SOCIAL STUDIES AND SCIENCE

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP MSDEC. 17, 2013

Text Dependent Questions

Agenda

Check in on progress: Share your stories complex text, shifts, writing

Text dependent questionsClose readingAcademic vocabularyPARCC items/example questionsGoals moving forward

SELECTING A TEXT

Choose a text. The text should illuminate an intriguing question of idea related to your content area and curriculum. It should be provocative or worthwhile.

Choose interesting primary and secondary sources (aside from the textbook) that offer realistic glimpses into the world and add perspective to your content.

Big ideas

Determine what exactly it is that you most want students to gain from the text. In one to three

sentences, write a note to yourself about the most important ideas

from the document.

Literal to Higher Level

Begin with literal questions with answers that can be found directly. Start small to build confidence in finding answers to text-based questions. Move on towards more inferential questions.

Key ideas-create a series of questions structured to bring the reader to an understanding of these.

Text Complexity- Qualitative Analysis

Find the sections of the text that will present the greatest difficulty and craft questions that support students in mastering these sections:Syntax- sentence structureDense textLayout, text featuresTricky transitionsMultiple purposesNon-linear reading (charts, diagrams)

Qualitative Factors of Text Complexity

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 Use of passive voice

Genre Specific Focus

Primary Source Contextualize Source

Informational Text (Secondary source) Main ideas Text structure/organization Key detail

Argumentative Text Probe the claim Examine the evidence and reasoning

TEXT DIFFICULTY

Instead of asking yourself

“Will students be able to understand this text?”

ask

“What can I do to help them practice the skills of accessing difficult texts?”

Academic Vocabulary

Locate the most powerful academic words in the text and integrate questions and discussions that explore their role in the text.

You can define words in margins for students, but develop text-based questions for powerful Tier II academic word investigation.

3 Tiers of Vocabulary

Tier 3 – Highly specialized, subject-specific; low occurrences in texts; lacking generalization◦ E.g., lava, aorta, legislature, circumference

Tier 2 –Abstract, general academic (across content areas); encountered in written language; high utility across instructional areas◦ E.g., vary, relative, innovation, accumulate, surface, layer

Tier 1 – Basic, concrete, encountered in conversation/ oral vocabulary; words most student will know at a particular grade level

CCSS Shift: Greater Emphasis on Teaching Academic Vocabulary

The Common Core suggests that it’s important to target specific instruction on Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary words to help students develop deep understanding that often cannot be acquired through independent reading.

Tier III Words

Domain specific words” that are specifically tied to content. (i.e. Constitution, lava) These are typically the types of vocabulary words that are included in glossaries, highlighted in textbooks and address by teachers. They are considered difficult words important to understanding content.

Tier 3 words, however, are often targeted in content specific instruction. The words appear bolded in text and they are featured in glossaries.

Tier II Words

Tier 2 words are particularly important and challenging to identify and target since they appear across all disciplines. The task at hand, then, appears to be identifying the Tier 2 words and finding effective instructional strategies to dig deeper and support acquisition of those words.

Why are “academic words” important?

They are critical to understanding academic texts.They appear in all sorts of texts.They require deliberate effort to learn, unlike Tier

1 words.They are far more likely to appear in written texts

than in speech.They often represent subtle or precise ways to say

otherwise relatively simple things.They are seldom heavily scaffolded by authors or

teachers, unlike Tier 3 words. Common Core State Standards, Appendix A, page

33

Criteria for selecting words to teach

The word is central to understanding the text.The word choice and nuance are significant.Students are likely to see this word frequently.Students will be able to use this word when

writing in response to the text.It is a more mature or precise label for

concepts students already have under control.The word lends itself to teaching a web of

words and concepts around it.

Vocabulary Grabber

What is not included?

Also create questions that deliberately get students to look at the “white space.” Have them examine not only the words/phrases present but also what is missing and why that might be so.

Questions that go beyond the text

Some guidelines advise not to ask questions that do not have textual support (“How do you think the person might have felt as they wrote this?” How can you relate the ideas in this document to today?” “Have you been in this situation?”)

Really??

We know these questions bring out personal responses to text and are often higher level thinking. However, if students haven’t investigated what the text says, will the answers to these questions be as rich?

So it is a matter of when to ask these, not to avoid them.

Anticipate prompts to move students beyond unsubstantiated answers

And where in the text/what in the text leads you to that answer?

How do you know?And how does that affect the author’s (point

of view, argument, problem, claim, etc.)?Does any other part of the text seem to refute

or support this section/your answer? How? Where?

When the author says, “_________,” what is he/she getting at?

Instructional Tips

Explicitly teach students thinking skills- not just give them a handout of text-dependent questions for seatwork or homework

Practice the art of think alouds. Model the process on a small section. Show them the “how” and the “why” to your thinking

Fight the urge to give the correct answer. Direct students back to the text to do the thinking. “That’s an interesting thought. Let’s go back to paragraph 2 and see if we can find evidence to back that up or refute it.”

Elicit questions from students too.

Instructional Tips

Plan for multiple re-readings: Student silent, read out loud, ask questions, back to text silently, etc.

Number lines for critical areas of close reading to make re-reading and citing textual evidence easier

Scaffold: Help students productively struggle through difficult sections, not replace actually reading it. Some students will need more scaffolding, but we should be continually assessing and adjusting

Video Examples

Close Reading Social Studies: The Olympians 6th grade

Current Events in Science: Speaking, Listening, Text Dependent questions

Websites for Help in Developing Text Dependent Questions

CoreTaskProject- NevadaScience and Literacy- Boston Public SchoolsPARCC Released items

Alignment of the Disciplinary CCSS and NGSS

Link to Appendix M

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind- Science Text

Harness the Power of Reading

Excerpt from Prologue

TedTalk

Wired online article

Moving Windmills short film

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.9 Compare and contrast the information gained from experiments, simulations, video, or multimedia sources with that gained from reading a text on the same topic.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.7 Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.9 Compare and contrast one author’s presentation of events with that of another (e.g., a memoir written by and a biography on the same person).