Balanced Literacy

CONCEPT ENGLISH FALL 2013

HOW I LOOK AT OUR WORK…

Objectives Distinguish between (1) meaning, structure, and visual cues used

during reading and between (2) top-down and bottom-up models of reading

Analyze the levels of support within the 3 components of a balanced literacy framework and its connection with common core state standards

Understand why text complexity matters and identify what makes text complex

Identify the components of the PARCC Literacy Content Framework and recognize how to plan instruction using balanced literacy elements

3 CUEING SYSTEMS

Meaning

VisualStructure

Activity 1 Read the poem and answer the first question from each level

Level 1 – “Right there” – literal

Level 2 – Beyond the text – interpretive

Level 3 – About the text, application

WHAT’S THE POINT?

• You can answer questions that relate to structure and visual cues but its impossible to answer questions about meaning without knowing what the words mean.

• Reading all words in a passage with accuracy and expression is NOT comprehension.

• Reading is the fluent coordination of word recognition and comprehension.

• Bottom up model of reading – emphasizes decoding skills

• Top down model – focuses on what readers bring to the text and contrasting it with what is written to make sense of it.

• CCSS is asking for close reading of complex texts to construct meaning.

BALANCED LITERACY FRAMEWORK

Reading Workshop

Writing Workshop

Word Study

LITERACY COMPONENTS: THREE-BLOCK FRAMEWORK

Reading Writing

I Do

We Do

You Do

I Do

We Do

You Do

GRADUAL RELEASE OF RESPONSIBILITYFISHER AND FREY

Focus lesson: teacher establishes purpose of lesson & models own thinking

Guided instruction: teacher questions, prompts, cues students to facilitate their thinking about topic

Collaborative learning: students work together, using academic language to complete a task

Independent learning: students apply what they have learned individually

Activity 2

• Read the handout

• Turn and Talk with a Partner

• Put a check next to the elements of balanced literacy your school is using

• Decide a percentage

• Write a goal…

READER’S WORKSHOP

Easy texts

Instructional texts

Complex texts

WRITER’S WORKSHOP

Learn the craft of writing

Use guided writing to build skills

Conduct investigations (students work independently, in pairs, or in small groups)

Practice independent writing

LANGUAGE AND WORD STUDY

Investigate language and how it works

Learn conventions of writing and grammar

Teacher read-alouds and think-alouds model conventions of language

Work on various features of words as appropriate to developmental level of students (word sorts, etc.)

WHY TEXT COMPLEXITY MATTERS

WHY WE NEED MORE COMPLEX TEXTS

Many of the texts students read became easier after 1962. College books have not

In middle and high school, instruction is heavily scaffolded. In college, students are expected to read independently

The amount of reading in college is substantially more than what students experience in high school. It can be up to 8 times greater Complex texts

have multiple layers of meaning, not all of which are immediately apparent require students to unlock meaning using sophisticated reading skills and, strategies

WHAT STUDENTS NEEDAge / grade appropriate complex texts for exposure to structures, content, vocabulary, concepts

Instructional level materials that allow them to apply strategies and progress

“Easy” materials that allow them to practiceCan select “challenging” materials for familiar/interesting content

Can select “less challenging” materials for unfamiliar/uninteresting content

TEXT COMPLEXITY: IMPLICATIONS

• On the ACT college admissions test , how did students • who met/exceeded the benchmark score differ from • those who didn’t?

A. They could make inferences and think critically while reading

OR

B. They could answer questions associated with complex text

• Important Implication: What students can read, in terms of its complexity, is at least as important as what they can do with what they read.

• 2006, ACT, Reading Between the Lines

IMPLICATIONS CONTINUED

• Test performance is driven by text, not questions• Students are expected to read on a level of rigor 2

grades higher• Emphasis on non-fiction requires different knowledge • Complex texts offer new language – students should

struggle somewhat and teachers should model the struggle

Activity 3• Read The Secret

Garden excerpt on handout

• What makes this text challenging? (engage in Think-Pair-Share)

• Whole group discussion: Common Textual Challenges

Common Core Exemplar Text

THE SECRET GARDEN EXCERPT• When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle

everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It was true, too. She had a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour expression. Her hair was yellow, and her face was yellow because she had been born in India and had always been ill in one way or another. Her father had held a position under the English Government and had always been busy and ill himself, and her mother had been a great beauty who cared only to go to parties and amuse herself with gay people. She had not wanted a little girl at all, and when Mary was born she handed her over to the care of an Ayah, who was made to understand that if she wished to please the Mem Sahib she must keep the child out of sight as much as possible. So when she was a sickly, fretful, ugly little baby she was kept out of the way, and when she became a sickly, fretful, toddling thing she was kept out of the way also. She never remembered seeing familiarly anything but the dark faces of her Ayah and the other native servants, and as they always obeyed her and gave her own way in everything, because the Mem Sahib would be angry if she was disturbed by her crying, by the time she was six years old she was as tyrannical and selfish a little pig as ever lived. The young English governess who came to teach her to read and write disliked her so much that she gave up her place in three months, and when other governesses came to try to fill it they always went away in a shorter time than the first one. So if Mary had not chosen to really …

BUILDING CAPACITY THROUGH CLOSE READING

RL 5.3 (example).

Compare and contrast 2 or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact)

Select short, worthy passages

Design the lesson so students re-read

Ask students to “read with a pencil”

Remind students to note confusions

Model the text

Discuss the text

Ask text dependent questions

PARCC LITERACY CONTENT FRAMEWORK

PARCC Model Content Frameworks – ELA/Literacy

Reading Complex Text (5-9 short texts; 1 extended text)

Writing About Texts (routine writing; 2 analyses)

Research Project (1 research project)

Narrative Writing (1-2 narratives)

Activity 4

• Small groups read through handout

• Use short texts on back

• Create questions that would help students understand how the author conveys meaning and go to a deeper level

• Suggest short research subjects for the readings

PARCC LITERACY CONTENT FRAMEWORK

READING, WRITING MODULES

Each module suggests both the number and types of texts that students read and analyze.

Students then write about these texts either to express an opinion/make an argument or to inform/explain.

They may also use these texts as models or triggers for crafting imaginative narratives or narrative descriptions.

In addition, a research task appears in each module.

KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS: READING, WRITING, RESEARCH

Citing evidence, Analyzing content, Using correct grammar, Acquiring and applying vocabulary, Conducting discussions, and Reporting findings

PLANNING USING THE PARCC CONTENT FRAMEWORK

Decide on the topic of a thematic unit, deciding on both content and ELA (reading, writing, foundational skills, language, listening/speaking) goals

Backward map the desired results: enduring understandings, essential questions, what will kids know, understand and do (activities, assessments)

Design summative assessment and then formative assessments

Explore internet resources on topic (books, articles, videos, activities)

Develop lessons around clustered common core standards

Activity 5…• Read and review handout

(annotations of Mildred Taylor trade books on the theme of racial discrimination and its effect – these books are for guided reading/small group instruction)

• Which book from the list or which additional resource could serve as the anchor text for all students to read with your support?

• What questions can you pose related to the Paul Laurence Dunbar and Martin Luther King texts (back of handout) that address the theme ?

• What short research projects related to the theme could be conducted?

• Whole group share