Week 5

Questions to reflect on for Week 5 (Using Articles from Class)

Blog Questions: 

Why are text dependent questions encouraged in the CCSS? 

Text Dependent Template

Text dependent questions can be invitations for students to think deeply about a text through rereading and finding evidence, and compare it with their own perspectives and experiences. Students are thinking about what the text says, how the text says it, what the text means and what the text means to them.  Text dependent questions encourage close reading. Close reading builds the habits of readers as they engage with complex texts and build stamina and skills so they can do so independently.  

A 10 minute video clip that explores complex text with high quality, eveindence-based questions using Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s letter from a Birmingham jail. http://lausd.wistia.com/medias/e4mc0qiaav 

Close Reading and how to use it Prezi http://prezi.com/g7vtfw8xulzj/copy-of-close-reading-and-the-common-core/

What strategies can you use with students to build their skills around close reading? How could you use the Top Hat activity in your classroom?

Close reading is time consuming so the teacher should select short, worthy passages. Then the teacher must ask text dependent questions. Students should take what they have learned from one text and apply it to the next.

Students need to "Read with a Pencil"

1. Annotate the text

2. Highlight or underline key words or phrases they find surprising, confusing, significant or that raise questions.  Underline with a PURPOSE!

3. Make notes in the margins.

4. Look for patterns, repetitions, contradictions or similarities in the text. 

Teach Student to Ask The Questions

1. What is the author telling me here?

Have students notice the details in the passage and can they recount those details in their own words accurately, precisely and clearly? Paraphrasing is the first step in close reading.

2. Are there any hard or important words?

Once students have a basic grasp of what the author is telling them--they are ready to move on to analyzing the content.

3. What does the author want me to understand?

If students begin their analysis with this question, thwy will be ready to make inferences--determining what the author is trying to show without directly stating it.

4. How does the author play with language to add to meaning?

How a text is written is as important as the content itself in getting the author's message across.  

In conclusion, challenging texts need to be read and reread.  Each reading should accomplish a separate purpose. The 1st Reading should allow the reader to determine WHAT THE TEXT SAYS. The 2nd Reading should allow the reader to determine HOW A TEXT WORKS.  The 3rd Reading should allow the reader to evaluate the QUALITY AND VALUE OF THE TEXT and to connect the text to other texts. 

Here is a short guide to:

Creating Questions for Close Analytic Reading Exemplars: A Brief Guide from Achieve the Core

1. Think about what you think is the most important learning to be drawn from the text. Note this as raw material for the culminating assignment and the focus point for other activities to build toward.

2. Determine the key ideas of the text.  Create a series of questions structured to bring the reader to an understanding of these.

3. Locate the most powerful academic words in the text and integrate questions and discussions that explore their role into the set of questions above.

  

4. Take stock of what standards are being addressed in the series of questions above. Then decide if any other standards are suited to being a focus for this text. If so, form questions that exercise those standards.   

5.  Consider if there are any other academic words that students would profit from focusing on. Build discussion planning or additional questions to focus attention on them.  

6.  Find the sections of the text that will present the greatest difficulty and craft questions that support students in mastering these sections. These could be sections with difficult syntax, particularly dense information, and tricky transitions or places that offer a variety of possible inferences.

7. Develop a culminating activity around the idea or learning identified in #1. A good task should reflect mastery of one or more of the standards, involve writing, and be structured to be done by students independently. 

This site has model questions http://nieonline.com/tbtimes/downloads/CCSS_reading.pdf

This site has a Close Reading Strategies Tool Kits http://www.syracusecityschools.com/tfiles/folder716/ELA-Grade06-Unit01-CloseReadingStrategyToolKit.pdf

What do you believe about the current state of education? 

President Obama’s Race to the Top educational competition includes and encourages more reliance on formative assessments. These tests help students and their teachers know how they’re doing. I believe that students want to know where there are and how to improve regardless of their level. Formative assessments prove what the students already know but clearly states the standards and level that need to be address.  It gives the teachers the data to move forward with best teaching practices. 

Specifically in your classroom/ teaching environment- what are three statements that you could make about education?

1. Students learn best by doing, and students benefit from knowledge and experience.

2. The assessments in my room measure student performance and my teaching of these concepts.

3. I expect my students to take responsibility and ownership of their education. In response, I use whatever resources available to help each student meet expectations. After reading the articles on Special Education and ELL, what challenges do you see with testing to Common Core and making appropriate accommodations for these students?

• Special Education Schools need to develop a collective ownership for all the students in the school. Our education program should be to “share responsibility for student achievement among general education staff, special education staff, and other staff of the district.” In order to do this, students need to be educated by all team teachers and they need to share the responsibility of meeting their level of expectation. This leads into finding collaborative planning time. All teachers working with the students need to time to look at data, find ways to support and challenge these students.
• Once schools identify student's needs they will need to plan to meet those needs. Having a common time where students are leveled to their needs is difficult for an administrator to do, however, in order for students to succeed at their level, they need intervention AT THEIR LEVEL.