Teaching with Complex Texts

1. Teaching with Complex Texts Nancy Frey www.fisherandfrey.com

2. Grades 6-12 Reading Standards

3. “Fewer, Clearer, Higher”

4. “Read like a detective, write like a reporter.”

5. Expository Persuasive Narrative

6. Close Reading Argumentation and Discussion Extended Writing

7. Assessing Texts • Quantitative measures • Qualitative values • Task and Reader considerations

10. Close Reading

11. “Every book has a skeleton hidden between its covers. Your job as an analytic reader is to find it.” Adler and Van Doren, 1940/1972

12. “X-ray the book”

13. Use a short passage “Read with a pencil” Note what’s confusing Pay attention to patterns Give your students the chance to struggle a bit Creating a Close Reading

14. Productive failure

15. Argumentation and Discussion

17. Moves from literal to interpretive Requires students to return to the text to formulate responses Text-dependent Questioning

18. Which of the following questionsrequire students to read the text closely? • If you were present at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, what would you do? • What are the reasons listed in the preamble for supporting their argument to separate from Great Britain?

19. If you were present at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, what would you do? • What are the reasons listed in the preamble for supporting their argument to separate from Great Britain?

20. Progression of Text-dependent Questions Whole Acrosstexts Entire text Segments Paragraph Sentence Word Part

21. General Understandings • Overall view • Sequence of information • Story arc • Main claim and evidence • Gist of passage

22. General Understandings in Kindergarten Retell the story in order using the words beginning, middle, and end.

23. Key Details • Search for nuances in meaning • Determine importance of ideas • Find supporting details that support main ideas • Answers who, what, when, where, why, how much, or how many.

24. Key Details in Kindergarten • How long did it take to go from a hatched egg to a butterfly? • What is one food that gave him a stomachache? What is one food that did not him a stomachache?

25. It took more than 3 weeks. He ate for one week, and then “he stayed inside [his cocoon] for more than two weeks.”

26. Foods that did not give him a stomachache Chocolate cake Ice cream Pickle Swiss cheese Salami Lollipop Cherry pie Sausage Cupcake watermelon Foods that gave him a stomachache • Apples • Pears • Plums • Strawberries • Oranges • Green leaf

27. Vocabulary and Text Structure • Bridges literal and inferential meanings • Denotation • Connotation • Shades of meaning • Figurative language • How organization contributes to meaning

28. Vocabulary in Kindergarten How does the author help us to understand what cocoon means?

29. There is an illustration of the cocoon, and a sentence that reads, “He built a small house, called a cocoon, around himself.”

30. Author’s Purpose • Genre: Entertain? Explain? Inform? Persuade? • Point of view: First-person, third-person limited, omniscient, unreliable narrator • Critical Literacy: Who’s story is not represented?

31. Author’s Purpose in Kindergarten Who tells the story—the narrator or the caterpillar?

32. A narrator tells the story, because he uses the words he and his. If it was the caterpillar, he would say I and my.

33. Inferences

34. Inferences Probe each argument in persuasive text, each idea in informational text, each key detail in literary text, and observe how these build to a whole.

35. Inferences in Kindergarten The title of the book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. How do we know he is hungry?

36. The caterpillar ate food every day “but he was still hungry.” On Saturday he ate so much food he got a stomachache! Then he was “a big, fat caterpillar” so he could build a cocoon and turn into a butterfly.

37. Opinions, Arguments, and Intertextual Connections • Author’s opinion and reasoning (K-5) • Claims • Evidence • Counterclaims • Ethos, Pathos, Logos • Rhetoric Links to other texts throughout the grades

38. Opinionsand Intertextual Connections in Kindergarten Narrative Informational How are these two books similar? How are they different? Is this a happy story or a sad one? How do you know?

39. A Close Reading of “Salvador, Late or Early” Cisneros, S. (1992). Woman Hollering Creek. New York: Vintage Cisneros

40. Establishing Purpose To examine how the author sheds light on the interior life of this character using poetic language in order to deeply affect the reader.

41. First Reading: Students Read and Write Independently • Read with a pencil to annotate text • What powerful words or phrases affect you? Circle • What confuses you? Underline • Quick-write • What are your impressions of Salvador and the people in his life?

42. Discussion: Partner Talk to Check Meaning Describe your impressions of Salvador and the people in his life. Remember to use accountable talk (asking questions, providing evidence from the text) to compare and contrast your impressions with one another.

43. Second Reading: Teacher Modeling Read the entire passage aloud, without interruption. Be sure to orient students to the text and ask them to follow along.

44. Text-dependent Questions What are his strengths? What are his needs? What words and phrases does the author use for each? Key Details Question

45. Text-dependent Questions How does Cisneros use color? To what effect? How does Cisneros use school words? To what effect? Vocabulary and Organization Questions

46. Text-dependent Questions One sentence is more than 80 words long, and another is more than 100 words long. Why? Vocabulary and Organization Questions

47. Text-dependent Questions Examine the use of contrasts again. What does the author want us to know about Salvador? Author’s Purpose Question

48. Text-dependent Questions Salvador means “savior.” Is he the savior of his family? Inference Question

49. Text-dependent Questions Would a title change to “Heather, Late or Early” change your perspective? Why? Opinions and Intertextual Connections Question

50. Moving from talk to writing