English Language Arts and

Content Literacy: The Key Shifts

College and Career Ready Standards Implementation Team

Quarterly – Session 1

Today’s Outcomes

The participants will :

• Become familiar with three key shifts in the English Language Arts Standards.

• Discuss opportunities and challenges the shifts present for implementation of the standards.

Phase 1 (PD Topics) Components of the Course of Study Strands (Comparison, New Emphases) Vertical Alignment Content Movement Literacy Standards, Grades 6-12 Implications for Special Education

Phase 2 Analyzing the Standards Sample Units of Study Sample Lessons/Curriculum Development Differentiated Instruction for RtI Assessment Resources

Phase 3 Continuous Support, based on LEA needs and requests

Professional Development Plan

Prepared Graduate Defined

Knowledge and Skills

Possesses the knowledge and skills needed to enroll and succeed in credit-bearing, first-year courses at a two or four year college, trade school, technical school, without the need for remediation.

Possesses the ability to apply core academic skills to real-world situations through collaboration with peers in problem solving, precision, and punctuality in delivery of a product, and has a desire to be a life-long learner.

Ability to Apply Learning

The Background of the Common CoreAccording to ACT,

Inc.

The Background of the Common Core

Three Key Shifts in ELA/Literacy

1. Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction and informational texts.

2. Reading, writing and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational

3. Regular practice with complex text and its academic language

Shift #1: Building Knowledge Through Content-Rich Nonfiction and Informational Texts

Shift #1: Content-Rich Nonfiction

Grades Literary Informational

K-5 50% 50%

6-8 45% 55%

9-12 30% 70%

• 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.

Building Knowledge Through Content-Rich Nonfiction: 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.

Content Shift #1

Sequencing Texts to Build Knowledge

• Not random reading

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

ResourcesPage 33 in the CCSS for ELA/Literacy – The Human Body

Processing Key Shift #1

• Extensive 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.

Shift #2: Reading, Writing and Speaking Grounded in Evidence From Text, Both Literary and Informational

Reading, Writing and Speaking Grounded in Evidence from Text: 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.

Content Shift #2

•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?

Not Text-Dependent Text-Dependent

Text-Dependent Questions

High school students read an excerpt of James D. Watson’s The Double Helix and respond to the following:

James Watson used time away from his laboratory and a set of models similar to preschool toys to help him solve the puzzle of DNA. In an essay discuss how play and relaxation help promote clear thinking and problem solving.

Sample Informational Text Assessment Question: Pre-Common Core Standards

From The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Have the students identify the different methods of removing warts that Tom and Huckleberry talk about. Discuss the charms that they say and the items (i.e. dead cats) they use. Ask students to devise their own charm to remove warts.

Sample Literary Question: Pre-Common Core Standards

Sample Text Dependent Question: Common Core Standards

From The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Why does Tom hesitate to allow Ben to paint the fence? How does Twain construct his sentences to reflect that hesitation? What effect do Tom’s hesitations have on Ben?

Processing Key Shift #2• Students 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.

Shift #3: Regular Practice with Complex Text and Its Academic Language

Regular Practice With Complex text and Its Academic Language: 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.

Measuring Text Complexity

Qualitative Quantitative

Reader and Text

• Levels of meaning• Structure• Language

conventionality and clarity

• Knowledge demands

• Readability measures• Other scores of complexity

• Reader variables such as motivation, knowledge, and experience• Task variables such as purpose and the complexity generated by the

task assigned and the questions posed

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

From Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so VERY out of the way to hear Rabbit say to itself, “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!” (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural): but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT-POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.

Activity: Exploring Text Complexity

Processing Key Shift #3• 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.

Video

1. 50:50 info text to lit (K-5)

2. 70:30 info text to lit (6-12)

3. Appropriately complex text

4. Text-dependent questions

5. Writing to inform/argue based on evidence

6. Academic vocabulary vs. domain-specific vocabulary

ELA & Literacy: 6 Shifts Condensed into 3 Shifts

1. Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction and informational texts.

2. Reading and writing grounded in evidence from text.

3. Regular practice with complex text and its academic vocabulary.