1 Comprehending in Action: Connecting Reading and Writing for Higher-Order Thinking The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat Professional Learning Series

1

Comprehendingin Action:

Connecting Reading and Writing

for Higher-Order Thinking

The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat Professional Learning Series

3Module

2Contents

Welcome LNS Professional Learning Series

Session Promoting Higher-Order Thinking

Session Using Accountable Talk in the Writing Process

Session Constructing Understanding of Effective Writing

Session Differentiating Instruction

1234

Slides 1 to 6

Slides 7 to 32

Slides 33 to 56

Slides 57 to 76

Slides 77 to 102

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The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat

Professional Learning Series

Welcome

3Module

4

Job-embedded professional learning addresses teacher isolation by providing opportunities for shared teacher inquiry, study and classroom-based research

Why a Professional Learning Series?

5

Aims of the Literacy Professional Learning Series

• introduce engaging texts for junior students

• integrate reading and writing instruction

• make connections to Literacy for Learning: The Report of the Expert Panel on Literacy in Grades 4 to 6 in Ontario, A Guide to Effective Literacy Instruction in Grades 4 to 6, Volumes One and Two, and the revised language curriculum

6Overview of Module

• four sessions

• 75 minutes each

• divided into before/during/after viewing experiences plus classroom inquiry

• two levels of activities: Starting the Conversation and Extending the Conversation

• integration of speaking, listening, reading, writing, viewing and representing

• time to explore current ministry support documents

7Session 1

Promoting

Higher-Order

Thinking

8Learning Goals

This session is intended to:• broaden understanding of the

integrated nature of comprehension strategies in higher-order thinking

• establish the connections among effective questioning, higher-order thinking, and critical literacy skills

• demonstrate the importance of classroom climate to the promotion of respectful and diverse thinking

• introduce high-yield strategies for accountable talk

• make connections to professional readings.

9What Is Literacy?

the mind’s eye

Used with permission from Bogarte Quinn

10Point of View vs. Opinion

• Point of View: the vantage point from which events are seen (artist, teacher, adult, child)

• Opinion: what one thinks about a particular topic or question

High-Yield Strategy: Summarizing Key Information

11

High-Yield Strategy: Visual Representation

Self-Concept as a ReaderPurpose for readingInterests & ExperiencesFactual Knowledge

Language KnowledgePhonologyMorphologySyntaxVocabulary

Strategies Using cueing systemsActivating prior knowledge PredictingVisualizingQuestioning Drawing inferencesFinding important informationSummarizingSynthesizing and evaluatingMonitoring/ revising comprehension

Text KnowledgeOrganizational & informational structureArtistic elements of text Print concepts Text type

Author’s PurposeTopicIdeas Message

Text FeaturesUse of organizational toolsUse of informational tools (glossary, captions)

Format/Layout Use of space and graphicsUse of illustrations

Author’s WordsVocabularyPunctuationStyleSyntax

Interacting with Text

12

Integrated Processing

13

To Encourage Higher-Order Thinking …

What conditions were in place in this first activity to encourage your higher-order thinking?

High-Yield Strategy: Anchor Charts

• use engaging text

• ask higher-order questions

• provide time to think and write before sharing

• plan teaching strategies to ensure that everyone’s voice will be heard

14

Higher-OrderQuestions …

What role was played by the question, “What is literacy?”

• guide the thinking

• help to focus attention

• push the thinking beyond the surface details

• encourage a range of responses

15

A Traditional Way of Thinking about Thinking

Bloom and Kathwold, (1956)

High-Yield Strategy: Visual Representation

What are some of the potential difficulties associated with this traditional framework for thinking?

16

Revising Bloom’s Taxonomy Anderson and Krathwohl (2001)

Factual Knowledge

Conceptual Knowledge

ProceduralKnowledge

MetacognitiveKnowledge

Interpret

Show

Rank

Enact

Summarize

Explain

Define

Compose

How might this

information inform

classroom practice?

The KnowledgeDimension

The Cognitive Process Dimension

Remembering Understanding Applying Analyzing Evaluating Creating

17Six Facets of Understanding

When you understand something, you can do the following:

• explain it via generalizations or principles

• interpret it from a personal perspective

• apply it in real contexts

• have a critical perspective about it

• display empathy based on your direct prior experiences with it

• have self-knowledge and meta-cognitive awareness about it

(Wiggins and McTighe, 1998, 2005)

18What Is Higher-Order Thinking?

“ Higher-order thinking refers to the transformation of information and ideas that occurs when students combine facts and ideas and use them to synthesize, generalize, explain, hypothesize, or arrive at some conclusion or interpretation.”

(Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 6)

19

Creating an Environment for Higher-Order Thinking

High-Yield Strategies: Jigsaw/Question the Author

Use the Jigsaw strategy to read the following:

Group #1: pp. 94–96 Group #2: pp. 96–98 Group #3: pp. 98–99 Group #4: pp. 100–101

20

Creating an Environment for Higher-Order Thinking

Runtime 12:15

21

“Should in-game advertising be used in video games?”

• Thin questions are easily answered by referring to what is written in text. They require no deep understanding.

• Thick questions require the reader to think beyond what is obvious in text.

• Thick questions are more open-ended and can have more than one answer.

22

In a classroom, the mode time between asking questions and requiring an answer is …

Less than 1.5 seconds.

Research on Wait Time

23Think Time Research: Students

According to Stahl (1994), when students are given three or more seconds of undisturbed think time:

• the length and correctness of responses increases;

• the frequency of non-answers or “I don’t know” decreases;

• more students volunteer appropriate answers; and

• the scores of students on academic achievement tests tend to increase.

24Think Research: Teachers

• Questioning strategies tend to become more varied and flexible.

• The quantity of questions decreases but the quality and variety of questions increases.

• More questions are asked that require more complex processing and higher-order thinking.

25“Boy Friendly” Environments

High-Yield Strategies: Turn and Talk

What perspective is represented in this quote?

What might be missing from this perspective?

“Boy Writers is a piece of persuasive writing. I aim to convince you that although every boy writer is unique, as a group boys possess particular strengths and weaknesses … I don’t expect readers to agree with every suggestion offered in this book, but I hope it might serve as a catalyst for teachers to think deeply about what concrete steps we can take to do a better job of teaching boys to write.”

(Fletcher, 2006, p. 8)

26“Boy Friendly” Environments

• provide immediate and specific feedback• provide real and varied audiences• encourage movement and completion of

work in various places around the room• honour privacy and create a sense of safety

for all students• ensure that defeat or failure is a private

matter• encourage negotiation of topics and genres• accept what is completed and help to make

the work better • acknowledge that humour is “a milieu in

which boys thrive”• encourage the use of technology (i.e.,

keyboarding instead of handwriting)• keep messy handwriting in perspective

27Critical Literacy

Four Resources

Model

28Dr. Allan Luke

•From the LNS webcast entitled, “Dr. Allan Luke The New Literacies” Archived at www.curriculum.org

Runtime 5:11

29Important Definitions

Text form: a category or type of text that has certain defining characteristics.

• Examples of literary text forms or genres include poetry, historical fiction, and satire.

• Examples of informational text forms include reports, procedures, and persuasive expositions.

Text format: the physical structure or graphic organization of a particular text form.

• Examples of expository formats include editorials, letters to the editor, and blogs.

30Curriculum Links

• Take a look at the curriculum expectations for your grade level.

• Where do you find point of view mentioned?

• What are the implications for your teaching and student learning?

31

Purpose? Point of view? Audience? and Form?

• Use the labels provided to sort, classify, and label the various samples of text you brought to the session.

• Take a walk around the room to see how other groups sorted and classified their samples of text.

• Analyse one sample using the “four roles of the literate learner” found on Teacher Resource 14.

High-Yield Strategies: Gallery Walk

32Classroom Inquiry

• What concept, observation, or discussion point from today’s session has intrigued you?

• Create a question to take back to your class for the purposes of inquiry.

• Bring an artefact/sample of student work to the next session to illustrate what you learned.

33Session 2

Using

Accountable Talk

in the Writing Process

34

Chatting About Classroom Inquiry

High-Yield Strategy: Four Corners

• Move to one of the four corners of the room that best matches the topic of your classroom inquiry from Session 1.

• Share evidence of your inquiry with others in your corner.

35Let’s Review

• Higher-order thinking encourages sophisticated interaction between the reader/writer and text.

• A range of comprehension strategies are utilized in higher-order thinking.

• Different kinds of thinking exist as opposed to some types of thinking being more cognitively advanced than others.

• Teachers can create environments that are inclusive and conducive to higher-order thinking.

36Something to Think About

“We must strive to create classrooms that celebrate passionate curiosity. Curiosity spawns questions. Questions are the master key to understanding. Questions clarify confusion. Questions stimulate research efforts. Questions propel us forward and

take us deeper into reading.”

(Harvey & Goudvis, 2000, p. 50)

37Learning Goals

This session is intended to:• highlight the importance of student

engagement for the development of higher-order thinking

• connect reading and accountable talk to higher-order thinking

• demonstrate the role of accountable talk in the writing process

• link assessment and literacy instruction

• stimulate thinking about cross-curricular applications

38

Thinking About Thinking

High-Yield Strategy: Think-Pair-Share

How far can a dog run into the

woods?

39What is Engagement?

“Students are more engaged in activities when they can build on prior knowledge and draw clear connections between what they are learning and the world they live in.”

(Brewster & Fager, 2000)

40What is Engagement?

• Use the T-chart provided in Teacher Resource 17 to record your understanding of what engagement looks like, feels like, and sounds like in a junior classroom.

• Partner with someone from another table. “Give one” new idea and “get one” new idea from your partner.

• Record your new idea on a sticky note and place the sticky note onto your original T-chart.

High-Yield Strategy: Give One, Get One

41What is an engaging question?

“High-level questions that help students make connections from text to text and from text to experience are more effective in promoting achievement in reading than low-level questions that focus on details and restatement.”

(Taylor, Pearson, Peterson, & Rodriguez, 2003 )

42

Creating Engaging Questions

List the characteristics of a pencil.

• Explain in your own words how a pencil works.

• How is a pencil similar to and different from a keyboard?

• Show all the different ways that you could use a pencil to produce art.

• How might a pencil be an instrument of world peace?

• Who has made the best use of a pencil in his/her life?

43Self-Reflection

How might you adapt this process to your own classroom?

High-Yield Strategy: Self-Reflection

44What is Accountable Talk?

Yes No• I see the connection you are making with the book … and I wonder if …

• Your ideas about the character are interesting. Have you thought about…

• I agree with what you have said.

• That’s a really interesting idea!

Testers:

•But what about … ?

• Your last point really made me think. I wonder about …

High-Yield Strategy: Concept Attainment

45Accountable talk is …

• talk that is meaningful, respectful, and mutually beneficial to speaker and listener

A Guide to Effective Literacy Instruction, Grades 4 to 6, Volume One, p. 32

High-Yield Strategy: Summarizing Information

46

Accountable Talk and Higher-Order Thinking

“Accountable talk stimulates higher-order thinking – helping students to learn, reflect on their learning, and communicate their knowledge and understanding.”

A Guide to Effective Literacy Instruction, Volume One (2006, p. 32)

“Time for purposeful talk and interaction is necessary for real learning to occur. Instructional practice values time for accountable talk and interaction in order for students to clarify their thinking, learn to respect and build upon the ideas of others and articulate their views effectively.”

The School Effectiveness Framework (2007, p. 39)

47 Fishbone

• When watching the video clip, answer the question:

How does accountable talk engage students in higher-order thinking?

• Use the fishbone graphic organizer in Teacher Resource 20 to record your observationsHigh-Yield Strategy: Using Graphic Organizers

48Engaging in Accountable Talk

Developing Questions

Runtime 10:13

49Encouraging Deep Responses

• Utilize think time.• Use probes and follow-ups like

“Why?”; “Can you explain your thinking further?”; “What other way might there be to think about this?”

• Encourage student questioning.

• Ask students to “unpack their thinking” and describe how they arrived at a particular answer.


Researching Questions

Runtime 10:07


Debatingthe Issue

Runtime 10:23

52Rich Tasks …

• provide opportunities for students to demonstrate a range of expectations (i.e., Oral Communication, Reading, Writing, and Media Literacy)

• link to student interests• engage through authenticity • are open-ended• necessitate the use of thinking skills that

can be identified and explicitly taught• enable students to demonstrate all levels

of performance

53Tips for Oral Debates

• Recognize the importance of being informed and knowledgeable on both sides of the issue.

• Set clear expectations for respectful speaking and listening.

• Teach students to attend to voice and body language during delivery.

• Manage time for each speaker, allowing all participants to be actively engaged.

• Teach students to ask questions, to clarify information and challenge opinions.

54

Accountable Talk in the Writing Process

“An effective practice that seemed to have a positive effect on both boys and girls as reader was to give them considerable freedom to explore different texts in different ways, while also giving them highly structured opportunities to talk and write together about what they were reading.”

(Moss, 2000)

55Placemat

• How does a

debate support

the writing of persuasive text?

56Classroom Inquiry

• Generate three engaging, higher-order questions to use in your current unit of study.

• Be prepared to share evidence of student learning in relation to these questions at our next session.

57Session 3

Constructing

Understanding

of

Effective Writing

58

Chatting about Classroom Inquiry

• Post around the room the samples of student learning that resulted from your three higher-order questions.

• Take a gallery walk to answer the question, “How did asking higher-order questions impact student learning?”

High-Yield Strategy: Gallery Walk

59

Let’s Review

• Higher-order thinking encourages a sophisticated interaction between the reader/writer and text.

• When students are engaged in higher-order thinking, a range of comprehension strategies are at work in the background.

• Accountable talk helps to engage students in higher-order thinking and to support the writing process.

High-Yield Strategy: Summarizing Key Concepts

60Learning Goals

This session is intended to:

• establish the importance of non-fiction writing

• model how to deconstruct text for the purpose of co-constructing a graphic organizer

• highlight the role of voice and word choice in the writing of persuasive text

• make connections to professional readings

61Quick Write

• Read the quote on the page provided.

• Turn the page over and respond to the quote by writing one or two sentences.

• Pass your page to the person on your right who will read and then respond to your thoughts in writing.

• Keep passing the pages until you have your original page back.

High-Yield Strategy: Quick Write

62

Key Messages from the Expert Panel

• Writing provides students with opportunities to explore topics that are important to them and to develop a voice for expressing their ideas, feelings, and points of view.

• Writing helps students to develop higher-order thinking and critical-literacy skills, to solve problems, and to consolidate their learning in all subjects.

• Junior students begin to gain control of a greater variety of writing forms and to use them for different purposes in all subjects.

• Students need support and timely feedback to develop as independent writers.

• The recursive writing process helps students to approach each writing task in manageable steps.


63

Key Messages fromthe Expert Panel

“All students can become motivated writers when they are offered choice and opportunities to write on topics and in text forms that interest them and when they receive encouragement and scaffolded support.”

(2006, p. 80)


64What are blogs?

• Read the article entitled, “Blogosphere – The Educational Use of Blogs (aka Edublogs)” highlighting two to three key ideas.

• Have one person share a comment about one highlighted idea.

• In round-robin fashion, have the group members comment on the shared point.

• Save the last word for the comment’s originator.

High-Yield Strategy: Accountable Talk

65Blogging in Ontario

http://elementary.ontarioblogs.com

How might one link this website to other aspects of the curriculum?

What issues might arise from the use of blogs in the classroom?

66Teaching Writing

“Effective teachers deliberately teach the writer’s craft to students to make them more aware of the techniques that writers use to communicate with their readers. They also teach text forms and structures to familiarize students with patterns that writers use to convey meaning and that readers interpret to make meaning.”

(2006, p. 33)


67

What is scaffolded writing support?

Use the materials provided to match the four stages of scaffolded writing support to the appropriate stages for the gradual release of responsibility model.

Immersion

Demonstration

Exploration

Guided Practice

High-Yield Strategy: Graphic Representations

68Using Mentor Texts

• Mentor texts are model texts that can be used to inspire, study and teach the craft of writing.

• What characterizes a mentor text?

High-Yield Strategy: Defining Key Vocabulary

69Exploring Persuasive Text

Use the T-chart on Teacher Resource 31 to record your observations about either:

- the role of the teacher or - the role of the students

in the exploration stage of scaffolded writing support.

High-Yield Strategy: T-chart

70Deconstructing Text

Runtime 10:15

71Teacher Moderation

“ … a highly effective assessment strategy that involves educators coming together to collaboratively look at student work, based on pre-determined assessment criteria.”

(Teacher Moderation: Collaborative Assessment of Student Work, 2007, p. 6)

72Rubrics

“Rubrics that clearly explain the traits of ‘good’ work and move up from there can coach far more students in progressing from good to exemplary. In addition, the rubrics can provide space for students to add personal goals for success or space for the teacher to add a student-specific goal.”

(Tomlinson & McTighe, 2007, p. 21)

High-Yield Strategy: Jigsaw

73

Planning Considerationsfor Focused Study of a Text Form

• length of the focused study• number of days to devote to

each of the stages of the process (Immersion, Exploration, Demonstration and Guided Practice)

• publishing format• specific areas of writing focus

(i.e., traits of writing, grammar, punctuation) linked to the revised Language Curriculum

• scope and sequence of mini lessons

High-Yield Strategy: Summarizing Key Information

74Voice and Word Choice

• Voice: the style, character, or point of view of a piece of writing conveyed through the author’s use of vocabulary, sentence structure, imagery, rhythm, and other elements that contribute to the mood of the piece as a whole.

• Word Choice: the selection of the best words to suit the writer’s topic, audience, and purpose.

•What is the relationship to purpose, audience, and form?

High-Yield Strategy: Clarifying Key Vocabulary

75Using Persuasion Techniques

Use one of the following persuasion techniques to sell the group on the Wonder Report Card Writing Tool:

• loaded words• testimonials• compliments• bandwagon appeals• generalities• statistics• experts• open-ended questions

High-Yield Strategy: Clarifying Key Vocabulary

76Classroom Inquiry

• Try deconstructing a text form/format with a small group of students.

• Bring an artefact/sample of student work to the next session to illustrate how this teaching strategy impacted on student learning.

77Session 4

Differentiating

Instruction

78

Chatting about Classroom Inquiry

• Use the strategy known as inside-outside circle to share your experiences with text deconstruction with the rest of the group.


79Let’s Review

• Higher-order thinking encourages a sophisticated interaction between the reader/writer and text.

• When students are engaged in thinking about higher-order questions, other comprehension strategies are at work in the background.

• Accountable talk helps to engage students in higher-order thinking and to support the writing process.

• Text deconstruction leads to understanding about organizational structures and language features of text.


80Learning Goals

This session is intended to:

• explore issues in differentiated instruction

• highlight classroom conditions that support differentiated instruction

• review the gradual release of responsibility model as a strategy for differentiating instruction

• demonstrate differentiated instruction in the context of the writing process

81Thinking Deeply

“Virtually all students should work with the big ideas and essential skills of the topic at high levels of thought on authentic tasks, with support for developing both understanding and skill.”

(Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006, p.88)

High-Yield Strategy: Activating Background Knowledge

Complete the following sentence:

“The part of this quote that has prompted me to think deeply is … because …

82

Differentiating Instruction: Key Principles

• Teaching to the middle rarely meets the literacy needs of all students.

• Maximizing growth for every student is the goal.

• Students should receive qualitatively different instruction based on their individual needs not simply more or less of the same thing.

High Yield Strategy: Reviewing Key information

83

Differentiating Instruction:Key Principles

• Instruction is concept-based and principle-driven.

• Ongoing assessment of student readiness and growth are built into the curriculum.

• Flexible groupings are consistently used.

• Students are active explorers with teachers guiding the exploration.

High-Yield Strategy: Reviewing Key Information

84Let’s Look At …

“Differentiated instruction focuses on whom we teach, where we teach and how we teach.”

(Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006, p. 3)

85Graffiti

In small groups, answer the following questions using the graffiti strategy:

• What classroom conditions support differentiated instruction?

• What attitudes and skills typify teachers who effectively teach all learners?

• What role does the gradual release of responsibility play in differentiated instruction?

High-Yield Strategy: Co-operative Learning

86

Elements that Address Different Learning Needs

• time• space• resources• student groupings• teaching strategies• learning strategies

High-Yield Strategy: Summarizing Information

87

Classroom Conditions for Differentiation

Runtime 3:15

88

Patterns of Responsive Teaching

• Get to know your students.

• Utilize small-group teaching.

• Teach for complex and creative thinking.

• Offer variability in assignments and choice in working arrangements.

• Monitor student understanding through formative assessment.

• Teach in varied and multiple ways.

• Pose questions that elicit diverse views.

• Integrate strategies across the curriculum.

• Use rubrics that coach for quality.High-Yield Strategy: Summarizing Information

89

Gradual Release of Responsibility

90Differentiating Instruction

As you watch a video clip featuring Dr. Jeffrey Wilhelm, record your thoughts and ideas about using the gradual release of responsibility to differentiate instruction in the first column of the double-entry journal. Record your reflections and reactions in the second column of the double-entry journal.

High-Yield Strategy: Journal Writing

Observations / Concepts /

Ideas

Reflections /

Reactions

91Tiered Assignments

• assignments or activities that have students focused on essential understandings and skills at different levels of complexity, abstractness and open-endedness

• focus of the activity kept the same, but different routes of access at varying degrees of difficulty are provided for students

• each student comes away with pivotal skills and understandings and each student is appropriately challenged


92

Gradual Release of Responsibility

From the LNS webcast entitled, “Differentiating Instruction”

Archived at www.curriculum.org

Dr. Jeffrey WilhelmRuntime 4:30

93

Differentiation and the Writing Process

• tiered graphic organizers for specific text forms/format

• small group instruction through mini lessons

• individual conferences


94Mini Lessons

Teacher selects an instructional focus that introduces or models a desired teaching point.


95

Differentiating Instruction through Mini Lessons

• Read over the lesson plan for Mini Lesson A on Teacher Resource 5.

• Choose a student in your classroom who would benefit from differentiated instruction.

• Read pp. 42–43 from Literacy for Learning and pp. 84–87 from A Guide to Effective Literacy Instruction, Volume One to locate possible adaptations for this student.

• Record your ideas on Teacher Resource 39.

96Independent Writing

• builds confidence and enjoyment in writing

• develops students’ writing strategies in a variety of forms

• enables teacher to provide feedback to individual students

• enables teacher to coach and guide students in the differentiated use of strategies in small groups or on an individual basis

97Conferencing

“A conference is not a time to check up on kids; rather it is a time to provide targeted precise teaching.”

(Angelillo, 2005, p. 43)


98Conferencing Tips

• Ask questions to get writers talking about their writing.• Focus first on what the writer has done well.• Keep the communication of meaning central to the

discussion. Try to read and listen without seeing the errors to ensure that the focus stays on the message.

• Share your own writing experiences.• Allow writers the time to talk and take careful notes.• Determine the most significant teaching point for

refinement, adjustment or new learning.• Provide specific feedback that is timely and

understandable to the writer.• Provide support with templates, graphic organizers,

mentor texts.• Use data from conferences to plan future mini lessons.

(Adapted from Davis & Hill, 2003, pp. 31–32)

99Targeted Precise Teaching

• As a group, read one of the blogs from Teacher Resource 7.

• What targeted precise teaching might occur in a future conference with this writer?

• What questions might you ask this writer during the conference?

• Record your ideas on Teacher Resource 40.


100

“Boy Friendly” Writing Conferences

• “Conferencing well with boys requires new understandings, new skills, and a new openness to the passion boys reveal in their writing” (2006, p. 91).

• Both teachers and students need wait time to process the intent of the writing and to think about how to proceed.

• It may be that boys need more concrete and specific suggestions and praise.

• Find something to love in their writing.• Help them to get themselves into their writing.• Signal to them that you are on their side.

101

Personal Action Plan

High-Yield Strategy: Action Planning

Before leaving today, take a few moments to plan your next steps.

Make sure your goals are:

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Results-based

Time-bound

102

Ways Ontario Teachers Continue Their Professional Learning …

Collaborate through:• Co-teaching• Coaching• Teacher inquiry/Study groups

View:• Archived webcasts from The

Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat at www.curriculum.org

• Coaching website at www.curriculum.org/LNS/coaching

Documents

1 Comprehending in Action: Connecting Reading and Writing for Higher-Order Thinking The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat Professional Learning Series