Basal Alignment Project Basal Alignment Project IntroductionIntroduction

Karen MelinLiteracy Content Specialist

Department of Education & Early DevelopmentKaren.melin@alaska.gov

Sessions Two Fold Purpose• For those who use one of the reading

programs reviewed by the Basal Alignment Project

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• Study procedure and introduce product

• For those who do not use one of the project’s programs

• Study procedure for application to any set of materials

WHAT IS IT?

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• Cooperative grassroots effort

• Basal reading programs were designed for different standards and are not aligned to the new standards expectations

• Purchasing new materials is not realistic

BASALS INADEQUATE BECAUSE..

•Many questions not text dependent

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• Virtually all culminating assignments not text

dependent

• Focus on comprehension standards

• Do not focus as strongly on academic vocabulary

BASALS INADEQUATE BECAUSE…

• Narrative/Informational proportions at each grade level not aligned

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• Do not systematically develop the knowledge base of students within and across grade levels

• Some number of texts not aligned in terms of complexity

WHAT THIS PROJECT DID NOT DO

•Did not alter sections on phonics, spelling, grammar, word study, science and social studies connections

•Did not support any supplemental texts such as leveled readers.

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COMPONENTS OF TEMPLATE

• Big Ideas and Key Understandings and Synopsis

• Text Dependent Questions• Vocabulary

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EMBEDDED COMPONENTS• Syntax• Fluency

• Culminating Task

Big Ideas, Key Understandings

• Crucial for creating an overarching set of successful questions

• Critical for creating an appropriate culminating assignment

• Reverse-engineered or backwards-designed

TEXT DEPENDENT QUESTIONS

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WHAT TEXT DEPENDENT QUESTIONS ARE:

• Questions that can only be answered with evidence from the text

• Can be literal but can also involve analysis, synthesis, evaluation

• Focus on word, sentence and paragraph as well as larger ideas, themes or events

• Focus on difficult portions of text in order to enhance reading proficiency

• Look at the guide

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CREATING TEXT DEPENDENT QUESTIONS

WHY TEXT DEPENDENT QUESTIONS? or, WHY NOT GO OUTSIDE THE TEXT?

•More time outside the text less inside•Going outside the text privileges those who have that experience•It is easier to talk about our experiences than to analyze the text

•These are college and career standards

•That being said….

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THE ROLE OF PRE-READING•Multiple readings often make this unnecessary•http://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/search/label/pre-reading

•Too often provides information students can glean from careful reading of the text- in many cases provide a complete summary

•Almost impossible to wean students from this

•Similarly challenging to move teachers away from providing this “smoothing of the road”

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CREATING TEXT-DEPENDENT QUESTIONS: Review, Critique, and Revise

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Turn and Talk

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As you reflect on the information of the last five slides about text dependent questions, what causes you the most uneasiness?

As you reflect on the information of the last five slides about text dependent questions, what inspires you the most?

VOCABULARY

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VOCABULARY IS ESSENTIAL

•Role in complex text •One of two features of text most predictive of student difficulty (Chall 1996, Stanovich 1986, Nelson et al 2012)•Vocabulary is difficult to catch up•There is in fact a great deal of powerful academic vocabulary in these texts. •From, “Officer Buckle” third grade (department, attention, speech, applauded, frowned, swivel, afterward, announced, discovered, grinned, roared, enormous, bowed)

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VOCABULARY

Which words should be taught?• Essential to text• Likely to appear in future text

Which words should get more time and attention?

• More abstract words (persist vs. checkpoint - noticed vs. accident)

• Words which are part of a semantic word family (secure, securely, security, secured)

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VOCABULARY • When should you provide the meaning; when should

students determine from context?

• How should words be taught?• Distributed practice• Use the text

--Differences (applaud vs. clap; isolated vs. alone)

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INTEGRATING VOCABULARY INTO TEXT DEPENDENT QUESTIONSFrom “Hot and Cold Summer” Trophies 5th grade“To avoid someone means to keep away from them so that you don’t have to see them and they don’t have to see you. How did the boys avoid meeting Bolivia at first? (pg. 23)”

Re-read the last two paragraphs on page 39. Rory had a “strong suspicion”. What is a suspicion? What details in the story made Rory suspicious of Bolivia?

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VOCABULARY AND THE LEVELED READERS 4th Grade Example:

•Shelter, splattered, fixed, rescue

•Journal, tremors,traction,interval,volunteered, retrieve

•Generation, abandoned, languished, terrified, warble, galvanized, debris, hoisted, shuddered

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VOCABULARY

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HOW MANY WORDS TO TEACH?

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Turn and Talk

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As you reflect on the information of the last seven slides about vocabulary, what causes you the most uneasiness?

As you reflect on the information of the last seven slides about vocabulary, what inspires you the most?

SYNTAX AND FLUENCY

SYNTAX:

• Possibly as much as vocabulary predicts student performance

• The basals and syntax

• Questions and tasks addressing syntax

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FLUENCY•Some basal programs address it, some don’t. We must.

•With the arrival of more complex text more students will struggle to read fluently.

•How to address this?

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CULMINATING ASSIGNMENT

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CULMINATING ASSIGNMENT

•Should relate to big ideas and key understandings

•These types of culminating assignments will be a significant shift for students and teachers

•Writing for Understanding

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The Template

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Getting to the Basal Alignment Project

• Go to www.edmod.com click on the join button on the left side of the screen. Use the code “f4q6nm”.

2012- 2013 Curriculum Alignment InstituteNovember 8-9, 2012

Contact Information

Karen Melin, Language Arts Content Specialistkaren.melin@alaska.gov, 907-465-6536