CCC0644Local. 122463-CCSS_webinar_PDavis_Text_Complexity_handout. Common Core: Now What?:Closing in on Close Reading. Text Complexity: 7 Actions that Teachers Can Take Right Now. Cover image © 2012 istockphoto.com/Sergey Galushko.
All rights reserved. Used under license. A separate standard for text complexity in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) means that this feature of reading development is at the center of many conversations among educators. How this standard translates into classroom instruction is less clear. Even with current texts, teachers can take some important actions to support their students on the staircase of text complexity—right now!
With the introduction of CCSS, it’s easy to think that text complexity is a new way to look at text. Blog: Complex Text Issues. A lot of hay is being made about the Common Core State Standards, and the biggest hubbub revolves around text complexity.
I am not sure why one anchor standard, number ten if your counting, is getting all the attention. It could be the debate around leveled books versus grade level texts. Some believe that the idea of giving an 11th grader with a 3rd grade reading level an on level book is detrimental. Others believe that limiting students based on their lexile score actually dumbs down the curriculum. This debate ignores the massive amount of scaffolding called for in the CCSS for below grade level reading. Wondering About Common Core and Complex Text? - Common Core State Standards TOOLBOX.
"A lot of reading skills students can apply with a simple text, but can't do so much with a challenging text.
"- Dr. Timothy Shanahan Blocked from YouTube? No problem. Reading Critically - Interrogating Texts - Harvard Library LibGuides at Harvard Library. Wondering About Common Core and Complex Text? - Common Core State Standards TOOLBOX. Strong Readers All:Summarize to Get the Gist. As schools prepare for the common core state standards in literacy, they'll be confronted with two challenges: first, helping students comprehend complex texts, and, second, training students to write arguments supported by factual evidence.
A teacher's response to these challenges might be to lead class discussions about complex reading or assign regular in-class argument essays. Yet the reality is that after discussing a difficult article with a class of 20 or more students, even the most engaging teacher cannot guarantee that every student will understand it. Meanwhile, one would be hard-pressed to find an English teacher who has not inwardly cringed at the thought of having to routinely grade stacks of in-class essays. Some teachers may even neglect to assign such essays, wanting to avoid the work that follows. The Plusses of Summary Writing. Deep Reading and Text Dependent Questions Explained. Blog: Defining “Deep Reading” and “Text-Dependent Questions”
In my English 10 class, I used to teach a lesson about satire through Dr.
Seuss’ The Butter Battle Book. To begin this lesson, I would tell students, “While this is, on one hand, a children’s book, it is also a satirical look at the Cold War era and arms races. Edutopia: Teaching Critical Thinking and the CC. Text Difficulty and Adolescents. I recently received the following letter and thought you might be interested in my responses: "I found your August 21, 2011 blog post on "Rejecting Instructional Level Theory" eye-opening and helpful.
I'm a high school English teacher and instructional coach specializing in adolescent literacy remediation, so I've worked with leveled text a lot. If you have a moment, I'd love to hear your thoughts on a couple of follow-up questions:" Are the implications of your findings different for adolescents needing remediation? ELA CC Exemplar: Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Five close reading strategies to support the Common Core. I walked in to my first college class, Political Science 101, eager to learn.
For my inaugural college assignment, my professor asked the class to read the first three chapters of the textbook for the next class period. That night, I returned to my dorm room, determined to learn everything I could in those three chapters. Apps and Ideas for Literature Circles on iPads. Mobile Learning | Feature Apps and Ideas for Literature Circles on iPads.
Text Complexity Grade Bands and Lexile® Bands. "It isn't often that a society gets a chance to start afresh, and I think that moment is here.
" —Chester E. Finn, Jr. . * The Secret to Descriptive Writing. Either I’ve encountered a conspiracy to confound teachers of writing, or I’ve discovered an “obvious secret” of descriptive writing.
To paraphrase a classic School House Rock Video, it appears that verbs are, indeed, “what’s happening.” I heard about the power of compelling verbs first from Ralph Fletcher in a visit to the Garden State. Text Complexity: New Research. Five close reading strategies to support the Common Core. I walked in to my first college class, Political Science 101, eager to learn.
For my inaugural college assignment, my professor asked the class to read the first three chapters of the textbook for the next class period. That night, I returned to my dorm room, determined to learn everything I could in those three chapters. I pulled out my textbook and highlighter. Growing up, that is what I always saw the “older kids” using when they read a textbook. In my naïve 18-year-old mind, I believed that highlighters must have some magical power that transports the words on the page directly to your brain. Guess My Lexile - The Book Whisperer. What do Jeff Kinney's popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Ray Bradbury's classic Fahrenheit 451 have in common?
What about Gossip Girl: A Novel, Cicely von Ziegesar's catty romance and The Great Gilly Hopkins, Katherine Paterson's 1979 Newbery Honor book? While clear distinctions exist between each book's literary merit, age appropriateness, and reader appeal, these titles possess one similarity--they sit within the same Lexile text complexity band. . ** Reading Level Conversion Chart, Leveling Books. Text Complexity Resources. CC Complex Text Explained. Video: Shanahan on Cx text concerns. Text Complexity: Simple Summary Rubric for Figuring out Text Complexity (Leadership and Learning Center)
Text Complexity: Qualitative Measures Rubric. Close Reading and the CCSS, Part 1 - Common Core State Standards TOOLBOX. Blocked from YouTube? No Problem. CC Tools: Shifts, Text-dependent Questions, Close Reading Exemplars, Publisher Criteria. The Times and the Common Core Standards: Reading Strategies for 'Informational Text' Update | Sept. 2012: We’ll be exploring the new Common Core State Standards, and how teaching with The Times can address them, through a series of blog posts. You can find them all here, in the lesson plan category “Common Core.”
Forty-four states and United States territories have adopted the Common Core Standards and, according to this recent Times article, one major change teachers can expect to see is more emphasis on reading “informational,” or nonfiction, texts across subject areas: While English classes will still include healthy amounts of fiction, the standards say that students should be reading more nonfiction texts as they get older, to prepare them for the kinds of material they will read in college and careers. In the fourth grade, students should be reading about the same amount from “literary” and “informational” texts, according to the standards; in the eighth grade, 45 percent should be literary and 55 percent informational, and by 12th grade, the split should be 30/70.
Video: CC ELA: Reading like a detective, writing like an investigative reporter, 6-traits. Text_Analysis_protocol. ELA best practices: book talks, SSR, writer's notebooks, references. Hands-on Common Core PD for Informational Reading. Ten Takeaway Tips for Teaching Critical Thinking. Apps and Ideas for Literature Circles on iPads. Getting HS Seniors to Love Reading. I’ve always been a Nerdy Book Club member, but my passion for young adult literature really ignited last summer. On one of my many, many, MANY trips to Target, I popped in to the book section and bought The Hunger Games.
I do that. I buy my books. Of course I quickly plowed through the entire trilogy. How to Determine the Author's Attitude Towards the Topic. Hands-on Common Core PD for Informational Reading. Pay It Forward (Part 3): Reading Essentials. Strategy for Reading Readiness. By Brian ThomasJune 20th, 2013 7:00 am College and career readiness plays a prominent role in the Common Core standards. Examine the ELA Anchor Standards Grades 6-12 (p. 57 of pdf). How can the content areas, such as social studies, support these ten anchor standards?
What resources can teachers put together to concentrate on the reading skills needed to uncover the rich content of their course? TCI has a Reading Toolkit (see the embedded document below) that could be part of your answer. Slide show Selecting Readalouds for CC Complexity Donalyn Miller Dr Teri Lesesne. Basal-Reader Project Goes Online - Curriculum Matters. 2nd and 3rd grade ELA Activities for Common Core Text Exemplars. Non-Fiction Text Structures! « Reading. Writing. Thinking. Sharing. Best Web Writing 2012. The heaven of Dante’s Divine Comedy is, like purgatory and Hell before it, divided into nine different regions. Information Literacy Tutorial. Great Common Core Nonfiction YA. Five close reading strategies to support the Common Core. AwesomeStories.com, The Story Place of the Web. Text Analysis 3 Videos Teaching Channel. CCSS Implementation: Pretty Good Gatsby is not Good Enough.
Film critic Roger Ebert penned a damning critique of the too-often-used practice of giving struggling students a retold version of a more complex literary classic. He talks in particular about The Great Gatsby. The entire article is worth reading, but his most salient point is this There is no purpose in "reading" The Great Gatsby unless you actually read it. Fitzgerald's novel is not about a story. It is about how the story is told. Ebert illustrates this point brilliantly by comparing, side-by-side, several parts of the book, including the conclusion, which in the "retold" version, is boiled down to this: Gatsby had believed in his dream. Bloomin' Apps. This page gathers all of the Bloomin' Apps projects in one place.Each image has clickable hotspots and includes suggestions for iPad, Android, Google and online tools and applications to support each of the levels of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy.I have created a page to allow you to share your favorite online tool, iOS, or Android app with others.
Cogs of the Cognitive Processes I began to think about the triangular shape of Bloom's Taxonomy and realized I thought of it a bit differently.Since the cognitive processes are meant to be used when necessary, and any learner goes in and out of the each level as they acquire new content and turn it into knowledge, I created a different type of image that showcased my thoughts about Bloom's more meaningfully.Here is my visual which showcases the interlocking nature of the cognitive processes or, simply, the "Cogs of the Cognitive Processes". Commentary: What's the Deal with Text Complexity?
Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris: In every grade level, the span of acceptable lexile measure has widened. It is now appropriate to include texts with quantitative measures both higher and lower than were allowed only a year ago. Teaching Strategies For Analyzing Text: Brainstorming. Balancing Informational Text and Literature. This is a 10 minute video which features a discussion between NYS Commissioner of Education John B. King Jr., David Coleman (contributing author to the Common Core) and Kate Gerson (a Sr. The Balance of Informational and Literary Texts. Reading Rockets: Nonfiction and the Common Core. Video: Common Core for English: Read like a detective and write like a conscientious investigative reporter! Teaching Text three videos Teacher Channel.