OSSLT PREP: From Here to There

OSSLT PREP: From Here to There

Agenda • Session #1—Reading Selections (25 minutes) • Explicit & Implicit “READING” (Gut check) • Read: Hadfield spacewalk giant step for Canada • Questions give us directions • Mapping out answers • Groupstorm • Modeling an answer

Explicit “Reading” • Reading is not limited to books. • Every movie, T.V. program, and video game asks you to “read” • The Literacy Test asks you to read words and use skills that YOU use everyday • Example #1

Explicit Information • ex·plic·it • Explicit means: • leaving no question as to meaning or intent • Watch the clip again. What EXPLICIT information is presented? • Example #1

Implicit Information • im·plic·it • Implicit means: • capable of being understood from something else though unexpressed (CONNECTIONS) OR

What does this mean?

Why is this funny? • Example #2

Inference • When you read between the lines you are doing what is called INFERENCE. • More to the point, when you understand why the scene with the Gingerbread Man is funny you are reading between the lines. • You infer ALL THE TIME, EVERYDAY.

Inference • I ask you for a glass of water. • Why?

Inference • A man gets on a bus. What might be implied by each of the following? • He ran to catch the bus. • He is carrying a suitcase. • He asks the driver for change of a $100 bill.

Reading Selection #1 • Reading is a CONVERSATION: if you don’t communicate with the reading then you’re missing the point; you’re missing the conversation

Reading Selection #1 • While reading: mark the selection up—circle, highlight, underline, jot notes in the margins • This will save you time when you go to answer the questions • Read the selection: Hadfield spacewalk giant step for Canada

Reading Selection—Written Response—The Question

Question • The question tells you where in the text to go and find the answer. The question is a map.

Location • Location is the place in the reading where the information you’re being asked for can be found.

Answer • The answer is in the text in either an EXPLICIT way (“first Canadian to walk in space” OR • …in an IMPLICIT way (“‘That takes your breath away.’”)

Organize • When you have finished exploring the location you will have a few examples that you will use in your written response. • You will want to put them in an order that allows you to communicate your ideas without being too simplistic, or too repetitive.

Respond • Once the information is organized your answer should tell a little story, shed a little insight (seeing into the question), and display a little thinking.

Jones – Sample Response • Question: Explain how you would feel if you did what Chris Hadfield did. Use information from this selectionand your own ideas to support your answer. • This is a hard question because it has two parts and you need to deal with the second part to respond to the first.

What did Chris Hadfield do? • Title -- “spacewalk” • Paragraph #1 -- “walk in space” • Paragraph #3 -- “seven-hours” • Paragraph #4 -- “installed Canada arm” • Paragraph #5 -- “tether” • Paragraph #6 -- “four years training”

Imagine: • Where do we start with how you might “feel”? • Imagine: Four years of practice in preparation for a seven-hour space walk, the first in Canadian history; from pool to outerspace -- YOU That’s me and my dad

Response If I were to walk in Chris Hadfield’s moonboots, in space, for seven-hours, I would be floating. To see earth from afar, to swim amongst the stars, to occupy space untouched but by few; oh, to be truly discovering. Four years of sacrifice, of training when the return is freedom at the end of a tether in the almighty universe. That is experience.

What Jones did… • Made connections amongst the information to imagine a picture that involved me. • Created relationships amongst words and ideas.

But is it right? • I had to ask. So I did. I asked Mrs. Kessler. • I asked: Do you think that I need to speak about being the first Canadian in space? Or, installing the new Canadian Arm 2? Or, how important such a Canadian first is?

Mrs. Kesller is smart… • She said, “No.” • That means I’m right, right? • But why?

In the Written Response… • There are multiple possibilities for the written response. The person grading your test is looking for big ideas, details, connections, vocabulary, thought to audience, and form. • It’s about what you write and the quality of that writing—the content, if thoughtful, is “right.” • Do a “gut check.” If you have answered the question, you have answered the question.

Tomorrow’s Agenda • Session #2—Reading Selections (25 minutes) • Explicit & Implicit “READING” (Gut check) • Reading for SUMMARY • Read: Footwear Favourites: The Story of Sneakers • Questions give us directions • Mapping out answers • Groupstorm • Modeling an answer

OSSLT PREP: From Here to There