Engagement Activities
for Rigorous Lessons
Tuesday, February 18
3:45-5:45
Sherrie Fair
Cindy Davis
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Reading You Tube video
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You will leave this session with several practical strategies for
adding rigor to your current middle level lessons. Actual 6th grade
plans will be used by an ELA teacher, but you will have the
opportunity to practice these strategies with your subject/grade
level. We will discuss the importance of vocabulary and explicit
instruction for addressing vocabulary words from any content area.
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What is RIGOR?
What is RIGOR?
Rigor is broader than just being more complex. It
is providing all students with high levels of support
so they can thrive and be successful in class.
What
RIGOR is:
Scaffolding thinking
Planning for thinking
Assessing thinking
Recognizing the level
of thinking students
demonstrate
Managing the
teaching/learning
level for the desired
thinking level
What
RIGOR is
NOT:
More or harder
worksheets
AP or honors
courses
The higher level
book in reading
More work
More homework
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Create a rigorous environment
Support the environment by
scaffolding lessons
Provide opportunities for student
engagement
VOCABULARY
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Common Core Three-Tiered
Words
Tier one words are the words of everyday speech usually
learned in the early grades, albeit not at the same rate
by all children. They are not considered a challenge to
the average native speaker, though English language
learners of any age will have to attend carefully to them.
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From Common Core Standards Website
Tier One words consist of basic words that
usually do not have multiple meanings and
do not require explicit instruction.
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Book
Girl
Sad
Clock
Dog
Sprenger, 2013
Tier Two Words
Tier two words (what the Standards refer to as
general academic words) are far more likely to appear
in written texts than in speech. They appear in all
sorts of texts: informational texts (words such as
relative, vary, formulate, specificity, and accumulate),
technical texts (calibrate, itemize, periphery), and
literary texts (misfortune, dignified, faltered,
unabashedly). Tier Two words often represent subtle
or precise ways to say relatively simple things—
saunter instead of walk, for example. Because Tier
Two words are found across many types of texts,
they are highly generalized.
From Common Core Standards Website
Tier Two consists of high-frequency words that occur
across a variety of domains. Play a large role in the
vocabulary of mature language users.
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Coincidence
Masterpiece
Absurd
Industrious
Benevolent
These words:
Usually have multiple meanings
Used in a variety of subject areas
Necessary for reading comprehension
Characteristic of a mature language user
Descriptive words that add detail
Sprenger, 2013
Tier Three Words
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Tier three words (what the Standards refer to as domain-specific
words) are specific to a domain or field of study (lava,
carburetor, legislature, circumference, aorta) and key to
understanding a new concept within a text. Because of their
specificity and close ties to content knowledge, Tier Three words are
far more common in informational texts than in literature.
Recognized as new and “hard” words for most readers (particularly
student readers), they are often explicitly defined by the author of a
text, repeatedly used, and otherwise heavily scaffolded (e.g., made
a part of a glossary).
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From Common Core Standards Website
Tier three consists of words whose
practical use and frequency is low.
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Domain-specific
Used for brief periods of time when we are studying particular
content
Central to building knowledge and conceptual understanding within
the various academic domains and should be integral to instruction
to content
Although useful while covering
specific topics, tier three words are
too specific to be included in the
most useful tier for vocabulary
building, tier 2
Sprenger, 2013
The “How” of Teaching Vocabulary
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Begin with a story or explanation. Model how you would
use it in everyday life
Have students put information into their own words –
“recoding”
Draw picture or graphic representation
Provide several engagements with term and have
students write in notebook.
Use words conversationally
Play games with words
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Vocabulary examples
Sprenger, 2013
Critical Verbs
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Analyze
Articulate
Cite
Compare
Comprehend
Contrast
Delineate
Demonstrate
Describe
Determine
Develop
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Distinguish
Draw
Evaluate
Explain
Identify
Infer
Integrate
Interpret
Locate
Organize
Paraphrase
Sprenger, 2013
Critical Nouns
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Alliteration
Analogy
Argument
Central Idea
Conclusions
Connections
Connotative Language
Details
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Evidence
Figurative Language
Illustrations
Interaction
Metaphor
Mood
Point of View
Rhetoric
Sprenger, 2013
Illustration Wheel
Sprenger, 2013
Where can you get ideas for RIGOR?
Twitter
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Like professional development every day
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Note trends
Books
Classroom ideas – curriculum, vocabulary,
professional reading, student reading
Who to follow?
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@cindydavis240 – Cindy Davis
@TAGTenn – gifted education in TN
@SussingOutBooks – Susannah Richards U Conn reading professor
@KellyGToGo – Kelly Gallagher Readicide
@CarolJago – With Rigor for All
@englishcomp – Jim Burke
@MrNance1 – OHS teacher
@donalynbooks – Donalyn Miller The Book Whisperer
@edutopia -- general education
@NCSSNetwork – Social Studies
@PARCCPlace – PARCC testing
At first, just try following one or
two people you know or trust.
Recommendations?
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Twitter
New York Times—read article/summarize—
Mary Lee Bunch
http://scope.scholastic.com/issues/03_01_14/
Scope
Increase Rigor with
Scholastic Scope
The Language Arts
Magazine
Includes lesson plans
Higher Lexile levels and text
Complexity
Vocabulary
Scaffolding
Paired texts
Informational texts
Grammar and editing
Multiple Genres
Assessments
The Willoughbys
example of scaffolding
by Lois Lowry
A Novel
Nefariously Written & Ignominiously Illustrated by the Author
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Read a chapter a day aloud at beginning of school year
Use words from book as vocabulary words – fabulous
(hilarious) glossary in back
Allusion other famous, old-fashioned stories
(Bibliography in back)
Use text to review elements of plot and characterization
Hansel and Gretel
 other Grimm’s tales, Grimm brothers biography, fairy
tales (3)
 Cross curricular
The Case of the
Red-Headed League
By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes)
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Powerpoint on mystery genre
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F:\MYSTERY powerpoint.ppt
Students read “The Case of the Red-Headed League”
(scaffolding) looking for vocabulary words and
reasoning – is it inductive or deductive? Why?
“Case of Red-Headed League” link
Further development—TV adaptation, more Sherlock
Holmes stories, more mysteries
Common Core Curriculum Maps
English Language Arts grades 6-8
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Unit 5 – Figure It Out
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Literary Texts The Westing Game, Math Curse, Toothpaste Millionaire
Classic Mysteries Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie
Contemporary Mysteries 39 Clues series, The Mysterious Benedict Society,
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Poetry
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Informational Text
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The Name of This Book is Secret, Theodore Boone series
Jabberwocky, Math Talk: Mathematical Ideas in Poems for Two Voices
The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure, Go Figure! A Totally
Cool Book About Numbers, Grapes of Math: Mind-Stretching Math Riddles
Art The Mountain, The Street, The Living Room (all by Balthus)
Media audiobooks of texts, televised or movie Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie
Through this scaffolding of Texts:
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Class Discussions
Deduction or
Induction graphic
organizer
Math Connection
Argument Writing
Literature Response
Dramatization
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Word Study
Narrative Writing
Art Discussion
InformativeExplanatory Writing
Mechanics (grammar)
Additional resources
SOCRATIC CIRCLE
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F:\socratic circle pp.ppt
Valentine’s Day Scaffolding
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Cupid and Psyche from Edith Hamilton’s
Mythology
INDEPENDENT READING –
What is the plan in your school?
Thirty Book Independent
Reading Requirements
Perfect opportunity to scaffold and increase reading
ability
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Poetry Anthologies 2
Traditional Literature 2
Realistic Fiction 2
Historical Fiction 2
Fantasy 2
Science Fiction 2
Mystery 2
Graphic Novel 1
Informational Text 6
Biography 1
Autobiography or Memoir 1
Chapter-book Choice 3
Challenge Book 4 (1 per nine weeks)
Testing Practice
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MCAS
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English/Language Arts
Math
Ideas You Can Take Back With You
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What could you begin using in your
classroom tomorrow, next week, next
grading period, next year??
Professional References
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Common Core. Common Core Curriculum Maps, English Language Arts, grades 6-8.
Copeland, Matt. Socratic Circles: Fostering Critical and Creative Thinking in Middle and High
School. Portland: Stenhouse, 2005. Print.
Gallagher, Kelly. Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It.
Portland: Stenhouse Publishers, 2009. Print.
Jago, Carol. With Rigor for All, Meeting Common Core Standards for Reading Literature.
Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2011. Print.
Lehman, Christopher and Kate Roberts. Falling in Love With Close Reading, Lessons for
Analyzing Texts – and Life. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2014. Print.
McEwan-Adkins, Elaine K., and Allyson J. Burnett. 20 Literacy Strategies to Meet the Common
Core, Increasing Rigor in Middle and High School Classrooms. Bloomington: Solution Tree
Press, 2013. Print.
Miller, Donalyn. Reading in the Wild. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2014. Print.
Miller, Donalyn. The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child. San Francisco:
John Wiley & Sons, 2009. Print.
Sprenger, Marilee. Teaching the Critical Vocabulary of the Common Core, 55 Words That Make or
Break Student Understanding. Alexandria: ASCD, 2013. Print.
References to Use with Students
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Goodman, Burton. The Reader as Detective, Level B. New York:
AMSCO School Publications, 1994. Print.
Hamilton, Edith. Mythology. New York: Back Bay, 1942. Print.
Lowry, Lois. The Willoughbys. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008. Print.
Serling, Rod. “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.”
http://www.teacherweb.com/in/norwellmiddleschool/7thgradelangu
agearts/monstersaredue.pdf
Usher, M.D. Wise Guy, The Life and Philsophy of Socrates. New
York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2005. Print.