Close Reading of Complex Text and Effective Writing for All Students

Close Reading of Complex Text and Effective Writing for All Students May 15, 2013

Session Objectives • Examine rationale and steps for using the Writing for Understanding Approach • Walk through a guided sequence of instruction that connects close reading of complex text to an evidence-based writing task • Determine ways to scaffold instruction to address the instructional and cultural needs of English language learners

Writing to Sources: Guided Instruction • The Writing for Understanding approach is grounded in the key shifts in ELA/Literacy: Increasing complex text, building knowledge, evidence based reading a writing • Writing about a text after doing a close read is away to help students build deeper meaning of the text. • Writing about a text also helps students to write clearly, logically, and thoughtfully. • Using this instructional approach not only helps students synthesize meaning of the text-it helps them to transfer this kind of thinking to other texts.

Purpose of Model Lessons Designed to use text-dependent questions to help students, through close reading, to acquire a deep understanding of the text. Each model lesson includes: • A set of student worksheets, designed to lead the student step by step through the process • A set of teacher reference sheets, which offer a sample of student responses to note taking and writing activities.

Turn and Talk As teachers and students become more comfortable with text based writing, this process should be modified to encourage independence. With careful instruction, much practice and gradual release of responsibility, all of your students will improve, not only in their writing, but the way they think about and interact with what they read. What would this process look like for English language learners?

Before We Get Started • Writing to Sources: Guided Instruction hand-out • Exemplar Sample Lesson, “Because of Winn Dixie” • The Text: DiCamillo, Kate. “Because of Winn Dixie” • Student Worksheets for “Because of Winn Dixie” • Writing for Understanding: Addressing the Common Core Shifts hand-out

An Elementary School Uniton the Impact of Technology By the end of grade 5. Over time, people’s needs and wants change, as do their demands for new and improved technologies. Engineers improve existing technologies or develop new ones to increase their benefits (e.g., better artificial limbs), to decrease known risks (e.g., seatbelts in cars), and to meet societal demands (e.g., cell phones). When new technologies become available, they can bring about changes in the way people live and interact with one another.

Build Knowledge Video Games Do a Body Good Muse July – August 2012 Has your doctor given you a prescription for video games?... Are you a Screen Addict? Scholastic Choices, April-May 2012 Imagine this: You wake up one beautiful spring morning and your cell phone is busted…

Listen Complex Texts What makes the text complex?

What Makes Text Complex?

Turn and Talk What would working with complex text look like for English Language Learners?

First Read for enjoyment and general comprehension

Second “Close Read” The second read is the close read-where the teacher guides students slowly and carefully through the text, prodding their thinking with text-dependent questions. Meaning: In the last stanza, Charlie had another thought. What was this thought and why couldn’t he explain it? Structure: Why is the word “anything” in italics? Knowledge: What is an “empire”? What does it mean when the author says Charlie’s “tech empire” came tumbling down? Language: What does the author mean when she says Charlie has “likes and like nots”?

Third Read for evidence based reading and writing Students read with a specific purpose, to gather information that will allow them to answer a Focusing Question for writing. Evidence Matters!

Turn and Talk What could be a focusing question and focus statement for Charlie McButton?

? Focusing Question Big Idea Expresses Understanding Evidence from Text Leads to Focus Statement

Focus Statement Focusing Questions and Focus Statements Focusing Question How do sharks survive? Sharks have physical and behavioral adaptions that help them survive. What caused the American Revolution? Actions taken by the English caused the colonists to revolt.

Possible Focusing Question and Focus Statement Focusing Question Focus Statement At the beginning of the poem, he thought he could never have fun without his gadgets. By the end, he realized that he can have fun without electronics. How do Charlie’s opinions about having fun change from the beginning to the end of the story?

Taking Notes Requires Direct Instruction Important at ALL Grade Levels Can Take Many Forms Records Information

Sample Ways to Take Notes Pictures Objects Drawing Graphic Organizers

What type of evidence from the story will students need to collect in order to answer this question?How could you help them collect it? Focusing Question Turn and Talk How do Charlie’s opinions about having fun change from the beginning to the end of the story?

Evidence How do Charlie’s opinions about having fun change from the beginning to the end of the story?

Evidence How do Charlie’s opinions about having fun change from the beginning to the end of the story? At the beginning of the poem, he thought he could never have fun without his gadgets. By the end, he realized that he can have fun without electronics.

Talk the Piece Using their notes, students “talk the writing” before they write it.

Practice Turning Notes into Sentences Things with “handsets and bots” Hide and go seek He has fun playing hide and go seek with his sister. Charlie only plays with things with “handset and bots”.

Finished Piece When Charlie McButton Loses Power, by Suzanne Collins, is a funny story with an important message. When the power goes out, Charlie McButton… Read the finished piece. What kind of instruction in the craft of writing will students need to be able to write a piece like this?

Questions Turn and Talk What are the benefits of expressing understanding in writing? What are some of the things that prevent your students from doing so?

Anthology Alignment Project May 15, 2013

Anthology Alignment Project This professional development opportunity provides practice with district-adopted textbooks to: • Identify text-dependent and non-text-dependent questions • Learn to develop quality text-dependent questions that include examples with direct responses and inferences. • Draws students attention to academic language, vocabulary and syntax

Professional Development Description • The Council of the Great City Schools and Student Achievement Partners invite districts to send a team to AAP conferences to align existing materials to Common Core State Standards (CCSS) • Participants learn how to develop quality text-dependent questions and improve the culminating activities • General education, ELL and special education leaders collaborate on preparing CCSS-aligned, instructional classroom materials for grades 6-10

AAP Conference Dates March 25-26 2013 Long Beach, CA May 21-23, 2013 Birmingham, AL

How to Join the AAP Group • Go to Edmodo Website • Create user name and password • Join Anthology Alignment Project Group • Enter code pkx4sp

Supported Anthologies • Holt- Elements of Literature (6-8) • Holt-Literature and Language Arts (6-10) • Houghton Mifflin Harcourt-Reading/Medallion (6-10) • McDougal Littell- Language of Literature (9-10) • McDougal Littell-Language Network (6-8) • McGraw-Hill- Glencoe Literature: The Reader’s Choice (6-10) • McGraw-Hill- Open Court (6) • Prentice Hall- Literature (6-10) • Prentice Hall- Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes (9-10)

Close Reading of Complex Text and Effective Writing for All Students