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Text Set training for HS ELA Amy Rudat David Abel Slide 2 Part 1: Why Build Knowledge and Vocabulary ? Slide 3 Reminder Extensive research supports the necessity for reading on grade level in early elementary grades, with the consequences being directly related to HS graduation rates The achievement gap grows the longer students are in school The gap is not caused by lack of critical thinking, failure to use comprehension strategies, failure to master standards Knowledge and vocabulary are directly related to reading Slide 4 Five Essential Studies Hernandez 2011, Double Jeopardy Lesnick et al 2010, Reading on Grade Level in Third Grade: How Is it Related to High School Performance and College Enrollment? Fletcher and Lyon 1998, 74% of 3 rd graders who read poorly will still be struggling in 9 th grade. Snow et al 1998, A person who is not at least a modestly skilled reader by the end of third grade is quite unlikely to graduate from high school. Juel 1988, 1 st grade reading scores are a reliable predictor of later reading scores. Slide 5 The Baseball Study Recht & Leslie (1988) Compared reading comprehension for four categories of students: High reading ability High knowledge of baseball High reading ability Low knowledge of baseball Low reading ability High knowledge of baseball Low reading ability Low knowledge of baseball Slide 6 Slide 7 Findings Knowledge of the topic had a MUCH bigger impact on comprehension than generalized reading ability did (pg. 18) With sufficient prior knowledge low ability students performed similarly to higher ability students. (pg. 19) The difference in their performance was not statistically significant. Slide 8 PAGE 8 The Causes Lack of critical thinking Failure to know or use comprehension strategies Failure to master the standards Vocabulary: Failure to grow sufficient vocabulary Knowledge: Failure to develop wide background knowledge Fluency: Failure to become a fluent reader What they AREWhat they are NOT WHAT THIS MEANS: Students now have an extremely small window to graduate high school with the knowledge, vocabulary, and skills necessary to navigate successfully in college and/or career. Slide 9 Imagine what its like to be a student with a vocabulary and knowledge deficit on test day Slide 10 Slide 11 What To Do About Vocabulary and Knowledge Building knowledge systematically in English language arts is like giving children various pieces of a puzzle in each grade that, over time, will form one big picture Slide 12 2014 and 1/2015 ELA CC Regents Exam Topics & Tasks Carl Sagan, Brocas Brain Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinow, The (Elusive) Theory of Everything Consumer privacy The economics of hosting the Olympic Games Ethics of De- extinction Anna Howard Shaw, Womens Suffrage, 1915 Red Jacket, Chief of the Seneca Nation, Speech to US War Dept, 1801 Henry D. Thoreau, Walden, 1910 Slide 13 The HS ELA standards are built off a foundation in the preceding grades This foundation includes: reading of grade-level complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently. Slide 14 What To Do About Vocabulary and Knowledge In the HS grades, addressing vocabulary and knowledge gaps is akin to emergency triagebut it is still necessary! Building habits of mind, exposing students to a volume of non-fiction texts, making interdisciplinary connections Enhancing understanding of Literary texts, including contemporary relevance Slide 15 Connection between Volume of Reading, Knowledge, and Vocabulary Research by Landauer and Dumais into vocabulary acquisition shows that students acquire vocabulary up to four times faster when they read a series of related texts. Reading a number of texts within a topic grows knowledge and vocabulary far faster than any other approach Slide 16 How Does Volume of Reading Complement Close Reading? Slide 17 Part 2: Text Sets and Expert Packs Slide 18 Volume of Reading and Texts Sets Text sets focus on volume of reading; gaining knowledge about a topic through reading a range of complexities; light teacher support; student-driven/ independence Clear and repetitive practice for accountability from pre-existing choice Slide 19 What is a Text Set? A text set is a set of texts around a similar topic, theme, or idea. Strong text sets share common vocabulary, which helps bolster students vocabulary knowledge through repeated readings. Strong text sets also provide students with repeated readings about similar ideas, which allow them to build knowledge. Slide 20 Strong Whole-Class Text Set, Grade 7 Anchor: A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens (Literary, non-leveled or adapted version) The Gift of the Magi, O. Henry (Literary, Appendix B Exemplar) The Treasure of Lemon Brown, Walter Dean Myers (Literary) Readers Theatre version of A Christmas Carol (SCOPE Magazine, Scholastic) (Literary) Charles Dickens: Six Things He Gave the Modern World, Alex Hudson (BBC News) (Informational) Live drama/film of A Christmas Carol EXCERPT Original Manuscript of A Christmas Carol with Dickens revisions (New York Times) Slide 21 Text Set as Mini-Assessment Grade 9 The Manhattan Project Texts Based on a series of texts about the Manhattan Project and President Trumans communication to Joseph Stalin regarding the United States development of an atomic bomb. Questions may address several standards within the same question; complex texts tend to yield rich assessment questions that call for deep analysis. In this mini-assessment there are eleven selected-response or Additionally, there is an optional writing prompt, which is aligned to both the Reading Standards for Informational Texts and the Writing Standards. Slide 22 Systems that Must be in Place Cross Content Communication Shared understanding of knowledge and vocabulary process and deficits Cross Service Communication: ELL, AIS, SWD, ELA Content ELLELA SWD AIS Slide 23 An Expert Pack Text Set Collection of resources organized for students to build knowledge about a specific topic; ideally related to a topic in general education classroom Glossary of terms to help students access challenging vocabulary Suggested activities to help students capture and express their learning As independent as possible: in this process the bulk of the teacher work is pre-loaded. Slide 24 Expert Pack Resources Text broadly defined: text, graphic novel/text, free articles (readworks), art, infographic, interactive graphics and text, interviews, audio, etc. Text sequenced generally beginning with lower reading levels (quantitative and qualitative) and moving to more complex levels. Support students ability to read the next selection (mostly) independently or in pairs. Students develop expertise on the topic. Topics ideally connected in some way to a content area curriculum. Slide 25 Expert Pack Development of Steps Text Selection (between 8 and 10 texts) Vocabulary Selection (teacher identifies anticipated vocabulary within each text) Suggested Activities: Learning worth remembering for specific texts and developing conversation across text includes: Summary: table where students record text, their central learning, and how this learning builds on/adds to learning from previous text Vocabulary sensational six: students select vocabulary that they think is critical to understanding text, locate definition, and use it in a sentence specifically about the text Slide 26 Expert Pack Development of Steps Student accountability is this work worth doing? light touch approach for teachers and students. Can this be done easily and mostly independently? Picture of knowledge (students record something they read that was interesting, taught you something new, made you want to learn more, and is still confusing) Quizmaker students develop questions for other students for reading of text, that require the text to develop the answer. Wonderings: I am still confused about/ This made me wonder Using vocabulary in discussion of text Slide 27 Of Mice and Men and text set What kind of text set? Assessment? Expert Pack? Extension? What topic could I concentrate on that would support student understanding of the central text and provide background that does not give students answers to the central questions that we will be exploring in the module, but provides a foundation that may benefit students in knowledge and vocabulary as they tackle the text? Dust bowl and migrant workers? To what extent? Slide 28 You Try: OMAM Expert Pack-in-progress Read the sample OMAM expert pack and think about the following: What knowledge about the world and words does this text provide? How can this knowledge benefit students as they read Of Mice and Men? How can this knowledge benefit students in other texts and topics they may encounter in ELA or other subject area classes? Sequence of texts Where texts work or dont work for this purpose Slide 29 You Try: OMAM Expert Pack-in-progress Keep in mind the function of the expert pack is ideally supporting struggling students with the goal of building knowledge and vocabulary within a topic Slide 30 Learn more! The training materials for SAPs text Set Project, as well as the completed text sets are housed in an Edmodo group. Follow these steps for access: 1. Make a teacher account at http://www.edmodo.com.http://www.edmodo.com 2.On the left side of home screen, it will say "Groups" under your name and picture. Click on the "+" next to "Groups" and choose "Join". 3.Type in the group code: sma265 4.Now, from your home screen, you should see "Text Set Project" listed under "Groups". Click on this tab. 5.Choose "Folders" from the left side of your screen, and, here, you will find all of the materials.