Building Knowledge Fluency through Volume of Text Grades

Building Knowledge & Fluency through Volume of Text Grades 6– 8 ELA I Day 3

Welcome Back! 2

Plusses/Deltas 3

Today’s Session • We will be experiencing and building on ideas about knowledge, comprehension, and fluency. • Some reading of complex text and learning new ideas (feeling what students might feel), some thinking like teachers (what does it look like in the classroom? How do I plan for this? ) 4

Objectives • Understand the role of fluency in reading comprehension • Understand how the elements of text complexity determine the instructional utility of a text, specifically with reading for knowledge • Understand the link between building knowledge, achieving fluency, and comprehending text • Understand how to leverage text sets to build student knowledge 5

Session Agenda I. III. IV. V. Shift 3 Fluency Experience Building Knowledge with a Text Set Practice Building a Sequence of Texts Practice Building Sets of Questions that Lead to Making Meaning 6

Norms that Support Our Learning Today’s session is going to involve some challenges that might make you uncomfortable… • Don’t check out! Use technology to enhance learning. • Strive for equity of voice…listen to understand. • Contribute to a learning environment in which it is “safe to not know. ” 7

Keynote Review • • • Key Points and ah-has Implications for planning Implications for instruction Implications for engagement Implications for equity 8

The Shifts 1. Regular practice with complex text and its academic language 2. Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational 3. Intentionally building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction 9 9

What Do You Read Besides Literature? 10

Building Knowledge Through Content-Rich Nonfiction: Why? • Students were historically required to read little informational text in elementary and middle school. • It builds the vocabulary and knowledge that students are going to need for success in school. • Non-fiction makes up the vast majority of required reading in college/workplace. • Informational text often has to be read differently than narrative text. 11 11

Background Knowledge: an Image 12

How Background Knowledge Plays Out • As you watch the video, consider the text that you use in your classroom and think about your student population. • How can you scaffold to ensure that students who struggle understand what they are reading? • What are the central take-aways from this video? 13

Building Background Knowledge … with Complex Text Requires students to be able to develop and sustain fluency . Masterful Reading Re-Reading Close Reading Building fluency and confidence through modeling Accessing the text with confidence Understanding the text at a basic level Going back into text for different purposes Increased cognitive capacity for going deeper into text Building fluency Accessing the text with confidence Collaborative reading Examining the ideas, structures, and layers of meaning, creating a common and solid understanding Independent Reading Surface Reading/ Review/ Gist Building fluency Projecting automaticity Accessing core understanding 14

FOUNDATIONAL SKILLS Fluency 1. Automaticity 2. Accuracy 3. Expression (Prosody) • 15

Fluency Assessment • Reading rate or pacing: – Should be conversational — sound like speaking (no speed reading!) • Word-identification accuracy: – Looking for 95% accuracy; 90% — text is too difficult – Is a reflection of what the reader knows about sound-toletter(s) combinations and time spent practicing. For very early readers, be sure you’re assessing what the reader has been taught (scope and sequence is critical) 16

http: //www. timrasinski. com/presentations/multidimensional_fluency_rubric_4_factors. pdf Fluency Rubric MDFS Expression and Volume Phrasing Smoothness Pace 1 2 3 4 Reads in a quiet voice. The Reads with volume and Reads with varied volume Reads in a quiet voice as if reading sounds natural in expression. However, and expression. to get words out. The part of the text, but the sometimes the reader slips The reader sounds like they reading does not sound reader does not always into expressionless reading are talking to a friend with natural like talking to a sound like they are talking and does not sound like their voice matching the friend. to a friend. they are talking to a friend. interpretation of the passage. Reads word-by-word in a monotone voice. Reads occasionally with a Reads in two or three word mixture of run-ons, mid phrases, not adhering to sentence pauses for breath, punctuation, stress and/or some choppiness. intonation. There is reasonable stress and intonation. Reads with very good phrasing; adhering to punctuation, stress and intonation to preserve the meaning of the text. Score of 12 or more suggests welldeveloped fluency Scores of 10 -11 suggest developing fluency Scores < 9 suggesting struggling fluency Frequently hesitates while Reads with occasional reading, sounds out words, Reads smoothly with very Reads with extended pauses breaks in rhythm. Reader and repeats words or few breaks, but self-corrects or hesitations. The reader has difficulty with specific phrases. The reader makes with difficult words and/ or words and/or sentence has many “rough spots. ” multiple attempts to read sentence structures. the same passage. Reads slowly and laboriously. Reads moderately slowly or Occasionally breaks from excessively fast; not natural a conversational pace. like speaking to a friend. Reads at a conversational pace throughout the reading. 17

Fluent Reading Strategies Fluency Practice • Whole-Class Choral Reading • Paired (Partner) Reading • Repeated Reading • Reader’s Theatre • Phrased Text Lesson Fluency Support • Read Aloud • Juicy Sentences • Shared Reading • Text Sets 18

Fluency Strategies: Whole-Class Choral Reading • • • Grade Level: end of Grade 1 and beyond Powerful, assisted reading strategy Can implement with above grade-level text Use daily in a repeated or wide-reading implementation Choose a text related to the curriculum About 2 to 2. 5 minutes long 19

Choral Reading Process • The teacher models pronunciation, pace, and expression while reading a passage to the class or group. • Teacher and children then read the passage together, as the teacher rotates to monitor individual children’s reading. Initially, students may need practice reading in unison, but with a little practice starting and stopping together, students will acquire the routine. A note about purposeful text selection: Students benefit most when excerpts and texts for choral reading are of grade-level complexity and do not take more than three minutes to read aloud. Matching the topics in choral reading to the topic being studied benefits students by building content knowledge and vocabulary. 20

Activity: Anostraca • Identify someone at your table who has a phone that can be used as a recorder for the activity. • <Start the recorder> As a table, chorally read the passage handout (without practice). <stop the recorder>. • As a table, re-read the passage 1 or 2 more times (not recording), clarifying pronunciation and pacing as needed. • Final Read: <Start the recorder> As a table, re-read the passage. <stop the recorder>. • Listen to both recordings and discuss differences. 21

Conclusion • Fluent reading brings together the multitude of reading subskills to produce conversational-sounding reading that facilitates comprehension. • Students must be frequently monitored across the school year for fluent-reading development. • All students, not just younger or struggling, benefit from fluency practice. • Fluency work can take place with grade-level texts. • Developing fluent readers is not a guarantee of comprehension, but it greatly helps! • All teachers, ELA and content area, should be committed to improving reading fluency. 22

So Let’s Go Back to Anostraca Give this text a whirl! • See if you can go back to make this text “make sense. ” • Pay attention to what you’re doing (both with your pens/pencils and your minds) to try to comprehend this text. • What if you read it more closely? 23

What Makes Anostraca Complex? • You don’t know many of the key words. • The sentences are long and it takes concentration to hold the meaning from beginning to end. • There’s no reason to read it other than you are being good sports. • You’re having a hard time connecting/little background knowledge (and maybe you really don’t care!). 24

What If This Was Really Important? • What if it was essential for students to read this text? What things have you been trying? 25

Another Idea • Let’s see if we can back up and learn what we need to know to tackle this complex text without lots of teacher support. • “Ephemeral Ponds” • Questions: • How long do ephemeral ponds in Florida usually last? • What lives in ephemeral ponds? What happens to those species when the pond dries up? • Why are ephemeral ponds important to the species that live there? • What are some other names for ephemeral ponds? What then, do you think “ephemeral” means? 26

Keep Building! • Read “Shrimpy Shrimp” (page 5) once through for the central ideas (2 minutes), then we will go back in to take on some key sections. • Questions: • Where do fairy shrimp live? • What happens to fairy shrimp when vernal pools dry? 27

But…Oh No! • “Dexteria Floridana” • Read this document once through for the central ideas (about 3 minutes), then we will go back in to take on some key sections. • Questions: • What is the “regular name” of Dexteria Floridana? • What is happening to it? Why? 28

The Demise • Read “Two Florida Species Declared Extinct. ” • Read this document once through for the central ideas (get as far as you can in 5 minutes), then we will go back in to take on some key sections. • Question: • What has likely happened to Dexteria Floridana? 29

Break 30

Anostraca Return to this first – once very challenging – text. Dexteria Floridana ----- 31

Anostraca Read this text again, through once, highlighting areas where you now have clarity. Questions (please answer in writing): • Describe how the eggs of these organisms are adapted specifically to the habitat in which they are laid. Use specific details from the text to support your claim. • What is threatening these organisms? 32

Make an Inference I fly thousands of miles every year just to eat here. It’s the best. Maybe you don’t care a whole lot about tiny little crustaceans you’ve never seen. But what are the implications of the continued destruction of vernal pools? 33

What Have You Learned? Based on what you’ve learned so far, write a paragraph in which you describe two reasons why it’s important to protect fresh water. Include evidence from the texts you’ve read this morning to support your claims. 34

Debrief • What just happened? Did your “reading level” change? How did this activity address the Myths of Leveled Reading? • Why were you able to make such a strong inference from the cartoon? Why is this significant? • What did you notice about the rate of your reading of “Anostraca” the second time? Why did that happen? • What did you notice about the texts themselves? About the questions? About your claims and evidence? • What were the instructional moves designed to build fluency? • What other notices and wonders do you have at this point? 35

Key Take-Aways • Sets of texts, arranged in a careful sequence and supported by strategic text-dependent questions, can rapidly build the knowledge students need to more independently experience success with a more complex text. • Building knowledge impacts comprehension and fluency. 36

The Baseball Study: Recht & Leslie (1988) High reading ability High knowledge of baseball High reading ability Low knowledge of baseball Low reading ability High knowledge of baseball Low reading ability Low knowledge of baseball Predict: What % of questions on a reading-comprehension test (text is complex and about baseball) would each category of students get right? 37

Measure of Comprehension 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% high reading ability & high knowledge low reading ability & high knowledge high reading ability & low knowledge low reading ability & low knowledge 38

Take-Away • Students have many “reading levels. ” Don’t get sucked into the “they read below grade level” rabbit hole. – If they read above a third-grade level, they can do this! • Students’ ability to understand a complex text can be directly impacted by an intentional sequencing of simpler to more complex texts about the same topic. • This can happen quickly. • This can be a HUGE confidence booster. 39

What Do Reading Comprehension Tests Measure? 40

Journal • • • What’s important to remember about strategically sequenced (some use the term “gradated”) sets of texts? To what extent does your current ELA curriculum help students intentionally build knowledge as a scaffold toward comprehension and fluency? In what ways does (or doesn’t) your current curriculum incorporate strategically sequenced sets of texts? 41

Lunch 42

Revisiting Objectives and Agenda • Understand the role of fluency in reading comprehension • Understand how the elements of text complexity determine the instructional utility of a text, specifically with reading for knowledge • Understand the link between building knowledge, achieving fluency, and comprehending text • Understand how to leverage text sets to build student knowledge I. Shift 3 II. Fluency Experience III. Building Knowledge with a Text Set IV. Practice Building a Sequence of Texts V. Practice Building Sets of Questions that Lead to Making Meaning 43

Building a Sequence of Texts to Improve Fluency, Knowledge, and Vocabulary 44

Keep in Mind the Purpose 45

Mapping the Topics 46

Strategically Build a Sequence y t i x le p m o C g n i s a e r c In Text 1 Text 2 Text 3 Text 4… 47

Reasons to Make an Exception • It’s engaging to lead with a “mystery text. ” • It might be challenging or even too challenging, might be vague, ambiguous, or even confusing, but it piques students’ interests. 48

For Effect: Build a Sequence y t i x e l p m o C e s a e cr n I n e h T Text 1 Text 2 Text 3 Text 4… 49

Remember: Complexity is Complex! Levels of meaning, structure, language conventionality and clarity, and knowledge demands Readability measures and other scores of text complexity Reader variables (such as motivation, knowledge, and experiences) and task variables (such as purpose and the complexity generated by the task assigned and the questions posed) 50

Quantitative Measures • Word Difficulty - Frequency - Length • Sentence Length • Other Features of Words • Sentence Syntax • Text Cohesion Common Core. Band ATOS Degrees of Reading Power Flesch. Kincaid The Lexile Reading Source. Rater Framework Maturity 2 nd-3 rd 2. 75 – 5. 14 42 – 54 1. 98 – 5. 34 420 – 820 3. 53 – 6. 13 0. 05 – 2. 48 4 th-5 th 4. 97 – 7. 03 52 – 60 4. 51 – 7. 73 740 – 1010 5. 42 – 7. 92 0. 84 – 5. 75 6 th-8 th 7. 00 – 9. 98 57 – 67 6. 51 – 10. 34 925 – 1185 7. 04 – 9. 57 4. 11 – 10. 66 9 th-10 th 9. 67 – 12. 01 62 – 72 8. 32 – 12. 12 1050 – 1335 8. 41 – 10. 81 9. 02 – 13. 93 11 th-CR 11. 20 – 14. 10 67 – 74 10. 34 – 14. 2 1185 – 1385 9. 57 – 12. 00 12. 30 – 14. 50 51

Qualitative Measures • Analyzing Text Complexity 52

Sequence a Set of Texts • Imagine you were creating a curricular module/extended unit (incorporating fiction and non-fiction) designed to help Grade 7 students appreciate and understand the threats to fresh water. • In a pile on your table, there are several texts that your library media specialist has provided for you. • Work with a partner to start building your unit by considering how to sequence the texts. 53

Handout 54

Things to Think About • You might: – Strictly order texts from least complex to most complex. – Think about whether this should be all one set, or a couple of smaller sets. – Make other decisions based on the questions students might be asking. If they know X, does that lead logically to Y? – Use a challenging text early on to create a sense of wonder or intrigue. • IF TIME: Write TDQs for a simpler text that will strategically build the knowledge students need to tackle a more challenging text (you’ll do this for sure tomorrow, so don’t panic). 55

Did You Get Something Like This? • These are two text sets! Yes? 56

Journal • What are you discovering about ELA curriculum design by doing this work? • What are the implications of what you are learning for the use of your current curriculum or the design or selection of future curriculum? • Important for tomorrow — what are you learning about the importance of fresh water? What are you learning about ways we impact it? 57

Features of Quality Text Sets Strong text sets Weak text sets Build student knowledge about a topic; meaningful connection to the anchor text Texts are authentic, rich, and worthy of study Range of text types (literary and informational) and formats Texts are not related or connected across sets or they are only superficially connected Only commissioned texts or textbook passages Focused exclusively on one genre or format (unless the set is a genre study) Text-complexity levels support Text-complexity levels are erratic and student achievement of the do not support the staircase of text grade-level complexity demands complexity in the state standards of the state standards Council of Chief State School Officers, 2012 58

Building Knowledge and Vocabulary with Your Texts • Select one of the text sets to work with • Find others working with the same set • Review the texts • Identify on handout what specific knowledge adds to previous knowledge in each article • Identify on handout repeating vocabulary across the texts 59

Design a Comprehensive Set of Questions Key Ideas and Details Craft and Structure Theme/Ce ntral Ideas MEANING Integration of Knowledge and Ideas 60

Making it Stronger • Meet with another team who worked on the same set. • Compare information regarding knowledge, vocabulary, and questions. • Add to your own chart. 61

Knowledge and Fluency 62

Closing I used to think _______, but now I think _______________. 63 63

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Image Credits • Slide 1: Nicholas Lue • Slide 2: Hilton Bonnet Creek • Slides 9 and 63: Shutterstock/Monkey Business Images 12040246, 12040252, 12045781 • Slide 12: https: //aotw-pd. s 3. amazonaws. com/images/wwf-shark. jpg • Slide 33: http: //www. defendersblog. org/2011/07/cant-live-without-em-vernalpool-fairy-shrimp/fairy-shrimp-cartoon/ • Slide 45: Flickr: webheathcloseup: Poppy Close up; Flickr: Glen: Poppy Field near Eynsford, Kent • Slide 46: Amy Rudat, unbounded. org • Slide 59: Flickr: Vince. Alongi: Staircase • Slide 62: Flickr: frankieleon: It’s peanut butter jelly time! • Slide 64: Unbound. Ed 65

References Slide Source 20 https: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Anostraca 21 http: //www. coastalplains. org/pdf/EP_Brochure. pdf 22 The Secret Pool, Raye, R. (2013) Tilbury House Nature Book 23 http: //www. iucnredlist. org/details/6519/0 24 http: //www. biologicaldiversity. org/news/press_releases/2011/florida-extinct-species-10 -05 -2011. html 39 http: //www. aft. org/periodical/american-educator/spring-2006/what-do-reading-comprehension-tests-mainly 66