Using Leveled Text to Differentiate Instruction for Students in the Content Areas

1. Using Leveled Text to Differentiate Instruction for Students in the Content Areas Kathleen Kopp Teacher on Special Assignment, Citrus County Schools Author and Presenter: Teacher Created Materials, Inc. koppk@citrus.k12.fl.us International Reading Association, April 2012

2. Today’s Objectives • Identify the purpose of differentiating instruction • Explore how leveled text can help teachers differentiate instruction and support student learning • Learn how to identify text levels and modify texts to match texts to students

3. Leveled Text Resources • Teacher Created Materials has ready-made leveled text resources. Enter for chances to win throughout this presentation!

4. Reading Beyond Their Years • Read the paragraph. • Predict the readability level. • Summarize the content. • Main idea • Detail • Detail

5. The Spanish Flu and Its LegacyScience Cases for Classroom Use The Spanish Flu and Its Legacy encourages you to adopt an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning. The events surrounding the appearance of the Spanish Flu in 1918 have influenced science, sociology, economics, history, and literature. It is impossible to confront these events from only one perspective. The human story modifies the scientist’s objective view, while science and a sense of inquiry enable others to validate historical and medical information. We hope that a natural curiosity about events, a scientific turn of mind, or a personal connection to people and their stories create not only a desire to know more about the pandemic of 1918, but also to develop a deeper understanding of what it means to inquire and to investigate. This is all the more important as every week, and even daily, newspapers and scientific journals around the world are reporting remarkable discoveries about both old and emerging diseases.

6. The Spanish Flu and Its LegacyScience Cases for Classroom Use • What is the readability of this paragraph? 15.9

7. Main Idea & Details

8. Why Match Text to Students? You can’t change the student, but you can change the text. It takes time to learn students’ reading levels. Content can stay the same. Students who read text matched to their reading level stand a better chance of understanding it. It takes time to revise text to match students’ reading levels. Teachers can read in small groups with students who read text at a similar readability level, increasing the teacher:student ratio.

9. Differentiating Content • Content is what the students need to learn or how the student will get access to the information. • When using leveled texts, the teacher provides students with access to instructional materials more closely matched to their reading abilities. • Changing the level of the text does NOT mean the content, or information, must change. Just the readability level will change.

10. Steps to Matching Text to Students • Know students’ approximate reading levels. • Find the text readability level of the material students will read. • Modify the readability level to more closely match students’ reading levels. • Provide additional instructional support, as needed, to help students learn the content.

11. How to Find Students’ Reading Levels Step 1: • Norm-referenced Test Scores • Running Records • Individual Reading Inventory • Informal Observation • Student Records (ESE, ESOL considerations) • Narrative vs. Expository Text

12. How to Find Text Levels Step 2: • The easiest way to level text is to type, or copy and paste text into a word processing program and run the readability level from the program’s system. Microsoft Word uses the “Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level.” • “Review” tab • “Spelling and Grammar” icon • “File”… “Options”… “Proofing”… Check “Show readability statistics” (What is the readability of these two sentences?) 9.7

13. Modify Text Readability Levels Step 3: SENTENCES • Shorten compound or run-on sentences. Modify them to have a simple subject and a simple predicate. • Use active tense. (Example: Jane ate the apple. Not The apple was eaten by Jane.) • Avoid using phrases and clauses. WORDS • Simplify vocabulary. Use synonyms with a lower readability. • Insert short words (articles, pronouns, etc.) within text. Be sure they have clear antecedents. • Include definitions for new words. Use simple explanations.

14. Example 1: Stars • Third grade class • Interactive whiteboard lesson to support a unit related to “Stars” • Students were to read an informational text and identify: • Different types of stars • Three or more ways stars compare • Students took notes from the text. • Then they participated in interactive activities to show what they learned.

15. Steps to Matching Text to Students • Know students’ approximate reading levels. • Find the text readability level of the material students will read. • Modify the readability level to more closely match students’ reading levels. • Provide additional instructional support, as needed, to help students learn the content.

16. Example 1: Stars Our Sun is much closer to us than any other star. Light from the Sun takes about eight minutes to reach Earth, but the light from the next nearest star takes several years to reach us. Passage Readability: 5.5 Paragraph Readability: 5.9 “The Sun and Other Stars” from http://nfo.edu/astro/sun.htm

17. Example 1: Stars Our Sun is much closer to us than any other star. Light from the Sun takes about eight minutes to reach Earth, but the light from the next nearest star takes several years to reach us. Our Sun is the closest star to Earth. It is much closer to us than any other star. Light from the Sun takes about eight minutes to reach Earth, but the light from the next nearest star takes several years to reach us.

18. Example 1: Stars Our Sun is the closest start to Earth. It is closer than any other star. Light from the Sun takes about eight minutes to reach Earth. Light from the next nearest star takes several years to reach us. Revised Passage Readability: 3.7 Revised Paragraph Readability: 2.7 LINK to the original text here. LINK to the revised text here. “The Sun and Other Stars” from http://nfo.edu/astro/sun.htm

19. Steps to Matching Text to Students • Know students’ approximate reading levels. • Find the text readability level of the material students will read. • Modify the readability level to more closely match students’ reading levels. • Provide additional instructional support, as needed, to help students learn the content. Step 4:

20. What IS Text Complexity? • Quantitative Factors • Readability Levels • Qualitative Factors • Age-appropriate Content • Levels of Meaning and Purpose for Text • Text Structure and Organization • The Use of Visuals • The Reader • ELL • ESE • Background Knowledge • Experiences • Motivation

21. Therefore, Differentiating Text Is Only One Half of the Issue • Read the paragraph. • Answer the questions.

22. FequitalLiams • If you have a bunch of scunges to do, you might save time by misking them a certain way. The idea of miskinghiggs to make things easier works in shembry, too. The fequitalliams say you can keep the order of the askels or creems but misk them for easier jeffing. • What can you misk? • What does misking do? • What is another word for scunges? • How do the fequitalliams work? Readability Level: 6.1 (Original Text: 6.6)

23. Fequital Liam of Asking • The Fequital Liam of Askingsays that changing the misking of three or more askels does not change the poulin. • Example (6 + 2) + 4 = 6 + (2 + 4). • How does the Fequital Liam of Asking help us solve shembry problems? • Use these plibs. Show how the Fequital Liam of Asking can change the order of the askels but not change the poulin. 10 + 20 + 32 = 10 + 20 + 32

24. Differentiating Process • Differentiating process refers to the activities in which students engage in order to make sense of or master the content. • After reading leveled text, students then engage in an activity that differentiates instruction. • Differentiating process includes: • The use of graphic organizers • The use of scaffolded/leveled graphic organizers • The use of outlines • Cooperative learning (i.e., jigsaw) • Visual, auditory, and kinesthetic activities • Small group instruction • Conducting demonstrations • Using manipulatives, realia, pictures, visuals, or multimedia • Keeping learning logs or journals

25. Notes and IWB Activities Essential Question: How do stars compare? • Read and take notes • Identify stars by color and name • Order stars by size • Order stars by temperature • Order stars by life span

26. Example 2: Scatter Plots • Fifth grade class • TI 84+ Graphing Calculator Activity • Students were to read an informational text and: • Identify the purpose of scatter plots • Compare the scatter plot activity to the text example • Students conducted an interactive activity. • While we computed the results, students read about scatter plots and answered questions.

27. Example 2: Scatter Plots • Original text readability: 7.1 Find It Here! • Revised text readability: 5.1 Find It Here! • Differentiated process: • Hands-on activity • Group discussion • Paired discussion • Collaborative summaries • What else?

28. Today’s Objectives • Identify the purpose of differentiating instruction • Explore how leveled text can help teachers differentiate instruction and support student learning • Learn how to identify text levels and modify texts to match texts to students

29. 3-2-1 Summary • List 3 ways to reduce or increase the readability of the text students will use. • Write 2 ways to differentiate instruction with leveled text. Explain why each is important. • Decide on 1upcoming topic for which you can use leveled text with students. Explain how you will integrate the use of leveled text with your students.

30. Thank you for spending time with me! koppk@citrus.k12.fl.us http://www.citrus.k12.fl.us/fre/kopp/ContentAreaWriting.htm