TEACHER LEADER TEAM
Amory School District
January 4, 2013
District Mission
The overarching mission of the Amory School
District is to create opportunities for ALL
students to achieve at the highest level possible.
LEXILE BANDS
Grade Band
Current Lexile Band
“Stretch” Lexile Band
K-1
N/A
N/A
2-3
450L-725L
420L-820L
4-5
645L-845L
740L-1010L
6-8
860L-1010L
925L-1185L
9-10
960L-1115L
1050L-1335L
11-CCR
1070L-1220L
1185L-1385L
LEXILE CODES
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
AD: Adult Directed
NC: Non-Conforming
HL: High-Low
IG: Illustrated Guide
GN: Graphic Novel
BR: Beginning Reading
NP: Non-Prose
Recommended Reading
Percentage Distribution of Literary
and Informational Passages
Grade
Literary
Informational
4th
50
50
8
45
55
12
30
70
Importance of Non-Fiction
1. Type of text read in college and work place
2. Students who fail to meet College and Career
Ready Benchmarks are weak in this type of
reading.
3. Key type of text for science and math
To Argue…and Inform…in Writing CCSS
Requires Argument/Evidence-Based Writing
Grade
To Persuade
To Explain
To Convey
Experience
4
30%
35%
35%
8
35%
35%
30%
12
40%
40%
20%
High Levels of Intellectual Work =
Test Score Gains
• Exposure to high levels of authentic intellectual
work are associated with gains in standardized
test scores.
-Students exposed to high quality assignments
had 20% higher gains than the national average.
-Students exposed to low quality assignments
had gains 25% lower than the national average.
• Student demographics were not associated
with exposure to quality assignments.
Value For Both High and Low
Performing Students
Value Added
Math
Reading
Low
+29%
+28%
High
+17%
+42%
Academic Rigor Is Accomplished
By…
Increasing the complexity of thinking in course content, instruction, and assessment.
•Course Content
-Content acquisition (Learning Progressions)
-Appropriate leveled text for challenge
•Instruction
-Activities promoting critical thinking
-Communication building relevance
-Applying integrated ideas
-Application of concepts
-Promote responsibility
•Assessment
-Aligned to instructional targets
-Engages with academic content
-Requires extended, elaborated responses
What Do the CCSS Ask Teachers
To Do?
• Stop doing all of the work of reading for our students.
• Stop stealing the fun of reading and put it back in their hands.
• Let them explore….
uncover the mysteries…
inquire, and…
pick away at the text to figure it out.
What Is Close Reading?
• “A close reading is a careful and purposeful reading.
Well, actually, it’s rereading. It’s a careful and
purposeful rereading of a text. It’s an encounter with
the text where students really focus on what the
author had to say, what the author’s purpose was,
what the words mean, and what the structure of the
text tells us.”
Dr. Douglas Fisher
Deep Reading
• The Common Core State Standards for reading strongly focus
on students gathering evidence, knowledge, and insight from
what they read.
• 80-90% of the reading standards in each grade require text
dependent analysis.
This means…
Aligned curriculum materials should have a
similar percentage of text dependent questions.
Deep Reading Forces Students
To…
• Read and comprehend below the surface of a
text.
To do this, they search for the hidden
intricacies of the text by re-reading and
re-visiting the text for multiple purposes.
In Summary…
• “Read like a detective and write like a conscientious
investigative reporter.”
Dr. David Coleman
Use Strategic Guidelines to
Frontload
1. Be brief!---in proportion to the amount and duration of the
reading
2. Let the author do the talking
3. Arouse curiosity or sense of suspense
4. Strategically reveal text information
5. Pre-read throughout the text
6. Read the text before you teach the text
College and Career Readiness
Anchor Standards
• Text-dependent questions force students to go
back to the text.
In Coleman’s research, he found that 80% of
the questions students in grades K-12
were asked to answer did not require
them to go back to the text.
Typical Types of Text Dependent
Questions
• Analyze paragraphs on a sentence by sentence basis
and sentences on a word by word basis to determine
the role played by individual paragraphs, sentences,
phrases, or words.
• Investigate how meaning can be altered by changing
key words and why an author may have chosen one
word over another.
• Probe each argument in persuasive text, each idea in
informational text, each key detail in literary text, and
observe how these build to a whole.
Typical Types of Text Dependent
Questions
• Examine how shifts in the direction of an argument or
explanation are achieved, and the impact of those
shifts.
• Question why authors choose to begin and end when
they do.
• Note and assess patterns of writing and what they
achieve.
• Consider what the text leaves uncertain or unstated.
Steps To Creating
Text Dependent Questions
Type 1: Find It
Type 2: Look Closer
Type 3: Prove It
Type 4: Take It Apart
Let’s Give It a Try!
The Gettysburg Address
Reflection Questions
• Did you have to learn the Gettysburg Address as a
student? What did you have to know? Did you have to
memorize it?
• In what grade do we usually teach the Gettysburg
Address?
• How do we teach it today?
The Gettysburg Address
Close Reading Activity
• Read The Gettysburg Address to yourself.
• Reread and write a paraphrase (your own
words) of the first two paragraphs;
discuss your paraphrase with a partner.
• Read Aloud of The Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address
Close Reading Activity
•Re-read the text and use the
guided questions on your
hand-out to self-assess your
close reading and
understanding of Lincoln’s
message.
The Gettysburg Address
Close Reading Activity
• Vocabulary:
-Students can choose words they do
not know the meaning of to discuss.
-Teacher can have students discuss a
word in the text with more than one
meaning (example: dedicated in this
text).
The Gettysburg Address
Close Reading Activity
• Write an essay
College and Career Readiness
Anchor Standards for Reading
Go Slow To Teach More
What is the result of TEACHING
LESS CONTENT over three days…
but teaching MORE DEEPLY
WITHIN THE CONTENT over
three days?
The Gettysburg Address
• What do you think happens when
struggling readers go through a lesson
like The Gettysburg Address?
• Can they read the text?
• What kind of accommodations did we
include here? What might we add?
A CCSS Routine for Close
Reading
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Reread a text-cold, without set-up.
Re-read in chunks.
Paraphrase in writing.
Discuss in own language, aloud, safely.
Read aloud for accessibility.
Identify hard words. Learn word meanings working
with a partner.
7. Re-read several times, using specific prompts which
require looking for very specific details-using the
text.
A CCSS Routine for Close
Reading
8. Re-read for specific vocabulary
9. Compare/contrast vocabulary meanings in writing,
and through sharing with a buddy.
10.Write an essay requiring the student to take a
persuasive viewpoint and argue their case for the
author’s (motivation, etc)
USING EXEMPLARS
• They exist in the Common Core
Standards documents.
• The assessment consortia are pushing
regularly.
• Use them by “deconstructing the lesson”
and creating a routine…so teachers can
independently implement a Common
Core lesson.
Create a Close Read
• Work in your cooperative learning group to
create a close reading activity. You may use
the steps from The Gettysburg Address as a
guide.
GROUPS
Group 1
Tiffany Herndon, Stephanie Gallop, Wayne Walls, Rachael Faulkner
Group 2
Brittany Pace, Tabitha Goodin, Amy Johnson, Leigh Stanford
Group 3
Debbie Leech, Amy Jones, Heather Gault, Linzy Patterson, Michelle Harris
Group 4
Priscilla Black, Mary Beth Black, Emily Almond, Masha Laney
Group 5
Sarah Clark, Vickie Palmer, Michelle Holman, Julie Clark
Close Reading Resources
*Current articles, opinion pieces, and historical
documents are good close reading assignments.
•Achieve3000
www.achieve3000.com
Username: CommonCore.Teacher
Password: CommonCore.Teacher
•Achieve the Core
http://achievethecore.com/steal-these-tools
Close Reading Resources
• ReadWorks.org
http://www.readworks.org/books/passages
• Text Exemplars in Appendix B
• Engage NY
http://engageny.org/resource/new-york-statecommon-core-sample-questions
Collaborative Learning Inc.
www.clihome.com
•Username: institute
•Password: institute