Upgrading the Six Instructional Shifts in ELA:
Responsibilities for Stakeholders
Shift 1: Balancing Informational and Literary Text
Teacher
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Student
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Includes informational text support for
literary texts used during instruction
Provides many access points for multiple
types of media
Scaffolds for reading success with
informational texts including all aspects of
text complexity
Seeks to leverage interest and learning
with an increase in instructional reading
levels
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Principal
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Builds content knowledge through quality
texts
Reads a variety of self-selected texts
independently
Explores global perspectives through
reading
Invites knowledge-building through
multiple types of media, both in receptive
and expressive modes
Seeks opportunities for learning
extensions by accessing additional
related texts/media
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Observes much text available, both
traditional print and digital
Observes active reading, both
independently and with prompting and
support by teachers—particularly when
accessing higher-level texts that are
above a students’ independent reading
level
Asks teachers about how they are
balancing literary and informational text
Asks students what they are learning from
their reading and viewing of media
Ideas for Modernizing this Shift through a College & Career Ready Lens
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Scaffolds could include NewsELA.com or Scholastic Action – websites that allow content to be re-lexiled for a variety of reading levels
Variety of opportunities to encounter text/media (e.g., in class, Skyping with another class; Internet, library, apps on digital devices, databases;
authentic performance tasks that require research involving print, media, interviews)
Balance of receptive and expressive literary and informational formats—print, digital, media (e.g., infographics, digital/interactive maps, video
presentations; create an app or website for authentic purpose/audience)
Shift 2: (gr. 6-12) Knowledge in the Disciplines
Teacher
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Student
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Identifies himself or herself as teacher of
reading, regardless of content area
Invites more reading analysis—both for
content and author’s purpose, craft, and
structure and less summarization
Seeks out opportunities for depth rather
than breadth (less text, perhaps, and
greater discussion)
Presents content in various formats—
texts, visuals, media
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Accesses multiple types of documents
and media, including primary sources
whenever possible
Builds content knowledge through
text/media
Finds evidence to support conclusions, as
well as draws conclusions based on text/
media evidence
Reads/views for meaning across multiple
related texts/media
Principal
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Observes multiple types of text/media being
used in the classroom in
articulated/purposeful ways
Observes deep conversations based on
evidence and conclusions that are driven by
the students and supported by the teacher
Observes, advocates, and supports all
teachers being reading teachers (i.e., reading
text and viewing media with considerations
regarding not only content, but for task,
purpose, and audience)
Ideas for Modernizing this Shift through a College & Career Ready Lens
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Emphasize collaboration and communication skills when accessing multiple types of text/media, including the relevancy and usefulness of those
media types to complete authentic/meaningful tasks
Explicitly teach Information Literacy and access, selection, and curation of resources, particularly scholarly and academic sources online and in
accessible databases
Embrace evidence-based curiosity, which focuses on what students notice, think, and wonder regarding what has been read or viewed
Shift 3: Staircase of Complexity
Teacher
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Gives students less to read, but more
time to re-read for deeper meaning
Spends more time on complex texts with
appropriate scaffolding
Provides strategies for comprehending
and analyzing text, particularly at the
instructional level
Allows students to engage with text/media
in multiple groupings involving both peers
and adults (within and outside of
classroom)
Allows a student to experience a
frustration level when reading, and then
helps him or her problem-solve to
comprehend the text
Student
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Reads increasingly complex texts with
eventual independency
Reads voluminously, both for enjoyment and
academic purpose, particularly at an
instructional level
Expects and embraces some frustration,
incorporating personalized problem-solving
strategies (e.g., word parts including
Greek/Latin roots, context clues, etymological
knowledge)
Re-reads for deeper comprehension and
analysis
Principal
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Looks for both independent reading at
instructional levels, as well as reading complex
texts supported by the teacher
Observes how students navigate overcoming
frustration with text, including how teacher is
providing adequate and personalized
scaffolding supports
Ensures that the teacher is providing ample
reading opportunities for both instructional and
independent reading times
Ideas for Modernizing this Shift through a College & Career Ready Lens
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Learn the flow of modern reading and use digital features with fluency (e.g., visiting hyperlinks to read ancillary information and then returning to
main text)
Use multiple texts/media to solve authentic/purposeful tasks
Independently seek out texts that are increasingly more difficult with peer and adult support
Read texts/view media that authentically represent perspectives from different cultures and countries
Shift 4: Text Based Answers
Teacher
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Facilitates evidence-based conversations
using meaningful texts/media
Keeps students focused on what the text
is saying explicitly and implicitly—and
encouraging students ability to use
text/media to support responses
Creates text-dependent questions that
allow for deep analysis and critical
thinking
Takes time to read text/view media deeply
before inviting students to read/view
deeply
Student
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Principal
Finds evidence in texts/media to support his
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or her arguments (opinions, claims), analytical
conclusions, and conversational thoughts
Becomes a scholar of text/media:
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questioning, evaluating, critiquing, discussing,
debating
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Re-reads/views text/media for deeper
evidence to support his or her thinking
Engages with the author and his/her choices
focusing on craft, structure, purpose
Observes engaging text/media-dependent
questions and evidence-based reasoning and
responses
Observes more student-directed
conversations and collaborations
Observes, advocates, and supports all
teachers in improving their techniques and
strategies for asking stronger and more
meaningful text/media-dependent questions
Ideas for Modernizing this Shift through a College & Career Ready Lens
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Engage with authors of texts/creators of media via online sources (e.g., Skype, Google Hangout) and social media (e.g., Twitter, Facebook,
Instagram) to allow students to ask and answer questions about texts/media and author’s craft, structure, and purpose
Engage in social media to extend conversations and invite global collaboration—professionally as teachers, as well as for student opportunities
Provide opportunities for amplification of what is being/has been learned to provide students with more meaningful/authentic experiences (e.g.,
students create a LiveBinder focused on addressing a current social or political issue)
Encourage the use of not only student annotating, but also annotexting of traditional print hard-copy and digital print
Shift 5: Writing From Sources
Teacher
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Emphasizes writing for information,
arguments, and persuasion (with the use
of rhetoric in both middle and high school)
Provides opportunities to authentically
analyze and synthesize ideas, themes,
and concepts in wide variety of
texts/media among peers and adults
Helps students develop their unique
voices so they can argue a point with
strong evidence rather than opinion (Note:
While K-5 are focused on opinions, by
Grade 5 students must use strong
evidence from text/media to support their
opinions)
Allows and encourages students to
articulate their own conclusions about
what they read/viewed, while relying on
specific evidence to support their thinking
Student
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Generates informational texts, as well as
writes narratives using sources appropriately
and accurately (e.g., historical fiction,
biography, memoir)
Writes and revises, and re-writes and revises
insuring proper citing or quoting sources
appropriately for task, purpose, audience
Defends opinions or arguments using
text/media-based evidence
Integrates evidence from multiple sources
when constructing written/media based
product
Compares multiple sources and looks for
common threads of evidence that help draw a
conclusion, enhance thinking, persuade
others, or support a claim
Principal
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Observes teachers using, citing, and quoting
evidence from multiple sources with students
as a model for their students
Observes text/media-based evidence to
support thinking/reasoning in student
text/media products
Observes teachers and students asking and
answering text-dependent questions and
providing evidence orally during
conversations and collaborations
Observes written/media products that include
claims and evidence from multiple sources
Observes teachers asking (as well as
personally asks) students about
commonalities found across multiple sources
when completing tasks
Ideas for Modernizing this Shift through a College & Career Ready Lens
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Leverage online tools to produce and present writing beyond traditional formats (e.g., infographics, digital presentations, digital portfolios)
Encourage media literacy and provide access to multiple sources and media types both in traditional/modern print and digital formats
Invite multiple perspectives into writing revision and edit modes (e.g., Skype session with author of historical fiction to provide revision feedback)
Invite opportunities for multiple perspectives from other cultures and countries by leveraging social media and online meeting opportunities
Shift 6: Academic Vocabulary
Teacher
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Works strategically to incorporate new
vocabulary into learning experiences
(authentic, contextual, related—not just
lists of words for no reason)
Models personal encounters with new
vocabulary frequently and explains
strategies used to determine new term’s
meaning, and expects students to do the
same with new vocabulary they encounter
Focuses on critical words or phrases to
deepen understanding of content
Develops students’ abilities to apply
learned vocabulary orally and written
Participates in a school-wide agreed-upon
process for vocabulary instruction
Student
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Uses new vocabulary ubiquitously when
speaking and writing
Invites risk in applying more complex words in
speaking and writing
Becomes increasingly articulate when
speaking and writing
Builds a “toolbox” of academic and domainspecific vocabulary and articulates reasoning
behind word choice/diction appropriate for
task, purpose, audience
Principal
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Observes, advocates, and supports schoolwide agreed-upon process for vocabulary
instruction
Contributes to and supports cross-content
teacher collaborations focused on
determining anchor academic vocabulary that
aids in leveraging knowledge among multiple
content areas
Listens to student-led discussions, views
individual and collaborative student-created
media, and reads writing products focusing
on incorporating academic and domainspecific vocabulary
Ideas for Modernizing this Shift through a College & Career Ready Lens
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Leverage online tools and web applications to access and practice fluency for currently taught academic and domain-specific vocabulary
Engage vocabulary inquiry in digital texts by leaving main text, exploring meaning, and then returning to main text without disrupting
comprehension
Engage with author’s diction choices for particular words and phrases (e.g., use of “unique,” “exotic,” “nonconformity”)
Encourage alternatives to traditional assignments that include the requirement of incorporating complex academic and domain-specific vocabulary
appropriate for task, purpose, audience (e.g., interview questions via Skype sessions, collaboratively create graphic novel, create graffiti for high
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pedestrian traffic area, create a collection of modern-day proverbs or specific genre song lyrics)
More ideas at the Vocab 2.0 wiki
Michael Fisher –Revised August 2014 -The Digigogy Collaborative / http://www.digigogy.com