First Considerations for the High School English Classroom : Close Reads and Text Complexity

1. First Considerations for the High School English Classroom : Close Reads and Text Complexity Shelby County Schools District Learning Day Cordova High School August 5, 2015

2. Do Now Think back to your senior year of high school... 1. What types of complex text did you read? 2. What reading strategies or techniques did you like to use when you were reading fiction? When you were reading informational texts? 3. Discuss with an elbow partner.

3. Norms • Be present and engaged. • Be respectful of differences in perspective while challenging each other productively and respectively. • Monitor “air time.” • Make the most of the time we have. • Stay focused on students.

4. Objectives Know • Close reading lessons build reading language comprehension and fluency skills • Text complexity is used to analyze literary and information text Understand • The knowledge, skills, and habits students need to meet college and career ready expectations Do • Plan and implement close reading lessons in the high school classroom • Assess the complexity of texts using the three measures • Utilize TNCore.org resources to implement rigorous and effective instruction

5. Shelby County Schools Challenges

6. Promising SCS Context State and District leadership • TN leader in state implementation of college and career readiness standards • SCS and TN as models for teacher and leader effectiveness/evaluation • Board of Education support • Clear, common goals—80/90/100%--and Strategic Plan

7. Why do students need to learn the technique of close reading? A closer look into Close Reading

8. Why Close Reading is Important In the introduction to the CCRS for ELA, the authors make an explicit link between close reading and lifelong literacy: • As a natural outgrowth of meeting the charge to define college and career readiness, the Standards also lay out a vision of what it means to be a literate person in the twenty-first century. Indeed, the skills and understandings students are expected to demonstrate have wide applicability outside the classroom or workplace. Students who meet the Standards readily undertake the close, attentive reading that is at the heart of understanding and enjoying complex works of literature. They habitually perform the critical reading necessary to pick carefully through the staggering amount of information available today in print and digitally.

9. Why should we use close reading? Close reading is an instructional approach that has been used for years at the secondary and college level. With some modifications, it can be effectively used in elementary schools to lead students to deep understanding of complex text, as required for mastery of the CCR standards. Key reference: Fisher, D. & Frey, N. (2012).“Close Reading in Elementary Schools.” The Reading Teacher, 66 (3), 179-188.

10. What is Close Reading? • Close reading is thoughtful, critical analysis of a text that focuses on significant details or patterns in order to develop a deep, precise understanding of the text’s form, craft, meanings, etc. It is a key requirement of the College and Career Ready Standards and directs the reader’s attention to the text itself.

11. What does Close Reading include? Close reading includes: • Using short passages and excerpts • Diving right into the text with limited pre-reading activities • Focusing on the text itself • Rereading deliberately • Reading with a pencil • Noticing things that are confusing • Discussing the text with others: Think-Pair Share, Turn and Talk, and/or Small groups

14. ACTIVITY CLOSE READING • Using the text, “Ain’t I a Woman”, by Sojouner Truth, engage in the following: 1. Close Reading for Comprehension 2. Close Reading for Significance 3. Close Reading for Interpretation (use the “Ain’t I a Woman” handout) TNCore: ifl

18. When you have finished reading, take about three minutes to write a response to the questions. Be sure to cite evidence from the text to support your answers. Then, take about three minutes to turn to a partner and discuss your answers. TNCore: ifl

22. Two Column Notes Significant Sentence / Phrase Explanation of the Significance to the text

33. The Gradual Release of Responsibility (to introduce or reinforce a new skill)How was the GRR model used in the demonstrated close reading lesson? Teacher Responsibility I do it. We do it. Guided They do it (together). Collaborative You do it (independent of the teacher). Independent Student Responsibility

34. Reflection: Close Reading • What resonated with you? • What is similar to your current practice? • What is different than your current practice? • What are you going to change as a result?

35. TNDOE Curriculum Standards Based on the Common Core State Standards http://www.state.tn.us/education/standards/index.shtml

36. Instructional Shifts • Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction and informational texts. • Reading and writing grounded in evidence from the text, both literary and informational. 3. Regular practice with complex text and its academic vocabulary.

37. Will my students be reading on grade level? Complex Text

38. Why Is Text Complexity An Issue? • Over the past 50 years, the text that students have encountered in middle and high school had decreased in complexity, while textbooks in colleges, universities, and the workplace have become more complex. • As a result too many students graduating from high school lack sufficient skills required to comprehend the text they encounter in college and the workplace. • The authors of the Common Core State ELA Standards have taken steps to ensure that greater attention is paid to gradually increasing the complexity of the text students read and comprehend as they move through school. http://tncore.org/english_language_arts/standards_and_shifts/instructional_shifts/building.aspx

39. Why Complex Text Matters • College and workforce reading demands have increased • Barriers to post-secondary degrees include the need for remedial reading • Proportionately severe for those already isolated from text

41. MeasuringText Complexity Appendix A in the CCSS identifies the following factors as determining text complexity: • Quantitative measures look at factors impacting “readability” as measured by particular computer programs. • Qualitative measures examine levels of meaning, knowledge demands, language features, text structure, and visual elements as measured by an attentive reader. • Reader and Task considers additional “outside” factors that might impact the difficulty of reading the text.

42. Quantitative Measures http://achievethecore.org/page/ 642/text-complexity-collection

43. Qualitative Measures • Levels of meaning • Clarity and conventions of language • Knowledge demands • Structure • Visual device complexity

44. Qualitative Measures • Text structure and organization • Logical nature of organization • Text and feature distractions • Labeling and reader supports • Illustration support • Infographics • Complexity • Text reliance on • Knowledge demands • Concept load • Familiarity of topic (common everyday vs. unfamiliar) • Single vs. multi-themed • Intertextual dependence

45. Reader and Task Reader and Task - considers additional “outside” factors that might impact the difficulty of reading the text. • Texts students must read for demands of CCR • Texts that are “stair-cased” for students by the end of high school • Tasks include grade level text complexity as appropriate and a significant part of college- and career-ready expectations http://tn.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/9b43a446-a251-4dc4-98fa-cac9f36a4b6f/text-complexity-grade-9-12/

46. Complex Text Activity “The Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln • Review the text. With a partner: • Determine the text’s readability. • Determine the grade level for this text. • Looking at the qualitative measures, what are some immediate considerations?

47. Where can I find resources to support me in developing close reading lessons? Resources available to you