Elementary Teaching & Learning Moving Forward with Literacy

1. Elementary Teaching & LearningMoving Forward with Literacy 2.26.13 Plymouth Church

2. Agenda • Deepening our Implementation of the Journeys Materials – Supporting Text Complexity • Understanding Shift 3: Staircase of Complexity • Lessons from David Chard – Scaffolding Complex Texts • Text Dependent Questions & Close Reading • Collaborative Action Planning – How will we support this shift in our building?

3. Deepening our Implementation of the Journeys Materials and the Common Core Standards Supporting Text Complexity

4. The “Big Vision” is NOT about “Standards”…it is about College & Career Readiness! The Primary Outcome: Increased Math & Science proficiency by closing the “text gap” in content and comprehension.

5. Reading Challenging Text • Text difficulty is specified in the standards • This means that children in grades 2-12 will be asked to read more challenging text (which means that we have to teach more challenging text than we have in the past)

6. Shift 3: Staircase of ComplexityThis video features a discussion between NYS Commissioner of Education John B. King Jr., David Coleman (contributing author to the Common Core) and Kate Gerson (a Sr. Fellow with the Regents Research Fund) addressing Shift 3 –Staircase of Complexity What will be required to make the shift to increasing text complexity in our classrooms?

7. What will be required to increase text complexity in the classroom? • An understanding of what makes a text “complex” • A set of instructional strategies to scaffold students in complex text • Highly trained teachers who know WHEN & HOW to employ these scaffolding techniques

8. What Makes a Text Complex? Quick Write Reflection

9. Word or Text Length? We defy augury. There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ‘tis not to come; if it’s not to come, it will be now; if it’s not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all. Hamlet, William Shakespeare

10. Blueprint of a Reader Perfetti, Landi, & Oakhill (2005) The Science of Reading Comprehension

11. How do the Journeys Materials Support this Blueprint? Collaborative Group Work

12. Meaning Making • Provide ample time and opportunity to read complex text. • Create a classroom culture of discussions that are text-based. • Explicitly teach comprehension strategies. • Provide procedural facilitators • World/Background Knowledge • Provide students with opportunities to read widely and make text-text, text-world, and text-self connections. • Language Structure • Teach comprehension skills, affixes, and compound words explicitly. • Draw attention to syntactic structures in texts. • Vocabulary • Select concept vocabulary to teach thoroughly. • Pre-teach complex vocabulary. • Use and reuse vocabulary in discourse and writing. Access Skills • Access Skills • Assume we are explicitly teaching phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, and building fluency. • Orthography • Assume access and knowledge of print.

13. Text Dependent Questions

14. Text Dependent Questions … a text dependent question specifically asks a question that can only be answered by referring explicitly back to the text being read. It does not rely on any particular background information extraneous to the text nor depend on students having other experiences or knowledge; instead it privileges the text itself and what students can extract from what is before them. ~ www.achievethecore.org

15. are questions that can only be answered correctly by close reading of the text and demand careful attention to the text. require an understanding that extends beyond recalling facts. often require students to infer. do not depend on information from outside sources. allow students to gather evidence and build knowledge. provide access to increasing levels of complex text. call for careful and thoughtful teacher preparation. require time for students to process. are worth asking. Text-Dependent Questions…

16. Analyzing texts to Support the Common Core

17. Close Reading

18. Shanahan’s Close Read Protocol • For a 1st reading, you want to ask questions that ensure that the students understand and think about the major ideas in the story or article. That means you limit your questions to big ideas or you query information that you think the students might be confused by. (Key Ideas & Details)

19. Shanahan’s Close Read Protocol • On the 2nd reading, you want to ask questions that require students to analyze how the text works: why the author made certain choices (example: word choice) and what the implications of those decisions would be in terms of meaning or tone. (Craft & Structure)

20. Shanahan’s Close Read Protocol • On the 3rdreading, the issue is how does this text connect to your life and your views, critical analysis of quality and value, and how the text connects to other texts. (Integration of Knowledge and Ideas)

21. Shanahan Blog

22. Close Reading & Text Dependent Questions Our work on this is far from done… We will continue to develop our own understanding through study and practice during our Teaching & Learning Meetings. We will support teacher understanding during our District PLCs next year.

23. Collaborative Action Planning What is our current reality regarding the text complexity expectations of the Common Core? What evidence do we have to support this? (Our data tells us we need to make changes… where will we start? ~ Jo Robinson) What structures will be needed to support teachers in scaffolding students in complex text?

24. Coming in April Supporting Data Teams, CFA Creation, and planning with the Journeys materials.