Welcome to Literacy Sessions!

• Please sit in your content-area groups.

• Access documents for this session.

CMIM Week 1 Lit Handouts Why Are Secondary Texts Difficult

• Do Now: On the front of a notecard, write your name, region, and subject placement. On the back of your notecard, write the title of your favorite book.

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Meet your LS

• Angelica Leveroni, Rio Grande Valley ’07

angelica.leveroni@gmail.com

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Session Norms

• Be present.

• Ask questions.

• Take care of your personal needs as necessary.

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Secondary Literacy: Why Are Secondary Texts Difficult?

Objectives

• Describe the different components of reading

• Identify demands placed by texts in your content area

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Agenda

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I. Do Now

II. Session Introduction

III. Introduction to New Material

- Why Teach Literacy?

- Reading Comprehension

- What Makes Texts Difficult

IV. LS Modeling/CM Practice

V. Closing

What is Literacy?

“The ability to read, write, spell, listen, and speak.”

- National Council of Teachers of English

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The Facts

Forty percent of high school graduates lack the reading and writing skills that employers seek, and almost a third of

high school graduates who enroll in college require remediation.

- Reading to Achieve: A Governor’s Guide to Adolescent Literacy (2005)

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The Facts

To compete in the global information economy, young people today need literacy skills far more advanced than have been required of any previous generation. The fastest growing jobs make the highest literacy and education

demands.

- Reading to Achieve: A Governor’s Guide to Adolescent Literacy (2005)

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The Facts

More than half of the students entering high school in the 35 largest cities in the United States read at the 6th

grade level or below.

– Carnegie Corporation of New York (2002)

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The Facts

I was shocked that my students reached high school without mastering the basic skills of reading and writing. My first year, the majority of my students read on a third to fifth

grade level, and a class could range from pre-primer to 9th grade.

– Bernard Weber, Mississippi Delta ’03, 9th Grade Global

Studies

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Why are we here?

• The achievement gap is a literacy gap.

• Every teacher must be a literacy teacher.

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The impact of the literacy gap….

…cannot be overstated.

In 2009, the state of California began planning how many jail cells they would build in the future based on the number of children who were not reading on grade level by fourth grade.

In Indiana, second grade.

The Good News…

Research suggests that teachers influence student academic growth more than any other single factor, including families, neighborhoods, and the schools

students attend.

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Artifact: Michael’s Science Test

• Read Handout 1B: Michael’s Science Test (HS Version)

Michael’s Science Test

• With a partner, discuss: – To what extent does this assessment reveal Michael’s

knowledge of science?– What skills does Michael need in order to understand

the questions? – What skills does Michael need in order to write his

answers?

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Components of Reading Comprehension

• Each component of reading is at play with Michael:• Decoding• Fluency• Vocabulary • Comprehension• Background Knowledge• Engagement

• Takeaway: All these components need to be in place for students to be able to demonstrate what they know in all content areas.

Analogy Challenge

• With your partner, try to explain the following literacy analogy (or simile!)– “Skilled reading is like a rope.”

YOU HAVE 30 SECONDS.

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The Breakdown: Where Secondary Students Struggle

• A minority of students will struggle with decoding words.– Bottom strands

• Some will struggle with fluency.– Tying the bottom strands together

• Most will struggle to comprehend.– Tying the top strands together

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A Quick Word on Decoding, Fluency, & Comprehension

• Decoding: the ability to match letters to sounds

• Fluency: the ability to read words, phrases, and sentences quickly, automatically, and with expression– Necessary, but not sufficient, condition for

comprehension

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Decoding Comprehension

Fluency

Fluency Passage: Please take 20 seconds to read.

In this study, the distribution patterns of neural crest (NC) cells (NCCs) in the developing vascular system of the chick were thoroughly studied and examined for a correlation with smooth muscle cell differentiation and vascular morphogenesis. For this purpose, we performed long-term lineage tracing using quail-chick chimera techniques and premigratory NCC infection with a replication-incompetent retrovirus containing the LacZ reporter gene in combination with immunohistochemistry.

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Questions

• What was the study seeking to establish a correlation between?

• What did the quail-chick chimera technique allow the researchers to trace?

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Debrief

• Were you focused on word analysis or comprehension?

• Was comprehension achieved? Why or why not?

Reading Comprehension is an Interactive Process

Sociocultural

Context

TEXT ACTIVITY

READER

RAND Model (RAND Reading Study Group, 2002)

Reading Comprehension is an Interactive Process

Stop & Jot

• In the next 2 minutes, brainstorm some ways that texts, readers, and activities/purposes can be different.

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Today’s Session

Sociocultural

Context

TEXT ACTIVITY

READER

RAND Model (RAND Reading Study Group, 2002)

Reading Comprehension is an Interactive Process

Today’s Session

What makes secondary texts difficult?

• Vocabulary usage

• Background knowledge

• Organization and format

• Level of engagement

Vocabulary Usage: Science Example

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Vocabulary Usage

• Growing technical vocabulary

• Word complexity increases– Multi-syllabic

• Increasing demands on all-purpose academic vocabulary

• Figurative language in ELA

Background Knowledge

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7th grade math problem:

There are thirteen coins in a pile. Some of them are dimes and some are quarters. The total value of this pile of coins is $2.80. How many dimes and how many quarters are there?

Organization and Format

• Organization: narrative v. expository text– Chronological order, compare & contrast, problem-

solution

• Format: headings, diagrams, tables, bolded words

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Level of Engagement

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A Caveat: Level of Engagement

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CM Practice: Identifying Text Demands

• Read the sample text for your content area.– Handout 5A: Social Studies– Handout 5B: Math– Handout 5C: ELA– Handout 5D: Science

• In your content area groups, identify the demands that these texts make on readers, completing the left column of your output (Handout 2).

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Debrief: CM Practice

• Math- Involve lots of technical vocabulary or technical meanings

for general words

• Science– Require lots of background knowledge– Need to know to navigate charts and graphs

• Language Arts– Figurative language– Multiple levels of meaning

• Social Studies– Assumes knowledge about culture– Expository paragraphs

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Debrief

• What has this process taught you about how to start planning literacy instruction?

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Texts demand, teachers plan.

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Overview of Secondary Literacy Sessions

Core Session 1: Why are Secondary Texts Difficult?

Core Session 2: Teaching Vocabulary

Core Session 3: Reading Purposefully and Strategically

Core Session 4: Building Comprehension Before, During, and

After Reading

Core Session 5: Integrating Informal Writing

Core Session 6: Decoding and Fluency

Differentiated Sessions (based on need): • The Formal Writing Process• How to Read Non-Fiction Texts• Motivating Struggling Readers• Literacy Diagnostics• Math & Literacy

“Literacy is the new civil right.”

–Salome Thomas-El

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Pair Practice: How would you teach It?

• List ideas for teaching the four text demands in the right column of your output.

• Break into pairs.

• Take 5 minutes.

• Then, compare notes with another pair.

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So, how do you teach to these demands?

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Text Demands How would you teach it?

Vocabulary

Which are important and challenging words?

(SOCIAL STUDIES)

Content-specific words like “nomad” or “converts”

Pre-teach words by providing visuals and engage students in a 15-minute discussion about the meaning of those key words.

Background Knowledge

What information is assumed by the text?

(MATH)

Knowledge about what a “scale model” is

Bring in a model building or map drawn to scale, have students measure it, and discuss how the dimensions have the same ratios as the real thing