Literacy Design Collaborative:

1. Literacy Design Collaborative: Day 5 November 14, 2013

2. Goals of LDC • To engage students in reading, comprehending, analyzing, interpreting, and responding to complex texts • To align assignments to standards and promote collaboration • To help teachers personalize learning so that every student can master the standards • To ensure that all students can be college and career ready

3. Template Task Collection Version 2.0July 2013 Revisions to the Template Tasks • Starting the task with a question is now an option in both the “after researching” and the “after reading” • SREB has a set of template tasks that does not give this option. Instead, each task begins with an essential question or what is called a “Critical Focus Question.” • In Arkansas, teachers will compose an essential or critical focus question for ALL tasks written. • The L2 and L3 statements have been removed and replaced with a set of demands that can be added to increase the rigor of the task. Rigor is added to a task by adding a set of “demands” or “D’s” from a list. • The rubrics for the teaching and assessment task have been updated to support these new demands

4. A Complete Example

5. Three types of Tasks! • Argumentative • Informational/Explanatory • Narrative

6. Text Structures • Analysis • Comparison • Evaluation • Problem/Solution • Cause/Effect • Description • Sequential • Procedural/Sequential • Synthesis

7. The LDC Template Task Collection Informational/ Explanatory Argumentative Narrative

8. Reminder: LDC Task Requirements • Use exact wording of the template task • Keep the exact CCR Anchor Standards listed in the blank module because the alignment is already completed. Include grade-level appropriate content standards as well as CCSS grade-level standards. • Use the exact rubric listed in the blank module. LDC Guidebook (PN, TAB 2) LDC Task Scoring Guide (PN, TAB 7)

9. What is the purpose of an Essential Question (Critical Focus Question)? • Pinpoints the important learning that needs to occur in the content • Encourages higher order thinking • Allows thinking in an open-ended way • Defines what students should know and be able to do throughout the unit of study

10. The Essential Question(Critical Focus Question) • Should be significant • Should be based on prior knowledge • Should be in simple language • Should be thought provoking • Should be important five years from now • Should not be answered by a simple “yes” or “no”

11. Essential Questions? • Were the senators justified in assassinating Julius Caesar? • English • Should schools continue to teach photosynthesis in life science? • Science • In the construction industry, is the customer always right? • CTE • Was the American Revolution Revolutionary? • Social Studies

12. Try it Out! • Think about a unit of study that will take two to four weeks. Write an Essential Question for that module or take the module that you are currently working on and write an Essential Question for that module. • Share the question with a partner and utilize the Check Sheet to provide specific feedback.

13. The Elements of a Great Teaching Task

14. A Great LDC Teaching Task • Addresses content essential to the discipline, inviting students to engage deeply in thinking and literacy practices around that issue • Makes effective use of the template task’s writing type (argumentation, information/explanation or narrative) • Selects texts that use and develop academic understanding and vocabulary

15. A Great LDC Teaching Task(continued) • Designs a writing prompt that requires sustained writing and effective use of ideas and evidence from the texts • Establishes a teaching task that is both challenging and feasible for students, with a balance of reading and writing demands that work well for the intended grade and content

16. Can This Task Be Saved? • Each table will be assigned a Teaching Task from one of the following sixslides. • Decide what, if anything, could be improved with the task. • After analyzing the task, make notes on revisions to make it more effective.

17. Task 19: Can social climbers really move into a new social class? After reading The Great Gatsby, Vanity Fair, and Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams, write an essay in which you explain how a character succeeded or failed in efforts to move to a higher social class. • English III

18. Task 21: What will it take to raise voter participation? After reading "Where Have All the Voters Gone?” and “Many will mark this election by not voting,” write a legislative proposal in which you analyze the best legal changes to increase participation, providing examples to clarify your analysis. A.P. U.S. Government

19. Task 11: After researching Romeo and Juliet and Westside Story, write a report in which you define “star-crossed lovers.”Support your discussion with evidence from your research. If you had friends who were in love and whose families disapproved, what advice would you give them? 10th Grade English

20. Task 12: What is the most important challenge you have met? After reading several personal challenge essays on the Internet, write an essay in which you define your challenge and explain how you met it. Support your discussion with evidence from your research. 6th Grade Language Arts

21. Task 3: After researching your textbook chapters on human anatomy, write an article for students your age in which you compare two major body systems and argue which one is the most exciting. Be sure to support your position with evidence from the texts. 8th Grade Life Sciences

22. Task 2: In today’s society, which type of advertising media is more effective, traditional media or social media? After reading business articles write a memo that addresses the question and support your position with evidence from the text(s). Be sure to acknowledge competing views. Give examples from past or current events or issues to illustrate and clarify your positioin. 9th Grade CTE

23. Try it out!! • Design a Teaching Task using a Template Task you have selected that covers 2-4 weeks of material that you will teach. • Pay special attention to the essential question, the reading assignments and the writing assignments. • Write the Teaching Task on a large sheet of paper and post on the wall as directed.

24. Gallery Walk • Start with the Task to the right of your own. Using a sticky note, post a question, a positive comment or a concern on each of the five tasks to your right. • Continue around the gallery and comment on as many tasks as possible

25. Feedback as a Learning Tool • Plus not a minus • Suggestion not a mandate Feedback + Reflection = Better Module Use your feedback to revise and refine your Teaching Task

26. Adding Rigor to the Template Task • Add additional requirements to the Template Task to differentiate or provide additional challenge. • Add one or two demands to a prompt. • Add demands that align to the appropriate grade-specific standard. • Consider the demands when determining…What skills?

27. What Skills?

28. LDC Skills Clusters • Preparing for the Task • To understand the Task and assignment • Reading Process • To read rigorous materials from different types of texts • Bridging • To analyze the texts and synthesize them in preparation for writing • Writing Process • To write thoughtful and insightful pieces demonstrating learning

29. LDC Skills Clusters • Content • To understand and apply the tenants of the content taught • The Content is embedded throughout the four literacy skill clusters. • Add the content skill within each of the four skill clusters.

30. Defining the Skills • Each required skill is defined. • There are multiple skills in each cluster. • Clusters 1-4 are completed in order. • Content is embedded throughout the skill clusters.

31. Skills Cluster 1: Preparing for the Task

32. Skill Cluster 2: Reading Process

33. Skills Cluster 3: Transition to Writing

34. Skill Cluster 4: Writing

35. Next Steps • Complete the current module. • Teach the module • We will cover Steps 3 and 4 in-depth at the next date.

36. Reflection Questions: 1. How can LDC serve as a planning tool to address the changes required by CCSS? 2. How does LDC impact curriculum, instruction, and assessment? 3. What are the benefits of moving from current practices to Literacy Design Collaborative?