Keys to Literacy

WVDE Office of Instruction

Review of Homework

For each of the Keys to Literacy below, please bring evidence/artifacts of how it was used in your classroom/school.• Activating Prior Knowledge• Building Vocabulary• Modeling the Processes• Encouraging Classroom Discourse• Drawing Conclusions Based on Evidence

Report Out

Key Shifts

• Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction

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

• Regular practice with complex text and its academic language

Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction

• 70% Informational/30% Literary throughout the school day

• 25% Informational/75% Literary in English class

• Activating prior knowledge without telling students everything they need to know

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

• Text-Dependent Questions• Argumentative Writing based on textual

information

• 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 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

7

Evidence from Text

Text Dependent Questions

8

•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

Valuable Strategy• Annotating the Text

– Underline important terms.– Circle definitions and meanings.– Write key words and definitions in the margin.– Signal where important information can be found with key

words or symbols in the margin.– Write short summaries in the margin at the end of sub-

units.– Write the questions in the margin next to the section

where the answer is found.– Indicate steps in a process by using numbers in the margin.

Sample ELA Item

Click on two phrases from the paragraph that help you understand the meaning of scarred.

Sample ELA Item

Select three sentences that show that Naomi is worried she has done something wrong.

Regular practice with complex text and its academic language

• Instruction on grade level text• Intentional focus on vocabulary

• Vocabulary knowledge is one of the best indicators of verbal ability.

• Vocabulary difficulty strongly influences the readability of text.

• Teaching vocabulary of a selection can improve students’ comprehension of that selection.

Vocabulary Research

Some Vocabulary Practices…

Use teacher directed, explicit instruction

Provide opportunities to practice using words

Teach word meanings explicitly and systematically

Teach independent word learning strategies (i.e., contextual strategies & morphemic analysis)

Research-based Practices

When we do not instruct students using appropriately complex text (grade level), we limit their exposure to complex vocabulary, intricate sentence structure, and we create a knowledge gap that will affect future comprehension.

Analyzing Documents

Primary and Secondary

Sources

Consider

See - Think - WonderObserve - Reflect - Question

Library of Congress

• Teacher's Guides and Analysis Tool• Observe – Reflect- Question

• http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/guides.html

• Write your name on your journal.

• Label the first page “Table of Contents”.

• Number each page.

• On the last page, create an Alpha Box graphic organizer.

Debrief Notebook Task

Purpose of Notebook

• To record new understandings

• To pose questions to which you need to find the answers

• To record “Ah Ha’s”

• To explore new concepts

• To provide a record of your experiences

Content for Notebooks• Entries that help develop conceptual

understanding and critical thinking within the context of their investigations

• Write about only the concepts and thinking involved

• Talk about the class experiences among themselves—turn and talk

• In science don’t have students write procedures• Never score notebooks have students use them

Notebooks are Rough Drafts

• Focus on– Content –concepts and thinking– Organization (critical thinking and skills)– Word choice (vocabulary)– Legibility ( readable)

Motivation

• Engaging students in all subject areas• Discovery• Inquiry

Four components of teaching and learning of science

• Science Content• Scientific thinking• Scientific skills• Expository writing

Writing in Science

• Students are motivated to learn from being engaged in meaningful learning experiences

• Understanding science concepts to think scientifically

• Science notebooks serves as tools in learning• Students need scaffolding and modeling• Entries should focus on expository writing

Scaffolding

• Structured support– Word banks– Graphic organizers

• Tables• Graphs• Flow maps • diagrams

– Writing frames---for students

Scaffolding

• Charts• Word banks• Graphic organizers• Model and provide sentence starter• Provide less scaffolding over time

Let’s do some science

• Get with a partner• Notebooks• Writing utensil

Observations/ Illustration

• Characteristics: Size, shape, color, lines, patterns, texture, odor, behavior

• I wonder• Note any changes

Describe:Illustration: Label , Title, Accurate

Observation Frame

• I observed….• I noticed……• It reminds me of ……because….• When …….it ……• At first ……but now….• It surprised me that…because…

This organizer or writing frame is one part of a comprehensive, research-based approach to teaching students how to think, talk and write like scientists. (See Writing in Science by Betsy Rupp Fulwiler, © 2007, Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.)

Observations Organizer Writing Frame

Think of properties you can see such as, size, shape, color, lines, texture, pattern, behavior

I observed

Think of the other senses of smell, sound, touch, and perhaps taste! I noticed

Connect it with something that you already know

It reminds me of

Add more details as needed This is so because

Be curious and ask questions you could investigate

I am curious about It surprised me that I wonder what would happen if

THE BOX & T-CHART

Similarities

Differences

This organizer or writing frame is one part of a comprehensive, research-based approach to teaching students how to think, talk and write like scientists. (See Writing in Science by Betsy Rupp Fulwiler, © 2007, Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.)

COMPARE AND CONTRAST Writing Frame

Start with how things are the same or similar.

The _____ and the ______ are the same because they both ___________.

Add more details as needed. In addition, they both

________________.

Explain how they are different. You can compare the same property or characteristic in the same sentence. Use “and”, “but”, or “whereas” to set up the contrast.

They are different because the ______, but the ______ does not.

Add more detail as needed. Also, the ________, whereas the

________________ does not.

This organizer or writing frame is one part of a comprehensive, research-based approach to teaching students how to think, talk and write like scientists. (See Writing in Science by Betsy Rupp Fulwiler, © 2007, Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.)

Video

• What is the teacher doing

• What are the students doing

Discussion

From the video lets table talk

•What was the teacher doing•What were the students doing

Effective Questioning

• Can you tell me about…..?• What else would you tell another scientist?• How do you know?• What did you observe?• Because……?• If another scientist looked at your data table,

what would she need to know?

Feedback to students

• Provide constructive, positive feedback• For Notebook entries• Start with strengths, then address weakness

by posing questions scientist would ask• Formal and informal ways need to be

developed

What can you do ?

• Table talk….

Where does this fit at your school?

• Table talk

Do we want this to happen?

What are your next steps?

Questions?