that? Oh yeah, they are surrounded by fish, and animals, and nuts and berries. So I think this means they have plenty to eat. So I’m thinking ‘bountiful’ is something about having plenty, like the world is taking care of their needs.”

40. Now, it’s your turn to write a Think- Aloud. • Use the passage you chose in the text complexity activity in Module 2 (a personal favorite, Charlotte’s Web, or To Kill a Mockingbird). • Choose a standard (or skill described within a standard) for “Reading: Literature” or “Reading: Informational Text” for your grade level. • Write a Think-Aloud based on your passage that addresses that standard. You may use one or more of the strategies listed in the Glass and Zygouris-Coe article. Write a Think-Aloud

41. Please use the following checklist to evaluate your Think-Aloud dialogue. For more information about Think-Alouds, please see http://www.readingrockets.org/article/102. Self-Evaluation

42. Please go to your journal and complete the following prompts: • Review the “Reading: Literature” and “Reading: Informational Text” standards for your grade level. For which standards would Think-Aloudsbe most immediately useful in your classroom, and why? • Describe the next step in your lesson once you’ve modeled a Think-Aloud. How might you ask your students to practice the targeted skill under your supervision? Journal

43. Complex Texts Complex Texts 3 Key ELA Shifts Grounded in evidence from texts

44. Complex Texts Complex Texts 3 Key ELA Shifts Grounded in evidence from texts Building knowledge through nonfiction

45. Shift 3: Students Build Knowledge Through Content-Rich Nonfiction

46. Picture and Right Sidebar 3 Building Knowledge Through Nonfiction Informational Text Literature

47. Picture and Right Sidebar 3 Grounded in Evidence from Texts Elementary School: 50/50 Informational Text Literature

48. Picture and Right Sidebar 3 Grounded in Evidence from Texts By Grade 8: 55/45 Informational Text Literature

49. Picture and Right Sidebar 3 Grounded in Evidence from Texts By Grade 12: 70/30 Informational Text Literature

50. Picture and Right Sidebar 3 Writing Instruction Argument Writing