Supporting Rigorous English Language Arts Teaching and Learning

LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER © 2013 University of Pittsburgh

Supporting Rigorous English Language Arts Teaching and Learning

Tennessee Department of EducationEnglish Language Arts

Module 5 Sequenced, Text-Based Questions

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Module 5: GoalsDeepen understanding of text-based questions that scaffold students’ reading, writing, speaking, and listening by learning more about:

• research about writing in ELA.• the CCSS perspective of text types. • designing culminating assessments and writing

assignments. • qualities of text-based questions.• research about questions in ELA.• how the sequencing of questions helps students

meet the CCSS.• developing sequenced, text-based questions for a

set of sequenced complex texts.

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Rigorous ELA Teaching and Learning

Text

TalkTask3


Review of Key Shifts in ELA/Literacy CCSS

1. Complexity: Regular practice with complex text and its academic language.

2. Evidence: Reading, writing and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational.

3. Knowledge: Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction.

*Excerpted from A Strong State Role in Common Core State Standards Implementation: Rubric and Self-Assessment Tool, p. 6, Table 1, Key Instructional Shifts of the Common Core State Standards, by the Partnership of Readiness for College and Careers Transition & Implementation Institute, 2012, Washington, DC: Achieve.

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Research about Writing in ELA• Complex writing is an essential skill:

– It allows students to support argument or analysis- an important skill for college readiness.

– It is a predictor of academic success and a basic requirement for participation in civic life and in the global economy.

• Students are struggling: – Students have difficulty recognizing and applying

argumentative text structures, generating evidence, offering relevant reasons, counterarguments, and rebuttals, and formulating arguments about texts using relevant and sufficient evidence from a text.

– 50% of high school graduates are not prepared for college-level writing (Achieve, Inc., 2005).

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CCSS Perspective on Text Types

Take a few minutes to read “Writing: Definitions of the Standards’ Three Text Types” on pages 23-25 of Appendix A with these questions in mind:1. What are the differences between argument and

informational/explanatory writing according to the CCSS? 2. What are the differences in argument and

informational/explanatory writing among the content areas?3. What are the differences between argument and persuasion

according to the CCSS? 4. How do these ideas challenge and/or affirm your thinking

about argument, informational/explanatory writing, and narrative?

5. What are the implications of these ideas for your work and student learning?

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CCSS Perspective on Text Types

Be prepared to share your answers with the whole group.

Whole Group Discussion

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“Appendix A” ( 23-25)


Central Drivers Part II: Culminating Assessments and Writing Assignments

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Central Drivers of Instruction

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Overarching Questions

CCSS

Culminating Assessment

Complex Texts

LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER © 2013 University of Pittsburgh 10

Culminating Assessment

• Is a summative assessment.

• Is related to the unit’s overarching questions, texts, and key standards.

• Provides a guide for the work in the unit.

• Provides evidence of student understanding and proficiency of the identified CCSS and learning goals.

• Allows for the construction of new knowledge or an extension of their thinking rather than a regurgitation of what students learned in the unit.


Culminating Assessment• Culminating assessments across a year should

require a variety of writing genres & modes.

• Once you’ve decided on a culminating assessment, make a list of what students need to know & be able to do to be successful. Design the unit with that as your guide (backward mapping).

• Unit texts should be able to support much of what students need to know and be able to do.

• Develop the culminating assessment with the rubric in mind.


Culminating Assessments: Writing AssignmentsA good writing assignment is:• focused on a single guiding question. • composed so that the task or invitation to write is

clearly visible.• scaffolded so that students

– understand the connection to the work that precedes it,

– see clearly what is being asked of them, and– find some help in imagining how to begin the

writing.

Resource: Culminating Assessments & Writing Assignments (white book, blue, p. 137)


The following three-part template is helpful when developing a writing assignment:

1st paragraph/section: Situates the writing for students

2nd paragraph/section: Writes out the request

3rd paragraph/section: Offers some (but not too much) help to begin

Culminating Assessments: Writing Assignments


Develop the Culminating Assessment

Working again in your pair/trio from the last module, and using the task sheet you started with the first three central drivers, develop the fourth central driver (culminating assessment) for your unit:• write a brief version of the task in the culminating

assessment box on the task sheet.• identify which CCSS are being addressed by the

culminating assessment.• using your culminating assessment and the genre

specific rubric, create a list of what students would need to know and be able to do to be successful on that assessment.

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Develop the Culminating Assessment

Whole Group DiscussionEach pair/trio at the table will share the culminating assessment they developed as well as the standards that are being assessed.

Use the feedback starters (“I notice…” and “I wonder…”) to help with notating if there should be any revisions to any of the central drivers.

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Argument Rubric Grades 9-12

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Informative/Explanatory Rubric Grades 9-12

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Text-Based Questions

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What Are Text-based Questions and Tasks?Text-based questions and tasks:

• are focused on the text.

• are generally text-specific rather than generic questions that could be asked of any text.

• don’t get students off of the text (e.g., tell me about a time you went camping…).

• require students to re-read the text closely to do such things as draw inferences, develop interpretations, and analyze ideas and language.

• may promote convergent (comprehension) and divergent (interpretation/analysis) thinking about a text.

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Research about Questions in ELA • Nystrand & Gamoran (1997): Higher spring performance in

classes that devoted time to discussion around authentic text-dependent questions about literature.

• Langer (2001): Students in schools that have made unusual progress on standardized tests were given more authentic text-dependent questions than those in schools that have made more typical progress.

• Applebee, Langer, Nystrand, and Gamoran (2003): Higher spring scores on writing assessment in classes where teachers provided students with authentic text-dependent questions.

*Authentic text-based questions are questions that have more than one possible response that can be supported with evidence from the text.

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Text-based Questions:Meeting the Common Core Standards for ELA

Please take a moment to read the quotation from the Publishers’ Criteria with the following questions in mind:

• How do Coleman and Pimentel define high-quality text-based questions in the quotation from the Publishers’ Criteria?

• What are they saying about the benefits of using

sequences of high-quality text-based questions?

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Publishers’ Criteria (blue book, pink, p. 7)


Text-based Questions:Meeting the Common Core Standards for ELA

“High-quality sequences of text-dependent questions elicit sustained attention to the specifics of the text and their impact. The sequence of questions should cultivate student mastery of the specific ideas and illuminating particulars of the text. High-quality text-dependent questions will often move beyond what is directly stated to require students to make nontrivial inferences based on evidence in the text. Questions aligned with Common Core State Standards should demand attention to the text to answer fully. An effective set of discussion questions might begin with relatively simple questions requiring attention to specific words, details, and arguments and then move on to explore the impact of those specifics on the text as a whole. Good questions will often linger over specific phrases and sentences to ensure careful comprehension and also promote deep thinking and substantive analysis of the text. Effective question sequences will build on each other to ensure that students learn to stay focused on the text so they can learn fully from it. Even when dealing with larger volumes of text, questions should be designed to stimulate student attention to gaining specific knowledge and insight from each source” (Coleman & Pimentel, 2011, p. 7).

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Publishers’ Criteria (blue book, pink, p. 7)


Studying Text-based Questions:Moving From… and Moving To…

With a partner, study and compare the “moving from” and “moving to” questions.

Discuss and take notes on your response to the following questions:

– What differences do you see between the “moving from” and “moving to” questions?

– What’s the intellectual work required of students to answer the “moving from” questions? The “moving to” questions?

– What patterns do you see among “moving from” questions? In other words, with what do writers of questions usually struggle?

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Studying a Sequence of Questions-Bridge to Practice 6

Using the “Moving From…Moving To…” handout, look now at the entire sequence of Moving To questions for the text.

Then, talk with a partner about the following:

• What do you notice about the relationship among the questions as you move vertically through the sequence?

• How does the question sequence organize instruction and scaffold students’ learning?

• In what ways does the organization of questions help students meet the demands of the CCSS?

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Module 5

Session Ends


MODULE 5

•SESSION 2 BEGINS


Studying Sequences of Questions for a Sequence of Complex TextsLook now at the full unit outline. Then, talk with a partner about the following:

• What do you notice about the relationship among the questions as you move vertically through each text’s sequence and horizontally through the different texts?

• How do the question sequences organize instruction and scaffold students’ learning toward the overarching questions and culminating assessment?

• In what ways does the organization of questions help students meet the CCSS?

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Argument & Methods Unit Outline

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Sequencing Text-based Questions for Instruction: Types of Questions

• Prior Knowledge (P) (non-text-based)• Comprehension (C) (includes vocabulary work)• Significance (S)• Interpretive (I)• Analytic (A)• StepBack (SB) (non-text-based)• Retrospective (R) (text-based and/or non-text-based)

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Argument & Methods Unit Outline: Labeled

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Developing Sequenced, Text-Based Questions

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Designing Sequences of Text-based Questions for a Sequence of Complex Texts

Working in pairs or trios, -develop a sequence of text-based questions for the first text in your unit.

Important reminders about questions-Be open ended, Be answered using evidence

from the text, Be specific to the text discussed, Be authentic in meaning, Have multiple plausible answers, Be significant to understanding the text, Focus on the purpose of the unit, and Be connected to one or more of the Common Core State Standards.

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Share out and Feedback

• Take a few minutes to discuss your creations.

– What do you notice? – What do you wonder?

• Assess the questions. – What questions do you have? – What ideas do you have for revision?

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PARCC Model Content Framework: Grade 9

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PARCC Model Content FrameworksHow do IFL units work in conjunction with PARCC’s Module Content Frameworks?• IFL units utilize a sequence of complex texts to build

knowledge through close reading and sequenced text-based questions and tasks.

• IFL units provide regular opportunities for students to• read and write routinely for different purposes and in

different genres.• cite evidence from texts in writing and talk.• study vocabulary.• study language.

• IFL units apprentice students to the discipline through talk and writing, and scaffold students toward independent work with a gradual release of responsibility.

PARCC’s Model Content Frameworks can be found at: http://www.parcconline.org/parcc-model-content-frameworks

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http://www.parcconline.org/parcc-model-content-frameworks


Module 5: Takeaways

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• Texts need to be able to support multiple readings for different purposes.

• Intentional planning of text-based question sequences, both horizontal and vertical, ensures coherence with and fidelity to the central drivers of unit.

• Different types of text-based questions ask for different kinds of mental work and invite particular kinds of writing and talk from students.

• Text-based question sequences are scaffolded so that earlier responses in writing and talk provide the foundation for later responses.

• Developing text-based questions is hard work, is best done collaboratively, and requires deep knowledge of the text(s) under study.

• Text-based questions should be developed with attention to the CCSS.


Module 5: Reflection- Bridge to Practice 7

Take a few moments to respond to the following questions as a way to reflect on your learning during this module.

• What was your biggest insight or learning in this module? Why was that significant?

• What one thing will you do differently in the classroom based on your understanding of this module’s content and the demands of the CCSS?

• What do you want to learn more about in order to implement the learning in your practice?

• What questions do you still have?

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Supporting Rigorous English Language Arts Teaching and Learning

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