https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5F5Kdc1UVA

Meeting the Common Core State Standards for ELA:Reading Informational Text

Tina L. HeafnerUniversity of North Carolina at Charlotte Tina.heafner@uncc.edu

Dixie D. MasseyUniversity of Washingtonddmassey@uw.edu

C3 Connections

Inquiry is core goal in learning

from texts

Questions guide reading and

thinking

Disciplinary Questioning of

Text

Using Evidence from Text to

Make Informed Inferences

Communicating Conclusions

through active reading, talking,

and writing

Inquiry Arc Instructional Dimensions

NoticingImage 1

Image 2

Image 3

Compelling Question: What can you infer about how these people died? What evidence supports your inference?

Italy

Poland

Bulgaria

Discuss

Compelling Question: What can you infer about how these

people died? What evidence supports your inference?

Supporting Questions: What do these images have in common? What do you hypothesize about when

these people lived? What do you wonder? What are your

questions?

Visual Inventory

To practice historical thinking

To generate interest

To make content more accessible

To allow students to make connections

To anchor thinking to existing schema that may not be naturally accessible

Supporting students that struggle:

When gaps exist in student’s content knowledge, and students are struggling to connections across images and interpreting evidence supporting their inferences, share this video.

View: https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-human-migration

Reading 1: Sedgwick

Read to figure out… short text by Marcus Sedgwick gives

answer to how these three images are the same. ▪ Highlight/underline the answer. ▪ Highlight/underline the ways that Marcus’

Sedgwick’s account differs from the images. Read to wonder…

Write questions that come to mind as you are reading.

Discuss Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick

Compelling Questions What can you infer about how

these people died? What evidence supports your inference?

Supporting Questions What evidence from the text

explains the commonalities of these images?

How does the text differ from the images?

What do you hypothesize about when these people lived? What do you wonder? What are your questions?

With all the grave stones gone, it was only left to lift the stone lid.Wulf . . . ?” began one man.Others drew back. A waiting fear had crept into us all. “What are we doing?”But Father stepped onto the lid. And stamped his foot.“Whatever is in here. Whatever it is, it’s not Tor. Not anymore. And now, with daylight, it can do nothing. So stop bellyaching and help me lift this stone. For our children’s sake!”The lid was lifted, and there, inside the grave, lay Tor.It was another wonder.His body was uncorrupted. He looked as though he slept. That was all. And yet, there was blood at the corners of his mouth. Did you bring them?” he asked, and Leif stepped forward holding a leather bag.Father took it from him, and pulled out a massive hammer, and two stout stakes, made of whitethorn, from the western isle.No one helped my father.He knelt down, to finish what he had begun. He hammered the first stake right through Tor’s chest, and deep into the soil beneath.He took the second stake, and drove it hard into Tor’s mouth, between his lips, which opened to take this offering. Father stood. “Try walking now,” he muttered.

difference

Reading 2: Vampires?

Read to find out . . . Verify how the images are related. Highlight

the textual evidence. Were any of your wonderings answered?

Highlight those clues as well. What new questions emerge? Write where

these occur in the text.

What can you infer about how these people died? What evidence supports your inference? Begin to develop an argument explaining images.

How do you know if you're looking at the remains of a vampire? Check the chest cavity for any signs of puncture with an iron rod. Two skeletons were unearthed by officials with Bulgaria's National Museum of History during an excavation of a monastery in Sozopol. Upon further inspection, examiners found that the causes of death were iron rods stabbed through the heart — the customary way to kill a "vampire" 700 years ago. Sometimes, the heart would be stabbed multiple times in an effort to prevent the dead "vampire" from rising again.

In Bulgaria, archeologists found bricks or rocks stuffed into the skeleton’s jaw. This was also to keep the dead from coming back to life and escaping the grave.

Polish villagers of the Middle Ages also used rocks or bricks stuffed in or under the jaw of the skeleton. However, they sometimes added a sickle over the neck of the body so that if the dead tried to rise again, the blade would severe the head.

Short Text

Short Texts Series

Engage Reluctant Readers

Build Interest

Generate Authentic Questions

Lead to more

informational texts

Look again

What in the world might location have to do with the images?

Read to find . . .

Highlight evidence that answers why location matters . . . Or why location doesn’t matter.

What can you infer about how these people died? What evidence supports your inference? Begin to develop an argument explaining

images.

Why was belief in vampires so widespread? Consider three reasons. First, many areas buried their

dead in mass graves. These graves were often reopened to bury more bodies. Gravediggers were

people who buried bodies, but they often opened the same grave others were buried in and added more

bodies. When they opened the grave, they were in for many gruesome sights.

Second, as gravediggers opened the bodies, they didn’t know how to explain what they saw. Instead

of understanding the decomposition process, they assumed that changes in the body meant the person

was trying to live again. As the human stomach decays, it releases a dark "purge fluid." This bloodlike

liquid can come out of a dead body’s nose and mouth. If someone dug up the grave and saw this fluid

coming out of the mouth and nose, they might think the vampire had come out to eat. Sometimes, the

purge fluid made the cloth wrapping the body wet and caused the cloth to sag into the mouth, making it

look as if the body were eating the cloth. When gravediggers saw these decomposing bodies with

partially "eaten" shrouds they assumed it was a vampire trying to get out. They believe that inserting

objects—such as bricks and stones—into the mouths of these skeletons would keep the body from

coming back to life and escaping the grave.

Third, people of the Middle Ages did not understand how disease was spread. Rather than seek

medical and scientific explanations for diseases like cholera, they often sought supernatural

explanations. Vampires were one way that they explained how the evil of disease and death was

spread. They hoped that by keeping the dead dead, they could eliminate various diseases.

Why location matters…

What are some reasons why location is important to these pictures?

What evidence can you draw from the various sources to support your developing argument?

What are your questions and wonderings?

Text Chunking Goals

To break a text into smaller

sections

To consider each section as

a single text encounter

To dig deep into text (close

reading)

Text Chunking Goals

deepen focus

approach text

self-efficacy

interest

gradual release of

responsibility

Gradual Release of Responsibility

Think Aloud

Thinking Teams

Independent

Thinking

Where to next…

What question compels you to learn more? (e.g. What historical events would create a culture of vampire folklore or hysteria?)

Where would you go from here to learn more, to formalize your argument, and to draw conclusions?

Complex Texts & Close Reading

Chunking of Nuzzolese_et_al-2010-Journal_of_Forensic_Sciences

Close Reading of Commentary_on_Nuzzolese_E__Borrini_M-libre

Text Complexity

What is a complex text?

What about this text is worthy of reading and study?

Can short texts be complex texts?

quantitative measure of

text

qualitative measures of

texts

matching reader to text

Close Reading

• What does the text say?

Read 1

• How does the text work?

Read 2 • What

does the text mean?Read

3

De-fossilizing

Metacognition: What am I doing as a reader in each step?

What does the text

say?

How does the text work?

What does the text mean?

Steps for Close Reading

TH

Intentional Use of Informational and Complex Texts

Plan intentionally to offer students support they will need

Frequently engage students with complex texts

Know next steps in content learning which emerge from reading informational texts

Reinforce disciplinary oriented ways of thinking about texts

Disciplinary Text Inquiry

Contextualize

Source

Corroborate

A framework of questions to ask texts

Questioning is a "universal" strategy that goes across disciplines

Questions that are asked to the text are specific to the content—disciplinary thinking

Exploration of Sources

What information do these sources confirm from our previous readings?

What information do these sources add to our knowledge about beliefs in vampires?

What questions drove your inquiry? What answers did you find?

How does this process model the C3 framework?

Creating. Collaborating. Circulating. Connecting

View

Talk

Take Stock

Connect

Read

Questioning as an ongoing process

Asking questions is an evolving process and one in which student thinking should begin to initiate questioning.

Questions become more compelling and facilitate further study.

Student Compelling Question: What contributed to the vampire hysteria that swept Europe during the Middle Ages?

Heafner, T. L., & Massey, D. D. (2012). Targeted vocabulary strategies for secondary social studies. Culver City, CA: Social Studies School Services.

Wh

ere

I m

igh

t g

o

next

. .

.

Town, thatched roof, Tudor homesPeople running, fleeing

another masked, cloaked person

sword, scythe (means to cut)

"Doctor" hat

Beak, mask, bird?

fully covered, cloakeddark clothing

gloves

Dark, stormy skies approaching, spreading over the entire horizon

dark, shadowed path, spreading, leading to death

Countryside

Shadow, Death?, Danger?

When did germ warfare become a military and/or societal concern in North America?

Heafner, T. L., & Massey, D. D. (2012). Targeted vocabulary strategies for secondary social studies. Culver City, CA: Social Studies School Services.

Exploration of Sources

Black Death Black Death graves:

http://www.livescience.com/27932-14th-century-black-death-burial.html

Doctors in the Black Death: http://www.cdc.gov/plague/history/ and http://www.doctorsreview.com/history/doctors-black-death/

Description of the Disease http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-diseases/plague-article/

Grim reaper http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/strange-creatures/grim-reaper.htm

Moves we make with informational textsThis example shows four moves we make with text:1. Start with images to draw even

reluctant readers into the topic.2. Rewrite a text/topic to create a short

text in order to help readers answer a question/prove a theory.

3. Use short texts in sets.4. Use an excerpt as a short text—where

most readers will read more from the same longer text.

Inviting them to think . . .

Use images first Offer a specific

purpose Offer short segments

of text—these often need to be manipulated in some way

Know where to go next

Describing Short Text

Short! Ideally, no more than two paragraphs to read at one time, though breaking up a longer text works.

Reading Images All types of genres—primary

documents, sections of lab reports, a single page, a single poem, a short newspaper article

One class period For multiple ages to focus in-depth

Outtakes & C3 Connections

Layers of Evidence

Multi-genre informational texts provide additional layers of evidence that can be used to support reading when inquiry is the primary objective.

Inquiry as a Mindset

Inquiry through text is not a procedural process, but rather a dispositional stance toward texts, ideas, and experiences.

It is a willingness to wonder, to question, to seek answers, and to engage in collective thinking about content, information, and texts.

Inquiry drives reading and sense-making of informational texts.

Reading Disciplinary Texts

Reading informational texts in different disciplinary domains is very complex.

There are unique disciplinary skills that experts use to read texts.

There are ways of knowing specific to each domain that manifest in how we read and understand informational texts.

Reading is guided by specific disciplinary questions that follow the lines of inquiry described in the C3 Framework.

Fiction as a Source of Inquiry Historical fiction allows readers to become

more involved in the everyday lives of people, including their trials and triumphs, against the backdrop of a historical setting.

Historical fiction differs from nonfiction in that it not only presents facts or re-creates a time and place, but also weaves the facts into a fictional story.

Historical inquiry can be supported through historical fiction when texts are authenticated.

Text Complexity

The most important components in text complexity are realizing that it does not just mean increasing the Lexile level of a text

We aren’t just giving students texts that have higher Lexile levels.

Thoughtful planning holds the key to student success with complex texts.

Instruction with complex texts will initially require more modeling, scaffolding, and support from teachers.

C3 Connections

Inquiry is core goal in learning from texts

Questions guide reading and thinking Disciplinary Questioning of Text Using Evidence from Text to Make

Informed Inferences Communicating Conclusions through

active reading, talking, and writing Inquiry Arc Instructional Dimensions

Questions

Additional Strategies and Instructional Techniques Massey, D. D., & Heafner, T. L. (2014). Seeds of Inquiry: Using

Short Texts to Enhance Student Understanding of U.S. History. Culver City, CA: Social Studies School Services. ISBN: 978-1-56004-854-1. Available: http://www.socialstudies.com/c/product.web?nocache@2+s@HkHIwvyxuKoi2+record@TF45575+frompage@search

Heafner, T. L., & Massey, D. D. (2012). Targeted vocabulary strategies for secondary social studies. Culver City, CA: Social Studies School Services. ISBN: 978-1-56004-688-2. Available: http://www.socialstudies.com/c/product.html?nocache@2+s@FxAjvg7sswRig+record@TF44570

Heafner, T. L., & Massey, D. D. (2006). Strategic reading in U.S. history. Culver City, CA: Social Studies School Services. Available: http://www.socialstudies.com/c/product.web?nocache@3+s@JUo6bqH381JDg+record@TF38900

Massey, D. D. & Heafner, T. L. (2006). Strategic reading in world history. Culver City, CA: Social Studies School Services. Available: http://www.socialstudies.com/c/product.web?nocache@3+s@JUo6bqH381JDg+record@TF38900