English Language Arts

English Language Arts Focused on Increasing Analysis, Inquiry and Higher Level Thinking Skills in Text Presented to Lansing School District Personnel-September 18, 2014 By Melanie Kahler, Literacy Consultant at Ingham Intermediate School District

Agenda • Welcome, Learning Targets and Group Expectations • Relationships between the Common Core State Standards, research from the National Reading Panel and John Hattie’s research from Visible Learning • Effect size and it’s relationship to best practices in education • Higher level thinking skills/meta-cognition • How to use research-validated strategies in the classroom to increase reading comprehension, higher level thinking skills/meta-cognition

Learning Targets At the end of this afternoon you will be able to: • Talk about John Hattie’s work, explain the concept of a meta-analysis, and know how his work relates to best practices in raising educational achievement. • Understand effect size and what strategies will result in the most growth for students. • Understand the concept of meta-cognition and how it relates to higher level thinking skills. • Be able to use the following reading strategies to increase higher level thinking skills and reading comprehension • Retelling • Visualization • Inferencing • Fix Up Strategies/Self-Monitoring • Reciprocal Teaching

Group Expectations • To make this day the best possible, we need your assistance and participation • Be Responsible • Attend to the “Come back together” signal • Active participation…Please ask questions • Be Respectful • Please allow others to listen • Please turn off cell phones and pagers • Please limit sidebar conversations • Share “air time” • Please refrain from email and Internet browsing • Be Safe • Take care of your own needs

We will be working in partners and small groups-- • Find a partner and decide who will be Partner #1 and who will be Partner #2 • Find another pair to form a small group of four

We begin with the Common Core State Standards, adopted by the State of Michigan in the Spring of 2014 The English Language Arts Standards of the Common Core are the Goals for our students. These include: • Foundational Skills Print Concepts *Phonological Awareness (Kindergarten and Grade One) *Phonics and Word Recognition *Fluency *These skills are represented as three of the Five Big Ideas of Reading, according to The National Reading Panel Report of 2000, and are part of the foundation for comprehension of text.

Reading Standards for Literature and Informational Text Key Ideas and Details Craft and Structure Integration of Knowledge and Ideas Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity *Comprehension, another of the Big Five Ideas of Reading is incorporated in all of the areas listed above. • Writing Standards Text Types and Purposes Production and Distribution of Writing Research to Build and Present Knowledge

Speaking and Listening Standards Comprehension and Collaboration Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas • Language Standards Conventions of Standard English *Vocabulary Acquisition and Use *Vocabulary is the last, but certainly not least, of the Big Five to be incorporated into the CCSS

The Goal of the CCSS is to produce students that: • Demonstrate independence • Build strong content knowledge • Respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline • Comprehend as well as critique • Value evidence • Use technology and digital media strategically and capably • Come to understand other perspectives and cultures

We have discussed two guides to national expectations for what our students should be learning. • Now to the hard part—teaching our students what they need to know and expecting the learning to encompass higher level thinking rather than rote memorization. • We begin by learning about Hattie’s meta-analyses of more than 800 studies over the last 15 years of educational research. • What works?!

Introduction to John Hattie’s work • John Hattie conducted a meta-analysis (gathering information from numerous research studies about education) on the effects of many different strategies on student achievement. As a result of this work he has written three books. Today we will begin to talk about effect sizes as related to best practice. • The effect size of 1.0 is typically associated with advancing children’s achievement by two or three years. When implementing a new programan effect size of 1.0 would mean that, on average, students receiving the treatment would exceed 84% of the students that are not receiving the treatment.

The effect size of d = 0.40 is the hinge-point for identifying what is and what is not effective in measuring student achievement. One year of education typically results in an effect size of 0.20 to 0.40…but we want to do better than that. • Setting the bar at an effect size of d = 0.0 is so low as to be dangerous. Don’t be fooled when reading research studies.

Group Activity-John Hattie Effect Sizes • Get into your small group. • You can mark on one paper for everyone in the group, or each mark on your own. • Each group should decide whether the items on the sheet have High, Medium or Low effect on student achievement according to the results of John Hattie’s meta-analysis. Note that the number of high, medium and low items are provided at the top of the page. • Turn your paper over when you are finished.

Low Effect on Student Achievement Visible Learning for Teachers; Hattie, 2012

Medium Effect on Student Achievement Visible Learning for Teachers; Hattie, 2012

High Effect on Student Achievement Visible Learning for Teachers; Hattie, 2012

Results • Which results were surprising to you? • What questions were raised in your mind, based on the results of John Hattie’s meta-analysis? • How might this information effect the work you do in your classroom/school?

How does this relate to what we are talking about today? • As a teacher/administrator it is important to spend the most time on learning activities that result in the most positive changes for our students • As a presenter it is important to spend the most time on learning activities that result in the most positive changes for teachers, administrators and their students • Based on educational research we will spend time on: • reciprocal teaching • meta-cognitive strategies to impact higher level thinking in students

Do Not Forget-- The National Reading Panel of 2000 indicated that children need to master all of the following skills to be successful readers • Phonemic Awareness • Alphabetic Principle or Phonics • Reading Fluency • Vocabulary Knowledge • Reading Comprehension Skills Phonemic awareness, phonics and reading fluency should be taught to automaticity so that students have the cognitive energy for higher level thinking skills and reading comprehension.

Development requires time devoted to practicing lower order skills under conditions of relative ease, enjoyment and strong motivation. Whatever a child spends a great deal of time doing, then skillfulness and automaticity will follow. But if an activity does not take place, then development cannot proceed. Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn: Hattie & Yates, 2014 As teachers and educators this reminds us that we must pay attention to the basic building blocks of reading to produce students with excellent reading comprehension skills and the ability to analyze text.

Efficient Ways to Teach Reading Comprehension Strategies/Higher Level Thinking Around Text (Meta-Cognitive Thinking)

We will be learning about research-validated reading strategies to use in your schools and classrooms to increase reading comprehension and higher level thinking skills. Improving Reading Comprehension in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade; What Works Clearinghouse, 2010

Effectively Teaching any Reading Comprehension Strategy There are three key elements found in effective comprehension strategy instruction: (1) the explicit instruction of strategies through declarative, procedural, and conditional knowledge, (2) the gradual release of responsibility from the teacher to the student, and (3) the coordinated use of multiple strategies. • First, at the elementary level, explicit instruction of comprehension strategies is preferable over instruction where students are to deduce the purpose of the lesson • Second, equally as important as using explicit cues is a student's transition to independent strategy use through a teacher's gradual release of responsibility • Third, research supports teaching students how to coordinate the use of multiple strategies while reading Pilonieta, P., & Medina, A.L. (2009, October). Reciprocal Teaching for the Primary Grades: "We Can Do It, Too!" The Reading Teacher, 63(2), 120-129.

Classroom Roles in the Transition from Supported to Independent Use of Reading Comprehension Strategies Adapted from Reading for Understanding; Schoenbach, Greenleaf and Murphy, 2012

Explicit Instruction=Modeling and Thinking Out Loud Modeling There are eight essential components of this instructional technique: • Concept/skill is broken down into critical features/elements. • Teacher clearly describes concept/skill. • Teacher clearly models concept/skill. • Multi-sensory instruction (visual, auditory, tactile, kinesthetic) • Teacher thinks aloud as she/he models. • Teacher models examples and non-examples. • Cueing • High levels of teacher-student interaction Thinking Out Loud as an Instructional Technique The Think Aloud strategy allows the teacher to model how a good reader thinks about text while reading. The process is fairly simple. The teacher reads aloud from an appropriate book, and stops periodically to: • make predictions • clarify meaning • decode words • make personal connections, • question the author • summarize what has been read. This explicit modeling of the reading strategies will benefit all students as they strive for deeper understanding of what they read.

Meta-Cognition Metacognition is defined as "cognition about cognition", or "knowing about knowing". It comes from the root word "meta", meaning beyond.[1] It can take many forms; it includes knowledge about when and how to use particular strategies for learning or for problem solving.[1] There are generally two components of metacognition: knowledge about cognition, and regulation of cognition.[2]—Wikipedia Awareness or analysis of one's own learning or thinking processes-Merriam Webster

Strategies that Increase Meta-Cognitive Thinking

Retelling Jill Hansen (2004) advocates a developmental approach to retelling instruction. At each developmental level, teachers guide students toward the next, deeper level. Teaching Reading Sourcebook, 2nd Edition; Honig, Diamond & Gutlohn, 2008

Developmental Retelling Levels • Emergent Level Focus on event listing and sequencing Introduce basic story elements • Early Fluent Level Help students apply the basic story elements in oral and written retellings Introduce identifying main events that lead the main character from the problem to the outcome Model and guide retelling events in sequence and integrating story elements, using story maps • Fluent Level Introduce plot summary—retelling key events in chronological order Practice to refine sequencing and story elements in retellings

Retelling Feedback Form Did my partner tell about… The setting? Yes or No The characters? Yes or No The problem? Yes or No The attempts to solve the problem? Yes or No The outcome? Yes or No The story events in the correct order? Yes or No _________________________________________ The best part of the retelling was… Retelling Feedback Form for Narrative Text As students learn to retell through teacher modeling and guided practice it is important to move them toward working with each other. Paired retelling sessions are more effective, especially if the listener is providing feedback.

After reading the text (or hearing text read out loud) have students: • 3 List three things they learned • 2 Write about two things they found interesting and • 1 Write one question they had For younger children you can have them draw pictures, or retell what they heard to a partner Retelling Informational Text 3-2-1 Strategy

Practice Partner #1—Look over the information on retelling narrative text, focusing on the grade level you are teaching this year Partner #2—Look over the information on retelling informational text, focusing on the grade level you are teaching this year Teach the assigned retelling technique to your partner

Visualization Visualizing helps to build reading comprehension and promote higher level thinking. It prompts students to ‘think about their thinking’. When visualizing students are tapping into prior knowledge, making connections, inferring information and paying attention to details.

Visualization Steps • Establish the Purpose • It is important for readers to create pictures in their mind as they read • You can remember better if you let your imagination help to create the story • Visualizing helps you do have a better understanding of the words/story • Give Directions • Listen as I read __________ • Write about what you see as you hear the words • Use pictures, words, phrases or sentences—or combine them all • Draw or write as you see it in your mind. There are no right or wrong answers. • Begin Reading • Begin to read the book aloud, at a moderate pace • Do not show the students any of the illustrations in the book • Pause and give students time to put their pictures on paper • Clarify difficult vocabulary and check for understanding when needed. Reread when necessary • Let the students take some time to put color in their pictures

Partner Work • Two students should be paired together to talk about their pictures using ‘sentence stems’ • The sentence stems could include: • Tell your partner what you saw in your mind • What did you see/visualize while you were listening to the story? • Tell your partner about your picture and what you saw/visualized • How are your pictures alike? • How are your pictures different? • Choose some partners to share their answers with the whole group to show similarities and differences. This will indicate again that there are no right and wrong answers. • Practice, practice, practice… • Connect this skill to students independent reading by reminding them to visualize daily • Scaffold the skill by moving from pictures on paper, talking to partners about what they see, to making pictures in their head • Formative Assessment • Use visual pictures to check for understanding of how to use visualization • Listen to pairs as they are talking to each other • Ask individual students what they are seeing while practicing Adapted from Making Pictures in our Minds: www.scholastic.com/teachers/top_teaching/2010/11/visualize-teaching-readers-to-create-pictures-in-their-mind-

Practice

Inference Inferences are things that we figure out based on past experiences and the information that we have in front of us right now. Making inferences improves reading comprehension in all content areas. It is a complex skill that will develop over time, but can be taught. Practicing making inferences requires higher order thinking skills.

Teaching Inferencing-First Strategy As the teacher is reading out loud he/she should do a Think Aloud to model this strategy. Four Questions to Pose— What is my inference? This helps students become aware that they have made an inference. What information did I use to make this inference? Model your own thinking regarding the information that was helpful to you, then ask the students what information they used as they are working on the skill. How good was my thinking? The question to ask here is the consideration of other possible scenarios to explain the text. Do I need to change my thinking? Stress that there is no right or wrong answers when beginning the reading and making inferences. However it might be necessary to change your ideas based on updated information. Robert Marzano, 2010

Teaching Inferencing-Second Strategy The first strategy presented for teaching Inferencing may be too difficult for early elementary. Using a graphic organizer might work better for the younger students.

It Says… I Say… And So… Graphic Organizer www.readingrockets.org/strategies/ inference

Fix Up Strategies/Self-Monitoring “Readers sometimes get stuck when they read, not understanding a word or losing the train of thought. The difference between a good and a poor reader is that the good reader realizes that comprehension has broken down, and knows what strategy to use to fix it. Many students do not realize they are not understanding what they read, so teachers must help them become so engaged in the text that when they veer off course, they realize it and immediately know how to correct it.” West Virginia Department of Education

Giving Students the Tools to Self-Monitor Borrowing from Anita Archer and Kevin Feldman, teachers should use the following strategy to help their students master Fix Up Strategies. There are so many steps that it will be difficult for young students to know what to do. It may be necessary to teach the skills individually. I Do It Teachers should model the skill/skills that are being taught, using a Think Aloud to make their reasoning clear to their students. We Do It The students should be practicing the skill at the same time that the teacher is modeling. Y’All Do it The students are practicing the skill while the teacher walks among them, checking for understanding. If fewer than 80% of the students are doing it correctly, the skill should be retaught. You Do It Remind the students to use the skill while reading independently. Move around the room to be available as they are working. Check to see if they are attempting to use the skills that have been taught.

Fix Up Strategies Get my mouth ready Look for a chunk Sound out the word Ask for help from my partner Ask for help from my teacher • Think about what makes sense • Look at the picture • Read it again • Read on • Think about words I know Keep reading!

Practice Read the Awakenings handout until you are told to stop As you are reading pay attention to the Fix Up Strategies you are using and note them on the paper When prompted, share the strategies you used with your partner and see if you used the same or different strategies

Reciprocal Teaching-Effect Size 0.74 Reciprocal teaching can be used to teach students how to coordinate the use of four comprehension strategies: predicting, clarifying, generating questions, and summarizing.

First Steps • Teacher models one of the skills necessary for Reciprocal Teaching, using the materials and Think Aloud strategy. The amount of text will vary based on the age and skill levels of your students. Do this as many times as you need until the students appear to be understanding the task. • Read the next portion of text out loud. Have the students practice the same strategy that you just modeled for them and share their response with a partner. Walk around the room to check on what they are saying, giving specific feedback. • Ask for any questions and have a few of the groups share their responses with the whole group. Give feedback, being specific about the quality of responses they are giving. Model your own responses. Continue to have the students practice until there is at least 80% success, then move to another skill. Repeat the process. • Do this with all four skills, monitoring consistently. When the class has mastered this routine for each skill they students can be put into groups of four, and each group member having their own role in the group.

Group Work/Practice • Read the material from the Reading Rockets handout. Look up when you are finished. • Each member of the group choose one (or more) of the Note Cards. • Read the excerpt from Visible Learning for Teachers by yourself and use the time to prepare for your role. You can be writing on the text, using sticky notes, drawing pictures, etc. • Follow the directions on the Reading Rockets handout. In addition, each member of the group should be filling out the Reciprocal Teaching Worksheet. (The worksheet can be used to check for understanding, provides formative assessment, connects reading with writing and/or can be used as notes for future reference)

Wrap Up To implement the strategies we have been talking about it is important for teachers to: Select carefully the text to use when first beginning to teach a given strategy Show students how to apply the strategies they are learning to different texts, not just to one text Ensure that the text is appropriate for the reading level of students Use direct and explicit instruction for teaching students how to use comprehension strategies Provide the appropriate amount of guided practice depending on the difficulty level of the strategies that the students are learning When teaching comprehension strategies, make sure students understand that the goal is to understand the content of the text

All students can be taught to practice and concentrate, provided the notions of success are transparent, that there is much formative feedback to move forward, and that there is modification and reteaching provided during this practice. The goal for all of our instruction is to provide the tools for students to face academic challenges with confidence. Using these tools and their meta-cognitive skills they will be successful. Visible Learning for Teachers, Maximizing Impact on Learning; Hattie, 2012

Learning Targets Revisited

English Language Arts