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HOW WILL THE ELA COLLEGE AND CAREER

READY STANDARDS CHANGE MY

INSTRUCTION?

Madison City SchoolsDiscovery MS

November 8, 2013

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Essential Question

How will the College/Career Readiness

Standards and the expectation that

literacy is a “shared responsibility”

impact our school?

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Three Important Key Shifts for

English Language Arts

1. Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction

2. Reading, writing and speaking grounded in evidence

from text, both literary and informational

3. Regular practice with complex text and its academic language

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Shift 1: Building Knowledge through Content-Rich Nonfiction

Reasons Why…

Nonfiction makes up the vast majority of required reading in college/workplace.

Informational text is harder for students to comprehend than narrative text.

Students are required to read very little informational text in elementary and middle school.

Supports students learning how to read different types of informational text.

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Content-Rich Nonfiction is….

• 50/50 balance K-5

• 70/30 in grades 9-12

• Students learning to read should exercise their ability to comprehend complex text through read-aloud texts.

• In grades 2+, students begin reading more complex texts, consolidating the foundational skills with reading comprehension.

• Reading aloud texts that are well-above grade level should be done throughout K-5 and beyond.

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Content-Rich Nonfiction includes….

• biographies and autobiographies

• books about history, social studies, science, and the arts

• technical texts, including directions, forms, and information displayed in graphs, charts, or maps

• digital sources on a range of topics Common Core State Standards, p.

31

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Content-Rich Nonfiction also includes….

Common Core State Standards, p. 57

In the ELA classroom, informational texts/literary nonfiction include:

subgenres of exposition, argument and functional text in the form of personal essays speeches opinion pieces essays about art or literature biographies memoirsjournalism historical, scientific, technical or economic accounts (including digital sources) written for a broad audience.

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Content-Rich Nonfiction & You

Sequencing Texts to Build Knowledge

Not random reading

Literacy in social studies/history, science, technical subjects, and the arts is embedded

ProcessingExtensive research establishes the need for college- and career-ready students to be proficient in reading BOTH complex literary text and informational text independently in a variety of content areas.

Students must establish a base of knowledge across a wide range of subject matter by engaging with works of quality and substance.

Literacy is a shared responsibility.

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Shift 2: Reading, Writing, and Speaking Grounded in Evidence from Text (Both Literary and Informational)

Reasons Why…

Most college and workplace writing requires evidence

Ability to cite evidence differentiates strong from weak student performance on NAEP

Evidence is a major emphasis of the ELA Anchor Standards: Reading Standard 1, Writing Standard 9, Speaking and

Listening standards 2, 3 and 4, all focus on the gathering, evaluating and presenting of evidence from text

Being able to locate and deploy evidence are hallmarks of strong readers and writers

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Content Importance with Text Dependent Questions

Not Text-Dependent Text-Dependent

In “Casey at the Bat,” Casey strikes out. Describe a time when you failed at something.

In “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Dr. King discusses nonviolent protest. Discuss, in writing, a time when you wanted to fight against something that you felt was unfair.

In “The Gettysburg Address” Lincoln says the nation is dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Why is equality an important value to promote?

What makes Casey’s experiences at bat humorous?

What can you infer from King’s letter about the letter that he received?

“The Gettysburg Address” mentions the year 1776. According to Lincoln’s speech, why is this year significant to the events described in the speech?

Reading, Writing, Listening & Speaking using Text Evidence

ProcessingStudents must demonstrate the interrelated literacy

activities of reading/listening, gathering evidence about what is read/heard, and analyzing and presenting that evidence.

Students learn how to participate effectively in real, substantive discussions around text-related topics and issues to provide them with opportunities to build confidence and extend knowledge regarding a text by connecting their ideas with those of others through reporting their findings.

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Shift 3: Regular Practice with Complex Text and It’s Academic Language

ProcessingStudents must demonstrate the interrelated literacy

activities of reading/listening, gathering evidence about what is read/heard, and analyzing and presenting that evidence.

Students learn how to participate effectively in real, substantive discussions around text-related topics and issues to provide them with opportunities to build confidence and extend knowledge regarding a text by connecting their ideas with those of others through reporting their findings.

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Regular Practice With Complex Text and its Academic Language

Reasons Why…

Gap between complexity of college and high school texts is huge

What students can read, in terms of complexity is the greatest predictor of success in college (ACT study)

Too many students are reading at too low a level.(<50% of graduates can read sufficiently complex texts)

Standards include a staircase of increasing text complexity from elementary through high school

Standards also focus on building general academic vocabulary so critical to comprehension

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What are the Features of Complex Text?

• Subtle and/or frequent transitions

• Multiple and/or subtle themes and purposes

• Density of information

• Unfamiliar settings, topics or events

• Lack of repetition, overlap or similarity in words and sentences

• Complex sentences

• Uncommon vocabulary

• Lack of words, sentences or paragraphs that review or pull things together for the student

• Longer paragraphs

• Any text structure which is less narrative and/or mixes structures 14

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Text Complexity

Text complexity is defined by:

Qua

litat

ive

Qualitative measures – levels of meaning, structure, language conventionality and clarity, and knowledge demands often best measured by an attentive human reader.

Quantitative

Quantitative measures – readability and other scores of text complexity often best measured by computer software.

Reader and TaskReader and Task considerations –

background knowledge of reader, motivation, interests, and complexity generated by tasks assigned often best made by educators employing their professional judgment.

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Measures such as:

• Word length• Word

frequency• Word

difficulty• Sentence

length• Text length• Text cohesion

Quantitative Measures

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Qualitative Measures

Measures such as:

• Levels of meaning• Levels of purpose• Structure• Organization• Language

conventionality• Language clarity• Prior knowledge

demands

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Reader and Task

Considerations such as:

• Motivation• Knowledge and

experience• Purpose for reading• Complexity of task

assigned regarding text

• Complexity of questions asked regarding text

Scaffolding Complex Text

The standards require that students read appropriately complex text at each grade level – independently (Standard 10).

However there are many ways to scaffold student learning as they meet the standard:

• Multiple readings

• Read Aloud

• Chunking text (a little at a time)

Provide support while reading, rather than before.

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Regular Practice with Complex Text…Providing Multiple Opportunities

In order to prepare students for the complexity of college- and career-ready texts, each grade level requires a “step” of growth on the “staircase”.

Students read the central, grade appropriate text around which instruction is centered. Teachers create opportunities for close and careful reading, and provide appropriate and necessary scaffolding and supports so that it is possible for students reading below grade level.

Students constantly build the vocabulary they need to access grade-level complex texts.

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Considerations for EL/SPED

Instruction must include both “macro-scaffolding,” in which teachers attend to the integration of language and content within and across lessons and units, as well as “micro-scaffolding” during the “moment-to-moment work of teaching.”1

In order to develop the ability to read complex texts and engage in academic conversations, ELs and SPED population need access to such texts and conversations, along with support in engaging with them.

With support, ELs can build such repertoires and engage productively in the kinds of language and literacy practices called for by the Standards for both ELA and other disciplines.

1 Bunch, George C., Amanda Kibler, and Susan Pimentel. "Realizing Opportunities for English Learners in the Common Core English Language Arts and Disciplinary Literacy Standards." Understanding Language, Stanford University. Web.

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Tools for School

http://alex.state.al.us/showpage.php?lnk=cosdircommentselectsys

http://alex.state.al.us/ccrs/

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Reflection

PQP(Praise-Question-Polish)

Praise: What went well? Share something that was a great learning insight

for you today and why did you choose to share this Praise?

Question:What is One Question you still have (you may have many, but share one that you feel is most important to know about or clarify what you

learned today)

Polish:What kind of polishing do you envision will be needed that may

require changes and/or adjustments to your instruction?